Even at her tender age, this hawkwatcher had the birder’s stereotypical *funny hat* thing down pat.
😉
More skywatch posts here.
Category Archives: Wanderings
i’ve been
swooning over skimmers
contemplating colors for toenails
thinking about a perfect day
staring at a september sky from the shade of my very favorite lighthouse
reading books in bed
finding peace in the sweet lullaby of waves outside my window
flipping rocks to find nothing underneath but sun-warmed crickets and roly-poly bugs
feeling ridiculously happy
loving the way the late afternoon sun makes everything beautiful
contemplating colors for toenails
(over-thinking it, probably)
feeling thankful for monarch butterflies and the people who love them
wondering if forever means tomorrow, too
deciding now is what matters most
finding that places remembered have changed
falling in love again, anyway
dreaming of enough days to make up for lost time
enjoying the peculiar kitsch of the jersey shore
the sharing of it and the sand between our toes
indulging the last weekend of summer
cape may finally!
(i’ve been busy)
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Just a random shot of a roadside waterfall from somewhere in northern Michigan… pretty nice for drive-by scenery, no?
That sixth sense
Do you have it?
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Maybe you call it intuition?
You know… that little tingle in the pit of your stomach… that something mysterious outside of normal perception?
I do, at least… I think it to be true. I hardly pay enough attention to it, to that part of myself that tries to warn me of something bad looming on the horizon, but I’m trying to learn to trust what my gut seems to sense, somehow.
Flaky and weird, yes, I know.
A most recent example… yesterday. Before the fire.
A routine home visit with a not so routine client of mine. Legally blind and bi-polar. She’s not particularly communicative. Odd, most people would say.
Thank heavens she wasn’t at home when the fire broke out.
She’s okay!
This is, after all, the type of thing that would have my name in the paper, under an ugly large-type block headline.
We did paperwork and then I did my inspection of her apartment. There’s a whole laundry list of things I’m to check for. Safety is foremost, but there’s also cleanliness. Just two things stood out: her stove didn’t work properly; two burners were dirty enough that they wouldn’t light and she needed to do a better job of cleaning up the bird seed her pet parakeets were throwing everywhere. I made a note on my report and suggested that she clean the stove and vacuum her carpets better.
Almost on my way out the door, I backtracked to check the smoke detectors. They’re high on my list, but often overlooked unless they’re chirping away annoyingly with a spent battery. Her smoke detector (one, only) seemed okay, but I couldn’t test it properly, even with a broom, because it was detached from the ceiling, for whatever reason. I tried like hell… even stood on my tiptoes, but couldn’t get leverage on the thing.
Bugged me. That feeling, you know, the one in the pit of your stomach…
First thing this morning my intention was to call that landlord and get him out there to fix the darn stove and smoke detector…
Before I even sat down at my desk, the phone was ringing.
As usual.
A detective from the AP police department. There had been a fire… paper was used to ignite a burner (and discarded carelessly in the trash.)
My client had wandered out to the store after cooking lunch without realizing there was a fire brewing in her trash bin.
?
A neighbor heard the smoke detector going off, though. Called the fire department.
My client’s ok. Her birds aren’t. My name won’t be in the paper, at least.
Check your smoke detectors! Every month!
Photos from Jasper Knob overlooking Ishpeming Michigan. For any of you rock-heads, Jasper Knob is a bald-topped hill composed entirely of jaspilite (banded hematite and jasper).
Shorebird reflections
In a world of distant horizons, the lone shorebird is little more than a windblown fragment, too easily lost under sun and sky.
It must be that they find comfort in the relative anonymity a flock provides: the sense of direction, a defense against predators, the company of other wanderers; a solidarity of purpose.
I find that I enjoy a mixed-species flock of shorebirds in a way that isn’t possible when confronted with a lone bird… the solitary shorebird practically implores that it be identified by name, but the magic of them, for me, lies in the wheeling mystery of the flock.
The delight in shorebirds comes not from any individu
al bird (unless its an Avocet or a silly-spinning Phalarope) but in a mudflat alive with thousands of birds and the subtle mosaic of tones it presents; black streaks of folded wing feathers, drab sandy grays and stony browns… all of them more striking in pattern than in color… cloud shadow, grass and earth, the glint of late-day sun on salty water.
When suddenly they snap together like a magnet in the air or scatter to the blue of four directions, I’m mesmerized.
Their movements… bent airbrushed wings skimming overhead, wheeling and turning on some imperceptible cue, any one member’s slight adjustments in direction only serving to highlight the unity of the whole. They appear like a dark cloud detached from the sky showing the gray of their backs, then vanish into the glitter and glare as they wheel to display the white of their underbellies, then reappear at some distance away, as if by magic.
Let others ponder over their ID; I’m happy to know it of course, but it does little to affect their magic in me.
Skywatch Friday: Jamaica Bay Birders
The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge is one of the most important urban wildlife refuges in the US and is renowned as a prime birding spot where thousands of water, land and shorebirds stop during migration, with more than 325 species having been recorded in the past 25 years.
Our group of ten or so, minus those couple who were afraid of a little rain (Hi Patrick! Hi John!), grew and mingled and shrank throughout the day. This pic was taken early, before we were very muddied and before the storm clouds had passed us by.
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Telltale
Their cries echoing a melancholy end to the carefree days of summer, shorebirds concentrate at a few scattered places along their migration routes to fatten themselves up and bewilder those birders foolish enough to attempt separating one species of nondescript shorebird from another species of nondescript shorebird.
Yellowlegs, thank goodness, have those telltale yellow legs.
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In addition to the wealth of shorebirds, Jamaica Bay offers up-close looks at birds that are so often viewed at a great distance across the haze and shimmer of a mudflat. The difference at Jamaica Bay is that you’re standing in the midst of the birds, on the mudflat yourself… fighting for purchase among the muck as it threatens to swallow you whole or maybe just steal a shoe should you misstep…
I saw that happen to a couple people the other day… and have pics to share!
😉
I’ve avoided ever going to Jamaica Bay, mostly because it involves driving through Staten Island**, but it was a great day and I couldn’t resist the chance to meet some other bird bloggers who were there as well. I almost think I’ve learned to ID a couple sandpipers, too. Plus there was an Avocet which makes any trip worthwhile, even one through Staten Island.
More another day.
**The Staten Island thing is a family joke, but most anyone from NJ can imagine what I mean.
Midsummer minutiae
I love tiny, tiny flowers and the littlest details revealed with a close-up. I haven’t discovered the skill yet, with a very fussy macro lens, to reliably get all of the flower in sharp focus, but instead let the camera choose its point of interest. Sometimes we agree on what’s interesting, but often not. I liked the rich brown scaly head below the petals of this Yellow-eyed grass, but the camera had other ideas.
The barely pink urn-shaped flowers of Bearberry are a treat in mid August. This plant was obviously confused; flowering when it should be bearing fruit. The ant on the underside of the most forward leaf distracted both me and the lens.
I’m not sure which of the Bladderworts this is, but the effect of the water and the angle of the sun is pretty psychedelic! I can’t ever produce this effect on purpose, but I’m tickled when the lens makes it happen by surprise.
Sweet pepperbush and its tiny fragrant flowers… as abundant as blueberries in the Pine Barrens, but not as tasty.
😉
I was up to my ankles in mucky water when I took this one, but a close-up of Horned bladderwort requires that, almost. I love the flower’s yellow spur. There’s some 11 species of bladderworts in the Pine Barrens, yet I’ve only ever seen 2 or 3 of them.
Thanks to Steve for use of his macro… I needed a close-up flower fix!
Exploring the Red Road
If yesterday’s pic wasn’t a clue… I went on a pretty intense botany trip to the Pine Barrens on Sunday. MevetS was nice enough to invite me along, but probably didn’t properly prepare me. Sure, he said to bring lunch and bug spray and the directions led me to an unmarked sugar-sand road in the middle of the Pine Barrens, but…
Seeing this really scared me. Adding to the fashion faux-pas of tucking their pants into their socks, these folks were using packing tape around their ankles to further geek themselves out/protect against chiggers.
Chiggers? Huh?
Yesterday was brutally hot and the pines in the pygmy forest did little to provide any shade from the sun, but we wandered and wandered, with the promise of a ‘wetland’ somewhere along the way.
After a couple hours walking in the blazing sun, I was fantasizing about a cool blue pool of water and cabana boys, but…
These people were all about plants… and most of them weren’t even flowering plants!
😉
I’ve learned that plant people, as they progress and learn more, get really into sedges and rushes and grasses. This is kind of too much for me just now, kind of like shorebirds and gulls are too much for me as a birder.
I need colors and blooms and flashy stuff that catches my eye!
Digging up a sedge to be able to identify it based of the shape and fibrous nature of its roots?
Feels too much like aging gulls based on primary molt or whatever.
😉
TMI, especially when it’s 95 degrees and you’ve been walking for hours looking for the pool – which turned out to be nothing more than a mucky stream we had to bushwack our way through.
I’ll share a couple pics tomorrow of the few flowers we did manage to stumble across. I sound like I’m making fun, but mostly I’m almost awed by the knowledge and enthusiasm I witnessed with this group and wonder how long it’ll take me to be ready to tackle (and get excited about!) sedges (or gulls).
😉
