Category Archives: Wanderings

Birds, Wanderings

So I saw a couple shorebirds…

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I haven’t had the heart to visit Cape May for the spring shorebird migration for a while now; probably it’s been almost 10 years, in fact.

However, the chance to share the spectacle with someone who hadn’t ever witnessed it motivated me enough to bear the chance of a broken heart for what’s been lost on the Delaware Bayshore in recent years.

I was so hoping to find more than a memory there. And we were lucky to be there on a day when the moon and the tides were in our favor… and there were thousands and thousands of shorebirds!

These first couple pics are mostly Semipalmated Sandpipers, I think. I could spend the next couple weeks trying to separate them from the Sanderlings I think I know so well.

What I hope you’ll take away from these pics is the sheer abundance of birds gathered there to feed and rest.

For all the denying I like to do about shorebirds, their beauty is hard to counter. Conveniently, in spring, they’re all decked out in their finest and mostly like to huddle together with their own kind, making ID easier. These are Dunlin. Aren’t they beautiful?

: )

And we found Red Knots, thank goodness! Counters estimated 5,000 in the area of Reed’s Beach that day and while I was glad for our good timing in being there on the day that they were finally “in”, the truth behind that 5,000 is not so heartening as it might seem…

More another day.

Snapshots, Travels with the flock, Wanderings

Life is old there

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During some “off” time during the first day of the New River Birding and Nature Festival we wandered down a windy single-lane road to the long-forgotten railroad town of Thurmond, West Virginia.

You arrive in Thurmond by crossing the New River over a narrow bridge that doubles as a railroad bridge. It feels pretty old and rickety, but was perfectly safe. I held my breath most of the way across, just in case.

; )

A short walk from the railroad depot, lies Thurmond’s old downtown, built right along the railroad tracks. Several old buildings, including a bank with an impressive facade, make up the old downtown.

According to the 2000 census, Thurmond has 7 residents. Back in Thurmond’s heyday, more than 500 people lived here and the rail lines carried more than 97 thousand passengers a year, along with 3.5 million tons of freight (most of which was coal).

Making our way back to civilization, we found a small roadside waterfall that demanded a ritual toe-dunking.

: )

Crazy things i do to amuse myself, Snapshots, Travels with the flock, Wanderings

8/100

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Late in the week at New River, Beth G. and I had separated ourselves for an hour or so from the “serious birders” in order to photograph the Glade Creek Mill at Babcock State Park. It’s a very pretty setting and deserved some time of its own.

So Beth set up her tripod and we scrambled around on the rocks in the middle of the creek for a perfect view of the mill… of course I was distracted the whole time by the fishermen who station themselves along the way. I’m always on the prowl for interesting strangers to photograph, but more often than not, my shyness gets in the way of asking for a photo.

So this guy approached us, once we had given up on photography and decided to go back to birding, to ask us what we were doing there that day and where we were from, etc.

We told him we were there to look at birds and his response was, “The birds are all dead.”

Huh?

And he told us about, how, as a kid up at dawn, there used to be a deafening sound of song from birds. He doesn’t hear that anymore. Doesn’t hear birds singing, at all. So they’re all dead.

Huh?

Mind you, his accent was pretty thick, so maybe I misheard him.

; )

In my devilishly charming sort of way I suggested that maybe his hearing was just going… that birds were still singing, but his ears were just too old to hear them, maybe.

; )

This was the moment when I asked for his photo. It’s one of my favorites.

This photo is #8 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at Flickr 100 Strangers or www.100Strangers.com

Birds, Travels with the flock, Wanderings, Wildflowers

The full report

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The full report on the New River Birding and Nature Festival will have to wait a bit; for now there’s just these couple images… of perfect roadside wildflowers, of rivers rushing across bared toes, of ghost towns nestled in the mountains, weathered barns along the way, of impossible to photograph birds, memories of twisty country roads, lush hillsides and scenic saw mills, the laughter of an impossible-to-imagine mix of friends, graffiti as art and, finally, a hug between two beloved Flock-mates for the sake of a little bird colored blue like the spring sky.

Snapshots, Wanderings, Wildflowers

Some poems

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some poems
you do not write

you wait
hushed
as the soil strains
its urgent whisper

this

listen
and remember
this

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Bloodroot is peeking through the forest floor now; stepped over and unseen by all but those who know to look for it.

The Wiki link above is worth a read for its explanation of myrmecochory that I referred to in this prior post, but which I almost believed to be a fable.

Snapshots, Wanderings

Secret garden

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A couple more pics from the other day at Terrain – highly recommended for anyone suffering from the late-winter blahs…

Our lunch spot, happy with sun.

Set in a greenhouse, there is flowing water, antique stained-glass doors and plenty of sunlight!

There’s an attached shop that sells all manner of pretty things.

More pretty things!

They also sell plants, but I was barely even tempted, considering my lousy luck with houseplants.

Wandering around with my camera I found lots of things, like the winter sky reflected in silver plant misters.

; )

Snapshots, Wanderings

Sun soaked

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This is the photo I took at the beginning of our visit – a simple bread baked in a clay pot, a mason jar of ice water and the late winter sun streaming across the table where we gathered for lunch.

Every moment in the sun is a gift these days and I think we all might’ve stayed in that sun-drenched spot and happily chatted the afternoon away. We – myself, Julie Zickefoose, Heather from Wayne PA (who many of us know from her sweet comments on our blogs) and Heather’s friend Linda met for lunch and a visit to the Wyeth collections at the Brandywine River Museum.

Julie is in town to speak at Longwood Gardens. Heather was our local guide and she picked the perfect spot for lunch – sun soaked and fragrant with the scent of growing things… a place to nourish winter-weary bodies and hearten a growing friendship.

More another day!