Month: November 2013

Image #151 – Red-headed birds

Image #152

If you think this is a Red-headed Woodpecker you are wrong…but you are not alone.  Thinking this is a Red-headed Woodpecker is one of the most common birding ID mistakes.  While I couldn’t find an absolute statistic my bet would be that 90% of the people who see this bird think “Red-headed Woodpecker.”   Actually he is a Red-bellied Woodpecker although none of my field guides indicate an actual red-belly.  Such are the problems of birding ID’s.

This is an actual Red-headed Woodpecker and they are not nearly as common as their colorful cousins.   Image #151 (1)This particular Red-head was a resident at the Carlton Preserve in Venice, Florida and for several years you could count on seeing him at the entrance to the preserve in a grove of decaying trees. I told an honest-to-God ornithologist (bird expert) about the Red-headed Woodpecker at Carlton Preserve and he poo-pooed the possibility, insisting I was actually seeing a Red-bellied Woodpecker.  So I suggested we go to Carlton Preserve together and he agreed.  We had walked just a few feet into the entrance when this handsome Red-headed Woodpecker flew to the same tree in this photo.  My ornithologist friend was so surprised that he dropped his camera. He spent the rest of the day expressing awe that it really was a Red-headed Woodpecker and that I was right!   I can’t recall if I ever saw the ornithologist again but the Red-headed Woodpecker was great entertainment for several more years. They are still at Carlton Preserve but the ones that foraged near the entrance seem to have moved on.  My guess is they grew weary of too many ornithologists making fools of themselves. ❧

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Image #150 – The Pool Has Closed for the Season

Image #150 (1)

That’s my backyard bird bath this morning.  It was chilly here, actually downright cold. When I awoke it was 15º F.   The birds are flocking to my feeders in great numbers and who can blame them? I can barely comprehend how they manage to survive in such weather but clearly good nutrition is a part of it.  Just yesterday I was talking with my neighbor about bird bath heaters.  She was talking about the need to get her’s in place and I was marveling that such an item existed. It never occurred to this Florida girl but I’ve already been to Amazon.com to check it out and this morning certainly confirms the need for such a device.  There are some technical issues to resolve, however. So, for the next few days at least, my feathered-friends will have to try skating.  Thankfully the weather is forecast to moderate and by the weekend we will be back in the 60s. ❧

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Image #149 -Little Tennessee River Greenway

Image #149

Running through Franklin’s rather erratic downtown area is a lovely stretch of land known as the Greenway which is maintained by the delightfully acronymed group – FROGS.  Friends of the Greenway (FROGS) maintain the paths, weeding out invasive plants along the five mile stretch while also providing a comfy headquarters with coffee shop and books. The park meanders along several miles of the Little Tennessee River. During a walk last week I snapped this photograph.  As the trees continue losing their leaves there are new designs emerging from the dense growth. The trees become dancers against the wintering sky. Soon all the leaves will be gone and these trees will stand naked and exposed. Yet, remarkably, they are safer that way. Leaves are heavy, so is snow and ice.  Exposed limbs have a better chance of surviving the onslaught of winter. Nature is remarkable. ❧

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Image #148 – Putting on a new coat — seasonal changes in the bird world

Image #148

Previous posts have included pictures of the American Goldfinches who have graced my feeder throughout the summer (Image #141).  Now it is mid-fall and  mating colors are gone . I learned today that the American Goldfinch is the only finch to undergo a complete moulting process.   So the bird in this picture could be the same as the bird in Image #141.  But American Goldfinches are also migratory so this may be an entirely different bird.  This bird, according to The Sibley Guide to Birds, is a an adult, non-breeding.   While not as dramatic as the male American Goldfinch in his mating finery he is still a very handsome bird. ❧

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Death of a Friend

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My friend, Gail Walton, died today, She was 69 years-old.  That’s her in the picture, on the left in the blue shirt. She is with her life-partner of more than twenty-five years, my college friend Bonnie Powell.  The picture was taken in 2000, not long after they got McDuff, the Jack Russell Terrier in the middle.

Gail was a wonderful woman with a big heart. She loved dogs and rescued her fair share of abandoned or abused critters.She ran a pet supply business for a while. She was also a respiratory therapist, a gourmet cook, an M.P. when she was in the Army, and a whole assortment of other occupations or pre-occupations. She was witty and beautiful.

Fawn Hill feels a little lonely tonight. A year ago I never imagined I would be living here, neither did Gail and Bonnie.  After I moved here in June we talked about how incredible it was that we had become neighbors. Gail said, “Alice, I believe some energy has brought you here.” Just a few weeks later she was diagnosed with an advanced case of recurring lung cancer. Eight years ago she had a lung removed and the doctors felt they had gotten all of it. But they didn’t. By the time Gail was diagnosed, just over four weeks ago, the cancer was everywhere. There was nothing that could be done. Hospice was brought in.

Hospice was my occupation for the last six years of my working career. The irony that I would arrive here just before Gail’s awful diagnosis was not lost on any of us. I did the best I could in advising and helping. I have to say, however, that administering hospice care to a friend is so much harder than administering such care to others. When I was working for hospice people would often ask me, “How can you do that kind of work?”  I would explain that there was a certain level of detachment, which is not to say disinterest or aloofness,  but rather an acceptance that death is inevitable and that dying patients deserve compassion and competent care.

When the patient is your friend or a family member (and I have had experience in both instances) it seems that all you have learned in ministering to the dying patient just goes away and you feel helpless. You lose the objectivity that is normally present. Your thought process seems fuzzy and muddled. Actions and reactions that once seemed so sure and competent become tentative. The shroud of grief becomes becomes a straight-jacket that seems to paralyze you.

We did the best we could in caring for Gail. She was surrounded by loving friends and, for the most part,  we were able to control the pain. Still, it has been a difficult time that has once again brought home the fundamental truth: Life is short. Carpe diem! ❧

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Image #147 – You talkin’ to me?

Image #147

Tufted Titmouse doing his best Robert De Niro impression … ❧

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Image #146 – White-breasted Nuthatch

Image #146

The variety of birds at my feeder has narrowed to about 6-10 varieties. The White-breasted Nuthatch is one of them and he is a surprisingly cooperative subject. The Titmouse and Chickadee are frenetic and move too quickly to grab the right focus. But this little fellow looked right at the camera and smiled.  Don’t you agree? ❧

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Image #145 – Carolina Chickadee

Image #145

A sweet Carolina Chickadee at my feeder. Carolina Chickadees are a bit smaller than the more common Black-capped Chickadee.   They are part of the same family as the titmouse, which might explain why they “hang” together.  The two seem in constant company with one another.  They constitute Paridae, a large family of small passerine birds, which you can learn more about by clicking on the links.  They do not migrate south which means my feeders will continue to enjoy their presence throughout the winter.  And that will be just fine with me. ❧

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Image #144 – Changes

Image #144

Frequent followers will have figured out by now that this summer, for me, has been a photographic love affair with mushrooms.  That’s my buddy, Tango, sitting between two spectacular blooms of mushrooms in the patch of land that Boni & Gail call “the meadow,” at the top of Fawn Hill.  This picture was just three weeks ago.   On the right is an, as yet, unidentified stand. They may be Velvet Foot but I’m not sure.  On the left is our spectacular friend, Jack O’Lantern.  Tango’s presence gives a good sense of scale. These are not small ‘shrooms.

Here they are, a bit closer up.

Unidentified mushrooms, possibly Velvet Foot.
Unidentified mushrooms, possibly Velvet Foot.
Image #144(B)
Jack O’Lantern mushrooms

Three weeks may not seem like much time but, believe me, it is a long time ago. There have been many changes. The most dramatic and heart-wrenching were detailed in my previous post, Image #143.   My friend Gail is slipping, bit-by-bit, into that abyss from which there is no return…at least none that we can know. She has talked of the bright light at the foot of her bed. A Reiki master, who came and gave Gail great comfort on Sunday, spoke of the “bright blue light” that is next to Gail.  Change is coming…

On a larger scale, the air is cooler now, frosts are frequent and the leaves have fallen with a thud that announces “CHANGE!”  Sigh …. it is inescapable. Throughout the summer months we trick ourselves somehow, we believe the days, long and lingering, will go on forever. But change is here and in these northern climes it is ever so much more present. Perhaps that is why the elderly love Florida so much. Change is harder to see and there is a sense that change is being held at bay.  As humans we generally hate change and yet, ironically, it is the only thing of which we can be absolutely sure.

And speaking of change, frequent followers will note some changes on this website. I have finally figured out how to create galleries for my pictures. You can find them in the right-hand column. So far I have posted two — one with birds and the other with, what else, mushrooms.  I hope you enjoy this chance to view just the pictures but, of course, I also hope you will stop to read the words. After all, words matter. ❧

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Image #143 – One week later

Image #143

That’s Tango, posing nicely by a pretty autumnal sugar maple in nearby West Macon Track. This was one week ago and I have no doubt the leaves have all disappeared. It’s happening a lot these days. A cold front moved through on Thursday night with high winds and about .5 inches of rain. But the cold air got hung up on the west side of the mountains and this delightful, almost hallucinogenic, warm air slipped in between the cold air and the rain making Friday a spectacular day.  Indian Summer… Leaves were everywhere, on the ground, in great quantities.  Tree limbs were black and naked, reaching towards a cobalt blue sky. The scents were earthy and the air was soft.

These are days we’ll remember (apologies to Natalie Merchant). Not just for the sunshine and falling leaves but for the extraordinary miracles of life and death that once again grace our life. On the hilltop above my home is the dying form of my friend Gail…life partner of a life-long friend, Boni. Just three weeks ago, after a summer of decline, Gail was diagnosed with terminal cancer. A return engagement of lung cancer that tried to take her life eight years ago. Conquered then, the demon is back and this time it will succeed.

But success is not necessarily triumph. It is Gail’s spirit that is triumphant. Death will take her…but it will take us all. It is not the taking but rather HOW we are taken. Gail’s smiles, her peace, her continuing sense of humor, her love for Boni and her many friends, … her grace.  This is the triumph. ❧

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