Category: Nature

Thoughts on nature with links to my photoblog at SmugMug

Image #182 – Getting Re-acquainted With Winter

Image #182It may sound odd  but after nineteen years in Florida but I am enjoying the process of getting re-acquainted with winter in North Carolina.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not about to move to Minnesota.  It has been plenty cold for me with temperatures dropping into the teens at night and sometimes barely breaking 40 degrees during the day.  But there is treasure everywhere and there is certainly treasure in winter. It is an integral part of the automatic earth, a time of slumber and re-alignment. It is also a time of crisp, rich blue skies with low-slung cirrus clouds that seem to materialize before your eyes and quickly join forces to make a bright day gray.

Armed only with the iPhone camera I enjoyed a walk down Potts Branch Rd. today and climbed a pasture hill to enjoy the view and snap this photo.  Tango, of course, was at my side and he too enjoyed the smells and sights. Every day is a gift. ❧

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Image #181 – Recovering from the swirl of holidays

Image #181Back home in North Carolina after three weeks in Florida. It was a whirlwind of activity and people.  I loved it all but it is good to return to the quiet of the mountains.  To all whom I saw – I love you all and enjoyed every minute. To those whom I missed – forgive me. I swear someone is stealing minutes, nay, hours from my day.   So I have chosen this image because it reminds me of my life: aging with deep lines and swirls but lots of color and plenty of life.  Happy New Year everyone. ❧

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Image #179 – A Stormy Gulf of Mexico

Image #178 - For those who savored a week of sun and fun in Florida the week has been a disappointment.  It has been stormy for several days and the sky has been gray and gloomy.  As always, however, the Gulf or Mexico is still beautiful. It doesn’t matter what the weather might be the Gulf is always enchanting. ❧

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Image #174 – Toulouse gosling

Toulouse goose gosling June 2010
Toulouse goose gosling
June 2010

Here’s another shot from  my encounter with friend Mary’s Toulouse Geese. This gosling is being held be Mary. Don’t let the shyness fool you. They arrive hard-wired to take a bite of you.  In fact, this one was probably about to take a bit of Mary’s hand. 🙂  ❧

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Image #172 — Seasonal Bounty

White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)
White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)

Frequent followers will recall the recent post of a Tufted Titmouse with a mouthful of seed.  Here is a White-breasted Nuthatch with a similar bounty.  The nuthatch and titmouse are often in the company of one another and have similar feeding habits. Our friends at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology enlighten us more on this pleasant bird.

White-breasted Nuthatches are active, agile little birds with an appetite for insects and large, meaty seeds. They get their common name from their habit of jamming large nuts and acorns into tree bark, then whacking them with their sharp bill to “hatch” out the seed from the inside. White-breasted Nuthatches may be small but their voices are loud, and often their insistent nasal yammering will lead you right to them.

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Image #171 – Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescents)

Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescents)
Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescents)

The Downy Woodpecker  (Picoides pubescents) always seems so studious to me.  It will invariably go straight to the suet as opposed to the Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) who will often swing awkwardly from one of the feeders, flinging out seeds until it finds just what it wants. The Downy knows exactly what it wants.

The Downy and the Hairy Woodpeckers are very similar in appearance with the Hairy Woodpecker the larger of the two. So far I am fairly certain I have only seen the Downy here on Fawn Hill. I have seen the Hairy Woodpecker in the past and it is significantly larger.  None of the black and white woodpeckers that I have seen this summer have been that large.

Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopis pilestus). Taken in Florida in 2006.
Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopis pilestus). Taken in Florida in 2006.

Of course there is the largest of the black and white WPs, the Pileated Woodpeckers and I have to admit I was surprised to see them here in North Carolina. I have often seen the Pileated in Florida and in my head I thought of the Pileated WP as exclusively Floridian.  Silly, I know. I think it has to do with their pre-historic look.  They seem perfectly at home in the scrub and swamps of Florida. Catching sight of them in the woods around my home here on Fawn Hill was a pleasant surprise. ❧

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Image #170 – Um, You May Want to Rethink that Bite

Tufted Titmouse (Parus bicolor)
Tufted Titmouse (Parus bicolor)

It seems this Tufted titmouse (Parus bicolor) may have over-judged his ability to swallow but with a prize that large you can understand his inclination.  The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers this helpful insight:

  • Tufted Titmice hoard food in fall and winter, a behavior they share with many of their relatives, including the chickadees and tits. Titmice take advantage of a bird feeder’s bounty by storing many of the seeds they get. Usually, the storage sites are within 130 feet of the feeder. The birds take only one seed per trip and usually shell the seeds before hiding them.

After reading this helpful tip I watched the birds more closely and, sure enough, they grab a seed (or a nut) and fly quickly away to store the prize and they are back. One enterprising titmouse has begun to stash the bounty in the nooks and crevices of the deck thereby saving time and energy.  I have a Turkey Oak nearby that is, no doubt, one of the primary storage spots for the birds. The gnarly bark offers perfect hiding spots although I suspect the squirrels may be finding many of the stash sites.  ❧

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Image #169 – Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)

This pretty little dove makes me think of a ballerina–it’s the lovely arch in the neck.  Mourning doves are present throughout the United States and in summer months they even migrate into Canada.  It’s a wonder they survive at all. They build nests that are impossibly flimsy and often in very public places. I recall a retirement home in Florida where a dove had built her nest directly above the door leading to the patio area. She would sit there all day, not moving a muscle as people by the dozens came and went.   The residents of the home were delighted to have the nest so visible and I have no doubt their collective karma guaranteed the successful fledge. ❧

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Image #168 – Female Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)

Female Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinals)
Female Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)

The flock of Northern Cardinals continues to populate my feeders and they are a joy to see.  I am accustomed to seeing Cardinals as couples and I was surprised to learn that flocks are common in the winter months.  With four males and three (maybe four) females they certainly bring some lovely color to an increasingly bleak landscape.  

This female has beautiful color in her wings. At first I wasn’t sure if she was a juvenile or an adult. Image #168(a)It is the crest that tells the difference and she obligingly shook her head revealing a crest of a delightfully punkish orange.  On a juvenile there would be no color and a brownish crown as opposed to a crest.  So, I would say she is a young adult. ❧

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Image #167 – The Squirrel Cafe is Open

Image #167

A few posts back I wrote about squirrels being a pain when it comes to keeping bird feeders full and the truly effective way that some North Carolinians take care of such a problem — they shoot them. My friend Mary took exception with such extreme measures and described how she feeds the squirrels around her house.  Her comments resonated with me, especially when I considered that my sister and brother-in-law are currently fostering two orphaned flying squirrels.  There is, after all, a yin and a yang in life. We must honor that.  So I set up a small squirrel feeding area on my deck using pieces of lumber from our recent tree removal.

As the picture demonstrates, the squirrels have found this solution very much to their liking.  They have, for the most part, stopped raiding my feeders.  I seem to have 3 squirrels that regularly visit my deck. If they get too obnoxious I set Tango loose on them and they scatter in every direction.  He enjoys the romp and its best to keep the squirrels on their toes. My neighbor had some horror stories about squirrels chewing their way through screening to get food from inside the house.  I sure don’t want that. ❧

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