If the Canada goose had not jumped off her nest, I might have stepped on her. I love finding nests, but not when I create a disturbance.
I was delighted to discover Cornell’s Nestcam, which lets me watch the activities of several species of birds, revealing images I might not otherwise get a chance to see.
I was not the one to find the first morel of the year. Luckily, I’m very fond of my friend Zaac, who has a wonderful ability to spot an emerging morel in leaves.
I was surprised to see how much time this garter snake spent checking me out:
If you look carefully at the center of the video you can see the squirrel who climbed a honey locust tree to enjoy a black walnut. It took just under four minutes to clean the hull, penetrate the shell and enjoy the walnut. I wish I could work that fast.
The original footage is gorgeous, but to upload this image, I had to compress my avi file. Ah, technology.
Tags: Foraging, Mammals, Survival, Video
It’s odd to see maple trees with leaves just beginning to turn color in mid November. That grey blur is a squirrel enjoying a black walnut.
It has been unusually warm for several months, so the snow covered leaves are both beautiful and disturbing.When I was growing up, farmers used to say that the day of the month when the first snow falls is a predictor of the number of blizzards to expect. Like any folk wisdom, some years it worked out that way.
Ten blizzards would add up to a lot of snow, but if it relieved the drought, provided great skiing and ensured a bumper crop of morels, I would welcome a real winter.
Tags: Mammals
When it gets hot and humid, I try to take sunrise hikes. Right now, sunrise is closer to 7:00 AM. I typically end my sunrise hikes by 7:00 AM in the summer.
I got close enough to these birds to be sure they are not turkey vultures. Black vultures have white legs and white marks on their wings.
It’s been hot and sunny for a couple of weeks. A significant weather front passed by, but my area got virtually nothing in the way of rain.
What we did get, was a brief thunderstorm around 5:15 EDT. I haven’t seen a rainbow in almost three years. Actually there are two rainbows.
Tags: Skywatching, Video
I love early morning hikes, before the day gets busy. It’s a privilege to watch a spider weave a web.
Tags: Climate Change, Hiking, Insects, Video
It’s a whole lot of fun blending in, rather than scaring away the wildlife.
I was amazed that this deer raised up on his hind legs to reach the food he wanted.
I’d been using the video feature of my Canon PowerShot A710IS, pushing the limits of the battery. That may explain the jerky quality to the footage.
I almost fell over, when the deer started walking toward me. That’s when I ran out of memory - of course.
But still, for a moment, I was blended in, part of the natural world around me. I live for those moments and wish they were universally important.
The moving picture feature of my Canon PowerShot A710IS comes in very handy on the trail.
These two rattlers were busy on Schunemunk Ridge several weeks ago, oblivious to their human audience.
Luckily they provided an opportunity to get still photos, too.
There’s something about early spring that makes me feel hopeful and really in touch with nature.
Sometimes images say it better than I can.
