Monthly Archives: March 2026

Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)

Photograph taken on Saturday, March 21, 2026 by Henry
Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)

Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)

We took a walk from Sandy Spring Friends Meeting to Sandy Spring and then down to the creek today. We didn’t see a lot of birds at first. When we were at the very bottom of the field we saw three red-shouldered hawks (Buteo lineatus) and I was able to get this photo of one of them, which turned out pretty well. We also saw an eastern phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) catching insects around the creek, which was nice. A little later there were three red-bellied woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus) making quite a racket in the trees and we got a pretty good look at them. Back into the field and we didn’t see much else, but we felt like we got our money’s worth, anyway.

Categories: Creatures | Tags: , , , , , , | Comments Off on Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)

The Cabin

Photograph taken on Friday, March 20, 2026 by Henry
The Cabin

The Cabin

Cathy, our friend Yvette, and I drove up to Pennsylvania today. We visited the land (commonly called “the farm” by our family, but not really a farm in any meaningful sense). We built the cabin in the mid 1970s and it’s been without any utilities until recently. The plumbing went in and there is now a septic system. Putting in everything related to that required a fair amount of digging so the ground was pretty chewed up. Dorothy and Jeff have spread straw on the bare dirt (a.k.a. mud) so it’s not as bad as it could be. Dorothy also has a few large bags of grass seed that will go down shortly. In this photo you can see the three concrete caps for the septic tank and associated parts. We’ll plant a garden around them and put large planters on top of them so they won’t be quite so obvious, eventually.

Categories: Miscellaneous | Tags: , | Comments Off on The Cabin

Birds on Seneca Greenway Trail

Photograph taken on Friday, March 13, 2026 by Henry
Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe)

Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe)

White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)

White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)

Eastern Bluebird (Sialia siali)

Eastern Bluebird (Sialia siali)

 

We were in the northern part of Gaithersburg this afternoon and after the errands we had, we decided to walk a little way on the Seneca Creek Greenway Trail, walking north (upstream) from MD 355 (Frederick Road). We saw quite a few eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis) and I got what I consider a pretty nice photo of a white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis). We walked a little over 2 miles up the trail, stopping about a half mile short of where the trail meets Watkins Mill Road. As we were coming back I got a few photos of an eastern phoebe (Sayornis phoebe), including this one of it taking off, which I really like.

Categories: Creatures | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Birds on Seneca Greenway Trail

Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)

Photograph taken on Wednesday, March 11, 2026 by Henry
Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)

Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)

Cathy has started working with the county parks archaeology group this spring and they meet at the Needwood Mansion on Wednesdays. Today I met her there after they were done and we took a walk on the western side of Lake Needwood. We saw this pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) briefly and I was able to get one shot before it flew away. Later we saw quite a few double-crested cormorants (Nannopterum auritum) diving and catching fish, but the photos I took of them didn’t really turn out well. It’s tricky because when the go under, there’s really no telling where they will come up. If I’m looking through the long lens, I’m liable to miss them but if I’m not, it takes me a little while to find them and focus and by that time, they’ve generally swallowed the fish. Disclaimer: This image was a little blurry but I had Google Gemini sharpen it up for me.

Categories: Creatures | Tags: , , , , | Comments Off on Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)

Bird Puzzle

Photograph taken on Monday, March 09, 2026 by Henry
Bird Puzzle

Bird Puzzle

We finished this bird puzzle yesterday. Parts of it were easy, but there were some challenging aspects, as well. We got a number of birds mostly done but then had no idea where they went in the overall design. The birds are numbered, though, and once I figured out that they were arranged in something like numerical order, I was able to start getting birds situated. That only got us so far, of course, but it was big help.

I sort of have the process for taking pictures of puzzles down. We do them on a board in our family room. The board is a 4×4 foot piece of plywood with a small strip of molding along all four edges, which helps prevent pieces from falling off (although they do sometimes stick to the bottom of an arm or are otherwise lifted off). In the afternoon, before or after the sun is shining directly on the puzzle, is the best time to take pictures. The overhead lights have to be off so I don’t get glare from them. Then I use a flash, of course, bounced off the far wall.

Categories: Miscellaneous | Tags: , , , | Comments Off on Bird Puzzle

Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus)

Photograph taken on Monday, March 09, 2026 by Henry
Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus)

Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus)

We went to Redgate Park, formerly Redgate Golf Course, this afternoon. We took Margo with us, which made taking pictures a little harder. Also, I had my camera set to manual exposure control and the setting were all wrong, so this photo was almost ruinously washed out. Because I shoot in RAW format, I was able to salvage it, though, so at least it’s an easily identifiable bird. This is an eastern towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus), which is fairly common here, but not easily seen, as they tend to be somewhat secretive. This one was on the ground under some pine trees and stayed there long enough for me to get ten shots, but unfortunately it wasn’t until just after the last of them that I noticed my settings were wrong.

Categories: Creatures | Tags: , , , , , , | Comments Off on Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus)

Female Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens)

Photograph taken on Thursday, March 05, 2026 by Henry
Female Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens)

Female Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens)

We saw our second bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in two days today, but it was much further away and I really like this shot of a female downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens), in any case. We were at the Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve in Alexandria, Virginia, which is a nice little park on the Potomac River, just outside the Capitol Beltway. When I photograph birds, even with my rather hefty 150-600mm lens, I still have to crop them to make the bird larger in the final image. This bird let me get so close that this is the full frame, which contributes to it being so sharp. What a pretty little thing.

Categories: Miscellaneous | Tags: , , , , | Comments Off on Female Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens)

Eagle on Frozen Lake Needwood

Photograph taken on Wednesday, March 04, 2026 by Henry
Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

In my last post I mentioned that we saw a bald eagle on a small island next to Roosevelt Island but I didn’t get any photos of it. Today we took a short walk on the trail on the west side of Lake Needwood, which has still got ice on about half of it. Cathy spotted this eagle standing on the ice and I was able to get a reasonably good shot of it before it flew up into the trees at the far southern end of the lake. A little later it flew past us again, heading north and out of sight. There was no chance of getting a photo of it flying, though, because there were trees between us and it.

Categories: Creatures | Tags: , , , , , , | Comments Off on Eagle on Frozen Lake Needwood