Reflections

Reflections

Reflections

Cathy and I went to the property in Pennsylvania today but drove up separately. I went by way of Rural King in Hanover, to pick up a 50 pound bag of red clover seed. We’re trying to get something growing quickly and it germinates faster than grass (which we’ll also plant). We had planned for Jeff’s cousin to be there today with some machinery but he was delayed so I worked with clippers and the chainsaw, clearing some underbrush in one of the fields. These are things that have grown up since dad died. Some were catalpa seedlings of a tree he planted, but they were all much too close together, so I left the large, central tree. Others were sweetgum trees and he may have planted all of them but I took out the two smallest to allow the mower to get in between them all. It was a hot and tiring day and after everyone else had left—Cathy had to drive home to take care of the dog—I took a few photos of reflections on the pond. I spent the night and enjoyed the frogs and even heard a great horned owl (Bubo virginianus).

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White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)

White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)

White-breasted Nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis)

Cathy and I took a walk on Cabin John Creek, walking upstream from where the creek is crossed by Bradley Blvd. We went as far as where the creek meets Seven Locks Road, near the Seven Locks Swimming Pool. We heard a few birds but didn’t see too many. I did get a few photos of this white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) that turned out well enough. I’d prefer to get it from the side, but you often see them from this angle, anyway. I got some pretty poor photos of a little brown bird that was working its way up a tree. They were not good enough to share but they were, thankfully, good enough to identify the bird as a brown creeper (Certhia americana), so that was fun.

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Easter Portrait

Henry, Cathy, Dorothy, and Jeff

Henry, Cathy, Dorothy, and Jeff

We went to the 6:00 AM sunrise service at Fourth Presbyterian this morning. The forecast was for rain but we were fortunate that the rain didn’t come until the afternoon. Instead we had a very pretty sunrise, along with a lovely service. As usual, we stayed for breakfast and then the 8:00 service in the sanctuary, where the music, as well as the message, was wonderful. We came home and then went to visit Cathy’s mom and though I took pictures there, the picture I’m sharing with you is of the four of us, back at home before we changed out of our Easter best and had our Easter feast.

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Erythronium americanum (Trout Lily)

Erythronium americanum (Trout Lily)

Erythronium americanum (Trout Lily)

As we like to do this time of year—and specifically on Easter weekend—we took a walk on Seneca Creek from where it meets Berryville Road. We call this the Bluebell Island Walk, although from this side, we aren’t actually on what we call Bluebell Island most of the time. We walk upstream on the east/north bank of Seneca Creek. One year we walked on the Seneca Bluffs Trail on the other bank, which is also a nice walk but there are more bluebells on this side. In addition to the Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica), there are trout lilies (Erythronium americanum), yellow violets (Viola hastata, more properly the halberd-leaf yellow violet), and, more and more, incised fumewort (Corydalis incisa), a non-native, invasive perennial.

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Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)

Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)

Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)

We went to the Agricultural History Farm Park today. As usual we started in the woodland shade garden and then moved into the Master Gardeners’ demonstration garden. There wasn’t a lot in the way of plant life yet there, but things are starting to show signs of spring. There was, however, this mourning cloak butterfly (Nymphalis antiopa), which is not one I’ve seen very often. It’s a pretty thing, I think. Very different to the swallowtails and quite distinctive (meaning no disrespect to the swallowtails, they’re nice, too, but we see them everywhere).

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Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)

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.

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The Cabin

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.

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Birds on Seneca Greenway Trail

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.

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Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus)

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.

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Bird Puzzle

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.

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Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus)

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.

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Female Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens)

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.

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Eagle on Frozen Lake Needwood

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.

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Canada Geese In Flight

Canada Geese (Branta canadensis)

Canada Geese (Branta canadensis)

Cathy and I took Dorothy and Jeff to Reagan National Airport this afternoon to fly to Florida for a friend’s wedding. On the way back, we thought we might skip Roosevelt Island but then Cathy saw a bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) on a tree at the southern end of the island. We parked and walked around the island but the eagle was gone by the time we got down to that end. It had actually been in a tree on another small island (labeled on at least one map as Little Island) so we couldn’t have gotten very close to it, anyway.

We saw a few birds, including mallards (Anas platyrhynchos), northern flicker (Colaptes auratus), a great blue heron (Ardea herodias), and some Canada geese (Branta canadensis). This shot of two geese in flight could be better, but with my long lens, I’m still trying to master getting birds in flight.

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Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)

Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)

Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)

We went to Great Falls today. The ice and snow is finally gone and although there were some wet spots on the towpath, it wasn’t particularly muddy. After walking out to Olmsted Island and back, we saw this red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) eating something that we couldn’t quite see. It’s fairly well camouflaged against the background, so a lot of folks had been walking by without stopping. My telephoto lens told them that there was something to see and then a lot of folks stopped to watch. These are beautiful birds, quite graceful in flight. They are, however, much easier to photograph well when they aren’t flying. These are a little smaller than their cousins, the somewhat more common (here, anyway) red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis).

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Witch Hazel (Hamamelis)

Witch Hazel (Hamamelis)

Witch Hazel (Hamamelis)

If you’re looking for blooms in February in our area, the witch hazels (Hamamelis species and hybrids) are one of the best shrubs to find. Their flowers come in yellow, orange, and red. Planted in a sunny spot, they really can light up a winter landscape. This one, in the demonstration garden at the Agricultural History Farm Park holds its leaves all winter, although that’s not something I’ve seen on most others. There are quite a few at Brookside Gardens and along the road into the Meadowside Nature Center park. All are great treats this time of year.

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Dahlia Puzzle

Dahlia Puzzle

Dahlia Puzzle

We finished this dahlia puzzle yesterday. It was a relatively easy puzzle, as these things go, but enjoyable. Puzzles with large areas that are predominately a single color such as sky tend to be difficult. This one if full of patterns and it’s easier to find pieces that go with any particular flower. The difficulty is when you have a bunch of flowers started but don’t really know where they go in the puzzle. For those not up on our traditions, we don’t look at the box cover when working on puzzles. Yes, that makes it harder. But on the other hand, it’s more satisfying when you finish the puzzle.

The snow that we got back on January 24 and 25 is finally gone except for a few large piles that are going to be with us another week or more, depending on how warm it gets. The ground it pretty wet still, but at least we can walk places other than on roadways. So, more outdoor photos to come.

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Just The Two of Us

Henry and Cathy

Henry and Cathy

We’ve been taking photos for an update to the church directory and although we haven’t changed all that much in two years, I had a very long beard in the last photo and it’s fairly short now, so we decided we’d go ahead and have ours taken anyway. And since I’m the photographer, it wasn’t really any trouble. I keep thinking about cutting my hair but then keep putting it off. My guess is by the time we’re doing another update to the directory, that will have happened and we’ll take another one of us, but for now, this is what I look like. Cathy changes less from year to year, but that’s how it goes.

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Dost Mahommed Puzzle

Dost Mahommed Puzzle

Dost Mahommed Puzzle

We finished this puzzle yesterday. It was relatively easy, with the hardest parts being the white edges on the right and left and the sky, but we enjoyed it, anyway. Cathy’s father had a copy of this print framed and hanging in their living room at one point, so it’s a familiar image. We thought we had lost a piece but then Cathy found it on the floor. Even with the border on the table, pieces somethings get knocked off and somehow they are hard to find on the carpet. Thankfully we found it, though.

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Katie and Maggie

Katie and Maggie

Katie and Maggie

We had our friends Katie and Jack over for lunch today, along with their little girl, Maggie. It was a nice visit and we especially enjoyed meeting this little girl. Jack has gone back to school in the area, now working on a doctorate. Katie continues to work remotely at the same job she had in New England. We’re happy to have them in the area and when the weather is nicer we’ll hopefully take some walks with them. The snow we recently had is preventing us from walking in parks because all the trails are covered with ice, but the winter will end and it will be beautiful for walking soon enough.

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More Snow Clearing

Clearing Snow

Clearing Snow

Sometimes, it’s not the frozen snow that’s a problem. Our church is built basically at ground level on a slab. The problem comes when snow that’s piled up along the walls starts to melt. When it stays cold, it melts close to the building before the rest of the snow and the liquid water has only one place to go. Unfortunately, that’s into and through the walls and onto the floor of the building.

Charlie put out a call for folks to come clear a swath between the snow drifts and the building and this is the finished product at the site of the largest drift. The snow was covered by a few inches of very solid ice that we had to break up with mattocks and spades. Snow shovels were fine after that, but the bulk of the work needed steel and not plastic.

We also cleared some parking spaces that had snow and ice on them even after the parking lot had been cleared. It was hard work, but nice to be out with a bunch of guys getting something done.

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Clearing Snow

Clearing Snow

Clearing Snow

Two days in and our neighborhood streets have still not been plowed. By the time I’m writing this, I know that they came later this evening, but until they come, you never know when you’ll be able to get out. We didn’t have anywhere we needed to go, so it didn’t really matter.

We considered ourselves fortunate, though, because a block and a half away a water line broke and there was even more ice and slush than we had. This guy was there with the WSSC folks trying to get ahead of it and stopped to clear the bottom of someones driveway that was being reblocked by the extra water.

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Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

After our walk, I set up my tripod and camera on the back porch. Most of the patio and outdoor area is exposed but there is a small area that’s covered and I sat there to watch for birds on the birdbaths, which have heaters in them to keep them from freezing. I got photos of a dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis), a blue jay (Cyanocitta cristata), a few European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) but my favorite photo is this one of a hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus). We don’t see them very often, although Merlin hears them from time to time, especially when we walk around Lake Frank.

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Snow on Norbeck Road

Snow on Norbeck Road

Snow on Norbeck Road

Because of the forecast of fairly heavy snow Saturday evening into Sunday our church shifted its service to Saturday. That was a good call because this morning we woke up to about six inches with it still coming down quite heavily.

In the early afternoon we walked out to Norbeck Road. There were a few vehicles out, mostly trucks with plows, but an occasional car. The road had been plowed so the snow wasn’t deep on it, but it wasn’t exactly clear, either. And none of the neighborhood roads had been touched, as you can imagine.

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Mendenhall Glacier Puzzle

Mendenhall Glacier Puzzle

Mendenhall Glacier Puzzle

The water in the foreground, the mountain in the background, and the glacier itself were the three easiest parts of this puzzle. The rest, especially the trees on the two sites, was pretty difficult. We did get through it, although, as you can see, there’s a piece missing, which is always sad. It’s especially sad in this case because it’s a photo I took back in August 2004. The glacier has receded some since then but it had also receded then from where it was when we lived there in the 1980s. Of course, that’s not the catastrophe that some make it out to be. Glaciers come and go and then come again. It may not be in our lifetime, but it will be back.

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The Cabin

The Cabin

The Cabin

We stopped by the cabin today to take a few photos for the insurance company. There is work going on, so it’s not looking its best and of course the grass isn’t green this time of year. But the big thing shown in this photo are the tops of the septic system tanks that have been installed. After literally 50 years, the cabin finally has plumbing and electricity. When this was taken, the well hadn’t been hooked up yet and not all the wiring was done, but since then it has been and the cabin has heat, as well as water.

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Knodle Shindledecker Guy

Knodle Shindledecker Guy

Knodle Shindledecker Guy

We went to the Rose Hill Cemetery in Hagerstown today. Yesterday we toured the Antietam Battlefield and the nearby National Cemetery. Today we thought we’d see the Confederate section at Rose Hill. For the record, I’m strongly in the pro-abolitionist camp. Nevertheless…

One fun thing about cemeteries is the names you come across. In this one, I came across the name Hartle, I’ve been looking up recently because it’s the last name of an ancestor who is only related to Hartley by marriage. I also saw this stone, with quite a name on it. I often think about elementary school students learning to write their name when I see names like this.

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Dunker Church, Antietam Battlefield

Cathy at the Dunker Church, Antietam Battlefield

Cathy at the Dunker Church, Antietam Battlefield

On the morning of September 17, 1862, the 28th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment, presumably including Cathy’s 2-greats-uncle Gustavus, crossed the Wheat Field and approached the West Woods next to the Dunker Church. It was one of three main areas of fighting in the Battle of Antietam, along with the Sunken Lane and Burnside’s Bridge. We walked a lot of the battlefield and even without the family connection, it’s a sad place to be. We’re glad for what the Civil War accomplished but saddened by the huge cost. I sometimes wonder how different history would be if Lincoln had let the Confederate states form a separate country. I also wonder how different it would be if the North had been able to defeat the south in the first year of the war and it hadn’t taken those extra years.

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Jonathan Hager House

Jonathan Hager House

Jonathan Hager House

It’s not exactly the Grand Tour, but we decided to drive up to Hagerstown for a few days. We arrived this afternoon and drove around, finding our way to Hagerstown City Park, which is also where the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts and the Jonathan Hager House Museum are located. This time of year, the Hager House is only open on Fridays and Saturdays, but we walked around it. The Museum of Fine Arts was still open but would have closed shortly and we plan to see that in a couple days. We did notice a sculpture of Diana by Anna Hyatt Huntington that is like one we have seen at Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina. It was donated to the museum by the artist in 1941.

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Royce Hanson Conservation Park

Royce Hanson Conservation Park

Royce Hanson Conservation Park

After church this morning we drove out to the relatively new, 475-acre, Royce Hanson Conservation Park on Club Hollow Road, southwest of Poolesville. As we pulled in, the wind picked up and it started snowing, with snow being swirled around by the wind. A few minutes later the snow had moved on and the sun came out. It was still quite windy and cold, though. This is a new park and the trails were quite muddy, just going through and around fields at this point. There is the remains of a barn wall and a very small portion of house foundation wall.

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