Tagged With: Winter

Woodland Detritus

Photograph taken on Saturday, January 14, 2023 by Henry
Woodland Detritus

Woodland Detritus

We’ve walked the Kengla Trail a few times, always in the winter. We took this trail from Muncaster Mill Road (MD 115), under the Intercounty Connector (a.k.a. the ICC, MD 200) and then up towards Norbeck Meadows Neighborhood Park. There isn’t a lot to see, honestly, although I wish I had brought my long lens, because we had a flock of bluebirds in the trees just in front of us for a little ways, moving further ahead as we got closer. I took a few photos but nothing of outstanding beauty, I’m afraid. I do like the patterns in these fallen branches. There is one point north of the ICC where the trail crosses a side stream where the steam goes between two very large sycamore trees whose roots have grown into a solid mass of wood. I’ve taken photos of Cathy there on each occasion but decided to go with this photo instead this year. We really should come back and walk this trail in the summer, though.

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Cathy at Brighton Dam

Photograph taken on Saturday, February 18, 2023 by Henry
Cathy at Brighton Dam

Cathy at Brighton Dam

We decided to walk around below Brighton Dam and Triadelphia Reservoir today. It was lovely out, although cool. We saw a heron on the river (the Patuxent), who flew downstream as we got closer. Later, when were were further down, we saw the heron again wading in the water with a few Canada geese (Branta canadensis) paddling around the same area. There were lots of little birds in the underbrush, as well. But I only had my 17-40mm lens, so close ups were not possible. On the far bank, camouflaged in the dried grass and weeds, was a fox. That was a treat. I can see it in a few of my photos but so small that it’s not worth posting any of those.

Cathy posed for me on this stone as we walked back up towards the parking area. Across the street from the parking lot and visitor center is the Brighton Azalea Garden, dedicated to Raymond W. Bellamy, Sr., the Chairman of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission from 1951 to 1955. “Mr. Bellamy took the first steps to start plantation of flowering trees and azaleas on the perimeter lands of this water supply lake. His idea ultimately blossomed to become this garden and offer this scenic by-product for the pleasure of the public.” At this point, it’s just evergreen shrubs. But come the spring, it’s really something to see.

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Winter Tree

Photograph taken on Tuesday, December 26, 2023 by Henry
Winter Tree

Winter Tree

We went for a late afternoon walk at Sandy Spring today, starting from the Friends Meeting House. It was at this Friends Meeting that my great, great grandparents meet, sometime around 1850 (they were married in 1952). One of them traveled up from Washington, D.C. and the other from Northern Virginia, which was more of an effort then than it is now (even with our traffic problems).

A road runs south from the meeting house across a field to the spring. We turned right just before the spring and looped around, basically circling a large field and going into the woods a little before coming back up to the spring. It was foggy day and getting foggier through the afternoon. We didn’t see many birds and I wasn’t able to photograph any. I like the way this tree looks, though, with the green lichen on it against the foggy background.

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Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

Photograph taken on Monday, January 15, 2024 by Henry
Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

Hermit Thrush (Catharus guttatus)

As mentioned in the previous post, we had a nice snowfall today, last most of the day and slowly accumulating to about four inches. We walked around part of Lake Frank early this afternoon, heading down Trailways from the neighborhood. We saw the downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) in the previous post in the woods at the bottom of Trailways.

From there we walked towards the dam, stopping to take a few pictures on the way. There were lots of sparrows and we saw dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis), white-breasted nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis), American robins (Turdus migratorius), northern cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) and a few eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis).

I was really pleased to see and photograph two hermit thrushes (Catharus guttatus). This is the second of those and it posed really nicely for me. It was eating the red berries in the second photo but unfortunately I wasn’t able to catch that properly. Still, I think these are pretty nice pictures and I’m happy with them.

By the time we got home my hat had a good layer of snow on the brim and my beard had some ice in it. Still, I was glad to get out and enjoy the birds.

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Snow

Photograph taken on Saturday, January 20, 2024 by Henry
Snow

Snow

We’ve had two moderate snow storms in the last week or so. Last weekend we got about five inches of snow. Then starting early Friday we got another four of five inches. When we got up Friday there was a little over an inch of new snow. We had to go about 2 miles for an appointment and at 7:15 the roads were a bit of a mess but we got there without much trouble. The roads were a bit better by the time we came home. The snow continued falling for most of the rest of the day. This photo was taken from out kitchen door the next morning and there was a little blue showing in the sky by then.

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Snow

Photograph taken on Wednesday, February 12, 2025 by Henry
Snow

Snow

The last few years we haven’t really had much snow. I wouldn’t describe what we had the last couple days as a huge snowfall but comparatively it was a lot. This was out second snowfall of the year when we have gotten more than an inch, with about four inches on the ground this morning. It’s quite pretty and it wasn’t all that hard to clear the driveway or walk, so I didn’t mind it too much. Naturally mom called to tell me to hire a high school student to shovel so I wouldn’t have a heart attack. But actually, I enjoyed being out today. And it’s always nice being out in this when you know you can come back inside and get warm again when you’re done.

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