31 January, 2021 The day before a snow day

If you live in Richmond, VA or the surrounding area, you’re aware today IS a snow day. Mackey and Turner and Yuki and I went to Pony Pasture yesterday to avoid it. Here they are shortly after we arrived at the park: 

I was really (of course) hoping to see an owl and (of course) was rewarded: 

My true reason for hiking at Pony Pasture is just to have a hike near the river – that is its own reward. I first saw owls in this spot a year ago. I’ve hiked that trail since 1999. So the owls are just a bonus. 

Speaking of bonuses, I had a Pine Warbler (Setophaga pinus) land on my feeder just before I put my blog post up last week. I took this picture but it was too late for the blog. So here’s a delayed image: 

Yikes! I don’t have a million pictures today! Well, short blog post, no worries. I did get an interesting (IMO) image of a cormorant earlier this week. I called this picture “Sinatra” because of its remarkably bright blue eyes. Evelyn also pointed out its distinct feather markings. It almost looks like they’re painted on: 

I saw a handful of Red-tails this week, including a nesting pair on a power line a couple blocks south of my house. But they were too shadowy to post here. When I’m doing raptor photography that I love, I settle down so much I’m practically in a trance. It’s like time stops. This one, I fumbled. But it was sunny and I didn’t get much else so here it goes: 

The following day (Thursday, January 28) the moon was just past full at 9:36 PM when Mackey and Turner and I got home from our walk. If you look closely on the right edge of the moon in this image you can see crater shadows. Fascinating: 

There are a lot of great astronomy apps. I use two simple ones. This is a screen shot from World Clock: 

This is a screen shot from Sun Surveyor: 

I don’t know what next week will bring – except a new month! I hope it brings you back for a visit a week from today, on February 7, the first Sunday of the new month. 

Have a great week, 

Jay