Sunset from Kroger on Maui

Posted on June 18, 2017 by Jay McLaughlin

18 June, 2017            Sunset from Kroger on Maui

I took this picture from the parking lot of a Kroger on Maui:

I’m kidding about Maui, of course. I took the picture in Henrico County, VA, this week!

I’m kidding about Maui, of course. I took that picture on Tuesday, June 13, from the parking lot of Kroger here in Richmond, four tenths of a mile from my house. Resting my elbow on a shopping cart filled with groceries. I always park in an uncrowded corner of the lot so I can take my time loading and unloading, and also perhaps photograph an enchanting tropical sunset. I love that I can take that photograph within ten minutes walk of my suburban Richmond home. That is a spectacular sunset anywhere on this planet. 

Fair warning for ophidiophobes (people with an irrational fear of snakes), there is a picture of a snake closer to the bottom of this blog post. It’s an Eastern Ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis). No animals were harmed in the making of this blog post, but that snake had just eaten something that went straight to its hips, and it had a big bulge in its midsection. More on that later.  

June 13 was the earliest sunrise of the year (here in Richmond) at 5:48 AM. The actual first day of summer – the day the sun is above the horizon for the longest time – is Wednesday, June 21. Sunrise is already beginning later by then – it’s at 5:49. But sunset is still getting later – and sets later through June 28. On June 28 we’ll have our latest sunset of the year at 8:35 PM.

I’m sure all the non-nerds (there’s probably like three) who read this blog have fallen asleep at this point. I saw other interesting (to me) sights that day, well before sunset. I could have thrown my camera and hit this deer. I should have backed away before I took this picture; she wasn’t twenty feet from the dogs. I could have photographed them all in the same shot:

Earlier on the same day I got that sunset photo. Isn’t it great to live here?

That deer was, of course, at Pony Pasture. I photographed the snake first; that was at 12:40 in the afternoon, in the creek near the golf course. We hiked back toward the wetlands. Just before we got to the eastern end of the wetlands boardwalk, I noticed a couple of Black vultures (Coragyps atratus) and a large number of Turkey vultures (Cathartes aura). The black vultures flew almost before I got my lens cap off. But there were a lot of turkey vultures, and they were more casual. One stayed around while I took this picture:

Turkey vulture on a branch

Turkey vultures don’t make noises the way many birds do. In the Cornell Guide it says “Calls — Turkey Vultures lack the vocal organs to make proper songs. Most of their vocalizations come down to a form of low, guttural hiss made when they are irritated or vying for a better spot on a carcass.” The woods were mostly silent though, but there were six or eight vultures perched on the ground and in the trees. They made a huge noise  flapping their wings as they moved around – it was much louder than human conversation would have been. I don’t know why they were in that spot, but I’ve seen them in that patch before. I never saw or smelled any dead animal. Maybe some of the birds were young.  

I’ll put the snake from that day at the bottom of this post.

The next day was Wednesday, and this time of year Wednesday is my unofficially designated “Osprey day.” I can never get a good photograph, but I can generally get a reasonable photograph of at least one osprey from the parking lot of Fulton Bank off Chippenham Parkway (State Route 150). Near Stony Point. To my surprise there was a pair of Red-tails on a tower just south of the one that has the osprey nest. At first I  thought there was only one; it was on the front corner but the sun was behind it. So I took this first:

The first Red-tail I noticed at Stony Point

It took me a moment to realize there was another red-tail on the back corner of the same tower. It’s indistinct, but it’s obvious this is a pair of Red-tails:

Hiding in plain sight

Regrettably (at least to me) I’m running late again. I’m sensing a pattern here… First I’m going to put a long-distance picture I took of a pair of ospreys from the same place. It was two towers north of the one with the nest. I wouldn’t bother with this long distance shot at all except one of the ospreys is holding an enormous fish. Then at the bottom the snake. Here’s the long distance osprey:

Look at the size of the fish that right hand bird is holding. How did it even fly up there?

Also – pre-snake picture – I had my large pack (five dogs) with me at Pony Pasture this afternoon. Here they are on the boardwalk. Snake after this; dogs first:

Lola, Luna, Mackey, Turner, Yuki

Now to the snake. I had just finished voting in the primary and I was still wearing my sticker. The snake was torpid; it had just eaten a large meal. I could see the bulge. I peeled off my voting sticker and put it on the ground. Then I picked the sticker back up! I couldn’t resist. The snake was unfazed. Here’s the snake with my voting sticker:

I was unable to determine its gender or its party affiliation.

Look at this bulge in the snake. One web site (livescience.com) had this to say about the dining habits of rat snakes: Hunting and diet –  Rat snakes are constrictors, said Savitzky [Alan Savitzky, a professor of biological sciences at Utah State University who specializes in the biology of snakes.]. They squeeze their prey to death and swallow it whole. There are some common misconceptions about how constricting works, said Heyborne [Bill Heyborne, a herpetologist and professor of biology at Southern Utah University.] One is that constrictors crush or break the bones of their prey. Another is that they suffocate it, squeezing the prey’s lungs too tightly to work. “It turns out that the squeezing overwhelms the circulatory system,” explained Heyborne. “Blood cannot get to the brain, and the animal dies within seconds due to ischemia.”

Rat snakes often feed on small rodents, such as mice, rats, chipmunks and voles, but they are also known to eat frogs, lizards, birds and bird eggs. Juveniles are more likely to eat cold-blooded prey, while adults stick almost exclusively to warm-blooded animals, according to Marshall University. Some species of rat snake are called chicken snakes because they like to eat chicken eggs.

Rat snakes are known to both wait for and ambush their prey and to actively forage for it, according to Savitzky.

According to Penn State University, sometimes after killing their prey, rat snakes continue hunting. They do this because they are cloaked in the prey’s scent so other prey is less likely to notice them. They might kill more prey and then return to the original kill. Therefore, rat snakes may eat many animals in a single meal. 

So here’s the bulge. The snake’s head is to the left in this image. The bulge is about midway on the snake’s body:

See the bulge mid-snake? Probably a mouse becoming a snake.

The summer solstice here in Richmond happens at 12:24 AM EDT on Wednesday, June 21. Then the days gradually get shorter, from then through almost Christmas. That’s the official beginning of summer! So this is the final blog post for Spring – next week will be the first one of summer. Have a great week!

All best,

Jay

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, James River, ospreys, People, Pony Pasture, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!), Snakes, sunsets, whitetail deer | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Up close and personal

Posted on June 11, 2017 by Jay McLaughlin

11 June, 2017        Up close and personal

[[WARNING! THERE IS A PICTURE OF MY NEPHEW TOWARD THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST! YOU WILL FIND HIM IRRESISTIBLE!]]

I was dropping a buddy off near Bon Air Wednesday afternoon when we came around a corner and saw this gorgeous Red-tail sitting on the side of the street, just sitting down to  lunch:

Roadside Red-tail with an unfortunate squirrel

It’s not impossible that Red-tail killed that squirrel. But this time of year it’s equally or more likely the squirrel got hit by a car and the Red-tail grabbed a quick free meal. There are lots of young squirrels around and they get hit by cars all the time right now. 

I “got” a “double” on ospreys the same day, from long distance, near Stony Point. I was parked at Fulton Bank trying to get those ospreys but couldn’t get a decent angle. I like two on a nest though:

“Double” ospreys from long range near Stony Point

I drove across the Willey Bridge and photographed this single osprey from the West End Assembly of God: 

Lone osprey at West End Assembly of God

All in the same day – there was a lot going on – I was driving in Hollywood Cemetery with another buddy (it’s a great place to watch trains) and we spotted a mockingbird on a tombstone:

Cemetery mockingbird

So that’s the Red-tail with the squirrel, the double osprey, the single osprey and the mockingbird all on the same day. All in about the same ninety minutes. That was roughly two weeks before the Summer Solstice; it would not be incorrect to say that things are “heating up.”  

I should say enough with the junky out of focus pictures of ospreys from way too far away. It was drizzly Monday before I snapped this image of one of Evelyn’s spectacular gardenias in our front bed. Which you can smell perfectly when we stand on the front porch. And even better when she cuts them and makes arrangements in our living room our dining room or kitchen or back porch:

“Everything’s better when wet” – Steve Miller Band

My inner nerd gets out of control disconcertingly often. Not that it’s ever really in control, come to think of it. Friday morning at 9:00 I was parked in Glen Allen and the sky was unbroken blue and I saw a contrail really, really high. Just a white line with a dot in front. I have a few apps on my phone that tell what planes are overhead. I got it out and took a screen shot. This was the plane:

See the plane in the middle? It’s the one making that contrail

This is the contrail. This is what a plane looks like at 37,000 feet (7 miles) overhead. For reference, that plane would be about 8,000 feet (1.5 miles) above the top of Mount Everest:  

That’s what a plane looks like that’s 37,000 feet in the air.

 

That’s an Airbus A320. Incredible.  

Enough already! Ev and I went to Blacksburg this weekend to visit my brother Shane and his lovely wife and handsome son. His name is Wesson and the photo credit for this one goes to Evelyn:

Picture Evelyn took this morning of my amazing nephew Wesson. We should all have that attitude. Look at him. Two words: no coffee. Can you even believe it? 

We had Mackey and Turner with us; their dog’s name is Tara, and the three of them play (and hike) well together:

Tara, Turner, Mackey, posse in effect

Here are two pictures of Mackey – he can do both these roles. The first picture is from when we were hiking yesterday on Little Stony Creek near Blacksburg. It was hot and Mackey hopped in the creek to cool off: 

When it’s hot and you’re hiking, hop in the water

And when you get back to the house, it’s time to relax: 

Mackey can be comfortable in any environment

So that was a long overnight trip and yet again I am running short on energy and time. Have a great week! Come back next week!

All best,

Jay

 

Posted in Birds, coffee, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, James River, mockingbirds, ospreys, People, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Shenandoah Valey, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

People who put the “sweet” in “bittersweet”

Posted on June 4, 2017 by Jay McLaughlin

4 June, 2017            People who put the “sweet” in “bittersweet”

Our Mom died in her sleep five months ago today. Friends of hers and of Dad’s and of ours throughout our lives joined us when we had her ashes interred yesterday morning at Arlington National Cemetery (ANC). It was so sad to finally be burying Mom’s ashes and it was so joyful to be surrounded by such wonderful people in such a spectacular setting on such a gorgeous late Spring day. The experience was far more upsetting than I’d anticipated, but the closure feels more complete than what I’ve known so far.

Be forewarned, this post is even more scattered than my normal scattered post. 

My sister Sheila’s husband Greg Wiese took this picture. This is my brother Shane on the left holding his son Wesson, then me, then my sister Katie, my sister Sheila, my brother Kevin and our old family friend Father Shane MacCarthy:

With my brothers and sisters and nephew and family friend yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery

We were surrounded – surrounded – by the sweet presence of so many of our friends and loved ones. It’s still difficult for me to reconcile the joy of that community with the sadness of losing my mom. But the joy continues to rise to the top and it will stay there. Of course, no one would find that more delightful than my mother would.

Sheila arranged for the orange flowers in front of my dad’s gravesite and the yellow ones in front of our sister Ann Michele’s gravesite. All this beauty in a place as somber as a cemetery. Arlington National Cemetery is a special, special place. A few of Sheila’s flowers:

Flowers at Mom’s and Dad’s and Ann Michele’s grave yesterday

The thing about early June in Virginia is, things are growing. Everything is growing. There are close to half a million graves in ANC, but at least on a sunny June morning the place is vibrantly, almost disconcertingly alive. So it was fitting that almost precisely twenty-four hours later, Evelyn and I were in Richmond visiting our friend Ariel and a Carolina Wren swooped into a hanging basket over my head to feed its babies! After the wren flew out I stood up – it was just above my head – and pointed my camera deep into the heart of the scarlet begonia. And saw a baby Wren’s face peering out!:

Baby wren in nest today – see the yellow edges of its beak? And its little eyes? Scarlet begonia at left

Shane MacCarthy has been close to our families since the early 1970’s when he was a priest and we were parishioners at Saint Camillus church in Silver Spring, MD. He was visibly moved yesterday, and his service was powerful and eloquent. Shane spoke about a German theologian named Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Mr. Bonhoeffer was imprisoned by the Nazis in 1943 and executed in 1945. Shane read something Mr. Bonhoeffer wrote while he was imprisoned: “Nothing can make up for the absence of someone whom we love, and it would be wrong to try to find a substitute; we must simply hold out and see it through. That sounds very hard at first, but at the same time it is a great consolation, for the gap, as long as it remains unfilled, preserves the bonds between us. It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap; God doesn’t fill it, but on the contrary, keeps it empty and so helps us to keep alive our former communion with each other, even at the cost of pain.”

Shane reminded us at the outset to be mindful of the “gap” Mr. Bonhoeffer spoke of, and of it being kept empty to help keep alive my former communion with mom. As soon as those wrens began going in and out of that nest this afternoon, I thought of the wren’s nest my parents had every Spring in the wreath on their front door. I thought of that “gap” remaining unfilled, and how it will always be empty to keep alive what we enjoyed together.

There were more birds on nests at Ariel’s this afternoon too – but only the wrens were over my head. She has what must be the world’s most prolific pair of mourning doves raising yet another brood on the side of her house. I think they’re on their third brood of 2017, and it’s only June 4:

If you see a dove tomorrow, don’t be surprised if it comes from this parent

When Shane was talking about the “gap,” he was alluding to the way my mom would never let a gap grow between her and other people. He’d gotten a call from my mom recently – it was mom calling him to ask about his granddaughter. Even at eighty years old, she kept up with everybody, all the time. Shane’s own mother had died at 101 years old in 2014. Mom sent him a poem then, which she said she found “helpful in my grieving for Mike.” He then talked about how Mom had found something that helped her grieving for Dad, and she passed it to Shane to help him grieve for his mother, and he was now passing mom’s wishes back to us – to help us grieve for her. He showed us the email:

My Mom, sharing her own grief experience to help another person with his, and ultimately us with ours

You may recall last week’s post Happy Memorial Day! I took a pretty picture of the sunset from (of all places) our Kroger parking lot. If you missed it, have a look, especially for comparison to this one. If you want to see: Happy Memorial Day! Anyway, I took another one this week! Same place! You can tell by the parking lot lamp on the right side of the picture:

Yet another grocery store sunset

A favorite story of my Mom’s (she had like a trillion favorite stories, almost as many as my Dad) was when I was growing up and spotted one of these:

“Look! A blue!” – me, or at least according to my mom

I would say (according to her) “Look, there’s a blue!” Because (again, according to her) they’d point at one and say “Look, there’s a bluejay!” I’ll bet I wasn’t even five when that happened – and I’m fifty-five now and I still think about her saying that.

Anyway, I usually work with a guy real early on Monday mornings but he was out of town last week so (you’re in for a surprise) I took the dogs to the river! We got there just as the sun was coming up and it was barely light and an owl appeared in a spot I’d never seen one before. We each caught one another off guard. It only looked at me for the time it took to snap this blurry image; then it vanished. It was a treat to see it though:

It wasn’t this blurry in real life

Yesterday morning I left here before 7:30 so I’d be plenty early for the 10:30 funeral at Arlington. I pulled into the visitor’s parking lot at 9:30 and stepped out of the car to take a deep early morning breath. And a mockingbird landed on the fence behind me! My camera is never more than an arm’s length away; this was my first picture:

Mockingbird greets my arrival at Arlington National Cemetery

It is in every way bitter to bury your mother. But the sweet people she drew to join us in our grief were a treasure to spend the day with.

One of my nieces came from California, and a high school classmate of Mom’s came from Florida. My Dad’s cousin Neil came from Chicago. All five of their lovely granddaughters plus their handsome young grandson.

I got a lot of closure at the ceremony yesterday, but the river was calling the dogs and me this morning. We spent a long time down there. Even got to see my first Leopard Frog of 2017:

First Leopard frog (for me) in 2017

That was five minutes before I asked Mackey and Yuki and Turner to pose:

Posse at the Pasture

Anyway, I think I need a solid night’s sleep again tonight. In the unmistakable spirit of my late mother, I’m looking forward to tomorrow. Have a great week, all best,

Jay 

PS I can’t do a June blog post with the word “sweet” in it and not put a picture of a gardenia. This is one from Ariel’s yard today. About midway between the wren and the dove: 

The scent is practically coming through the picture

 

 

Posted in Birds, Blue Jays, Carolina wren, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, grateful dead, James River, mockingbirds, People, Pony Pasture, Rivers, scarlet begonias, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!), sunsets | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Happy Memorial Day! / Autism 5k / Run Through the Jungle

Posted on May 28, 2017 by Jay McLaughlin

28 May, 2017            Happy Memorial Day! / Autism 5k / Run Through the Jungle 

Big, tough guys on Harleys – the nicest bunch of guys I can remember meeting recently

Some friends and I (some strangers too) did the 2017 Autism Society of Central Virginia 5K Run/Walk yesterday at Innsbrook in Glen Allen, VA. It was the high point of a great week. Of course, this morning’s hike at Pony Pasture with five dogs was also a high point, just in a different way. That hike had me thinking about the 1970 Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) song Run Through the Jungle:

Does that look jungle-like to you? It sure felt jungle-like, but not very hot.

Regarding the 5k, my friend Skye and I did the inaugural event in 2003. Long before I was a blogger. It was on Sunday, May 24, 2003 at Dorey Park in eastern Henrico. Those guys on the motorcycles up there at the top? I wish I’d taken pictures of a few of them. They were these big, intimidating looking guys with leather jackets with cut off sleeves and embroidered nicknames and loud Harleys and they were so nice! They were warm and friendly and outgoing and helpful and cheerful and upbeat and well-organized and effective and totally at odds with what you might – might – have expected. They looked rough and tough and I don’t doubt they were rough and tough, but they were just the best group of people you could hope to have there. It’s odd – to me – but I found it heartwarming. That to me is what really makes America great.  

A few other pictures from this week first, though. Not a huge week for me picture-wise. I did get one I liked – this seems unusual too – from the parking lot at Kroger on Ridge Road. It’s called “Ridge” road because it’s up high; there are often pretty sunsets there. A local Red-tail too, of course. But here’s the sunset picture I took Monday:

Sunset from the Kroger parking lot. It looks like a glamorous tropical beach except for the lights.

Thursday at the river just before noon, really close to the parking lot – just behind Half Moon Beach – we saw a doe lying in the grass. I never got a picture I loved, but you can see her here: 

Whitetail lying down for a rest in deep brush.

Anyway, a few dog pictures from Pony Pasture this morning – it’s very jungly. It’s always jungly in May, and when you add a lot of rain and low gray sky, it feels especially jungle-like. So a few more pictures from this morning. Plenty of water: 

This trail is normally dry. Today we had to reroute.

Fortunately the path through the wetlands was high and dry: 

Thank goodness for elevated walkways! Great job volunteers!

Here’s a picture of the pack just when we arrived at the eastern boat launching ramp. The river was at 10.5′ this morning, descending from a crest of 14.3′ about twenty-four hours earlier: 

Dogs on the river bank. The river was high but it had already gone down four feet since yesterday.

I did the 5k with another friend of mine named David and a friend took a picture but they haven’t sent it yet! Maybe next week. We did meet our friend Sam at the race. His mother took this picture of us. Sam’s mother wrote on Facebook that Sam and I are “excellent at long walks and talks!” which sums it up perfectly. I’m not good at a lot of things, but boy can I ever walk and talk – sometimes even at the same time! Great job yesterday Sam, and thanks for all the excellent training walks: 

Sam and me, pre- (or was it post-?) walk. We walked a lot of miles preparing for this. 

 

Speaking of Run Through the Jungle, it didn’t occur to me until I looked at some of the pictures from today – there’s an even better CCR song – Green River. 

Anyway, more next week. And have a great week! 

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Son of Big Mike

I dropped the ball on this week’s “Son of Big Mike” post. I began the draft early in the week but it was such a struggle I chose to postpone it. I won’t postpone it long – the idea is clamoring in my mind – but I’m not there yet.

“Son of Big Mike” (in this case, me) doesn’t exist in a vacuum – I’m the oldest son of three, and I have an older sister and a younger sister. We don’t live close together, but we’ve always been emotionally close, and when Mom died unexpectedly in January, we became a bit closer.

Dad died in November of 2012; I included his obituary in this blog post on November 24, 2012: Good man. If you read the obit you’ll come to this section: “…his six children Katie Phalen (Jim), Ann Michele, Jay McLaughlin, Sheila Wiese (Greg), Kevin McLaughlin (Jenny Campbell), Shane McLaughlin…“

Mom’s obituary was in this blog too on January 15, 2017. Some people may recall the blog post that included her obituary: Jet boat in Hells Canyon.  Mom’s obituary made mention of “…her six children Katie Phalen (Jim), Ann Michele, Jay McLaughlin, Sheila Wiese (Greg), Kevin McLaughlin (Jenny Campbell), Shane McLaughlin (Kristin Janney)…” 

Close readers will notice in this blog post I mention mom and dad’s two daughters and three sons. You will also notice both my parent’s obituaries list three daughters and three sons. My sister Ann Michelle was born in September of 1960 but died less than a week later. She would also have been my older sister – I was born in August of 1961. My parents didn’t keep her a secret from us, but we didn’t talk about her much either. I’ve never had children. But two of my closest friends have each lost a child to miscarriage and shared with me their devastation. I was at the hospital when one of the babies was delivered. He was a little boy and when I walked into the dark, quiet hospital room, his grandmother – a friend of mine for over forty years – handed me a small basket with his squirrel-sized corpse. I have never been less prepared for anything in my life. That was in 1999, nearly twenty years ago. If I live to be 120, I will never – I will not ever –  forget that moment. Although my parents didn’t talk about Ann Michelle, I know the pain was crushing for them. And, my parents being my parents, their response was to fill their home with as much life and love as they could pack in. And I am one of the five grateful recipients of that life and love.

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So anyway. Hopefully I’ll flesh things out more in future blog posts. Not to mention get better pictures!

Enjoy the rest of your Memorial Day (if you live in the United States) and have a great week. And come back next week! All best,

Jay

Posted in disability, Dogs, Endurance, Flowers, Fun, James River, People, Pony Pasture, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!), sunsets, whitetail deer | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Big Mike Biathlon

Posted on May 21, 2017 by Jay McLaughlin

21 May, 2017            Big Mike Biathlon

My Dad enjoyed shooting rifles, pistols and shotguns his whole life. I did a lot of that from my early teens until I married in mid-1987, but slowed down after my accident in April of 1988. I continue to hunt and shoot whitetail deer in Virginia – with a camera. I hunt in Pony Pasture several times a week. Sometimes when I’m hunting deer I get lucky and bag a Barred Owl (Strix varia). This afternoon at Pony Pasture I got two Barred Owls! Not the best image I’ve ever taken, but have a look. I think that’s an adult on the upper right and a first-year owl on the lower left:

Two Barred Owls at Pony Pasture. One in upper right, one in lower left.

The owl on the upper right only stayed a moment. Not long enough for me to get a good position to shoot from, especially with all these leaves. The younger one stayed quite a while after the adult left. Here is the younger (I think) owl. It’s the one in the lower left on the first picture, anyway: 

The younger owl tolerated my presence for longer:

I took both of those pictures by the place where the big concrete pipe goes across the creek. Two people started walking across that pipe and the second owl flew away.

To me, that’s part of the beauty of taking pictures in Pony Pasture. It’s a public place, and every living thing from the lichen on the rocks to the whitetail bucks in the woods knows how to thrive in the presence of humans. If I’m trying to get a picture of an owl or a deer and it leaves because some person walks along, that’s my tough luck. If I’d seen it earlier or in a more remote part of the park, I would have gotten my shot. The owls can accommodate the presence of pipe-hiking humans. As a photographer, I need to accommodate them too!

So I took the owl pictures early this afternoon (Sunday) at Pony Pasture. Ten minutes walk from the main parking area. I was almost precisely the same distance away except on the trail closer to the river on Monday afternoon. I took this picture around 2:00: 

Gorgeous deer in Pony Pasture Monday afternoon

I should have backed out my zoom so you could see how invisible this deer was. There are about five total deer in the little herd. But the sun was behind her and it was shining through her beautiful big ears. And there’s just nothing pink in the woods. If you see a color in nature that doesn’t belong in nature, take a second look. Because although it’s always possible you’ll see a piece of trash, you may also get to see something really cool. 

I get a lot of nice pictures in Pony Pasture. Rich Young gets even better ones. Michael Marra’s pictures are spectacular. I always get mine in the middle of the day. There are always dozens of people around. Keep your eyes open when you’re in Pony Pasture. These deer and owls watch us all the time. We just usually don’t notice them! 

Evelyn has another bumper crop of nasturtiums growing around our yard. This is a color I once associated with deer hunter’s clothing, but those are actual flower petals. I did nothing to modify this picture. This is precisely the natural color – I’m not even kidding: 

It’s so bright it looks like it’s vibrating.

Speaking of other unexpected colors in nature (that aren’t found in male birds), Ev is growing not one but two varieties of lavender:

Lavender – it smells as good as it looks!

Please re-read caption on preceding picture

On Wednesday I saw two Red-tails. I think one of the pair near Discovery United Methodist Church flies off the nest every morning and sits on the cross to dry the dew from its feathers while it waits for an unsuspecting breakfast to wander by. But nearly every time I go past, other birds are harassing it. It’s some sort of ritual. Maybe this mockingbird is trying to reduce the Red-tail’s chance for a successful kill:

Mockingbird staying safely out of reach of a hawk

That Discovery UMC red-tail is a very predictable bird. Certain times of certain days during certain parts of the year, you can almost be assured of a picture. That’s my “morning” bird. In the evening there’s another predictable Red-tail. I took this one the same day on top of a cell phone tower at the western edge of the Westbury Pharmacy parking lot. I got a “double” here recently too; Wednesday there was only one bird:

Notice the quizzical tilt to the head as it evaluates me. No bird is as aware of a camera lens as a Red-tail is. It’s an eye thing. Raptors do not miss anything. 

Mackey and Turner and Yuki at Pony Pasture earlier today: 

Mackey, Turner and Yuki at Pony Pasture today

We usually hike right next to the river but Thursday we stayed on the main trail. I always forget how big those vines are until I walk past them. Look how tiny Mackey and Turner look at the bottom of the vines: 

Look how those vines and that tree dwarf Mackey and Turner. And they are not small dogs. 

I’ll close with a honeysuckle picture. It’s an invasive and it’s destructive but even from the time I was growing up in Maryland, honeysuckle has been one of my favorite living things. It is inarguably gorgeous and the smell is inarguably heavenly:

Nothing else looks this beautiful and smells this beautiful with so little effort. Just add sunlight and water. And inhale and smile.

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Big Mike Biathlon

My Dad enjoyed shooting rifles, pistols and shotguns his whole life. He was my height and outweighed me by close to fifty pounds; my friends often referred to him as “Big Mike.” Dad was born in 1935 and he was on the rifle team at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, VA. A favorite story of his described the time he put his rifle across the handlebars and rode his bicycle from his house to school for rifle team practice. He told us about the police officer who stopped him to make sure his rifle was safe. Dad showed him that the bolt was in his pocket, not in the rifle, rendering it inoperable. This, according to Dad, was sufficient to satisfy the officer, and Dad rode the rest of the way to school.

When dad died in November of 2012, part of his will was that we each got to choose from among his rifles and pistols before we sold them off. I chose an old Smith and Wesson police revolver. An indoor shooting range (Colonial Shooting Academy or CSA) had recently opened only three miles from my house. I visited and began taking the multi-day qualification course for a Virginia Resident Concealed Handgun permit. Eventually I was certified as safe to fire a handgun. I filled out an application at the Henrico County Circuit Court. They checked to make sure I am not in any legal trouble, then approved and notarized my application. I then paid the permit fee, and  I was able to ride my bicycle while carrying dad’s old revolver. And around dad’s birthday (August 17) in 2013, I remembered dad with what I called the first “Big Mike Biathlon.” Put the pistol and some ammo and targets and hearing protection in my backpack, ride my bike to the range, shoot for an hour or two, then ride home.

This is my bike where I lock it up every year when I visit:

My bike at Colonial Shooting Academy for the 5th Annual Big Mike Biathlon

I’ve done it every year since, and Tuesday of this week (on 16 May) I rode my bike to CSA and did the 5th Annual Big Mike Biathlon. It was 75º and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky or a breath of wind and the humidity was undetectable. There is no better weather for riding a bicycle. There is no better weather for doing anything outdoors.

Here is a picture of my targets inside the range. When I was taking my qualification course (you had to show them you could hit a target) the instructor told all of us that store brand paper plates are the cheapest targets. That’s all I’ve used over since. Here’s what it looks like:

Four of my targets on the range at Colonial Shooting Academy:

Dad shot a lot – for his whole life. Even when he was out of practice, he was an excellent marksman. When I was shooting a lot I did it relatively well, but I’m not a natural. I was also mainly a rifle shooter. Pistols are more difficult because they have short barrels. When I got to the range this week I could barely hit the target. A helpful range officer watched me for a few minutes and I asked him if he would make suggestions to improve my accuracy. He just told me to put my finger lower on the trigger. Here is the result. Not impressive, but I wasn’t even on the target before:

Pistols are a lot harder to aim than rifles. But it’s a great challenge:

I understand the widespread antipathy toward guns in general and toward the NRA in particular. But my dad was a proud NRA Life Member and I guarantee you would have loved my dad. You may actively dislike guns or the NRA, but if you met my dad, you liked him, end of story. Everybody liked my dad. He was just one of those people. He didn’t try to make you like him. He was just a welcoming person. Always.

Sometimes when I shoot I become deeply aware of the attraction target shooting held for my dad. He was an only child, and he was never much into team sports.  Dad loved to read. He loved to focus and concentrate and sort things out. When you’re aiming at target, especially at an indoor range, there is just nothing else. The world goes away. There is no weather, there is no work, no economy, no politics, no worry, no good health or bad health or anger or happiness, there’s not even any bliss – there’s just the target. If you are a person who thinks too hard and too often, as I do, and as I learned to do from my father, you just stop. You don’t think about the last shot or the next shot, you think about the shot you’re making. You can’t be anxious or sad or happy or worried or celebratory – you can only stay still and let the world go away. Even if you’re an anti-gun person, it’s worth going to an indoor range and trying out shooting for an hour or two. Whether you’re having your taxes audited tomorrow or leaving for a tropical vacation, it won’t matter – you’ll stop thinking about it when you’re shooting.

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Next week: Son of Big Mike

Come back then!

All best,

Jay

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, honeysuckle, James River, koans, mockingbirds, Pony Pasture, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!), whitetail deer | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted on May 14, 2017 by Jay McLaughlin

14 May, 2017 Happy Mother’s Day!  

I did a post with the same title a year ago. None of us had any reason to believe it would be her final Mother’s Day. Last year on Mother’s Day mom went swimming near her home, and I went swimming in Lake Anna the same morning. This is how the first paragraph of that blog post ended: “We were together in spirit! My lifelong enjoyment of swimming comes directly from my mother.” 

My friend Marion and her husband John are accomplished gardeners, and they enter their roses in contests. Marion told me years ago that roses were planted and trimmed so they’d be blooming before and around Mother’s Day. Evelyn is spending this weekend in NJ with her mother, but she keeps our roses in spectacular shape. I should have washed this grimy garage wall before I took this picture!: 

Happy Mother’s Day!

Mom took us to church when we were young; Dad didn’t join us. But if Mom believed Heaven was somewhere other than right here on this planet, she sure didn’t act like it. If there’s a heaven and it has roses, they won’t look or smell better than that one. And I know it won’t smell better than this gardenia. Unless it smells like chocolate chip cookies, but that’s a different category. This is blooming on our back porch: 

You’d have to sneak out the back door of Heaven and come to our back porch to smell this:

It rained a lot here in Richmond this week and I didn’t get outdoors as much as I’d like. I was passing the Fulton Bank Wednesday and I stopped to see if the ospreys were there. I have one picture of the nest with the female’s yellow eyes peering through the sticks, but nothing blog worthy. It’s weedy there though, and the flowers had lots of ladybugs on them. I’m not certain about the personalities of insects – who can really say? A wasp or even a tick might be garrulous and outgoing. And this ladybug may be irritable and crabby. But I, at least, am automatically conditioned to think ladybugs are cheerful. It’s hard to believe otherwise: 

This might be my favorite picture this week. I got lucky.

My feeders are overrun with birds. There are three primary colors: red, yellow and blue. I decided to challenge myself and see if I can get a feeder shot with all three primary colors at once. I took these three on the same day. Now I need to catch all three on the feeder at the same time: 

Red (Male Northern Cardinal)

Yellow (American goldfinch, with female Cardinal tail hanging down)

Blue (Eastern Bluebird)

Now to just get all three of them on the feeder at the same time. Stay tuned. 

Speaking of red, there was a pair of red-tails on the cell phone tower in the parking lot of the Westbury Pharmacy on Monday. The female is on the left; she’s visibly much larger. The male is on the right; he’s rearranging his feathers:

Redtail pair on tower. Always look in high places if you want to see Red-tails.

Female Red-tail, a little closer:

This unusual fledgling landed on my feeder this week. I can’t quite identify it. Anyone?: 

I like the quality of that gaze. It’s opaque, but it sure looks like there’s a lot of hidden meaning.

I “got” a Brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) on the ground outside my office window this week. It’s not a brilliant shot but they’re hard (for me) to get and I always enjoy them:

Brown Thrasher holding a prize

I apologize – content is thin this week. Maybe we’ll see more next week! I’ll close with a couple more feeder birds – both male woodpeckers. Presumably their partners were at the nest. First a male Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens ): 

Chowing-downy [I wonder if anyone will notice that caption] 

Last but by no means least a Red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus) on the feeder the same day as the Downy: 

One of the reasons I don’t own a television – I can watch these guys all I want

Happy Mother’s Day! Have an outstanding week! 

All best, 

Jay 

 

 

Posted in Birds, cardinals, Downy woodpecker, Flowers, Fun, Gardenias, Insects, James River, raptors, Red-bellied woodpeckers, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, roses, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Three decades of triathlon, and another snake!

Posted on May 7, 2017 by Jay McLaughlin

7 May, 2017             Three decades of triathlon, and another snake!

I was hiking with the dogs Saturday morning when a woman named Pam pointed out a  baby Barred Owl on one side of the trail:

Adolescent Barred Owl at Pony Pasture

And its parent (presumably) on the other:

If you’re watching a young Barred owl, look around – its parent is watching you.

My friend Andrew drove with me to Lake Anna State Park this morning where we tied for first place in the 2017 Peasantman Triathlon. True excerpt from their web site: “As previously mentioned, We allow people to mix distances (i.e., sprint swim, oly bike, oly run or any such combo), cheat, and pull a Rosie Ruiz on the run, so don’t expect any age group awards. The people finishing in front of you, probably cheated.” They don’t give real awards, they just have a podium at the end and you can stand on it as you see fit. Since Andrew and I crossed the finish line side-by-side in first place, here we are standing side-by-side on the first place spot on the podium:

Andrew and me at the top of the podium tied for first place

We’re holding up a “three” in one hand and a “zero” in the other because this was my thirtieth year in triathlon. My first race was the Karen Dudley Memorial Triathlon at William and Mary in 1987. As a long time endurance athlete, I have more than my share of obsessions, not least being a selective hoarder (is that an oxymoron?)0 This is my training log entry from my first race:

The blue line is my first ever triathlon – April, 1987

One more picture of Andrew and me. This time with our bikes. I don’t know if it’s legible in this picture, but on the top tube of my bike it says “Jay” and on the top tube of Andrew’s bike it says “Jay’s 30th.” I knew it was my thirtieth anniversary and I knew I was happy about it but I didn’t know Andrew had done any of this stuff:

Andrew and me with our bikes post-race

Andrew is much faster than me – I’ve been in a number of triathlons with him where he has really gotten to stand on the podium. Not a toy podium. Andrew is serious. But he was so enthusiastic and supportive of my race today, he did the entire bike and the entire run alongside me. And we crossed the finish line together! I cannot say how grateful I was to have an old friend share this day with me. And make an already fun experience even more fun!

Fair warning non-snake people – there’s another snake at the bottom of this post. This time it’s a black snake at Pony Pasture. So as you get near the end of the post, veer off if snakes aren’t your thing.

A lot of other fun stuff has happened this week – good thing I didn’t have to train a whole lot! Evelyn has our roses in extravagant bloom:

Evelyn’s stunning roses

I got my first Rose-breasted Grosbeak (Pheucticus ludovicianus ) of the year this week. Hopefully I’ll have a better picture soon:

Rose-breasted grosbeak

I’m running out of steam fast. A few more pictures and I’m going to bed. I’m getting plenty of Gray catbirds (Dumetella carolinensis) this week:

Gray catbird

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A quick moment so the anti-snake people can see this before they duck out. I’ve always thought about my parents during triathlons, primarily during the swim. My mom was an avid swimmer for her entire life. I was thinking about her while I was swimming today, and that hearing from her post-triathlon was as gratifying and  reliable as hearing from her after a blog post. I did my first triathlon at 25 years old, and I’m sure I heard from her right afterward. She and Dad accompanied me to several. I was swimming in the gorgeous lake this morning and thinking about not hearing from her after the race.

I guarantee – 100% – that I am less athletically gifted than any other long time triathlete, ever. I have one talent that helps me cross all these finish lines, and I get half of it from Mom and half from Dad – I’m stubborn. Since I’m a brain injury survivor, I may more accurately be described at “hard-headed.” Lenin, the communist revolutionary from the early twentieth century said that “quantity is its own kind of quality.” So hopefully I’ll be back in 2018 for year thirty-one. 

Stubbornness can get you far in life. It can get you in trouble, but it can get you far. But the unwavering and unquestionable and unconditional love and support I got from the two of them for my entire existence was really what made all this possible. I talk about it almost never. But I think about it almost daily.  

I’ll put a picture of a chipmunk below this as a buffer for non-snake folk. Then it’s on to the snake. I took a really cool short video with it.

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And why not a picture of Mackey, Turner and Yuki taking a hike break at Pony Pasture on Thursday: 

Mackey, Turner and Yuki taking a breather at Pony Pasture:

Chipmunk on our woodpile at home:

Cutest rodent in our neighborhood

On to snakes. I believe – but am not positive – that this is a Northern Black Racer (Coluber constrictor). It may be an Eastern Ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis); both are in the park. 

Here’s a picture with Mackey in the background for scale: 

Black snake in foreground; black dog in background:

Here’s the snake’s head, closer: 

Cooperating for a closeup

I got a beautiful video of that snake crawling and sticking its tongue out, testing the air. It’s about twelve seconds long and well worth your twelve seconds if you think snakes are interesting. It’s a good video – check it out:

And have a great week! And come back next week! All best,

Jay

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Endurance, Flowers, Fun, James River, People, Pony Pasture, Rivers, Snakes | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The first poisonous snake I’ve ever photographed

Posted on April 30, 2017 by Jay McLaughlin

30 April, 2017           The first poisonous snake I’ve ever photographed

The first poisonous snake I’ve ever photographed wasn’t at Pony Pasture. It was at Deep Run Park in western Henrico.

It’s better to open a blog post with an owl picture – everybody loves owls. I got a beauty a few minutes walk from the parking lot this morning. But I like this image a bit better – it’s the same bird, or its mate. I took this one at Pony Pasture Thursday morning at 11:00:

Always good to open a blog post with a picture of an owl

About the poisonous snake – the one I photographed at Deep Run is a Northern copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix)  and the three pictures are at the very bottom of this page. So no one with an irrational fear of snakes will be caught off guard. Fear of poisonous snakes is rational. Fear of pictures of poisonous snakes is irrational.

Here’s another picture from Pony Pasture this morning. This is (please correct me if I’m wrong; I’m not positive) a Virginia Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana):

Spiderwort – there is nothing to not-like about this photograph

Wednesdays I usually swing by the Fulton Bank parking lot across from Stony Point to see if that pair of ospreys are “home.” Only one was there, presumably the female. I just could glimpse her face through the nest. I got there around 2:15. According to wunderground it was 70º, clear, 61% humidity, 3.5 mph breeze – that seems like moderate conditions, especially given the way I know it will be in July or August. But she sure is panting. It must be hot sitting on those eggs or keeping those babies warm. This pair was late; she’s probably still on eggs:

She’s hard to see – right in the middle – but you can see her panting. In April!

There is another pair a couple of powerline towers down. Too far for me to get a decent shot, but you can see this pair. I should have cropped out that crow on the right but left it in. You can see why people glimpsing these birds from far away while driving might mistakenly believe they’ve seen a Bald Eagle:

Far off pair of ospreys, with crow overseeing the operation.

Friday morning before I saw the copperhead I was passing Discovery United Methodist Church earlier than normal. There was a redtail on the cross. I believe this is the female. It was still early and the grass was saturated with dew. My guess is she’d been on the nest all night and she was saturated with dew. She kept turning different parts toward the sun to dry out. It was fascinating and enlightening to watch. It makes sense she’d dry her tail first. After this I watched while she stretched out her primary feathers and began to dry them: 

Red-tail tail feathers drying in the early morning sun

Immediately – it probably started before I even arrived – a mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) began harassing her. That cross is on top of a huge latticework support structure, a little bit smaller than a delivery truck but enormous. The mockingbird would fly up and dive and feint and flare around her, screaming constantly. She appeared to ignore it. Then the mockingbird would drop down and rest on the latticework for a couple of minutes. Then fly back up and harass her again. Over and over and over again. It appeared to be a ritual – they both gave the distinct impression they were just going through the motions. I’m sure she dries her wings there every morning. It is mesmerizing to watch. I took probably fifteen (or more) pictures of the mockingbird almost hitting her. And an equal number of the mockingbird perched on the latticework. If you’re looking at this on a screen you can zoom in or magnify, look closely at the mockingbird’s mouth. You can see that it’s screaming:

Mockingbird unwittingly (probably) makes the sign of the cross before moving any closer to this apex predator

Pony Pasture this morning was so pretty – it’s always so pretty. I was happy to get more pictures of the owl, though none were blog worthy. Working on those snake images Friday cast a bit of a pall over my blog-thoughts – it’s funny the way that happens. I’m a more-than-moderately outdoorsy person, but the actual emotional experience of photographing a poisonous snake in close proximity is way different from photographing any bird. Or flower. So a few more flowers from Pony Pasture this morning. Well anyway, here’s a multiflora rose:

Fragrant multiflora rose from Pony Pasture this fine April morning

It wasn’t sweltering at the river this morning – really it was remarkably pleasant – but we squeezed four miles of hiking into our morning and by the time we were back to check on the owls one final time, my boys were ready for a break!:

Chillers: Yuki (gardenia colored), Mackey (black dogs matter), Turner (coffee with too much cream colored)

Not at Pony Pasture (or Deep Run) but from our yard – about 7:45 this evening: 

The first lush rose Evelyn has coaxed from our yard this Spring:

When Mackey and Turner and I dropped Yuki off on our way home from the river his gracious owner Ariel gave us a spectacular Yuki-colored gardenia. I don’t name plants or wild animals, but I made an exception and called this gardenia “Yuki” – it’s his precise color. So we put the gardenia in our car and the whole way home it smelled like Yuki! You should be so fortunate! Here’s Yuki:

Introducing “Yuki.” He smells spectacular!

Now to snake pictures. So if you’re not a snake person, come back next week. Otherwise, carry on – you’re in for a treat. 

Another thing about poisonous snakes – according to the Virginia Herpetological Society, we have three poisonous snakes in Virginia versus around thirty non-poisonous snakes. The three poisonous snakes are the Northern Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix), the Eastern Cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus) and the Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus). At least in Richmond and Henrico, there are zero Cottonmouths or Rattlesnakes. Copperheads, I’m learning, are widespread. They are extremely conflict avoidant and they almost disappear in the leaf litter. Their camouflage is remarkable.

Well anyway, almost to the snake. There are three pictures. Two have items I placed near the snake for scale. I’m aware that putting my hand that close was not a risk-free proposition, but I’d been watching the snake for some time. It was still cool out, and the snake was sluggish. Torpid. It wasn’t angry or upset or agitated – calm people and calm dogs and calm birds and calm snakes all have a similar behavior profile. Nothing unexpected ever happens with calm people and calm dogs and calm birds and calm snakes – we’re all quite predictable. The first picture is with my iphone. It’s 6.25” long. So I’m guessing the snake was around 30” long, average for a copperhead. The second picture is with my camera. The third one is the snake’s head itself. I’m not kidding – moderately outdoorsy, moderately well-read guy like me, it never occurred to me why they’re called “copperheads.” It’s a neat shot. Enjoy, and come back next week. And show this to your snake loving friends or anyone else who is interested. Copperhead with iPhone: 

Copperhead with an iPhone 7+ (6.25″) for scale

Copperhead with a Canon SX60HS for scale

Copperhead so if you live to be 100 you’ll always remember how they got that name

Have a great week! Pass this blog post around! Come back next week! All best, 

Jay 

 

 

Posted in Birds, copperhead, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, James River, People, Pony Pasture, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Quiet week

Posted on April 23, 2017 by Jay McLaughlin

23 April, 2017           Quiet week  

The birds have been noisy – I misspoke. And the flowers are bright. Also perhaps you recall two weeks ago I put up a post called Accident anniversary / Singular encounter(s) / and more. It showed a Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) flying off a church cross, killing and eating a gray squirrel, then flying back to the cross – thirty-three minutes, cross to cross. That happened on April 5. Twelve days later – on April 17 – I drove past the same church again (Discovery United Methodist Church) and there was another (or the same, or possibly its mate) Red-tail on the cross. Here’s the picture I took on the 17th: 

I learned just as I clicked, this hawk was looking at a chipmunk

This hawk flew down to a tree and in an instant killed a chipmunk. I have a picture of it on a branch with the chipmunk’s recently deceased body in its talons. For me it’s much more disturbing to look at a hawk-killed chipmunk than it is to look at a hawk-killed squirrel. I suspect it would be disturbing for others too and I’ll leave it out of this post. The hawk took 33 minutes cross to cross with the squirrel. It only took 4 minutes with the chipmunk. They were both remarkable sequences to watch. 

Tuesday I saw an Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) just outside my window. All of my pictures (I only took four) were indistinct but this one is the least indistinct. I recall when we were growing up and staying at the cabin we’d hear them all the time but rarely see them. It’s the same way here in Richmond – I hear them a lot but almost never see them. You probably hear them too – it sounds like they’re saying “drink your tea.” At the cabin (this was primarily in the mid-1970’s through the mid-1980’s) we always referred to this bird as a “rufous-sided towhee.” Interestingly (to me) it says this in wikipedia: “The eastern towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) is a large New World sparrow. The taxonomy of the towhees has been under debate in recent decades, and formerly this bird and the spotted towhee were considered a single species, the rufous-sided towhee.” Anyway, here’s my subpar shot; I’ll get a better one soon, I can feel it coming: 

Disappointing quality Eastern Towhee image (but the bird was handsome)

If you follow me on facebook you’ve already seen the next picture. I don’t usually post blog pictures during the week but I was so excited about this one I put it up anyway. I got this groundhog Wednesday when a buddy and I were hiking on the North Bank Trail when we saw this guy (possibly girl) scrambling off the edge of the trail. It’s a groundhog (Marmota monax):

A lot of luck involved in this shot; I only managed to click the shutter four times between its appearance and disappearance

When you photograph an animal or bird a lot, you begin to predict when you’ll see them. It gets easier and easier. I think this was a one-off; I doubt I’ll see enough groundhogs to anticipate them. We’ll see. 

This locust was flowering only about five minutes walk from the groundhog. If you see a locust blooming, make an effort to smell the flowers. I wish I’d caught it in better light. The smell of a blooming locust is one of the underappreciated treasures of Spring: 

I am a connoisseur of Spring smells. These black locust flowers may be #1.

These multiflora roses at Pony Pasture (and everywhere else in town) smell beautiful, and they’re everywhere. I believe unfortunately they’re also invasive. So is honeysuckle, which will appear soon, and smell most divine of all. But multiflora roses are pretty and fragrant:

Weedy but smells gorgeous

I saw mallards that day too, and my first dragonfly (I think) of 2017, although I didn’t get any blog-worthy pictures. The puddles were filled to the brim with tadpoles. Picture this density of tadpoles spread out over a puddle about two feet wide and four feet long: 

Scads of tadpoles

This is a quick video (eleven seconds) of those tadpoles swimming around. It is in its way mesmerizing. You can hear birds singing while you watch: 

Friday at the Tuckahoe YMCA I got a male Red-winged blackbird, obscured a bit by branches: 

Male Red-winged blackbird at the Tuckahoe YMCA

I took this picture from the same spot – this time a male Brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater): 

Male Brown-headed cowbird in the grass

Yesterday I thought our Sunday hike might be a rainout so I took the dogs to the river to get some exercise. It was overcast and threatening, and if there were any birds or animals or insects around, they chose not to reveal themselves to us. But I did get to see the river in a light I don’t often see, and I find this image pleasing: 

James River under a lowering sky

I didn’t love too many pictures this week. The groundhog was a good catch and that river picture is not bad. We’ll see what the final week of April has to offer. This was the last shot I took at Pony Pasture this morning. Mackey (on the left, black) is the most cooperative guy in the world, but it is real hard (for me) took take good pictures of him. I mean, look at this – how, of the three of them, is the only black dog the only one with a big dark tree behind him? He is such a good and handsome and elegant boy, though. Black goes with everything: 

Mackey on the left (tree behind him) then Turner then Yuki

Have a terrific week, I hope to have more to look at for the final Sunday in April. All best, 

Jay 

PS I was looking at those tadpole pictures and they brought to mind a blog post I did on May 18 of 2014 called Mexican tadpole. It’s kind of a cool post, it may be worth a look. My mom had been in Mexico and she showed them a tadpole in one of my blog posts and learned the word. And it has a link, I’ll even supply it here, to a wonderful song from James Taylor in 1975 called Mexico. 

 

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, James River, People, Pony Pasture, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Happy Easter! Happy Spring!

Posted on April 16, 2017 by Jay McLaughlin

16 April, 2017            Happy Easter! Happy Spring!

Pony Pasture (and the rest of the mid-Atlantic region) are bursting at the seams. I don’t know where to begin. But a lot of pictures this week. Zebra swallowtails (Eurytides marcellus) are as bright and cheerful and iconic an image of Spring as you’re likely to see here in central Virginia. In the insect world, anyway:

A pair of Zebra swallowtails usher Spring in to Pony Pasture

The host plant for zebra swallowtails is the pawpaw (Asimina triloba). Pawpaws are practically the dandelion of Pony Pasture; they grow everywhere in the park. In our area they won’t have fruit until mid-August but they’re flowering now. I took this picture on Thursday:

Pony Pasture Pawpaws in Spring

Tuesday (the same day I took the zebra swallowtail picture) I also photographed this Barred owl (Strix varia):

Barred owl in Pony Pasture – a bird I never tire of seeing

Wednesday (the day after the zebra swallowtails, the day before the pawpaws) I “got,” in moderately quick succession, a pair of Northern Rough-winged swallows (Stelgidopteryx serripennis) (my first, possibly), a Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) singing so loud I’m sure they could hear him in his native state, a pair of Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) cobbling together a new nest at the edge of the parking lot at Fulton Bank off Chippenham, and a female Brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater) sorting through the grass at the edge of my front yard. First a pair of Rough-winged swallows perched on a sign: 

A pair of Northern Rough-winged swallows. Mighty cute, eh?

 

Carolina wren in Virginia, singing loud enough to be heard in Carolina. Not South Carolina, of course. 

 

A pair of late-arriving ospreys. These two do not have an air of quiet competence.

 

Female Brown-headed cowbird at the edge of my front lawn.

Just FYI, I am not a whiz at bird identification. I’m not one of those people who just looks at a bird and says “Oh, look, it’s a… ” I often have no idea. I “cheat” with a terrific app called Merlin Bird ID from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. I had no idea what those rough winged swallows were and I did not know what that brown-headed cowbird was. But when you open the app and tough “Start Bird ID,” the first question it asks is where you saw it. And gives you possible locations, beginning with “current location” since it knows where you are. After you tell it where, it asks when you saw it, beginning with today. Then it offers seven possible sizes beginning with “sparrow-sized or smaller”, through robin-sized, crow-sized, and topping out at “goose-sized or larger.” Each question you answer narrows the field. The next choice is nine different main colors; you choose between one and three main colors. Then it offers a list of possible birds; hopefully you find yours. I’m sure there are plenty of others, but this one has been effective for me.

Flowers now are (of course) beginning to burst forth. I generally rely on Evelyn Flower ID for that. She taught me a year or two ago about the Spider wort at Pony Pasture:

Spiderwort. A month or two the whole place was brown and gray. Now just look at it.

 

Some flowers I’ve known since I knew what a flower was. This one is on a tree in our front yard; I knew that Dogwoods were my Dad’s favorite since I knew what “favorite” meant:

Dogwood – elegant, understated, breathtaking

 

The Mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum) began blooming this week; I took this picture this morning:

First Mayapple flower I’ve seen in Pony Pasture in 2017

Back in the fauna world, I saw this morning what I believe is my first Eastern Snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) in Pony Pasture. Its shell was maybe a foot long. This was in the creek at the western edge of the Willow Oaks Country Club golf course. In keeping with Easter Egg Hunt theme, there is a high  probability this is a female either going to lay eggs or coming from laying eggs. It’s that time of year:

My first ever snapping turtle at Pony Pasture

I’m running out of space! My blog post runneth over! Speaking of Easter and eggs and new birth, frog egg masses must be hatching; there are more tadpoles in the puddles every time I visit Pony Pasture. This is from this morning’s hike:

Tadpoles filling up the puddles at Pony Pasture

An enormous fungus, also from Pony Pasture, also from this morning:

That’s an iPhone 7+! Big! Big fungus!

If you were afraid I’d actually let a week pass without posting a deer picture, you can breathe now – I took this one Thursday morning at guess where:

Tadpoles and snapping turtles are graceful in their way. But look at this beauty. She’s demure.

White lilacs from our backyard:

White lilacs in our yard = and in our house. We smell them 24/7 now. Everyone should be so fortunate.

Rabbit (a.k.a. “Peter Cottontail”) also from our backyard:

The less well-known “Maundy Thursday Bunny”

Enough already! Come back next week – if you can stand it! Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy Spring, Happy Sunday, have a wonderful week, all best,

Jay

 

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, James River, People, Pony Pasture, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments