NEWFAZE

Happy Father’s Day!

Posted on June 19, 2016 by Jay McLaughlin

19 June, 2016 Happy Father’s Day!

I hope your Sunday’s been a great one and tomorrow’s even better. Happy Father’s Day to the many terrific fathers I know, and to the many, many more I don’t know.

A picture from yesterday in West Point, VA:

Two ospreys landing on a crane in West Point, VA.

Yesterday I went with my buddy Andrew (an outstanding father, schoolteacher, and former US Marine) to West Point, VA where he ran in the Gen. Chesty Puller 10k. General Chesty Puller, briefly, is the most decorated US Marine in history. He was also born in West Point, VA in 1898. The link on his name is a google search of his name; you could read for a month and not know half of what there is to know about him. I came across this t-shirt design with his picture:

Chesty Puller t-shirt

I’m not a runner – I’m a swimmer and biker who can still walk and/or jog afterward, so I’m a triathlete. But I had so much fun at that race this year, it’s possible I’ll do it next year. Part of the reason I had so much fun was because I didn’t race and got to walk around and sightsee and take pictures. But the “Point” in “West Point” is the confluence of the Pamunkey River and the Mattaponi River. They come together on two sides of West Point and form the York River. Whatever else that area may or may not be, it is an osprey metropolis – I’d never seen so many in one place in my life. Here’s a video I took of an osprey on a rotating crane. They just sit there (the video’s only fourteen seconds long):

The race crosses the Pamunkey twice (out and back) and the Mattaponi twice (same thing), so the views I’m sure are wonderful.

Meanwhile, back here in Richmond on the James River, there was even more owl action than last week. Which is exciting, since there was a lot last week. I now know how to pick the thread of their sound out of the Pony Pasture sound tapestry. Like many things, now that I know it, it’s obvious. It led me to this image, one of my favorites in some time:

Pair of adolescent Barred Owls (Strix varia).

My friend Ethan and I were down there looking for owls Tuesday, and it’s like they were waiting for us. Here’s another image I enjoyed, same day:

Barred owls are very, very cooperative photography subjects

There are a lot of things in life, especially when you spend a lot of time outdoors, that are this way. You have no idea they even exist, and you could walk past them a hundred times and still never know. Then when they finally become evident, you see them all the time. That’s the way it’s been with these owls this week. Here’s one in a tree, eating a vole:

Young Barred Owl turning a vole into something new

I got a video of a barred owl eating. I think it’s eating a baby snapping turtle, but you can’t really tell here. The video is about nine seconds long and it’s fun to see:

Pawpaws are gradually coming in – they’re not edible yet, but it’s looking like a good crop this year. Here’s an early pair getting started:

Pony Pasture Pawpaws

Tuesday when we were at Starbucks, Ethan noticed a blimp! It’s a US Navy blimp, it was flying up the James River west over the Huguenot Bridge:

US Navy MZ-3A blimp flying west over the Huguenot Bridge in Richmond, VA

Today Mackey and Yuki and Turner and I got back to Pony Pasture for a quick hike – it’s so beautiful after all the rough weather we’ve had this week. Mackey is always hard to see when the light’s not bright – he’s on the left in this picture, barely visible:

Mackey (black, on left), Turner (brown, in middle), Yuki (white, on right) in Wetlands at Pony Pasture this morning.

Sorry this blog post is a bit disjointed – our power was out for from Thursday night through last night. It threw my already unsteady organizational skills completely off balance! Have a great week! And Happy Father’s Day!

All best,

Jay

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Endurance, Fun, James River, People, Pony Pasture, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged Dogs, Endurance, Fun, james river, nature, Ospreys, outdoors, People, Pony Pasture, Rivers, smile, Smiles - human AND dog smiles! | 2 Comments

My second favorite smell

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Jay McLaughlin

12 June, 2016 My second favorite smell

Before Evelyn coaxed these gardenias into indescribably lush blossom next to our front stoop, chocolate chip cookies baking were my favorite smell. Move over chocolate chip cookies – there’s a new sheriff in town:

Smells better than chocolate chip cookies – available for a limited time only!

There is nothing on this planet that smells like a gardenia. It’s almost like it has calories. Like if you’re kind of hungry and if you smell a gardenia, you can wait a little while longer to eat. It’s a smell that has substance. Also, if you ever smell gardenia soap or gardenia candles or gardenia perfume, then you smell a real gardenia, you will immediately realize what a tepid imitation anything else is.

Heads up for snake-loathers, there’s a snake picture on this blog post, a northern water snake eating a bluegill. It’s the sixth picture down, just after the Red-tail screaming in the tree. Just so you know. If you dislike snakes or are fond of bluegills, best you avoid the sixth picture.

This is a rose in our backyard – I took this picture this afternoon – a flawless flower:

We're reaping the benefits of May's record-setting rain

We continue to reap the benefits of May’s record-setting rain

This magnolia is in bloom next to our driveway:

Magnolia next to our driveway

This butterfly posed so often and for so long at Pony Pasture this morning, it’s like it was begging me to take its picture:

So beautiful

There are a lot of beautiful images to start this blog post – all of the rain the week before last burst everything into bloom. But my sharp-eyed friend Ethan spotted a Northern Water Snake eating what looks like a bluegill earlier in the week at Bryan Park. I snapped a fast picture before the snake swallowed. So if that’s not your thing, skip past this next part. But due to Ethan’s sharp eyes and fast reflexes we did get one shot – and it’s remarkable. First a picture of a Red-tail taken the same day a few minutes later, then an Eastern Phoebe. And finally the snake and the unfortunate bluegill:

Adult Red-tailed hawk at Bryan Park this week

This phoebe is from Deep Run – not Bryan Park.

A brief glimpse of the Circle of Life

The butterfly (above) was from this morning at Pony Pasture, and the rose was from our backyard this afternoon. Also at Pony Pasture this morning we saw this lovely red mushroom. I don’t know what had been eating it. I don’t know what eats mushrooms. Turtles or birds or frogs or toads or snakes or deer, it’s a free-for-all at Pony Pasture. I do know that my late, analytical, precise, scientific father inevitably referred to them as “toadstools.” It’s a nice looking organism:

Toadstool. Mighty fine looking toadstool too, I might add.

Which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is the perfect segue into this Fowler’s Toad we photographed at the river’s edge about a half hour earlier:

Fowler’s Toad relaxing by the riverside.

Maybe opossums eat mushrooms. Or maybe they eat toads, or possibly both. I’ve just (today) been reading up on opossums and I suspect they eat both. They’re called “generalists;” they’re not picky eaters. My recent uptick in interest about opossums is because today around lunchtime I had my first ever Pony Pasture Possum sighting. The whole encounter was pretty mellow. Mackey discovered it (thank goodness Turner didn’t) and it was a low-key experience. Everything was moving slow in the heat, and I believe this opossum was too:

Opossum trying to beat the heat at Pony Pasture early this afternoon.

So – I can hardly believe it – we walked for another five minutes – possibly less – and I heard a strange noise in the trees. I’d seen some beautiful owl photographs Rich Young had taken at Pony Pasture, but didn’t know the precise location. I heard a strange noise when Mackey and Turner and I were walking near the canal so I stopped and looked around until finally I saw this:

See it panting? Everything was panting. It's incredible.

See it panting? Everything was panting. Birds pant. Who even knew that? It’s incredible.

That’s a young Barred Owl (Strix varia) and it’s panting! I’d located it by listening to it call back and forth to its sibling, also on a branch, about twenty yards down the creek. I tried to take a video that had both of them in it but I couldn’t make it work. I did get a moderately good picture of the downstream sibling. Look at this one’s feet:

The second owl, also panting. Neat looking feet too.

Here is the movie (my old shaky style) of the owl panting. I first saw a bird pant last year – a Red-tail, of course, in July. But it still catches me off guard to see a bird pant. I thought that was a mammal only behavior, but no. This is a poor quality video, but it’s only nine seconds long, and you will seen an actual Barred Owl panting. Which you definitely do not see just every day of your life:

I’m so overstuffed with pictures this week I’m actually omitting a nice picture of a locomotive I took Wednesday. It was nothing new. I’m also omitting a moderately good picture of a bluebird, but I wasn’t in love with that one either. Non-vibrant colors which, if you’re taking a picture of a bluebird, why even bother. On the same day (Wednesday) I did get a reasonable picture of a mini-colony (part of the much larger colony) of Cliff Swallows perched directly above the railroad tracks:

Subset of a Cliff Swallow colony. There’s one on the left and one on the right and one poking its beak out of the top-right nest hole.

Wednesday is also “osprey day” and I did get this one; it’s rewarding to photograph these beauties. Ospreys only eat fish, so when there’s ice in Virginia, ospreys are not in Virginia. Always a pretty sign of summer. I believe this is a female:

Not panting – she’s calling.

Enough! Possibly too much! Thanks for dropping by. I hope next week’s great too! Have an excellent week,

Jay

Posted in Birds, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, James River, People, Pony Pasture, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged bluebird, bryan park, Cliff Swallows, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, Gardenias, james river, nature, Ospreys, outdoors, People, Pony Pasture, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Roses, smile, Smiles - human AND dog smiles! | 2 Comments

NO POLITICS, NO ADVERTISING, NO RELIGION

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Jay McLaughlin

5 June, 2016 NO POLITICS, NO ADVERTISING, NO RELIGION

I hadn’t visited Pony Pasture early in the morning for months. I had Wednesday morning off and Evelyn was up early anyway so I took the dogs and headed for the river. How’s this for a reward:

If you don’t believe every day is a gift, stop at Pony Pasture and watch the sun come up some morning.

I digress (only slightly). I met a person recently who was interested in my blog, and I gave her my blog card:

My blog card

I told her it had a lot of outdoor photography, but was most notable for what it did not have – no politics, no advertising, no religion. She said “you should put that across the bottom of the card!” Good luck staying away from politics, advertising and religion – they’re hard to avoid these days! And thus it has always been, I suspect, but politics, advertising and religion are near deafening in 2016. It’s quiet here (on this blog), though. I made several trips to Bryan Park this week; on Tuesday I caught this bird stopped on a wire for a moment. Possibly a phoebe, and given the time of year this is perhaps a youngster. Not a lot of color but a pretty bird. I’m open to suggestions about what precisely it is. Credit will be given in this space unless you specifically request anonymity. Like if you’re in the Witness Protection Program or something:

Currently unidentified swallow - your help will be appreciated!

Currently unidentified bird – your help will be appreciated!

Purple martins are also in the mix here. Plus barn swallows and possibly tree swallows. Just not sure what that one is. But here’s another bird I photographed on that wire this week.

This one looks like a swallow – but still also needs identification

There are also – make no mistake – colorful birds at Bryan Park. Many, many bluebirds:

I’m always happy evolution selected for this particular combination.

The timeline of this post is not linear; I apologize. Because on June 1 (see sunrise at Pony Pasture picture at the top of this page) I also photographed this toad at Pony Pasture. I’m underconfident about my toad identification skills, but my guess is this is a Fowler’s Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri):

Fowler’s toad? Possibly?

The sun was out for a little while that day, and although I was never able to take full advantage of it, I did get a marginal picture of one of the ospreys near the West End Assembly of God on Parham Road. This was the female (I’m moderately certain) on the nest (I am 100% certain). I am not a wild-animal-mind-reader but I believe they feel neither approval nor disapproval. But it’s still easy to interpret this as a disapproving gaze:

They just stare at you. Don't they? Robins never look like this.

They just glare at you. Don’t they? Robins never look like this.

The Westbury Drive red-tails that were so abundant last year are not in evidence in 2016. They’re in the neighborhood, just not on our street. That’s led to there being many more chipmunks in evidence. We have them in the front yard and we have them in the backyard and we have them in the garage. They like to hang out on the front stoop, enjoying the shade under Evelyn’s gorgeous nasturtiums:

I don’t think chipmunks feel cheerful any more than ospreys feel approval. But this chipmunk looks kind of satisfied.

Speaking of gorgeous plants Evelyn’s nurturing in our yard, she brought our hydrangeas back from the brink. She cut these and brought them in to grace our dinner table:

Dinner table decorations from the side yard to the back porch.

I have also – possibly you anticipated this if you’ve seen this blog >1 time – photographed Red-tailed hawks at Bryan Park this week. There’s no more referring to the hawk born at Bryan Park this spring as a “baby.” It’s still dependent on its parents, and stays in the vicinity, and is visually identifiable as non-adult, but it’s big. It flies away from the nest tree but comes back. I don’t know precisely how this works, but my guess is it’s equivalent of a 15 or 16 or 17 y.o. human. It could survive if necessary, but it’s not quite ready to be on its own. I took this picture on Tuesday, May 31 at 3:32 PM:

Young Red-tail, contemplating its talons

I left and came back just over an hour later. This time the youngster was on the nest, eating something I couldn’t see. But if you watch this movie, it pulls up a piece of meat at the six or seven second mark. I don’t know if this bird caught it or if its parents brought the meat home. I saw this bird fly on Sunday; I think it’s already been flying. I don’t know if it’s captured any food on its own but I’d be unsurprised. Have a look – the whole video is only twelve seconds long:

I’d been watching the area around that tree since Ethan’s and my friend Adolph pointed out the nest in early April. And there were always squirrels running around underneath it, literally on 100% of the days we visited. The squirrels always appeared unconcerned that an alpha predator lived directly over their heads, although certainly they were aware. Or maybe not; most mammals don’t look up. But I thought about why those hawks didn’t swoop down and grab the stuff that was on their figurative doorstep. Possibly they were saving them “for a rainy day,” e.g a time when they couldn’t go farther away. Or possibly they were saving them so the young hawk wouldn’t have to fly far for its first kill.

PS Two more images. This was the youngster at Bryan Park around noon today. It had just flown back to the tree. And the first word that came to mind when I saw this image was “vulnerable,” a word almost never associated with raptors. Maybe it’s the light. All raptors – Red-tails, eagles, ospreys, all of them – have a pronounced bone over their eye called the “supra-orbital ridge.” It practically defines what it means to be “hawk like.” But as I researched this post I read these words on a falconry web site: “Immature birds are frequently not seen with a developed supraorbital ridge.” Anyway, here’s the bird this afternoon, looking a bit vulnerable, in my opinion:

Is it just me? Compare this with that osprey a few pictures back. That bird is not lacking confidence. This one, hard to say.

And finally, bright orange fungus with a couple of hickory nuts from Bryan Park this afternoon:

I’m always surprised how bright these fungi get without benefit of photosynthesis.

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I think the youngster has fledged. I say that because I visited today (Sunday) and I think I saw him fly back on to the tree. I still don’t know enough about Red-tail behavior – maybe in another year. But my guess is the young one stays in the vicinity of the home tree/nest until it is proficient at finding its own food. Check back periodically at Bryan Red-tails 2016 if you find this interesting. I add on to the bottom periodically. I got to watch the youngster for a while this afternoon; I love being out there. Have a great week,

Jay

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Posted in Birds, Bryan Park, Flowers, Fun, fungus, James River, ospreys, People, Pony Pasture, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!) | Tagged bluebird, bryan park, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, james river, nature, Ospreys, outdoors, People, Pony Pasture, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, smile, Smiles - human AND dog smiles! | 2 Comments

Happy Memorial Day!

Posted on May 29, 2016 by Jay McLaughlin

29 May, 2016 Happy Memorial Day!

My friend Skye and I did the First Annual Autism 5k on Memorial Day weekend 2003 at Dorey Park in eastern Henrico County. Skye moved to North Carolina a few years ago and although we stay in touch, he doesn’t make it back up here for the 5k. My friend David and I did the Fourteenth Annual Autism 5k yesterday at its current home in western Henrico at the Innsbrook Pavilion. It’s presented by the Autism Society of Central Virginia and I’ve loved it every time I’ve participated. This year, as you may imagine, was no exception.

In 2014 there were 1,600 participants; I don’t know how many were on the course this year but it was that many or more. It is such a cheerful event. For better or worse I’m attracted to environments where people don’t take themselves very seriously, and the Autism 5k is Ground Zero for not taking yourself seriously. I’m sure in the lead pack there are some very serious athletes running their hearts out, and I always – always – admire them. Triathlons, 5k’s, swims, anything. But I’ve never experienced any race that way myself, and it’s easier for me to relate to people who are just out to enjoy the day. As most of us are.

I didn’t take any brilliant pictures at the race, just a handful with my phone. Here’s one of the pre-race gathering and celebration area, including moon bounce castles and enthusiastic hula hoopers:

Multiple moon-bounces and multiple hula-hoopers – what’s not to love?

The light’s better in this picture, and you can see more of the crowd. Plus, in the middle, check out the Amelia County Sheriff’s Office cruiser painted pink with the Autism Awareness logo:

Check out that excellent pink Autism Awareness police cruiser from the Amelia County Sheriff’s Office. That is so cool.

This picture was just before the start, moments after we sang the National Anthem; the starting line is just after the flags:

Looking at the Star-Spangled Banner while we sang the Star-Spangled Banner before the race

Saluting the Star-Spangled Banner while we sang the Star-Spangled Banner just before the race. Gives me goose bumps at every race, predictably but uncharacteristically.

David and I finished in just under an hour, according to my timing; I had an excellent time and I think he did too.

I had a terrific birding treat on Wednesday – a Red-shouldered Hawk (not a Red-tail) landed on a wire in my backyard! Not figuratively – the same backyard where Mackey and Turner run around and where I even cut the grass on occasion. Look at this pose:

It still amazes me this wild animal stopped in my tame backyard and posed long enough for me to take this picture.

It still amazes me that this wild animal stopped in my tame backyard and posed long enough for me to take this picture.

Of course I spent some time at Pony Pasture and Bryan Park this week, and of course took a few more pictures of the baby hawk at Bryan Park. Evelyn has our home and yard looking more beautiful all the time; look at these nasturtiums she has growing on our front porch. There’s an equally prolific patch on the side of the house:

Front porch nasturtiums. Thanks Evie! You can even eat them!

I recommend eating nasturtium flower petals if you have the opportunity. The texture is as delicate as you’d expect a flower petal to be, but they’re crunchy and tender and flavored with a gentle but unmistakable hint of pepper. Just do it for the experience!

The Red-shouldered hawk in my backyard on Wednesday was of course a treasure, but the subject of my most enthusiastic focus continues to be the baby Red-tail in Bryan Park. It’s still unmistakably young, but it looks more like an adult and less like a baby every time I see it. This is my most recent picture of the baby. I took this in the afternoon on Thursday, May 26:

Sometimes they look like they’re posing. It’s a treat every time I get to see one.

I also visited the nest on Tuesday. The little Red-tail performed this curious head-tilt maneuver. I’m not sure what the purpose of this maneuver is, but it’s cute:

I’m sure there are baby ospreys on these nests, but I’ve managed to photograph precisely zero. This is (I’m guessing) the female osprey sitting on the nest just south of the West End Assembly of God (WEAG):

That’s the nest – if you drive on Parham Road, you can’t miss it.

This one is (guessing again) her mate, possibly giving me a piece of his mind, or not. He is one tower north of her, at the same time, just across Parham Road from the south entrance of WEAG:

It’s hard to imagine he’s scolding me, but he certainly gives that impression.

Same bird, more conventional pose:

Not a beautiful perch, but the bird is gorgeous

Mackey and Turner and I came around a corner at Pony Pasture on Tuesday morning and saw this big fungus. I always feel driven to put something in the picture for scale. I took this picture precisely sixty minutes after I took the picture of the nasturtiums. What a difference photosynthesis makes:

Fungus with keys

I took a few toad pictures this week and an odd looking skink but nothing that really put a smile on my face. I also got an interesting moth this morning but still not blog-worthy. So I’ll close with rampant roses from our garden this morning – when the sun was still out – it’s disappeared now (it’s ~5:30 PM) and we’ll likely not see it again in the next twenty-four hours. Or longer. Oy. So enjoy these beauties! And come back next week!

Roses today before the rain

Have a great week,

Jay

PS Couldn’t resist adding one more picture from Pony Pasture from this week. The light was poor and I rushed the shot a bit but I don’t see many Spotted Sandpipers so this is worthy of inclusion. I took it Tuesday morning, after I took the nasturtium pictures but before I took the fungus/key picture:

Spotted Sandpiper at Pony Pasture

And, I broke down, I took two toad pictures this week, here’s one – nice background, but it’s challenging (for me) to take an attractive picture of a toad. Maybe after a few more attempts:

Toad on a rotting log at Pony Pasture

One last picture, Pony Pasture, all the same day:

Almost as bright as the nasturtiums! Turtles & nasturtiums seek light; fungus not so much.

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Nothing exciting here – just a quick heads up. Hopefully something more substantial next week. If you’re interested in those hawks at Bryan Park, I’m putting together a time line of the pictures I’m taking. You can click on the link at the top of this page (or on this link) that says “Bryan Red-tails 2016.” I’m still working on it – may get caught up this evening. It currently only goes from 4/12/2016 (our first Red-tail sighting in Bryan Park) through 5/11/2016. But I’ll bring it up through 5/26/2016 (my most recent pictures) soon. Click on the pictures – they get larger – if you’re interested. And if you know anyone who would enjoy seeing this, pass it around. I’m sure something like it exists somewhere, probably with a better angle and crisper photography, but this is a great resource. It’s been a gift to watch this family develop. I’ll bet that hawk is going to fledge very soon, if it hasn’t already.

In addition – at the bottom of each blog entry, in a tiny font, there is a place you can click and “comment” on the blog. I love to get comments! Even comments of the other-than-positive variety – that’s what it takes to make improvements sometimes!

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Posted in Birds, Bryan Park, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, fungus, Insects, James River, ospreys, Pony Pasture, raptors, red-shouldered hawks, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, roses, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!), Turtles | Tagged Autism, bryan park, disability, Dogs, Endurance, Flowers, Fun, james river, nature, Ospreys, outdoors, People, Pony Pasture, red-shouldered hawks, Red-tailed hawks, Roses, Smiles - human AND dog smiles! | 2 Comments

Evelyn says I try too hard

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Jay McLaughlin

22 May, 2016 Evelyn says I try too hard

I floated a dozen cockamamie ideas for blog titles past Evie over the course of this week. When I made it a Baker’s Dozen earlier today Ev said “you’re trying too hard.” Sometimes I do that. I spend an inordinate amount of time not trying hard enough, but sometimes the pendulum swings the other way.

I’d begun to think the spring would pass and I’d never see a Prothonotary Warbler at Pony Pasture. Our hikes have been limited by the incessant rain. But there was a break in the action Thursday (a short break) and Mackey and Turner and I made a quick loop at the river. And saw a Prothonotary Warbler!:

Bright prothonotary warbler at Pony Pasture

That’s really not my favorite picture of the week. I love it, but I love hawks even more. I just think maybe some people are tired of hawks. That never happens to me – ever – as you’re aware – but we’re all wired a bit different. Thank goodness! It’s still hard to imagine anyone could not see the appeal in this image. This is the same baby hawk I’ve been photographing at Bryan Park all spring. I took this picture Monday evening around 5:30:

Look at that gaze. Evelyn has mentioned before it’s hard to believe it’ll grow up to kill cute little mammals. Life lives on lives.

There has been zero good light this whole week. Even when it hasn’t rained it’s been gloomy. That’s part of why that Prothonotary Warbler was so appealing. It was the brightest thing I saw outdoors all week. Most of the big birds are getting ready to fledge. I’m not sure if the ospreys on Parham Road have gone yet, but there was a pair of adults on the nest Wednesday. This is across Parham Road from the West End Assembly of God, just one tower south of their south entrance:

Parham Road osprey pair. I believe they won’t use this nest much longer. But I’m not certain.

Thursday afternoon it was gray (it hasn’t been not-gray on any day this week) but wasn’t raining so my friend Ethan and I went to our favorite haunt at Bryan Park. I was bird-watching – as always – and saw this bluebird on a wire:

Bryan Park Bluebird

Ethan has an ability to notice snakes that is in every way uncanny; he points them out wherever we go. He’s a skilled snake photographer, even in poor light. So when he sees a snake, I just hand him the camera and let him start shooting. I do zero – he has mastered snake photography. Even if you do see and/or photograph a lot of snakes, I’ll bet this is a rare sight. Look closely at this picture. It’s not one but two Northern Water Snakes!! One’s head is obvious on the left side of the picture. The second snake – look closely – is draped chummily across the first snake’s back. This is a remarkable photograph. Way to go Ethan!!

This is how snakes hang out. Photo credit and congratulations to Ethan L.

This is how snakes hang out. Photo credit and congratulations for this amazing image to Ethan L.

I took a neat picture of a snail at Pony Pasture this week plus a few more items but I’m concerned this post will be bloated. So let me put the snail in and move to the next section. I hope you enjoy it! And I hope you come back next week! All best,

Jay

PS Check out this snail. Plus I got a really neat looking velvety red fungus the same day at Pony Pasture:

This is a handsome snail. In my opinion.

Check this out! Isn’t it gorgeous? Seriously? It’s amazing what you stumble across.

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Different from my normal blather

Yesterday I drove to the town of Shenandoah, Virginia and met my mother at the Town Hall. We’d planned to get together for a meeting on the banks of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River near our property in Ingham, VA, but the rain forced the meeting indoors. I took Turner and Mackey for a little hike near the river before the meeting. You can see my car on the other side of the road, and the river just past my car:

Mackey and Turner on a drizzly day in Page Co., looking at the Shenandoah River.

Here’s the tunnel under the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks, headed out to the river:

Tunnel under the railroad tracks, headed out to the river

I was fascinated by this stone in the foundation of the tunnel from the first time I saw it when I was thirteen years old. In the picture above, this stone is near the bottom, on the right side:

7 May, 1901. 116 years ago this month. Think what it was like when that stone was laid. 35 years after the Civil War ended.

7 May, 1901. 116 years ago this month. Think what it was like when that stone was laid. 36 years after the Civil War ended.

The meeting was just around the corner from the Shenandoah Elementary School at the corner of 4th Street (a.k.a. Virginia Route 340) and Maryland Avenue. We noticed this cannon in front of the school when we first bought our cabin in Shenandoah in the early 1970’s. But this is my first ever picture!

WWI cannon at Shenandoah Elementary School

On the commemorative plaque it says “WWI Canon 1906 Model Donated to the Town of Shenandoah on October 29, 1934 by the American Legion, Stewart Comer Post No. 106. The gun measures 25 feet in length and weighs 7,420 pounds.”

I thought as I posted this about the dates on that tunnel, plus the cannon, plus other historical markers. The tunnel, on “7 May, 1901” was oldest – it predated WWI even by more than a decade. But 1901 is five years after my dad’s father was born (1896) – remarkable. He was in the Navy in WWI (and WWII and Korea). So he wouldn’t have seen that gun – that’s for the Army. And it was donated in 1934 – a year before my father was born. All of this stuff before WWII even started. So much history everywhere.

See you next week!

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Posted in Birds, Bryan Park, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, fungus, ospreys, Pony Pasture, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Shenandoah River, Shenandoah Valey, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!), Trains | Tagged bluebird, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, james river, nature, Ospreys, outdoors, Pony Pasture, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Smiles - human AND dog smiles!, transportation | 6 Comments

Fierce baby!

Posted on May 15, 2016 by Jay McLaughlin

15 May, 2016 Fierce baby!

Fierce baby!

That baby is not fierce at all!

My brother Shane is the father of the handsome young man on the left. My sister Katie is the mother of the pretty young lady on the right. Shane was the talented photographer.

On the top is a baby red-tailed hawk or “eyas.” When I showed it to my sister she said “Fierce baby!” Evelyn said “That would make a great blog title!” So there you go – that’s how blog titles happen. Meanwhile, today my niece and I visited my nephew (her cousin) in Blacksburg – he is not a fierce baby! The opposite, really – he’s as sweet and kind and cheerful a young man as you’d ever have the good fortune to meet. He’s nine months old, so you’d think he might have already grown jaded and cynical, especially given our current acrimonious political climate. But, buddha-like, he smiles and nods his little head and accepts it all, and stays firmly grounded in the present. I’ll take my role models where I find them, thank you very much. Evelyn stayed here and relaxed and worked on the house (and bought a giant and fragrant gardenia, yay) while my niece Aileen and I (and of course Mackey and Turner) drove to Blacksburg yesterday and came home today.

Advance notice to snake non-lovers – there’s a snake picture at the bottom of this post!

The “fierce baby” that inspired this post has been more active and more visible all week. Soon – I’m not sure how soon, but soon – it’ll fledge, and there’ll be no more baby red-tail hawk pictures or videos. But I took the above picture Monday. Here’s one of the whole family from Tuesday. The father is on the right; he’s facing away:

Red-tail family – mother on the left, baby in the middle, father on the right – back to the camera.

I turned around and photographed this bluejay on a wire; they are the incessant enemies of the red-tails:

Bluejay taking a quick break from harassing red-tails.

I am fascinated watching the red-tail eyas mature and develop. It’s a rare opportunity. I took this picture the following day; this is the baby hawk (eyas) peering over the top of the nest:

I love how aware they are. Raptors do not have any attention deficit.

Thursday I got a brief video of the baby. It’s not award-winning, but you know precisely what you’re looking at, and it’s rare to see this sort of thing. I’ve been watching and photographing that nest since late April. I took my first identifiable baby hawk pictures early this month. And I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. Here’s the video I took on Thursday. It’s around thirteen seconds long:

Here are a few timely hawk pictures for Sunday. The hawks with the baby in the above photographs and video are (as I’ve written in the past) Red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis). It’s the most common hawk in North America, by a significant margin. But there is no shortage of Red-shouldered hawks (Buteo lineatus) in our area either. Both are “buteos” and dine primarily on mammals, anything from a mouse or a shrew up to a squirrel or rabbit. But they’re opportunistic eaters (that’s why they’re so common) and if they’re hungry (and have families to feed) they eat lizards and frogs and snakes and birds and any other small game that makes the mistake of turning its back at a poorly chosen moment.

If I had a better sense of humor I could come up with a great joke about preying and praying but it escapes me at the moment. I took the first picture at around 9:30 AM on Monday, May 9 at Parham Road Baptist Church at 2101 North Parham Road here in Richmond:

Red-shouldered hawk perched on a cross

I took this picture around 3:00 PM on Friday, May 13 at Staples Mill Road Baptist Church at 10101 Staples Mill Rd. in Glen Allen:

Different Red-shouldered hawk perched on a different cross on a different church on a different day.

Birds aren’t the only exciting and beautiful reason to go outdoors in central Virginia in May. This honeysuckle was blooming (and smelling like the smell-dictionary definition of “Spring”) in Deep Run Park Friday morning:

This is what Spring smells like:

My friend Ethan is an avid outdoorsman with a keen eye. He’s practicing his photography and it improves all the time. He helps me find the hawks when they’re hiding, and he always sees snakes. He took a picture of a Northern Water Snake at Bryan Park two years ago that will make your eyes pop out. If you enjoy either snakes or excellent photography, look at that post here: Guest photographer!. Here’s another picture he took of a water snake in nearly the same spot, two years later. It’s scratching its chin on this thorny branch, probably beginning to shed:

Northern Water Snake, thoughtfully scratching its chin

I’ll finish this post with a brighter image – although the picture of my niece and nephew at the top of this post is my favorite picture of the week. Month. Year. The time stamp on the picture of Aileen and Wesson and me is 11:00 AM today. This goldfinch was eating sunflower seeds on the same porch rail fifteen minutes earlier:

Goldfinch glowing on a cool May morning.

Have a great week! Enjoy! All best,

Jay

Oops! I almost forgot! I took a picture of one of my favorite damselflies this week, the beautifully named and beautiful Ebony Jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata). This was at Deep Run Park:

Ebony Jewelwing at Deep Run Park

Posted in Birds, Blue Jays, Bryan Park, Rivers | Tagged blacksburg, bryan park, eyas, Fun, nature, outdoors, People, red-shouldered hawks, Red-tailed hawks, smile | 2 Comments

Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Jay McLaughlin

8 May, 2016 Happy Mother’s Day!

My mother and I both went swimming this morning. Unfortunately, she was swimming at a pool near her home in the Shenandoah Valley and I was swimming in Lake Anna in Spotsylvania, VA. We were together in spirit! My lifelong enjoyment of swimming comes directly from my mother.

I’m going to get back to the race, but first I’m putting in my favorite picture from this week. I photographed a Red-tailed hawk for the first time in my life on May 1, 2015, at the end of my street, just over a year ago. This year I’ve been watching an active Red-tail nest at Bryan Park and yesterday morning, one year and six days after my first hawk photograph, I was rewarded with this picture of a baby red-tail. I have a hard time guessing ages, but this is a youngster. A couple of weeks maybe but I don’t know. More pictures from the nest later in this post:

First time I’ve ever even SEEN a baby red-tailed hawk – and was fortunate enough to get a photograph.

This morning I completed my first triathlon for 2016. I’m registered for five short triathlons between now and October. This morning’s race was the High Cloud Peasantman Triathlon, a race I did for the first time last year. Last year’s event was superb in every way; this year was even better. The race is held annually at Lake Anna State Park. Here’s a picture of the beach, long after the race is over. If you look at the far right edge of the picture, you can see a red and white archway leading into the swim-to-bike transition area:

Beach at Lake Anna State Park. Fantastic swimming.

Excellent finisher’s medal:

I’m not in it for the bling anymore. For me, it’s all about the cupcakes.

Here’s a picture of me after the race:

It’s the happiest thing – even if you don’t do this, you should come visit one. EVERYBODY is happy. It’ll rub off on you.

I’ve been doing triathlons thirty years; Peasantman is the first race I’ve ever been to that has cupcakes at the finish line. It makes it all worthwhile:

I was happy before I had cupcakes! There is no improving this experience.

Anyway, enough with the triathlons already. This is one of the adult red-tails – I’m not sure which – perched on a limb above the nest, looking straight down at the baby:

Adult on an overhead limb, baby in the nest.

A dead giveaway for the presence of red-tails is a band of irate bluejays. I wasn’t even sure the red-tails were in the tree, but the bluejays were causing such a commotion they had to be there. But it is so hard to see them! So anyway, I finally recognized a shape I knew was an adult red-tail, and I zoomed in. And I’m looking at the image on the back of my camera and I noticed another odd shape. There were two red-tails perched in the tree at once. They get harassed by the bluejays, but this is some serious protection for the baby. FYI, in most raptor pairs, the female is larger and the male is smaller. The female is above and in the back in this picture. The male is down lower. Male raptors are often referred to as “tercels.” They’re around a third smaller than females:

Mom and Dad keeping baby safe. Isn’t that amazing?

This is my first movie of a baby red-tail. It’s poor quality (if you’ve seen this blog before, you’re used to that) but this was the first baby red-tail I’d ever seen!

As you’re no doubt aware, movie making is not (yet) my strong suit. This is a slight improvement; it’s a little bit cool:

This is when Mackey and Turner and I were at the park yesterday morning. That’s my camera on the tripod. In the center of this image, toward the rear, you can see a tall loblolly pine. The red-tail nest is in the very top. Believe it or not, both adult red-tails are visible in this picture. They’re at the very, very top of the tree, almost precisely in the center. So the position they’re in in the picture above? Look for that precise silhouette, only tiny, at the top center of the picture. They’re looking down in the nest. Their camouflage is so perfect they’re nearly impossible to see. Speaking of camouflage, that’s my Dad’s old camouflaged tripod:

Mackey and Turner supervising.

Red-tails are not impossible for bluejays to see. I took this picture earlier in the week. Look at the bluejay just above the red-tail’s head:

Bluejay almost perching on a Red-tail’s head:

To go along with that picture – I just realized – I do have one more brief video, and it’s reasonable quality. About four seconds into it, you will actually see a bluejay fly up from behind the lower hawk and hit it in the shoulder. It’s not subtle – you can’t miss it. I’m astounded this even happens. It is a treat to be there. A treat for me, I mean – for the red-tail, not so much:

There are hawks all over the place this week. This one was perched on the cross at Discovery United Methodist Church near the intersection of Lauderdale Road and Gayton Road:

Red-tail getting a view from on high.

Mallards are not my favorite bird to photograph, but this pair standing on the spillway at Bryan Park was interesting:

Waiting for whatever washes down.

We walked to the top of the spillway and looked down; this is another short movie:

I’ve been up since 5:00 this morning, driven to Lake Anna, completed a triathlon and driven back. And I get up at 5:00 again tomorrow morning! And I’m falling asleep on my keyboard! I’ll see you next week!

And to all mothers – Happy Mother’s Day! I hope it’s been a great one!

All best,

Jay

Posted in Birds, Blue Jays, Bryan Park, Dogs, Endurance, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!), triathlons | Tagged baby red-tailed hawk, bluejay attacking hawk, bryan park, Dogs, Endurance, Flowers, Fun, high cloud triathlon, nature, peasantman, People, Red-tailed hawks, smile, Smiles - human AND dog smiles!, triathlon | 2 Comments

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog post!

Posted on May 1, 2016 by Jay McLaughlin

1 May, 2016 We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog post!

For a visit! From one of my two brothers and one of my two sisters, plus spouses, I think the last time this happened there was a total solar eclipse. Not really, but people seem to like visiting a lot more since Evelyn lives here than they did before. Go figure. I’m happy to see anyone in my family any time. We went to lunch at Shore Dog, I recommend it any time, with guests or without. Straight from Shore Dog to Arts in the Park, it was an excellent way to spend the afternoon together.

Except for the surprise visit from my siblings, the week’s been uneventful. Even by my standards, and my weeks are normally not eventful.

I photographed my first Red-tailed hawk ever one year ago today, on May 1, 2015, at the end of my street. I haven’t seen one here yet this year, but if you’ve followed this blog you know how eagerly I’m watching other birds. Primarily an active Red-tail nest at Bryan Park, and a very active osprey nest at Stony Point.

It’s been bleak and gray and drizzly most of this week. The plants love it, but it’s difficult (for me) to take good photographs. This isn’t a brilliant image, but I took it Monday afternoon at Bryan Park. I am uncertain if this is the male or the female, but it’s on the nest:

I appreciate reliability in a raptor:

I’ve determined (this week, to my satisfaction) that the osprey nest near Stony Point is going strong. One of the pair is always there, and both are often around. I can’t see inside the nest, but they act like there are eggs on it. I believe when the eggs hatch, I’ll be able to see or hear chicks. This is the male returning to the nest Tuesday. You can see the female below him:

Male osprey returning to nest:

I swam at the Tuckahoe YMCA on Wednesday, and as I left I looked in the cattails in the little pond in front. I keep expecting a Red-winged Blackbird to appear, and finally one did:

Red–winged blackbird – they’re so pretty

I was at the CSX tracks near Tredegar Iron Works a few hours later. More late arriving cliff swallows:

Cliff swallow flying to the nest on the same day as an osprey:

These flowers are directly under the cliff swallow nests. The sky may be monochrome, but these flowers make up for it:

They’re so beautiful I can hardly look away.

See the caption on the last picture? Ditto for this one.

The following day I returned to Bryan Park. I got another picture of the redtail on the nest, but it’s no improvement over the one I took Monday. There’s a female mallard with a pair of babies on the pond. The light is miserable but the ducklings are cute:

There are no ugly ducklings in this photograph

I checked on the ospreys on my way home Friday. There was only one bird and the sky was the color of a really ancient sweatshirt. I took pictures, but it was a waste of time – they’re shapeless and monochromatic and hopelessly dull. And I was anxious because there was only one bird. It’s quite close to my house, so I went over there for a few minutes yesterday morning. The light was unimproved, but there were two birds on the nest.

Here’s a picture. The male (presumably) is sitting up on the edge of the nest. I’m guessing he’s snoozing. That’s called his “nictitating membrane” over his eyes. This is what it says on an osprey watching page I read: “In flight Ospreys close the nictitating membrane, a thin layer of clear tissue like an inner eyelid, over their eyes to keep the eye moist. During a dive the membrane protects the eye when Ospreys hit the water.” To me it looks just like my grandfather used to look when he lay down on the couch and put his feet up on the edge and said “I’m resting my eyes.” And if you look just below him and to the right you can see the wide open and staring/glaring yellow eye of the female:

“Resting my eyes”

This is a miserable little movie, but it only lasts eight seconds. And you can clearly see her head turning:

Today (Sunday) is May 1, and a year ago today I took my first red-tail picture! But today it was raining and didn’t even go to the river!! Much to Mackey and Turner’s chagrin. I haven’t yet seen a “local” (Westbury Drive) Red-tail but I’ll continue watching. And watching the nesting pair at Bryan Park, and the Stony Point ospreys.

A quick look at the final two weeks of my enormous 1991 vacation. See you next week!

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Home is where you don’t need a passport

According to the journal I kept on my trip, I flew out of Melbourne, Australia a little after noon on Wednesday, March 13, 1991. I traveled for roughly thirty hours – and when we touched down in Los Angeles, it was around 9:00 AM – on the same day. Flew all day and landed on the same day, before I took off. I was twenty-nine years old then, and didn’t know what jet lag was. I caught on all of a sudden. Plus if you’ve never been in Los Angeles International Airport (I hadn’t) or even in Los Angeles (not there either) it is a profoundly disorienting experience. Fortunately some friends from the east coast named Virginia and Ralph had moved to LA and met me when I came off the plane. If they hadn’t met me, I’d probably still be there. They welcomed me into their home and I stayed for several days, sightseeing and recovering from my travels. After a few fun LA experiences:

Obligatory visit for LA tourists (for me, anyway)

Equally obligatory

They took me to the Amtrak station and put me on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight train, bound for Seattle. I made stops on the way, including San Francisco plus a visit to my old buddy Don in Sacramento. I ended the trip at my friend MV’s house in Eugene, OR, where I stayed for a few days before heading back to Seattle then home to Dulles. There’s really too much in this section of the journal – it’s nearly overwhelming. I remember being on the train, and seeing a smokestack belching smoke, and hearing a very young boy say to his mother “Is that how they make clouds?” “Mm-mm.” “It looks like they’re making clouds.” It was a good observation; I had my camera out and took this picture:

“Is that how they make clouds?”

I jotted this in my journal:

From the mouths of babes

I went on a Red and White Fleet cruise to Alcatraz while in San Francisco. This is a picture I took on a cell block:

Cell block on Alcatraz

Here’s the ticket stub from my trip; note it says “NO REFUND”:

When you went to Alcatraz there was NO REFUND

I visited another East Coast friend who had moved west, my old friend Don in Sacramento. We of course visited J Street:

Always have to visit J Street:

From Sacramento I took the train to Eugene, OR and got to relax at my friend MV’s house – and go to the beach with her and her Greyhound!:

If you’ve never seen a greyhound run on a beach, make that happen. It’s a sight to behold.

On Wednesday, March 28, 1991 at 2:00 in the morning, there is a brief journal entry, concluding with these words: “That’s it. Good night. Finito. Vacation over. Real life to start in A.M.”

And so it goes. Until next week!

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Posted in Birds, Bryan Park, Dogs, Flowers, international travel, ospreys, People, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!), Trains | Tagged bryan park, Cliff Swallows, clouds, Dogs, Flowers, Fun, james river, nature, Ospreys, outdoors, People, Pony Pasture, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, smile, Smiles - human AND dog smiles!, transportation | Leave a comment

Unlike Bill Clinton, I DO inhale!

Posted on April 24, 2016 by Jay McLaughlin

24 April, 2016 Unlike Bill Clinton, I DO inhale!

And you should too! At least if you’re here in central Virginia. The smells are beyond compare. The lilacs in our backyard bloom more enthusiastically every April, no doubt due to the Miracle-Gro Turner dutifully applies every morning when he sprints out to make sure they didn’t disappear during the night:

If you’re near a lilac, inhale!

Until I began reading about trees last year, I never even knew locust flowers smelled good! How I was unaware of that is beyond me; now I stick my face in every bunch I pass. Next time you see some, by all means inhale. There were some pretty ones this morning at Pony Pasture, but I took this picture mid-week beside the CSX train tracks near Tredegar Iron Works:

Fragrant blossoms from a Black Locust growing next to the railroad tracks:

Our wisteria has faded; it was the first flower I inhaled this spring. I took this picture two weeks ago in our backyard:

April wisteria in our backyard:

We’ve gotten some rain this month (April showers bring May flowers) but it’s been generally temperate. My friend Ethan and I have made many trips to Bryan Park. He took several excellent pictures of a Great Blue Heron near the creek. He took a number that were more technically perfect than this, but I’m fond of heron pictures that give a different “look.” He took this one about mid-string; I like it because it looks like the heron is laughing:

Photo my friend Ethan took at Bryan Park this week. A laughing Blue Heron.

We’re having a marvelous time watching the pair of Red-tailed hawks nesting at Bryan Park. Red-tails are wily and camera shy, but they’re smart and curious and observant and this one was watching us watch her:

I don’t know what she is “thinking.” But she is undeniably aware.

I’m still watching the new osprey nest near Stony Point. I’m guessing this is the female, since they sometimes have more dark speckling on their breast. They’re a bit larger than the males too, but I still have a lot to learn. Like the red-tail, they keep careful watch when they’re being watched. But they don’t hide:

Raptors all watch, watch, watch.

This isn’t a beautiful picture, because I’m a long way away and zoomed in a lot. But it’s the talon of an osprey, and you can see the kind of hardware they’ve evolved to capture and hold squirming, live fish:

Fish never see these coming. Boy that would give me nightmares.

Last week I included a blurb about a trip I took to New Zealand twenty-five years ago. After two weeks in New Zealand I flew to Australia for another two weeks. I’ll continue a brief description of that trip now.

I was on the plane from New Zealand to Australia with an Australian woman who was returning home. The Australian woman told me – I’ll never forget this, or her accent – that “the problem with women from New Zealand is they all walk around like they’ve got a stick up their bums!” An observation I’d not heard before or since.

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Australia – the more things change, the more things stay the same

I love to travel. But I also love to not-travel.

This is a picture of me in Sydney, Australia in 1991:

Sunny Sydney, 1991 (wearing my triathlon t-shirt)

This is a picture of me in the Yukon Territory, fifteen years and almost 8,000 miles later:

Not-sunny Yukon Territory, 2006 (wearing my sled dog race coat)

If you enjoy reading, a man named Bill Bryson wrote a book about Australia in 2000 called In a Sunburned Country. If interested, here is the First Chapter in the New York Times, and this is the New York Times Book Review. Here’s a line Mr. Bryson wrote about Australia: “Its creatures seemed to have evolved as if they had misread the manual.”

But. I was there around ten years before Mr. Bryson’s book was published, and this is a bit of my experience.

I left Christchurch, on the South Island of New Zealand on 1 March, 1991 bound for Cairns in northeast Australia. This was twenty-five years ago – and this is the first picture I took in Australia:

I photograph lizards in America. I photograph lizards in Australia.

Hmm. Looks suspiciously like pictures I take here in Richmond. Naturally in Australia of course I took a ride on a railroad train; I took pictures of that too:

I photograph trains in America. I photographed trains in Australia.

As I leaf through the pictures I took then, and read my journals from that trip, two things strike me: 1. I’m interested in the same stuff wherever I go, whenever I go there and 2. I’m much less judgmental now than I was then. Here’s a photograph of the Australian Coat of Arms. On the left is a kangaroo and on the right is an emu. I was told they are on the Coat of Arms because they are unable to take a step backwards – they symbolize forward progress. Wikipedia has a somewhat different explanation, but wikipedia wasn’t our tour guide. They are both native to Australia:

Australian coat of arms. Kangaroo on the left, emu on the right.

There were plenty of real kangaroos around – sort of like whitetail deer in Virginia, only more placid. I don’t recall where I took this picture, only that it was in an unremarkable spot. Equivalent to the side of the road here in the United States:

A lot of animals “know” they’re being watched. I don’t know what they think or if they think, but they’re aware.

Since I’m on the subject of things I love wherever I go, I can’t leave out dogs:

A boy and his dog, Australia-style:

The whole trip was on Qantas:

The tail of a Qantas jet in 1991:

Have you ever seen the movie Rainman from 1988 with Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise? “Rainman” is Dustin Hoffman’s character, and there’s a four-minute scene where he mentions the safety of flying Qantas. It was rated R and this clip has a bit of inappropriate language, so don’t watch this if that offends you: Qantas never crashed

That whole vacation lasted six weeks. The first two were in New Zealand, the second two in Australia and the final two weeks at the end of my next blog post (I didn’t need a passport for the final two weeks).

Next Sunday is May 1! I hope to see you then!

All best,

Jay

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Posted in Birds, Bryan Park, Dogs, Fun, international travel, James River, ospreys, People, Pony Pasture, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!), Trains | Tagged bryan park, Dogs, Flowers, flying, Fun, GE AC4400CW locomotive, james river, nature, Ospreys, outdoors, People, Pony Pasture, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, smile, Smiles - human AND dog smiles!, transportation | 1 Comment

Tentacles and a triathlon in Windy Wellington

Posted on April 17, 2016 by Jay McLaughlin

17 April, 2016 Tentacles and a triathlon in Windy Wellington

This week a friend sent an email called “Almost like Finding Nemo” with a link to an article titled (legitimately) Inky The Octopus Breaks Out Of Aquarium, Makes Way To The Pacific. I clicked on it and saw, to my delight, the dateline was Wellington, New Zealand – where I did a sprint triathlon twenty-five years ago! More about that at the end of this post.

April is always – always – a pretty month in Richmond, nowhere prettier than on the banks of the James River. If you enjoy being outdoors, April is the premier time to be there. This week has been exciting (humor me) because I “got” my first osprey on the south bank of the river. Just over the Willy Bridge, across 150 from Stony Point Fashion Park. The nest looks quite new and the ospreys inexperienced – I hope they’re successful. They’re in a terrific spot and I’ll be able to check in on them every week. My friend Gilpin got some beautiful pictures of the pair, but this was the best one I was able to come up with:

Pair of ospreys on a new nest south of the James River.

Pair of ospreys on a spindly new nest south of the James River.

Earlier in the day I visited the CSX tracks near Brown’s Island with one of my buddies. The Cliff Swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) I’d photographed so easily in 2014 seemed to have vanished. But my friend Kim said (basically) “look behind you!” I took this photograph in the precise spot I photographed them in 2014, just facing the opposite direction. It seems unusual to me that one year they’d build their mud nests on the east side of the bridge and another year return and build them on the west side. But here they are. Or here this one is; there were more:

Cliff swallow watching me watch him.

I’m told there’s an active Red-tail nest in Bryan Park. It looks like a Red-tail nest, but I haven’t seen actual activity on it so far. This is my first ever Red-tail nest, though. I’m just learning to watch. This red tail landed in a tree a few yards away but never went to the nest:

Beautiful Red-tailed hawk perched high in the top of a loblolly pine.

This is the nest. It just looks like a bunch of sticks in a tall pine tree, but that’s what red tail nests look like. I’ll have pictures soon with actual birds on the nest:

That's what a Red-tail nest looks like. If it hadn't been pointed out to me, I'd have probably never seen it.

That’s a Red-tail. If it hadn’t been pointed out to me, I’d have probably never seen it.

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Triathlon in Windy Wellington

In New Zealand, they say “you can tell a person is from Wellington because they always grab their hat when they walk around a corner.” I did a sprint (short) triathlon there in 1991. I don’t recall the wind, but boy do I ever recall the swim in the Cook Strait – I didn’t have a wetsuit and the water was 61º. I was young and foolish. My journal isn’t terrific and neither is my memory but I have some pictures. This was me in New Zealand, getting ready for a low key training ride:

In New Zealand, twenty-five years ago.

This is my bike before race day, near the starting line. The race was in Churchill Park, Seatoun, Wellington, New Zealand. You just know that is some cold water:

My road bike leaning against a post near the swim section. I get cold just looking at it.

My road bike leaning against a post near the swim section. Look at that water. My teeth are chattering while I type.

This is the finish line. See where it says “Allen & Hanbury’s”? That was a pharmaceutical company, selling an anti-asthma medication called a “becodisk”:

Race finish line

This was my certificate for finishing the race:

So excellent. A long way to travel for a short race, but what a trip.

This is a selfie (from 1991!) when I took a break driving down to the race.

Another lovely day in New Zealand

In New Zealand, at that time, their equivalent to our interstate highway system was a two lane undivided road. Where the road crossed creeks, there was no overpass or tunnel – you just drove through a couple of inches of water. And when a farmer was herding sheep – I’m not making this up, I have proof – they herded them right across the interstate:

First steps in the “Farm to table” process

On February 14 of 1991 I boarded a Qantas 747 bound for Auckland, New Zealand, near the tip of the North Island. I had my bicycle and swim suit and running gear and I was headed for the starting line of my first overseas triathlon.

In the three years since I’d been hit by a car while training for a triathlon, my life had come almost completely apart. I’d lost my marriage and my job and my home, but still had my loving family and my lifelong desire to be outdoors, moving. And I wanted to be really, really far away from Virginia. I saw a race calendar in the back of Triathlete magazine and I saw a sprint – in New Zealand. When I was young I thought China was “the other side of the world” because we really did try to “dig a hole to China” in our neighbor’s backyard. New Zealand – that is really the other side of the world. New Zealand is so far away that it’s not even the same season there – when it’s winter in Virginia, it’s summer in New Zealand. New Zealand is so far away, it’s a different day. That’s where I wanted to be. Different hemisphere, different season, different day. But still speaking English – perfect.

It was the trip of a lifetime. Of course I was only twenty-five years old then. I’ve had several other trips of a lifetime since, and I’m looking forward to more. I hope you are too!

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Posted in Birds, Bryan Park, Fun, international travel, ospreys, People, Pony Pasture, raptors, Red-tailed hawks, Rivers, Smiles (including "dog smiles"!), triathlons | Tagged bryan park, Cliff Swallows, Endurance, flying, Fun, international travel, james river, nature, new zealand, Ospreys, outdoors, People, Red-tailed hawks, smile, Smiles - human AND dog smiles!, transportation | 2 Comments

NEWFAZE

Happy Father’s Day!

My second favorite smell

NO POLITICS, NO ADVERTISING, NO RELIGION

Happy Memorial Day!

Evelyn says I try too hard

Fierce baby!

Happy Mother’s Day!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog post!

Unlike Bill Clinton, I DO inhale!

Tentacles and a triathlon in Windy Wellington

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