Flying with a Camera

I love to drive across the country to see the varied landscapes, the interesting minuscule towns, to see life from a different point of view. But I also love fly to some distant destination, with this qualification: I must have a window seat and my good buddy/camera along with me. The image above was obtained that way, me, my trusty sidekick and a window seat. It was taken somewhere between Virginia and Arizona. I seriously doubt that this is Virginia though.

And THEN after the flight, a rental car and many destinations. Innumerable places to fill me with wonder. Usually in the Southwest and most often in New Mexico. This photo above is from Zion National Park. A beautiful plant, Shooting Star (Dodecatheon pulchellum), native to the Western states, and a member of the Primula family. So much out there to see. There and here.

Cauliflorous

Pitch Pine (Pinus rigida) and with needles growing from its trunk, being photobombed by a Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus).

Redbud (Cercis canadensis) with flower buds emerging from its trunk.

Who would have thought Redbud and Pitch Pine have something in common.

These are cauliflorous trees. They have flowers that emerge from their main trunk or larger branches. It is thought that this makes the flowers and fruit more easily accessed for pollination and dispersal of their seeds.

And the word cauliflorous has nothing to do with cauliflower.

Pink Fog

The blooming of Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) in the woods is a highlight of spring. Something that makes it even more wonderful is when there is FOG blanketing the mountain. Wait until the light is just right and you’ll see what I mean. Then, in that moment, it’s not a pale gray nearly white fog like you usually see, but it becomes a pink fog, wrapping around every tree, every rock, every just emerging Bloodroot and Mayapple. Pink fog.

Though delicate in appearance, the flowers of Redbud are tough little things, surviving snow, ice, and most anything that the spring season can throw at them. They come through like champs.

I’ve been surprised to see birds eating petals of blossoms on my fruit trees. These Redbud petals and flowers are also something that Cedar Waxwings and Northern Cardinals will eat.

And another bird will eat those flowers and petals. Caught in the act here, a Goldfinch.

Graupel

Yesterday’s precipitation was for me a delight to see and my use of the word “graupel” in yesterday’s blog post took some of you by surprise. If you went to your dictionary, you might not have found it. It’s not in the dictionary that is here on my computer either but it’s a word that is used by meteorologists whenever this cold weather occurrence presents itself.

Graupel has the look of styrofoam that has been broken into small pieces. The process that occurs to create graupel starts out high in the atmosphere as snowflakes are falling. They hit a layer of supercooled water droplets. Stay with me here, supercooled water is in the form of a liquid but is below 32°. As the water droplets hit the snowflake they stick to its surface.

Think of graupel as a snowflake covered in frost, or rime. Generally it is a 2 to 5 mm clump falling to the ground. A soft clump. Not hard like ice as hail or ice pellets would be. Cool stuff, graupel.

Perhaps the Last Sighting for a While

Not really purple but raspberry red, male, and soft brown and white, female. A pair of Purple Finches (Haemorhous purpureus). Most winters I don’t see these finches due to their erratic and irruptive habit, thought to be connected to variations in the production of conifer cones in their winter range. Spring migration generally happens between February and May, the males leaving first heading to their breeding grounds. Hoping I’ll see them again next winter.

The Perfect Climbing Tree

Many years ago I would spend much vacation time at a wonderful home in southeastern Pennsylvania. There my best friends who happen to also be my cousins, Judie and Beverly, taught me that apple trees are the preeminent climbing trees. Perfect climbing trees for children.

Apple trees are also great climbing trees for hungry bears. Bears that love my selection of apple varieties. Or perhaps they don’t even care about the variety. Maybe to bears apples are apples, whether McIntosh or Jonathan. To this baker though varieties of apples make a great difference. One variety or another can make or break a pie.

There’s another creature that regularly visits this apple tree climbing up and down its branches and trunk, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Drilling sap wells to provide themselves and many other animals with phloem sap which carries the sustenance produced in the leaves to other parts of the tree. In the picture above you can see the small round holes, or sap wells, carved by the Sapsucker. The larger slashes in the bark have been made by a bear climbing the tree.

And here, something that pleases me beyond words. The Little One discovering that an apple tree is indeed, the perfect climbing tree.

American Woodcock

This morning returning from yoga I stopped several times to pick up cans that had been tossed aside along the road. A gesture that was rewarded, as my truck climbed the mountain, with the sight of an American Woodcock (Scolopax minor), slowly dancing across the road.

What a joy to see! This chunky little speckled brown bird had such personality, taking one firm step, rocking back and forth, another firm step, rocking back and forth, all the way across the gravel strewn road giving me and my approaching truck no notice at all.

The American Woodcock is 10 to 12 inches long from the tip of its tail to the end of its 2.75 inch long bill. That prehensile bill is used to poke into moist soil searching for earthworms and other invertebrates. They also eat seeds. Those oddly placed eyes give this little bird the ability to see what is going on as it probes the soft soil looking for dinner. This is the first Woodcock that I can recall ever seeing but I have heard them, while roaming the trails up here, making their funny little nasal peeeent.

Spicebush in Spring to Berries in Autumn

Right now, the beginning of spring, if you’re in the right place in the woods you’ll be surrounded by Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) in bloom. The woods appear to have been painted by a water color artist. A thin wash of butter yellow extending far into the distance.

As the weeks move along leaves will appear, emerald green.

Emerald green leaves, the perfect accent for scarlet berries come autumn.