Another of the LBJs, Little Brown Jobbies. This one a White Throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), at low tide this morning. Before I had an opportunity to refill the bird baths.
It’s making itself at home in its winter home here, but its winter range also includes central and eastern US. It spends the breeding season in Canada, east of the Rockies.
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This one of the LBJs, or Little Brown Jobbies. Little brown birds that look like other little brown birds. Very confusing.
In reality, I’m able to identify this bird. The streaked breast helps in that regard. This is a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia).
Years ago as I was getting familiar with the LBJs, it sure did help to get photos and compare each bird without it suddenly flying away.
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They swooped in this morning, delighting in the birdbaths, quenching their thirst. Too many to count. Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) and Robins (Turdus migratorius) everywhere. Then on their way hunting berries. And back again.
Back and forth many times this morning before the snow started. Snow that pleased me greatly. Falling into the evening though not quite cold enough to stick. Still, great mobs of beautiful birds and lovely snow.
Wondrous!
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This White Oak leaf (Quercus alba) modeled for me yesterday as I was roaming, enjoying the last of the autumn colors. Last evening a front came through. Wind roared and howled with incredible speed as it blew through the mountain trails.
One little branch. Not much to hold onto. But maybe it’s still there hanging from that branch despite the high winds.
White Oak trees, at least young trees, keep their leaves through the winter, dropping them in spring. More mature White Oak trees often will drop their upper leaves but hold onto the lower leaves until winter turns to spring. This is called marcescence.
Nature is amazing in its complicated world.
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I went out this afternoon to get pictures of what is left of the autumn leaves. They’re stunning in these cloudy conditions. The only thing better would be to have rain coming down. Clouds and rain seem to intensify the colors.
My favorite, the blueberry bushes, looking as if they’re celebrating the holidays, in a vast sea of luscious red.
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There has been much excitement in the bird watching world of northeast England recently. A juvenile male Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea) ended up in England due to being blown way off course by recent intense storms in the Atlantic.
A similar sighting also happened 10 years ago but it is only the eighth time this has ever been recorded in the United Kingdom.
The normal range of Scarlet Tanagers is summering in northern and eastern North America, and wintering in Venezuela, Columbia, and Ecuador in South America.
To be sure, I am totally thrilled when the Scarlet Tanagers show up in my woods, even though they are normal here.
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Perhaps 5 inches across. Gathered with many pumpkins for Halloween. And this, the perfect spirit filled object. Turning it reveals different spooky scenes designed totally by nature. How can that be?
Amazing.
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A surprise at the old garden gate. A bird I had never seen before.
A Black-throated Green Warbler (Setophaga virens) heading south for the winter. Destination Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America.
Delighted I happened to see it.
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Hi All! I dug through my posts this afternoon looking for one that I did a long time ago. I was surprised to find that I did my apple pie post clear back in 2013. It pleased me to see what I wrote and I’m thinking and hoping that you might enjoy seeing it again too.
Apple Pie Made With Lots Of Love
Mom’s Family
I grew up with apple pies. Lots of other pies too, but the standout memory is apple pies. My Mom is Pennsylvania Dutch, which, in my mind, means she is a terrific cook, but most of all a terrific pie baker. She tells me of falling asleep in her grandparent’s dining room, while all the adults sat around the table speaking German, a language she didn’t learn. Interesting to me — these family members had been in America for 300 years but still spoke their German.
The Pie Connection
Mom also tells me of her grandmother baking many, many pies at the end of each week, so that the hard working family would have pies to last throughout the coming week. They would be set aside in a pie safe. Years ago I found a pie safe at an antique shop in Leesburg, Virginia. I was told that the pie safe had come from York, Pennsylvania. My son now has that pie safe. We used to keep our stereo equipment in it. I don’t know what he stores in it now, but I doubt it is pies!
Carrying On The Tradition
Now both my son and I are pie bakers. I make crust from scratch all the time. I think he makes crust from scratch some of the time. But I think we both do a super job! Apple Pie? A must for me, is to use McIntosh apples. Their flavor just can’t be beat. Some say the apple, when cooked turns to mush. I say, “Who cares?!!” It just plain makes a scrumptious pie!
A New Ingredient
I learned to add a new ingredient, on my first visit with my husband’s grandmother, when we moved to New Mexico. She added a touch of salt to her apple pies. I’ve used that touch of salt ever since.
Mom’s Recipe With The Added New Mexico Ingredient
One unbaked 9 inch pie crust
6 medium sized apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 2 inch pieces (or the size that you prefer), place in pie crust
Cream together flour, sugar, butter, salt and cinnamon. Sprinkle on top of chopped apples. Bake in preheated 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. Turn oven temperature down to 375 degrees, and continue baking for 45 more minutes. Let pie cool or serve warm topped with homemade vanilla ice cream.
Thanks Mom, for the recipe and for the heritage!
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Black Walnut leaves (Juglans nigra) with their many leaflets turn from green to yellow early in autumn and with that change of color, they quickly fall to the ground. I love to capture the texture those leaves create against the blue sky before those leaves begin to drop.
The Black Walnut tree is also one that produces leaves quite late in the spring, in late May in some places. Early leaf loss, late leaf budding. A long time without leaves.
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