Birds & flowers 2011

Jun. 4th, 2011: Cerulean warbler weekend

OK, so I didn't go to the actual festival, but I did go with an experienced birder to Barry Co. I saw a hooded warbler, yellow-throated vireo, yellow-throated warbler, Amer. Redstarts, an Indigo bunting, female Rose-breasted Grosbeak, a Tanager (wow!), Eastern wood Pewee, a Baltimore Oriole, and the elusive Cerulean warbler (Otis Lake Road, just north of the lake). I also heard ovenbirds & Veeries (is that the plural of Veery?) Interesting quote from Cornell's Birds of North America: "Song resonates as if singing into a metal pipe. Ethereal quality of Veery’s song has been celebrated in prose for more than a century. 'Their song consist[s] of an inexpressibly delicate metallic utterance...accompanied by a fine trill which renders it truly seductive' (Baird et al. 1874)." Reminded me of the Pied Butcher (aka Organ) Bird in Australia. Gorgeous morning.

May. 28th, 2011

Kirtland Warbler Festival, Roscommon, May 21

We went on a guided walk at the Margarethe Gahagan Nature Preserve on Friday evening. Our guide, Tom, explained about Ovenbirds nexting on the ground, which is why we don't have them at Blandford or Aman--dogs! [We saw one in our backyard on 5/26, however!]

On Saturday we got up at 5:30 for the 7:00 bus trip to view Kirtland warblers. Noisy, large group, but I finally did see a couple of the warblers singing on the tops of snags. We got t-shirts and buttons. There is a lot of poverty in Roscommon and signs of the economic downtown, and very poor soil. The landscape reminded me of St. Croix, WI.

Drove to Grayling for breakfast, and to Torch Lake, which is spectacular. This is where isherempress  spent her high school years. It is about 38 miles long and 3-4 miles wide. In Elk Rapids, we stopped to see her old friend & artist/illustrator Betty Beeby (remember Whistling up the Bay?) I saw a lot of her art in her house, and she showed us a painted box of stories about her children, which has been incorporated into a book called A Book of Hours. On the way out of town, we stopped at a cairn made of rocks from various MI counties. In Traverse City, we stopped at Pathfinder school, which seems like exactly the kind of school I would have enjoyed. Or maybe would enjoy even now!

Stopped in at Northwestern Michigan College for the BBQ buffalo burger fund raiser, then visited the Music House Museum in Acme, with automated musical instruments like music boxes, a "piano player," player pianos & organs, jukeboxes, phonographs, radios, nickelodeon, a Worlitzer organ for silent movies, etc. Two hours wasn't enough time. Poppycock's is my favorite restaurant in TC & we enjoyed a delicious dinner, then adjourned to the jacuzzi in our room at the Cherry Tree Inn.

May. 15th, 2011

I took a few minutes on Friday to admire the magenta violets, a gift from Karen - & exchanged at T&K's wedding. They are really gorgeous! Then I began to see all of the weeds around them & went back to work....

May. 9th, 2011

Birds & flowers

My bird list: Buffleheads, Lesser Scaup, Wood Ducks, Ruddy Ducks; Yellow Warbler,  Yellow-rumped Warbler; Spotted Sandpiper; Bluebirds; Baltimore Oriole; Tree Swallows; White-crowned Sparrows; Belted Kingfisher; and a Green Heron.

The birds we spotted were in a mix of habitats: Reed’s Lake, in East Grand Rapids–a small, shallow, freshwater lake; our backyard (suburban Grand Rapids); Blandford Nature Center Community Garden–open field near marsh & woodland areas; a wooded backyard in Ottawa County near the Grand River; and the Muskegon County Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Wildflowers: marsh marigolds in profusion, a few short geraniums, and one phlox.

Apr. 24th, 2011

Birds & flowers

Today was very exciting at Blandford Nature Center. Along with the blooming wildflowers previously mentioned -- cut-leaved toothwort, spring beauties, Dutchman's breeches, the last of the bloodroot -- were also trout lilies and false rue anemone. And along with the usual birds -- downy woodpeckers, white-throated sparrows, red-bellied woodpeckers, etc., -- were both a ruby-crowned kinglet and a yellow-crowned kinglet! There was also a very small bird creeping up a tree with a brown back (more or less solid, not like the pics of the brown creeper in my books), light belly/throat, and a black stripe through its eye. Any suggestions for what I should look up, birders? Also, do thrushes ever stick close to the ground, snatching up dead leaves with their beaks, and poking at whatever they uncovered? Didn't have any field glasses, but it definitely wasn't a young robin. Or is it more likely a thrasher?

Tags: wildflowers

 

In music, take a listen to "Canadian Guitar Quartet, Cuban Landscape with Rain by Leo Brouwer, March 17 2011

Apr. 16th, 2011

wildflowers

Today Amy & I attended the meeting for our community garden at Blandford Nature Center. Afterward, I walked home through the damp woods, and spotted the following flowers: Bloodroot, spring beauties, skunk cabbage just finishing flowering, cut-leaved toothwort, Dutch breeches, lots of violets of all colors. The may apple leaves are whorling, and trillium buds are showing white. At home, our goldfish survived the winter in the little pond, and hyacinth and mini-daffies are blooming.

Tags: wildflowers

Apr. 10th, 2011

flowers, birds, & snakes, oh my!

mood: chipper

On today's walk in Aman Park, the hepatica are all blooming gloriously. Leeks are up, there were a couple of budded Dutchman's breeches, & also 3-4 bloodroots blooming. The frogsong is deafening. At one point, I heard a crashing through the trees & a huge bird came angling down, then RAN away through the woods--a wild turkey! There were a pair of red-breasted nuthatches singing to each other, and 3 garter snakes of varying sizes were slipping along the paths.

Tags: wildflowers

Apr. 7th, 2011

"Wooden" Jesu

mood: cheerful

Hear Bach’s ‘Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring’ As Played by a Wooden Staircase: what you hear is just the sound of a ball, a long wooden xylophone, and gravity.

April 16 wildflowers

I attended the meeting for our community garden at Blandford Nature Center. Afterward, I walked home through the damp woods, and spotted the following flowers: Bloodroot, spring beauties, skunk cabbage just finishing flowering, cut-leaved toothwort, Dutch breeches, lots of violets of all colors. The may apple leaves are whorling, and trillium buds are showing white. At home, our goldfish survived the winter in the little pond, and hyacinth and mini-daffies are blooming.

Of course, it has snowed since then, but everything seems to be just fine. I hope the community garden farmer plowed the snow into the acreage for the nitrogen!

Civil War Reenactments

Wouldn't it be better to reenact war from the field hospitals instead of battles, to give people a real idea about what war is like? To lie on a dirty tarp in a tent open to the air so as not to choke on the stench, listening to moaning and screaming, watching your friends and neighbors die all around you? Suffocating from pneumonia, dying from bacterial infections or viruses, having limbs hacked off to prevent gangrene and then dying anyway? Instead of cooking over an open fire, to go for days without fresh food or clean water and experiencing all of the awful diseases which result?

I understand trying to make history real to kids, but I don't understand the sanitizing and celebration of war.