More Flowers: Peonies, Columbines, Dianthus

Tags

columbine, dianthus, peony, photography, postaday

Early this morning I went out and took the following photos of more flowers around our house.

Peonies covered with dew

Columbine

Columbines

Dianthus

 

Peonies

Tags

peonies, photography, postaday

Our peonies have started blooming, maybe a week later than in other years but still very eye-catching. This evening I took several pictures of them to share with you.

White peonies

Pink peonies

Red peonies

 

Song Sparrow

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photography, postaday, song sparrow

Two weekends ago, the song sparrow below was singing lustily at the Edwin B. Forsythe Wildlife Refuge, perched on a sign that said Endangered Species Area. Itself not endangered, it was just singing happily, celebrating spring perhaps and its free life amid the wide open marshes.

Song sparrow

 

“Village Teacher” or a Different Kind of Book

Ana Linden

Village Teacher was a surprisingly pleasant break from the books which generally fall into our hands these days. In fact, I could say it’s reminiscent of literature from another time and not only because the action takes place at the end of the 19^th century in a politically torn, myth laden Vietnam, but due to the fact it creates an atmosphere often similar to that of an epic poem.

“The footprints never overlapped or touched one another, but there was no doubt that they were walking close together and going forward in the same general direction. They turned around once more and resumed their walk.”

The reader can guess early on how the story is going to end, but that doesn’t detract from the desire to follow the journey of those extraordinary main characters, who never betray their moral values, belief systems and feelings. Teacher Tam and Giang are…

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Stamp, then Eat

Tags

laughing gull, photography, postaday

Yesterday I noticed a strange animal behavior as I scanned Reeds Beach through my camera viewfinder. A group of laughing gulls was bobbing up and down from time to time. I thought it was due to camera shake, but I had the camera on a tripod, so that had to be ruled out.

Finally I remembered reading about that particular behavior. As you know, the gulls and other birds eat the eggs freshly spawned and buried in sand by female horseshoe crabs. The gulls have learned that they can get at the deeply buried eggs by stamping on the sand as the waves come in. Then as the waves recede, the disturbed sand is carried out to sea, revealing and leaving the eggs behind. Those smart gulls are laughing all the way to the bank.

The following photo shows the gulls stamping. Note that the water was coming in and the gulls had their heads up in the air. That long pointed thing sticking out in the middle of the picture was the tail of one overturned crab.

Laughing gulls stamping

Six seconds later, the water had receded and all the gulls had their heads back down, eating crab eggs. Note the overturned crab tail was still there among the gulls.

Laughing gulls eating

Irises

Tags

iris, photography, postaday

A corner of our garden is often neglected because the soil there is often wet or even muddy. However, that is an ideal environment for irises, and today I went out and took the following pictures which are long overdue for these beautiful flowers. I used an old Canon 100 mm f/2.8 macro lens which predates the digital era, but is functioning quite well.

Irises #1

Irises #2

Irises #3

Irises #4

Irises #5

If you have the time, please let me know which image you like the most.

 

Red Knots

Tags

horseshoe crab, photography, postaday, red know

It was a month ago that I first heard about red knots from a young, starry-eyed couple who had traveled from California to New Jersey to watch the birds as they stop along the beaches of Delaware Bay during their annual migration.

The red knots have one of the longest migration path of all animals. In the spring, they fly more than 9,000 miles from Tierra del Fuego to the Canadian Artic, their breeding grounds. They time their migration to arrive in New Jersey when horseshoe crabs come ashore to lay their eggs from early May to early June. The birds eat the eggs to regain the weight they lost during their flight and build up their stamina to be able to reach their Artic destination. Unfortunately, the use of horseshoe crabs as fishing bait and in medical tests has led to a decline in horseshoe crabs. The red knot population has also declined 80 to 90% as a result.

New Jersey has had a moratorium on fishing for horseshoe crabs for the past eight years. Now some people say that is long enough and that horseshoe crabs and red knots have recovered from their respective nadir. Is that true? I had to go see for myself.

Yesterday, I went to Reeds Beach in Cape May Court House, NJ. There are now guards who prevent people from going on the beach and disturb the birds while they are feeding. There were people from Canada and Australia who were monitoring the red knots, all very serious and dedicated to their cause. One pointed out to me a small plane that flew overhead to take photos for counting the birds. The red knots I saw were more numerous and seemingly fatter than those I saw two weeks earlier (see Horseshoe Crab Season). Here’s how they looked then.

Red knots – two weeks earlier

and here’s how they looked yesterday.

Red knots – yesterday

Some closer looks from yesterday:

Red knots at Reeds Beach

In the following photo, you can see that the red knots are much smaller than the laughing gulls behind them

Red knots and laughing gulls

How many were there? I couldn’t tell, but certainly a lot. For the actual count, we’ll have to wait for the official tally from that small plane.

Red knots at Reeds Beach

In the following photo, the red knots are lined up in three orderly lines, in contrast to the other shore birds. Perhaps they know to organize themselves in platoon-sized groups to travel such long distance.

Three lines of red knots

Red knots feeding

Meanwhile, what were the horseshoe crabs doing? There were hundreds of them lying overturned and dead on the beach, their decomposing bodies emitting an unpleasant smell. But many others were having a good time. In the following photo, six male crabs were crowded around a female that was partially buried in the sand.

Horseshoe crabs

I also went to Cook’s Beach and Kimbles Beach. Those places also had many birds, but I could not get a decent shot because the guards were keeping visitors a good distance away from where the birds were.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Work of Art

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azalea, bleeding hearts, columbine, kousa dogwood, photography, postaday, weekly photo challenge

Nature is the best artist and it has created around our house the following works of art, aka flowers.

Bleeding Hearts – Pink

Bleeding Hearts – Alba (White)

Columbine

Kousa Dogwood

Azaleas

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/work-of-art/

Red Clover

Tags

photography, postaday, red clover

As I was driving to reach the southern end of New Jersey, a field of red clover came into view, and I had to stop. The red of the clover just stood out vividly against the green country side with an unremarkable pale sky.

Red clover field

Red clover and farmhouse

Red clover, a closer look

Red clover is often used as a crop to increase the fertility of land that has been exhausted by cultivation of other crops. I wanted to confirm that and tried to look for the people who farm this field, but it was Sunday morning and there was no one around to ask.

Weekly Photo Challenge: On the Move

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on the move, postaday, snow geese, weekly photo challenge

For this challenge, here are three photos of snow geese that I took in March as they flew to their summer grounds in Canada and Alaska.

Snow geese on the move

Snow geese flying overhead

Snow geese 

Among other things, snow geese are distinguishable by their black lips, a dark line around their bills.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/on-the-move/

Star Magnolia

Tags

magnolia, photography, postaday, white magnolia

Star magnolia, or Magnolia Stellata, is the first magnolia to bloom, with white flowers that look strikingly disheveled. I took the following photos on a weekend trip to Canada where the trees are still bare and nothing else was blooming.

White Magnolia

White Magnolia

White Magnolia

White Magnolia

Weekly Photo Challenge: Spring

Tags

peonies, photography, postaday, spring, weekly photo challenge

We each have our own concept of spring, what it represents, and what symbolizes it. For me, peonies are the symbol of spring. These flowers have been around for thousands of years, and some plants have lived hundreds of years or more, coming back each season with flowers that comfort and reassure us.

Here are two of the peonies that I have been growing in our back and front yards.

White peonies

Red peonies

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/spring-2/

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Letters

Tags

letters, macarons, paris, postaday, weekly photo challenge

For this challenge, I submit the following photo of macarons on a sign at the entrance of a bakery in Paris:

Macarons

It is said that macarons have been around since the 8th century, and these days they seem to be everywhere in Paris. They are a light, crunchy type of biscuit filled with a soft and sweet middle of various kinds of jams, chocolates, and decadent things like foie gras! I had an almond crusted big one filled with slices of peach.

Following is my unofficial translation of the sign: “Macarons, the small pastries with a crunchy shell and a melting heart. For the season, the month, the mystery.”

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/letters