Arrival

In this post I noted that birds that have usually arrived in our corner of the planet by now had not.

One such bird is the Snow Goose. Large flocks of which can be seen in the sky and in the fields about our neighborhood.

This week they arrived.

This is just part of the flock I passed while on my way to work. One estimate had the flock at 10,000 individuals.

That's a lot of birds.

By the time I passed by many had flown to their morning feeding grounds.

These last two images are a mile or two apart, the flock having split up.

It is an amazing sight that these images don't come close to conveying. Here's a link to a video I took with my phone that gives some little sense of the spectacle. (I said little.)

I pulled over just to watch, the only car to do so. Do other people not notice? Not care? Worry about being late for work? (I'm lucky to have a job where I don't need to clock in.)

Conversely, what things am I missing that don't breach my attention threshold?

St. Jim

The Solar Corona post sent me searching for an image of one I had seen in Florida at the Winter Star Party.

From 2005.

Wow. Fifteen years ago, give or take a month.

The silhouette is of my friend Jim, who used to live a few miles down Route 206 from me. And who now lives in Florida. Happily retired. Bastard.

His head makes a good sun block. Nice and thick. Solid.

I used the the latrine building for this shot.

And a telephone pole for this one. I think Jim's head was the best.

If only he was visiting my office last week ...

Keep looking up!

Your Guess ...

... is as good as mine.

I have no idea what this was supposed to be a picture of. I found it on my camera card when downloading the Snow Geese images. But it was taken much later.

It is colorful.

Who You Looking At?

You looking at me?

With apologies to Robert De Niro. And to Alistair, our cat.

Fly Away

Common Grackles.

Something spooked them. Me perhaps, trying to get the shot.

Bye bye.

The Tail Bone's Connected To ...

... nothing apparently.

"Did You See The Deer At The Beagle Club"

Patty asked that question, via text, as we both were driving to drop her car off for an oil change.

Deer? I didn't see any, but I thanked her for the warning just the same.

It was a warning fo a different sort however. And on the drive back home we acquired some day old venison.

Lucky me.

Which is now rotting away in our parking area.

And now you know the real reason the Turkey Vulture was on the garage chimney.

Waiting for breakfast.

Psychedelic Sun

A Corona around the Sun.

A somewhat craptastical image, phone cameras are not very good for imaging the sun, or any other really bright object. And shooting through the 'could use a good cleaning' window doesn't help. But by the time I would have gotten a better camera the clouds would have been gone. (And the camera I keep in my briefcase was this day four floors down and out in my car. Grrr.)

Still cool to see.

🌞  🌈  🌞

I've also seen it around the Moon (another not so great image).

And around Venus.

Cutts Bog

New Jersey, the US's most densely populated state, has a surprising amount of preserved land. And recently, for reasonably small values of 'recent', one of our state forests, the Wharton State Forest, got a little bit bigger.

And, for very small values of 'recent' I went hiking there.

A cool site that shows the preserved land in NJ is the CHANJ Web Viewer. The link will bring up a map with the Rancocas Conservancy's Friendship Creek Preserve centered. The dark green area below the newly added section of the Wharton State Forest. I live directly north of this preserve  less than four miles as the crow (or any other bird) flies. 

It was cold when I headed down to join the hike (25° F), lead by a Wharton State Forest volunteer. Eric was his name. Not doubt the cold, and the forecast for snow then freezing rain in the afternoon, the hike began at 1:00 pm, kept some people away. Twenty-five people signed up, the limit, but only ten, plus two state forest volunteers, went hiking.

The forest is typical Pine Barrens.

Pines.

More pines.

Bottles. Alas, from the 70's. Nothing to find here.

Eric leading the way. He assured us the orange vest was not because of hunters but so we could see him.

Cedars.

One participant likened this downed tree to a TSA check point. If only it would keep the off roaders out.

Alas, it seems the off roader crowd can't read. I'm not surprised, they do seem to be rather ignorant.

The yellow blazes are so called 'witness trees' marking the boundary between state forest and the Friendship Creek Preserve. There are no marked trails here. At least not yet.

The cranberry bogs for which the site is named. Long overgrown. The bogs have not been active for over fifteen years.

This would be a wonderful place to visit in the spring. Full of wildflowers and other Pinelands plants. Except that this area is overrun by the off roaders. Sad, very, very sad.

As we started back ...

.. the forecasted snow began to fall.

The old cranberry loading dock. We paused here to listen to the snow hitting the dried oak leaves. Our reverie broken by the sound of gunfire in the distance.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, .... any deer were long gone. And if you needed that many shots, well maybe you shouldn't drink so much?

There were many of these webs collecting snow. Adding one more touch of beauty to the place.

Five miles after we started, we were back where we began. We said our goodbyes, thanked Eric, and headed home to dinner and warmth (at least, that's what I did).

I'll definitely be going back.

So Close ...

... So far.

The birds know.

I think Max does too.

Better Bird Photo of the Week

There was a bit of snow today, so the feeders seemed more attractive no doubt. And one Fox Sparrow was here all morning, even before the snow.

And later in the day, when I was out wandering (and it was snowing), Patty saw three in the feeder garden. Seems they are around, so perhaps there is plenty of food in the woods.

Good to know it's not the deer fence.

The joint was jumping this morning. With White-throated Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos, American Goldfinch and even a House Sparrow!

And earlier, before I even got out of bed, we saw two Pileated Woodpeckers. I spotted one out the bedroom window while enjoying my morning coffee (still in bed) while at the same time Patty had one out the kitchen window getting herself some coffee.

Very cool.

And a bit later, I was in the living room now, I spied a Brown Creeper, first of the year.

Amazing what a little bit of snow will do.

Vacancy

Previously on Recycled Photons, the tragedy of the fallen screech owl box. It turns out that the wood had not rotted. Rather, the tree grew, the bark enveloping the screws, pushing the box off the screws. And thus off the tree.

As you can see the box is back up, this the view from our back deck.

Overcoming my fear of heights, that's me at the top of our friend Joe's ladder (our ladder is too short). That's Joe keeping the ladder from sliding out. A problem I've had in the past. You may recall Joe and his ladder from the last owl nest contraption we installed in a tree.

Patty added the final touch. I sure hope they can read. It's been a while since we've had a tenant.

Owling

Spoiler alert: we did not find an owl.

This past weekend we went owling. To a local well known secret place.*

There is a certain mythology about keeping the locations of owl roosts secret. A couple of years ago I tried to find any actual evidence or research to back this. It seems common sense, but as someone who's studied physics, (see: relativity, quantum mechanics), I've a certain skepticism about arguments from common sense. And I found no such evidence.

But I digress ...

Patty and I met several friends and headed off into the woods.

As I've written before, when looking for owls one looks for whitewash (poop) and pellets (puke). And we found both.

Poop

Puke

But there was no owl above in the tree. There were no owls anywhere to be found.

What we did find were deer stands.

Half a dozen such stands in the area we searched. I do not recall these stands being here before. Perhaps they are taken down after hunting season? And Perhaps the owls don't like the company of hunters?

We also found evidence of woodpeckers.

But we saw no woodpeckers either. We did hear a Red-bellied Woodpecker or two though. So there was that.

After traipsing about in the woods for a couple of hours we split up and headed our respective ways. Patty, I, and our friend Bernie headed to a spot where Screech Owl has been roosting. But we saw no owl there. And then we headed to a local diner for a surprisingly large and yummy breakfast (I had the Jersey Devil omelet).

A nice but somewhat disappointing morning.

Then we went home and worked to get owls to come visit us.

~~~~~~~~~~
* I once joined my friend Steve Kacir on a trip to Peace Valley Park, for among other birds, owls. A location he dubbed a "A well known, secret place.", a phrase which has stuck with me. And one that points out a bit of the hypocrisy of 'not revealing owl locations'.

Light. Clouds. Colors.

And trees.

The full Moon rises over our yard, lights up the clouds, and silhouettes the trees.

There is a lot going on here. The colors around the Moon, the corona and aureole, are the result of scattering and diffraction of light through the cloud droplets.

Add ice crystals and we get a hint of the 22° halo above the Moon.

I never get tired of looking at the sky.

As always, keep looking up.

Kelvin-Helmholtz Cloud

Short lived, an accurate description for sure. Like many an atmospheric phenomena.

I initially noticed this cloud formation as I rounded the first turn on my way to work. By the time I got to a spot where I could get a clear image the formation had deteriorated some. Grrrr.

The Kelvin-Hemholtz Instability describes the disturbance caused by the difference in velocity between two fluids. Such as water and air. Or in this case, two different air masses.

The aspiration can be quite stunning, waves in the sky.

Keep looking up!

Warming Up

On the garage chimney.

Alas, no fire down below in the stove.

Add Turkey Vulture to the blog bird list.

More to come ...

Outside In?

Inside out?

Fun with reflections.

My Calendar Must Be Slow

It says January 14th.

But clearly spring has sprung.

I think I need a new one.

Bad Bird Photo of the Week

They usually arrive around Thanksgiving, although we've had them as early as Halloween.

We've had over a dozen in the yard at time.

This year, not so much.

In fact, this is only the second sighting this winter. And it took until January to show up.

This was five days ago. We've not seen any since. 

Is it that warm up north? Is there that much food in the woods? Are there just not that many birds anymore (I surely hope not)?

Maybe it's the deer fence.

And if you're keeping a blog bird list, you can add Fox Sparrow.