Sky Circles

While driving down the road the other day I, not surprisingly, looked up in the sky

And saw some circles.

Like the circle in the Yet Another Lunar Halo post, these circles are the result of water in the atmosphere, in this case contrails. Contrails of planes likely circling the Philadelphia airport.

This second image shows a pale Sundog, the bright spot in the upper center, to the right of the overexposed Sun. And the bright spot on the contrail circle, below the Sundog, is a fragment of the 22° Halo, the type of halo shown around the Moon.

Walking

Among the perks of working from home is that I can go walking at lunch time. 

And of course I have my phone, which is also a camera.

I've mentioned before that we live directly across from Budds Bogs, a cranberry farm. And cranberry farms need water.

I like the cloud reflection framed by the water control structure.

This old structure has the feel of a rainforest, helped no doubt by the spiky plant in the lower right.

🚶🏼‍♂️  🚶🏼‍♂️  🚶🏼‍♂️  🚶🏼‍♂️  🚶🏼‍♂️

Being able to wander about in the time of the plague has been wonderful for my sanity. I can't imagine what it is like living in an apartment in an a city (ok I can, but only because I've colleagues who do so).

I hope you too have found a way to deal with this.

It Is Balloon!

I had to take my car in for service today, to get the electronic system upgraded. The STARLINK system uses the 3G cellular network and that network is being retired.

But this post is not about car service issues that didn't exist when I got my first car. Which for the record was a Chevy Chevette that did not come with a radio. 

No, it is about what I saw as I was retuning the loaner car.

This:

It Is Balloon!

I would occasionally see these floating in the distance out my kitchen window when I lived in my condo. Now I occasionally see them form the other side when I'm out and about, although I've not seen them from our place ... yet. Maybe someday one will float over while I'm sitting out on the deck.

Pretty cool to see.

🎈 🎈 🎈 🎈 🎈

The title is from an episode of a TV show that I watched over and over as a kid, as it was shown over and over on channel 11, and I, and my siblings, would often watch TV when we got home from school. The show was F Troop. And this was the scene from the episode. I have no idea why this bit stuck in my memory. But it did.

Pinelands CBC

Once upon a time skill with a rifle meant food on the table. And birds were food.

And as with anything humans do, that skill was turned into a contest. And that contest became a team game, seeing which team could shoot the most birds in a day.

A skill useful to survival, putting food on the table, became one of excess and needless death, most of the birds (and other critters) shot in these contests left to rot.

A stream at our fist stopping point.

Then at the start of the 20th century Frank M. Chapman proposed a different activity. Instead of killing birds let's count how many birds we can see. And thus the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) was born.

And for over a hundred years folks have been going out around Christmas time and counting birds. An incredible scientific resource, a database of bird population changes over the years.

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

A Golden-crowned Kinglet, one of four at this site, 

taken by Patty with her phone.

Patty and I have been adding to the database, for Area C of the Pinelands Christmas Bird Count for the seven years we've been here, including this past Sunday, when saw 35 different species (in line with previous years) and 986 individual birds (a bit on the low side, it was windy).

There is still time to get in on the fun. Here is a link to find a CBC near you. So get out and count some birds! It's fun, and it's science!

Ducks on a Stream

Some more new neighbors, a bit further down the road.

Patty has noticed them one day on her way to work. A small flock of ducks on a very small stream.

While there are farms in the area it is not obvious where these might be from. 

Welcome to the neighborhood.

It's That Time

When homes across the country become ...

... light shows.

Like this place just done the road. Surrounded by trees, an oasis of light.

My favorite time of the year.

Meet The Neighbors

I woke up Sunday morning, had a cup of coffee and a bite to eat, and then decided to go for a walk. It was a bit chilly, in the thirties, but no wind. Perfect.

And I was not the only one who thought so.

I heard* them before I saw them, as I approached the road down our back driveway.

These birds:

Helmeted Guineafowl. A species native to Africa, but one that can be found on farms throughout the US, including now the horse farm next to our place.

Which is fine by me, as they are known for consuming ticks. Lots of ticks. I hope they visit our yard, plenty of yummy ticks here!

Why did the Guineafowl cross the road?

To bask in the morning sunlight of course.

~~~~~~~~~~

* They are known as good "watch birds" and will make quite a racket when something is amiss. Like a stranger approaching, or a fox in the yard. And they seemed both alarmed and curious about me as I headed toward them.

Hood Ornament

On my walk to the Thompson-Wright Preserve I came across this:

And I've nothing more to say.

Thompson-Wright Revisted

I noted in the Thompson-Wright post that that visit would not be my last. And true to my word I visited again this past Saturday, this time to just to explore. And Patty came with me.    

I walked from my house to the Preserve, and while I was waiting for Patty to join me I noticed this sign. Specifically I noticed the nails. Either this is very hard wood, a weak hammerer, or there is play left for the tree to grow out. I suppose I'll need to check back in a few years to find out.

The sign was on a sand road leading into the western side of the Preserve.

But today we explored the eastern side. Note the clear blue skies.

Not sure what this strap/belt is for, but it has been there for some time.

My old Kentucky home .. it looked as if the color had been sprayed on.

We've noticed this pattern in oak leaves before while wandering in the Pines.

Patty drew a connection to the fungal pattern. Coincidence?

Clouds are rolling in ...

Piney engineering.

The roads are surprisingly well maintained. Perhaps because of off road vehicle use? We heard, but did not see, said vehicles during our explorations.

A road not taken, at least not by us. It may connect up with South Firelane Road. 

It was obvious that maintenance had been done on the roads/trails. It was also obvious that it had be awhile since it was done.

Not clear if this was 'maintenance', accidental damage, or the work of some critter.

Along the northern edge of the Preserve is a deep ditch. The bridge built by the Piney engineers spans it, and the Road not Taken traverses it. And the above image is of an old water control station that connects the ditch to the Burrs Mill Creek, the water flowing under the sand road. I wonder the last time anyone used it tp actually control the flow (it was wide open when we passed).

The end of the road (and thickening clouds).

Or at least a gap, the road bisected by the Burrs Mill Creek.

The view from the other side. An approximately mile and a half detour.

The Creek the road I live on is named for.

A nice way to spend a morning. And I doubt this will be our last visit.

Thompson-Wright

Three years ago the NJ Conservation Foundation purchased a piece of land approximately two miles from where we live. 

A former cranberry bog, now known as the Thompson-Wright Preserve.

And despite repeatedly saying, each time we drove by, that we needed to check it out, it wasn't until last Thursday that I visited for the first time.

It won't be the last.

It is quite picturesque.

At multiple scales.

And did I mention it is nearby?

🌱  🌿  🍃  🍂  🌲

It won't be the last visit because my friend Russell, who works for the NJ Conservation Foundation, recently asked for volunteers to help identify the plants on the Preserve, in preparation for some restoration efforts to remove invasive species, most importantly Phragmites. And I, perhaps recklessly, volunteered. 

"Recklessly" as I suck at plant identification.

Wish me luck!

Share the Road

On the road to the Rancocas Creek Farm, albeit not on the way to pick up the farm share, I ran into these ducks.

Not exactly sure what species, although they are no doubt domestic.

Which is a bit obvious in the way they sit on the side of the road. As do the ducks which live just next door to us.

And these are new neighbors, as we travel this road quite often and had not seem them prior to this past two weeks.

I hope they find the area to their liking.

Good Bugs

The Pinelands Preservation Alliance had the land that surrounded their headquarters donated to them. There was just one catch, it was a preserved farm, and thus it had to be farmed.

And thus was the Rancocas Creek Farm, and the associated CSA born.

We signed up for a share, which we split with our friends Karen and Bull.

This is the farm. I was out picking string beans. (Yep, you pay for the privilege of working in the fields.)

I got done before the rains came.

This week's haul. Sadly, they ran out of carrots (Patty makes an awesome carrot cake).

And just inside the deer fence was this sign. Alas, visiting the website via the QR code did not give any insight to exactly what bugs were at work.

But it was nice to know I wasn't the only one working in the fields.

Frist World Problems

In the Almost Back post I discussed my travails with electronic versus lightning.

One problem I had was that for reasons that are still not clear, Apple thought my computer wasn't my computer, and that it was actually owned by a company, in that there was MDM (Mobile Device Management) software installed on it. 

Now why there would be Mobile Device Management software on a desktop computer never seemed to cross the mind of the 'genius' at the Apple store, they told me I needed to provide proof, such as a receipt, that the computer was mine.

There were several problems with this.

First, the receipt was on the hard drive of the computer that I did not have. Second, Apple keeps eighteen months of purchase history online and available to customers; I bought this computer nineteen months prior to the incident. Third, I had no connectivity at my place to contact Apple support (recall my modem and router were also fried) and thus to contact them I needed to venture out to where a signal could be had.

So I did. And while I was on the phone with an Apple support rep, one who tried very hard to be helpful, for over an hour (!!!) I was getting more and more frustrated at this whole Catch-22 situation, this appeared in the sky out my car windshield.

And while on hold for the n-teenth time I snapped this image. And calmed down a bit.

Eventually the rep told me that she was unable to get a receipt, but that she had ordered one on my behalf from somewhere else inside Apple, and cautions that it might take several days to arrive (It arrived that evening). 

And it turned out I didn't need it anyway. Some other 'genius' at the Apple store (a super genius perhaps?) figured out that the MDM issue was all a mistake. 

All that stress and frustration for nothing. 

I really needed that vacation ...

Mothing at Bull's

After we got home from our Beach Babe adventure our friend Marty stopped by and we had a traditional Fourth of July hotdog lunch with potato salad and of course beer. After eating Patty and Marty went off to find a Dickcissel (they found it!). 

And I took a nap. It would not be enough ...

Because we went to our friend Bull's place to moth. And mothing occurs after dark. And Civil Twilight is 9:02, Nautical Twilight 9:43, and Astronomical Twilight 10:30 pm.  

So while I got some mothing in that evening, I also got some sleeping in.

But while I was awake ...

We had at least three of these Imperial Moths, along with at least five Io Moths (which I did not get any pictures of, sorry).

We think this is a Spiny Oakworm Moth. 

And this, perhaps an Ilia Underwing moth.

It wasn't just moths ...

This is a Four-spotted Owlfly. Note the split eye. A dragonfly like insect with butterfly antennas. 

This is a Loghorn Beetle, specifically a Spined Oak Borer Beetle. I like the googly-eyes. 

But the star of the show was this Oak Treehopper. Clearly an alien species. Very cool looking for sure. 

I wonder what else I’d have seen had I stayed awake?