Birdsong at Night

I'm sitting in our cabin here in Maine, listening to birdsong. That's not unusual, except that it's fully dark, almost 9 PM, and I'm sipping a nice Cabernet, not my morning cup of coffee.

I love wild birds. I love feeding them, watching them, identifying them, and listening to them. My daughters once shared my delight and awe, but now they are teenagers and not much delights or awes them any longer. It's quite sad. But I remain hopeful that once they get past this stage (which has its own delights, I assure you), they'll return to those things that once bright them joy.

Source

The bird I hear now is a hermit thrush. I've been enjoying listening to them for years here in Maine. I never hear them down South. They have a very unique and lovely song; it's intricate, whereas some birdsongs are quite simple. And there's a unique whirring aspect to parts of it.

I first learned about hermit thrushes a few years ago when the girls and I visited Birdsacre and the Stanwood Wildlife Sanctuary, a wonderful house museum and bird sanctuary in Ellsworth, Maine. There we learned about the life and vocation of Cordelia J. Stanwood, a 19th century pioneer ornithologist and photographer whose passion was birds. We enjoyed out tour of the house and the girls got to help the volunteer feed the birds that live there. Our favorites were the sawwhet owls.

As a memento, I purchase a biography of Cordelia, written by Chandler S. Richmond and titled Beyond the Spring. Frankly, I did not hold out much hope for a well-written book. So I was pleasantly surprised at the engaging style of Richmond's prose. And what a story, too! More to the point of this post, however, is her deep admiration for the hermit thrush. She wrote:

“When the thrush speaks to me, it seems as if the rags and tatters that enshroud my soul fall away and leave it naked. Then I must be simple and true or I cannot feel the message the small voice brings to me. When the thrush sings, I desire to live in a small, scrupulously neat camp, open to the sun and the wind and the voices of the birds. I would like to spend eternity thus, listening to the song of the thrush.”

My response to the thrush's song isn't quite as strong, but I do love it. Here's a link to the hermit thrush page at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds website. You can see photos of this bird and, more importantly, listen to recordings of its song. And here's a link to the hermit thrush page on the Audubon website. Excellent recordings of its song are down lower on the page. Prepare to be charmed. And the next time you hear a bird singing at night, think of the hermit thrush.

Autumn's Glory

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” 
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

This fall has been an especially beautiful one. October and the first half of November were simply blazing with color. With the sun shining through the leaves on a bright blue day, the colors were like stained glass windows in direct light.

“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.” ― Lauren DeStefano, Wither


As we move into the second half of November, rain, wind, and chill have moved in also. Many of the trees are bare now. But I have photos to remind me of what they looked like a short time ago.

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower."

― Albert Camus

I especially love two or more trees grouped together with colors ablaze. A yard in my neighborhood boasts a dark red tree nestled up to a larger tree with golden yellow leaves. I missed getting a photo; the recent winds stripped them.

"Autumn's the mellow time."
― William Allingham

And the luscious colors of it all: gold, tangerine, sunshine yellow, maroon, tan, crimson, lipstick red, dark orange. The way they looks against the cerulean sky.

"There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!"
― Percy Bysshe Shelley


I breathe in the spicy scent of the falling leaves that fills the air. It's a dark, rich odor, like the season itself.

Have you enjoyed your autumn this year?

In the Land of Magnolias

We have these mysterious trees in our back yard. Our back yard, it should be noted, has been left on its own for more than 20 years. We have plans for it, but at the moment it is still au naturel. There are LOTS of trees. However, there are several trees that have been a mystery to me for years. I say years because we also had one or two in the back yard of our last house. At this house, there are younger trees of this species and older, taller trees. And they have a distinguishing feature: their huge leaves.

Earlier this spring, Himself told me that our neighbor reported to him that these trees bloom with large white blossoms in early summer/late spring. "We've always called them wild magnolias," our neighbor said.

We live in the deep South, where magnolias abound. The variety we're used to down here is the Southern magnolia (magnolia grandiflora), and there are lots of those in our neighborhood. But they look nothing like the trees in my back yard. The shape of the tree is different and so are the leaves. So I shrugged at this bit of news and then forgot about it.

Until a few weeks ago, when Himself pointed out a blossom to me. It was high up in the tree, best visible from our second story deck, and gorgeous: large, creamy white, and waxy looking. Just like a magnolia.

So I Googled "wild magnolia tree," and bingo! I discovered that these trees are indeed magnolias. After doing a bit of research, I have tentatively identified my trees as bigleaf magnolias (magnolia macrophylla), due to the size of their leaves. Another possibility is the Fraser magnolia (magnolia fraseri), but its leaves are not quite as large, so I went with macrophylla.

According to our neighbor, the flowers have a lovely perfume, in keeping with their magnolia-ness. Sadly, the flowers on our trees are too high for us to smell. The flowers are also few. I wish there were more blooms! If it weren't for the flowers, I'd never been able to ID these trees.

I'm always excited when I make a nature discovery, whether it's a bird, flower, or tree identification. I'm sort of a nature nut when it comes to those kinds of things. Last week in the car, Tiny Girl said with an exasperated sigh and a smile, "You're always pointing out clouds!"

What can I say? Nature makes me happy!

Have you ever seen bigleaf magnolias where you are?



Linking up with:
Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll thru Life
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style

A New Guest at the Feeder

We FINALLY hung one of our bird feeders up on the deck right outside the kitchen window. We still have two more to hang, but I need to get feeder posts suitable for the deck to hang the feeders.

One of my "must haves" when we were house hunting was a kitchen window with a view to the outdoors. Many houses around here have interior kitchens. No, thank you. As much as we love bird-watching, a room with a view was non-negotiable.

I posted quite a bit about birds in the past, and I'll get back into the habit when I get back into blogging like I used to. With the switch in focus (and life), I'm still trying to find my groove. And unpack boxes. Yes, still.

Anyway, I was super excited to have this visitor last week:

Source

Yes, it's the aptly-named red-headed woodpecker. Aren't they gorgeous?

Unfortunately, they have "near threatened" conservation status. Partners in Flight list them as a "Common Bird in Steep Decline." Why? One major reason is that they nest in dead trees or dead parts of live trees. As development spreads, dead trees are removed from the landscape. And even though red-headed woodpeckers will nest in utility poles, studies have shown that eggs do not hatch in newer poles, probably due to creosote.

I only saw this beauty for two days. It visited my feeder several times for the black-oil sunflower seed I serve. They are big insect eaters; perhaps our warmer weather has made for an increase in the insect buffet around here. I hope so.

Wouldn't it be a huge shame to lose such a beautiful species?

BirdSleuth: A Great Resource for Birdwatching and Nature Study

As you may already know, we are dedicated backyard birders. As a form of nature study, birdwatching is easy and inexpensive and fun. You can even take the leap into the field of citizen science with the Great Backyard Bird Count and Project FeederWatch, both programs from Cornell's Lab of Ornithology.

I recently came upon another Cornell resource called BirdSleuth. This is wonderful! Read my full review over at Curriculum Choice. . . .

New Sighting! Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker

So I got all excited about this bird that was pecking at the trees near our feeders because I thought it was a pileated woodpecker. We hear them a lot but see them rarely. But Tiny Girl said, "It can't be, Mom. It's too small."

After we got a few brief glimpses through our binoculars (a birder's best friend -- well, those and a good field guide), it flew away and we flew to the computer.

Our friends at Bird Web provided the solution. On the pileated woodpecker page, there are several photo suggestions for birds that look like it. Tiny Girl pointed to one. "That's it!"

Yellow-bellied sapsucker

Sphyrapicus varius

We compared the yellow-bellied sapsucker with the red-naped sapsucker. The latter is not in our area of the country, so that gave us our answer.

Typically, Cornell's All About Birds site is my go-to online resource, but the only two similar species they suggested were the red-headed woodpecker and the American crow. (What?? I think I can tell the difference between a crow -- which we see all day, every day -- and a pileated woodpecker!)

But it's good to have a few tricks up one's sleeve, so I'm glad I found Bird Web.

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

New Sighting! Eastern Phoebe

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

I've heard mention of Eastern Phoebes (Sayornis phoebe) often over the years, but I've never seen one except for photographs. But just today, I caught sight of an unusual bird perched atop the feeder pole. For a second I thought, "Mockingbird?" But it was too small and its head was darker. I thought it might be a Phoebe.

It flew away before I could grab my trusty binoculars, which I keep on the kitchen counter for bird-spying. But I looked it up in my new compendium, The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America, almost 800 pages of photos and detailed descriptions, along with a CD of bird songs, featuring 150 different species. And I was right!

(I'm getting pretty good at this, actually. Ahem.)

She didn't partake of our feeder offerings, but I hope she comes back.

New Sighting! Pine Warbler

Tiny Girl and I noticed two birds -- visiting at separate times -- who looked out of place at our feeders. They bore a slight resemblance to goldfinches, but their heads were grayer, their breasts were pale yellow, their wings were lighter (gray instead of black), and the white bars on their wings were not as distinct. One of them had more yellow on its head than the other, resembling a nonbreeding male goldfinch. But the wings were still too different from a goldfinch's wings.

Pine siskin? we wondered. Nope. Pine siskins' breasts are heavily barred, a detail missing on our diners. Plus, they were too yellow. Pine siskins have a bit of yellow under their wings and tail and maybe a touch on the wing edges, but that's all.

Off to the WWW we went, straight to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's site, All About Birds. First, I went to their goldfinch page, not because I thought our mystery guests were goldfinches, but because this fabulous website features similar species -- with photos!

On a hunch, I clicked on the link to the pine siskin page and looked over the similar species photos. A few clicks of the mouse later, and I landed on a strong contender. I called Tiny in to take a look at several photos. "That's it!" she said happily. Pine warblers. Setophaga pinus and Dendroica pinus, in case you're boning up on your Latin. I guess they're so fabulous they get two binomial names.

Photo courtesy Laura Gooch via EOL, Encyclopedia of Life

Ah, what satisfaction.

The photo above looks a lot like one of our new friends. The second warbler had more yellow around its head and breast. I couldn't find a satisfactory photo of it. I'm certain the one above in a female, which tend to be more drab than the males.

Equally as fun as identifying this species is the fact that we've never seen them before. According to All About Birds, pine warblers have olive coloring on their backs. I'll look for that next time.

New Bird Sighting! Hermit Thrush

Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Last week, the girls and I noticed a new feathered visitor to our tray feeder. It looked a little similar to a brown thrasher, except the eyes, tail, and size were different. We researched the bird in our bird books, hoping for a firm identification, but the closest we could surmise was the fox sparrow. Too bad our friend didn't sport the grey areas on its head, like a fox sparrow does. So our mystery guest remained a mystery.

So I was delighted when I opened an email from Audubon about the Great Backyard Bird Count, and there it was! A photo of our bird AND a positive i.d. It's a hermit thrush!

The photo above really doesn't do Catharus guttatus justice. Its back feathers are a lovely reddish brown (think auburn), and the white ring around its round, dark eye is particularly vivid. Smaller than a robin and larger that most of the songbirds that dine here, hermit thrushes are in our area in the winter only, like dark-eyed juncos.

We are always excited to identify a new bird variety!

Don't let this year's GBBC (Great Backyard Bird Count) slip by without joining in! Today's the last day. And you can count for as little as 15 minutes. Yesterday, I counted for that length of time while I worked at my computer in the study. I face a picture window that overlooks my back yard -- and feeders!

A Charm of Finches

The Great Backyard Bird Count is next month, and we've already begun luring our quarry (to count!) to our feeders.

We've had finches in abundance: goldfinches and house finches, to be precise. Did you know that the most often used collective noun for finches is a charm? I love that. A charm of finches. How perfect.

Here are six female house finches dining at our tray feeder. They love the black oil sunflower seeds and the suet cake. Can you see them? It's a little tricky, but this was the best I could do. I took the photo from my breakfast room window.

They also cluster around the thistle seed feeder alongside the goldfinches, but I couldn't get a decent shot of that. I'll keep trying!

We are still seeing the bluebirds several times a day. But it won't be long before they move along to search out bluebird houses to their family nests. We don't have a bluebird house (nor an ideal place to put one), so we'll bid them adieu til next winter.

My Favorite Bird

Our backyard birdfeeders get lots of visitors in the winter. Tufted titmice, Carolina chickadees, Carolina wrens (which we've called Jenny wrens ever since we read the Burgess Bird Book), and northern cardinals are our most frequent guests. Song sparrows, house finches, mourning doves, and yellow-rumped warblers show up quite a bit, while dark-eyed juncos hop along the ground just under the feeders, gleaning. Downy woodpeckers and red-bellied woodpeckers enjoy the suet. And in later winter, goldfinches will flock around our niger seed feeder.

Early last week, on one of the many drizzly, dreary days we've had, a flash of bright blue caught my eye. I called the girls to the window and we watched four eastern bluebirds take turns with the suet. Three males and one female. Since then we've seen them every day, as many as five at a time several times per day.

I can see the feeders from the window above my kitchen sink and my study picture window, so I have plenty of opportunities to observe my favorite bird species. The leafless trees in our backyard are the perfect backdrop to their purple-blue plumage. Often two males will perch on swaying branches just near the feeders whiletwo or three others nibble at the suet. Sometimes one or two will glean on the ground beneath the feeders, or snatch up suet pieces that fall on top of the baffle.

This morning, I watched for a few precious seconds as a male bluebird and a male cardinal perched on the edges of our tray feeder. I quickly alterted Miss Priss, who was eating her breakfast at the table. She managed to catch a glimpse before they flew away. What a glorious sight!

Sightings of bluebirds are particular precious to me because I know the birds won't stay around for long. A woman at a bird feeder store told me that if I'd put up a bluebird house, they would stay and raise a brood. But our wooded backyard is not conducive to bluebird houses; they have strong opinions about house placement!

So I'll enjoy them while I can. I'll stop whatever I'm doing to note their dark periwinkle feathers that perfectly complement their burnt range breasts. I'll admire the lovely blue-gray coloring of the females, their buff breasts, and their bright black eyes.

I love all the birds that we see. I adore goldfinches and am always glad to play host for them on their travels.The cedar waxwings that descend upon us, strip our holly tree of berries in a day or so, and then disappear -- their very transience mark them as extra special. In fact, we've actually missed their visits in prior winters! And I'm always excited to see something new.

Still, the Eastern bluebird holds my heart.

"Owls" Project Pack: A Fantastic Study!

I've enjoyed a few lovely days off to celebrate Christmas and New Year's with my family and friends. I hope you had some rest and relaxation time as well. There's nothing like a cold, rainy Christmas Day that invites you to stay jammie-clad in front of a nice fire with a really good book, is there? Perfection!

I wasn't completely lax, however; I found time to write a review on a most wonderful resource: the Owls Project Pack from In the Hands of a Child. If you and yours love owls -- like we do! -- you'll thoroughly enjoy this. To read my complete review, pop over to Curriculum Choice.

And a happy and blessed 2013 to you!


Photo credit: Doug Greenberg / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

Weekly Happenings: About That Slow Mornings Post...

Forget I said anything about that. It seems I mistakenly thought our few slow mornings might last when it was only for this week -- and not even all week, at that!

 Anyway.

 We're continuing with some work, much to the girls' delight (that last part is a big lie; I should have typed "which the girls are tolerating"). Each day, they complete a session on the Xtra Math website to practice their math facts. Miss Priss also completes a lesson from Life of Fred Fractions, and Tiny Girl a page from DK's Math Made Easy workbook.

 A few highlights from our readings:

• Plutarch's Lives: "Brutus": Brutus and Cassius have amassed large armies to go against Octavius and Antonius. Brutus decides to richly furnish his soldiers in hopes they will fight better to preserve their fine "furniture." We shall see.
• Oliver Twist: Oliver recuperates in the home of the fine benefactor, Mr. Brownlow; but his ne'er do well "friends" are looking for him to keep him from "peaching." The girls and I are worried about our little friend.
• A Passion for the Impossible: Lilias and her two missionary friends are bringing to life the title of this book. They've arrived in Algeria knowing no one, not speaking the language, and having no concrete plans. The girls and I are concerned. Well, Miss Priss and I are. This is not Tiny Girl's favorite, so she is less personally involved.
• This Country of Ours: President Garfield is assassinated, and the spoils system (thanks a lot, Andrew Jackson) is finally abolished.

 We continued our study of flowers, concentrating on their reproductive system. I didn't take any photos this time, mostly because I left my camera inside that afternoon and everyone (including me) was in a bad mood. We soon shook it off and proceeded to enjoy our study, but the camera remained inside.

We worked with two types of flowers, petunias and roses. We dissected both and observed each under our magnifying glass. (I can't wait until our stereo microscope arrives from Home Science Tools!) Using handouts I printed from different websites, we identified different parts. Two of us greatly enjoyed this. One of us had not shaken off all of her bad mood to participate fully. Her loss.

Here are websites I found helpful:

How Flowering Plants Reproduce
The Great Plant Escape
Flower Parts

And here's a slideshow presentation that I found particularly helpful, at least the first few pages. It goes into a bit more detail that we are.

Reproduction In Flowering Plants

View more PowerPoint from bzemcik

If you're following me on Twitter, Instagram, of Facebook, then you've seen these photos before. If not (and hey, feel free to link up and join in on the fun!), here's a mosaic of our week:

From top left: 1.) Yours truly, at the summer's here! pool party; 2.) Miss Priss reading leisurely one morning; 3.) Tiny Girl and Max, at the barn early to beat the heat; 4.) My nifty nameplate from a previous workplace. Everyone had one, made by a manager's wife. I've had it almost 20 years. Sorry it's sideways; I was in a hurry.

I'll leave you with a word from Sir Walter Scott, in honor of Memorial Day and its vast significance to us:

Soldier, rest! Thy warfare o'er,
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
Dream of battled fields no more.
Days of danger, nights of waking.

Amen.

I'm linking up!
The Homeschool Mother's Journal
Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
No Ordinary Blog Hop
Photo Collage Friday
Camera Phone Friday

Weekly Happenings: Flowers at the Finish Line!

Pay no attention to the part about "finish line" in this post's title. Education never "finishes" at our house. We might change direction, change focus, change methods, mix it up a bit, you name it. But we never finish.

I'm still learning even now.

We are, however, setting aside some subjects for a break, such as regular copywork, grammar, and foreign language. Tiny Girl finished her level in Spelling Power, and Miss Priss completed her latest Word Roots workbook. Tiny Girl also reached a natural stopping point in her Building Thinking Skills workbook.

Readings will continue until we finish those scheduled for AO's year 5. I don't like to rush readings. Also, we'll do some math every day to defend against mathematical brain drain.

In our readings this week:

• Abraham Lincoln's World: the world gets "smaller," i.e., not as remote
• This Country of Ours: President Johnson is impeached (but prevails); Grant is elected president for two terms
• Oliver Twist: our hero recuperates at the home of Mr. Brownlow
• A Passion for the Impossible: Lilias departs for north Africa
• Story Book of Science: flowers

I wanted to expand on our Story Book of Science lesson, so yesterday we took our readings outside (it was a gorgeous day). Armed with the Handbook of Nature Study, some flowers, and this helpful guide from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, we began our study.

We began by looking at roses. Himself and I had pruned our Knock Out rosebushes over the weekend and kept several unopened buds in a cup of water. Perfect! Above is an excellent example of a rosebud's unopened corolla (collective name for flower petals).

Here is a rose sepal (rhymes with steeple), one of the green outer leaves that protects the developing rosebud. Taken together, the group of five sepals of each bud is called a calyx.

We also considered verbena flowers. Each verbena cluster comprises several tiny flowers.

Lantana and verbena are in the same family, hence the resemblance.

The girls seemed to enjoy our study, which gladdened this mama's heart. Next week, we'll study flower reproduction.

Here's our week in pictures:

From left to right, starting at top: 1. A hydrangea bloom; 2. A tomato that's sprouted! 3. Reading about Lilias Trotter; 4. Taking a rest in the shade; 5. A velvet milkshake; 6. Reading aloud outside; 7. Jasper investigating our flowers; 8. Thirsty Georgette; 9. Breakfast: mini cinnamon rolls from Trader Joe's and a cup of coffee in my new handmade mug

I'm linking up! Click below for more fun, encouragement, and ideas. Who doesn't need those things, I ask you?

Collage Friday at Homegrown Learners
The Homeschool Mother's Journal at iHomeschool Network
No Ordinary Blog Hop
Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
Camera Phone Friday at My Home Sweet Home

Have a great weekend!

Suburban Nature Encounters: Birds and Rabbits

We've had some fun nature moments in the last couple of weeks. It's spring, after all, and every creature's thoughts turn to. . . the usual: survival.

Since I'm a mediocre photographer at best, please bear with me. You may need to use your imagination a bit to really appreciate the scenes. :-)

At the equestrian park last week, we were delighted to discover this Carolina wren's nest in the rafters of the barn, right above our heads. I was unable to get a photo of Mama Wren, since she was extremely busy searching out food for her young ones. We could hear their demanding little peeps. Miss Priss and I were intrigued by the nest design: she'd built it "up," with the opening at the bottom left. You may be able to detect the front door:

Our neighborhood rabbits have been active. Perhaps spring has gone to their heads; we see them all hours of the day, even in the bright afternoon. I hope they're on the lookout for hawks and cats! I took this (admittedly poor) shot from our breakfast room window. Before I could take any more, the little guy bounded off.

I saved the best for last. In my most recent  Weekly Happenings post, I wrote about watching a titmouse make off with a large tuft of dog hair to line its nest. Corgi undercoat must be a much sought-after building material. In these photos (the best of many I shot), a Carolina chickadee collects dog hair from a rug we'd tossed on the deck.

She made several trips to gather the hair.

See the tuft in her beak?

Right after I snapped the above photo, she lit off.

In case you're wondering why the rug is on the deck rail, I'll tell you. The dogs had been having a field day ripping off the non-skid backing, and, in their exultation, ruined the rug. Ah, well. It had already given the best of its life to us.

Our feeders have been busy. The mealworms, so mocked by Himself ("What's going to eat those?"), vanished. We've sighted our regular patrons: titmice, Carolina chickadees, Carolina wrens, and Northern cardinals. Other visitors include: mourning doves, a yellow-rumped warbler, nuthatches, and house finches. I was late setting out my niger-seed finch feeder, however, and we missed the flocks of migrating goldfinches we usually serve in the spring.

Any interesting nature activity in your backyard or environs? Tell me about it!

Weekly Happenings: Excitement Galore!

We're clicking right along with life. Good stuff going on!

The most exciting news for me: I wrote my first-ever review for The Curriculum Choice website! I reviewed Spelling Power, which we've used for almost two years. If you are looking for an effective and easy-to-use spelling curriculum, pop over and read my review. I highly recommend Spelling Power. I'll be contributing regularly to The Curriculum Choice, so look for me (and other great reviewers) there.

In other exciting news: earlier this week I had my first-ever unqualified bread-baking success when I made sandwich buns. Of course I blogged about it; I had to brag and I also included a link to the recipe. If I can make these well, anyone can. Trust me.

The girls are playing "Fur Elise" for their piano practice this week. I never get tired of listening to that piece. Tiny Girl has selected it for one of her recital pieces. She'll often plop down at the piano and play it. Both my daughters play well, but Tiny Girl plays for enjoyment; Miss Priss plays out of duty.

The weather has not been conducive to riding, so we've stayed home more this week. Today was pretty but chilly, and Tiny Girl opted to wait until tomorrow to ride. We're still searching for a medium pony for her. It's hard to find just the right thing.

The girls have been reading a lot this week. Miss Priss read Savvy, by Ingrid Law; The Wish, by Gail Carson Levine; and In the Face of Danger, the second of Joan Lowery Nixon's Orphan Train Quartet. Tiny Girl read The King's Equal, by Katherine Paterson; Ginger Pye, by Eleanor Estes; and The Mysterious Miss Slade, by Dick King-Smith. I'm thrilled that they are readers, but it can get in the way of actual lessons. Miss Priss in particular is loathe to interrupt reading a "fun" book for something so mundane as lessons. I can empathize, but school must go on.

For Christmas, Miss Priss gave Tiny Girl a Michaels gift card, and with it she purchased a triops kit. Triops, for the uninitiated (which included me before she bought the kit), are freshwater crustaceans (shrimp) that one raises from tiny eggs. Their scientific name is Triops longicaudatus. Some websites refer to these creatures as "prehistoric monsters," which I find hilarious. They are not monsters; they are small shrimp. One of their names, in fact, is "fairy shrimp," a name which does not strike fear into the hearts of humans. Several eggs hatched initially, and the biggest one, whom she named Lionel, after Lionel Hardcastle in the britcom "As Time Goes By," ate up all but one. The remaining victim, Leonardo, was moved to another tank to keep him away from Lionel. This isn't a great photo, but here is Lionel. As you can see, his water is a tad yucky:

See him down in the corner?

Here's a better photo from mytriops.com. This is not Lionel, of course. But he looks just like it.

Tiny Girl keeps both small tanks in her closet with three lights on: the overhead, a lamp, and a fish tank light. Needless to say, it's warm in her closet. Just right for egg hatching!

Tiny Girl also took time to tackle a puzzle. She and I enjoy puzzles, but not the insanely difficult 500-piece (or more) variety. We bought this one at Dollar Tree (350 pieces), and she did 99 percent of it herself pretty quickly. It's amazing to me how she can pick up pieces and just know where they go. Sometimes she has to play around a bit, but most of the time she simply fits pieces in like magic. It's kind of weird.

Did I mention she's also a natural with math? Did I mention than I am not? Here's the finished picture. It's called "The Wishing Well." My guess is that the kitten is wishing he could snag those titmice before they fly away.

Look for posts this weekend about my yogurt-making and rustic bread-baking adventures. I've lots to say -- both good and meh -- about those topics.

Happy weekend!

A Tale of Two Birds

Tuesday was a dreary day in our neck of the woods. At breakfast, Tiny Girl, who is now suffering from fifth disease, bless her, looked out the kitchen window and exclaimed over three very BIG birds up in the tops of our backyard trees. The birds looked black, but beyond that, identification was difficult due to the grayness of the day and the falling rain. But we persisted.

Tiny Girl Googled "huge black bird" and came up with some possibilities, which we investigated online. Only one seemed likely: the black vulture. We've seen turkey vultures here in our neighborhood before. But we could not get a clear view of this bird's head, so we were still unsure.

However, there were a few other clues. The birds high in the trees were silent. There were, as I said, three of them. They weren't gathered together in one tree, but they seemed "together." Their legs were light-colored in contrast to the rest of their bodies. And there was a murder (or flock, if you prefer) of crows haranguing these large, black birds. We've seen crows behave the same toward other vultures and hawks.

When the rain slowed to a sprinkle, I ventured out, camera in hand. I was able to get a decent shot, much to my delighted surprise. While I was outside, one of the birds spread its wings and held them outstretched, a behavior we've observed in turkey vultures.

In the above photo, you can (sort of) make out the shape of the bird's head, but you can't really see the pattern on its wings. I could see both clearly from my spot in the yard. After I took a few more snaps, the bird silently lifted off and soared away.

With all the information we'd gathered, we positively identified these birds as black vultures.

The second bird in my tale makes me happy every day. It's a solar dancing penguin. I'm fortunate to have two of them in my kitchen window because each of my daughters received one in a birthday favor bag from a friend. When sunlight hits the small screen on the white base, the little penguins rock back and forth. One of them is a sedate waltzer; its rock is in a series of four with a pause between each series. The other is more frenetic, rocking energetically and continuously.

What can I say? It doesn't take much to make me smile.

Backyard Sighting: Cooper's Hawk

I happened to glance outside my bathroom window just in time to see a Cooper's hawk land on the deck railing below. My camera was downstairs (of course!), so I contented myself with spying on it for a minute or two before it soared away.

I can hear you now. So, Ellen, how do you know that it was a Cooper's hawk and not the similar-looking sharp-shinned hawk? Well, it just so happened that I did NOT know for certain, so I did a bit o' research, as is my wont. I came upon a wonderful article, Tricky Bird IDs: Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cooper's Hawk, from Project FeederWatch, which cleared up the conundrum. Now I know my particular hawk was a Cooper's.

As much as I like seeing hawks -- we mostly see red-tailed hawks in our backyard -- I admit to a touch of anxiety when they stalk our feeders. Yes, I know they need to eat, too, and that their entree of choice is other small birds. But I don't like witnessing such National Geographic moments in my face and in real time. You know, in reality.

For your viewing pleasure (not in real time or reality), here's a photo I found on the GeorgiaInfo webpage:

Photo by Vicki DeLoach

In addition to this hawk, we were glad to see the dark-eyed juncos arrive! What are you seeing in your backyard this winter?

Spider at Work -- With Silk

The difference between utility and utility plus beauty is the difference between telephone wires and the spider web.
-- Edwin Way Teale

Today the girls read Chapter 25, "Spiders," from The Storybook of Science, by Jean-Henri Fabre.* Uncle Paul's description of the spider spinning its web is facinating, but seeing such a work in action makes an unforgettable impression. I searched on YouTube for a video that clearly showed a spider's spinnerets in action, and this one is really nice. A few seconds into the video, the camera zooms in for a close-up view.



The Smithosonian National Museum of Natural History has an excellent article on spiders here. Although technically dense, I found especially intriguing the three paragraphs related to spider silk. Did you know that a spider can produce different types of silk to use in different ways, such as one for spinning webs, another for cocooning eggs, and yet another for wrapping captured prey? Silly me; I thought it was all the same!

Silk is also extremely tough. This article on Wikipedia states, "A frequent mistake made in the mainstream media is to confuse strength and toughness when comparing silk to other materials. As shown below in detail, weight for weight, silk is stronger than steel, but not as strong as Kevlar. Silk is, however, tougher than both [toughness being the ability to absorb energy before breaking]." The article goes on to delineate many other of silk's impressive qualities. I had no idea it is so remarkable.

At our Maine cabin, there's always a spider or two that makes a web in the corner of our picture window (outside!) or in the corner where the exterior wall and roof overhang meet on the deck. I let them be. I like watching them in action when I can, although they tend to be secretive. To me, their webs are things of beauty.

* The Storybook of Science is a new addition for science in AO Year 4, but I'd heard pleasing things about it in the past and decided we'd read it even though we're in Year 5.

Scribblings in Maine: The War Zone

I wrote a lot of posts while we were in Maine this summer, but I couldn't publish them to my blog due to sketchy internet availability. I thought I'd publish them as a series (which seems a bit presumptuous; a "series," indeed) so you can read about what I was thinking and doing during that time. I'm much more thoughtful when my life is not crazed and chaotic.

Here's the first:

I'm living in the middle of a war zone, and this time my daughters are not the combatants. As I write this, I'm sitting on the deck of our cabin with a lovely view of the lake where the girls are swimming. I am filled with a quiet joy.

Out of nowhere, a thrumming buzz behind me interrupts my peace. A few mouse-like squeaks and then something swoops perilously close to the top of my head with another something hot on its tail. "Tail" is an appropriate word choice.

Ruby-throated hummingbirds on the warpath.

Small in size but huge in spirit, ruby-throated hummers are aggressive, fiercely guarding "their" territory and feeders, of which I have two. I have seen a hummer take a few sips and then dart up into a nearby tree to watch the feeder. Should an unwary interloper arrive -- and they always do -- the first hummer zips down commando-style to chase away the enemy.

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

I attributed this feeder-aggression to a need for constant nourishment to fuel their extremely high activity level. While this is important, I recently learned that aggression levels tend to peak in late summer and early fall, when ruby-throats are gearing up for migration, which includes a 500-mile trip across the Gulf of Mexico. Makes perfect sense.