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A Pine Cone
A Pitch Pine Cone (Pinus rigida), containing the beautiful Fibonacci sequence. So many examples of it in nature — pineapples, seedheads, sea shells, spiral galaxies, are just a few. Totally fascinating. _______________________________________________________________________ If you would like to receive my daily blog posts by email, sign up here!
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In A State of Torpor
Imagine, right now in the cold of winter, there are adult Mourning Cloak Butterflies (Nymphalis antiopa) hunkering down waiting for spring. Hunkering down in cracks in rocks, under loose tree bark, in tree cavities. They manage to do this in a state of torpor, which is similar to hibernation. As spring arrives, this butterfly’s task…
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Mighty Cold
One day later and it was mighty cold this morning at the yoga studio, 28°. The newly filled vernal pool pleased me with its thin covering of ice. I always bring along my camera, and Mother Nature did the rest. _______________________________________________________________________ If you would like to receive my daily blog posts by email, sign up…
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The Vernal Pool
The yoga studio has its vernal pool again. After many many months of just a dry depression at the edge of the parking lot, it has arrived again thanks to many bits of rain over the past couple weeks, including 2 or 3 inches of rain yesterday. A vernal pool full of loads of potential…
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Checking Things Out
Letting everyone know that they’re checking things out. Often they come through, early to mid-January. Sometimes they stay and raise a family other times they move on to other areas. Hoping there will be Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) here for a while.
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Winter And Some Trees Still Have Leaves
This afternoon’s sun, lighting up the marcescent leaves of an American Beech (Fagus grandifolia). Trees that have marcescent leaves are trees that keep their leaves until spring when new leaves begin to grow and push the old leaves off and to the ground. It is still uncertain why this happens. There are thoughts though, including…
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Brightly Colored Lichen
There’s a rock wall, a tenth of a mile long, that parallels the lane approaching my cabin. Many, many years ago it was created to help the land above become a bit more level, for growing corn. Now all these years later those rocks have a remarkable amount of lichen growing on them. The brilliant…
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Not Quite
Today’s weather, not quite what I was hoping for. Yes, this morning there was first sleet, then freezing rain. But in what seemed like the blink of an eye it was gone. Turned to just rain. Actually it did happen more slowly than that, but by mid-afternoon the winter glam and glitter was gone. Ah…
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Garden In Winter
Gardens in winter can be a source of food for many animals. Let those seedheads stay for the birds to enjoy. This is a male Goldfinch (Spinus tristis) in his winter attire. Goldfinch are here year ’round. They come to my feeders for the black oil sunflower seeds that I put out, but they also…
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I Need To Make Some Suet For The Birds
Seeing movement some distance from me, I focused my attention on what was going on. Turns out it’s a male Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) visiting me today. This is the smallest woodpecker in North America. One that I often see, all year long. They’re fascinating and having them here year ’round makes me feel quite…