Stuck at Home

In the two weeks after I came home from the hospital I was still getting infusions of antibiotics, still on anti-seizure medication that makes me very sleepy (resulting in one or two long naps a day), with balance still not good and with some extremely tight neck muscles resulting in occasional painful spasms. A fall resulting in a traumatic brain injury and a subsequent blood infection of unknown origin is not a good thing to have.

But I could walk about 1,000 feet down our road and back as long as I had company, I could walk or sit in the yard with my camera taking photos of wildflowers, fungi and the critters that visited, a few really small subjects brought out the macro lens.

Here they are, two weeks worth of photos from my cameras while I was recuperating at home –

 

All of the photos were taken within 50 feet of the house, some through the kitchen window, but I'm eager to get out in the forest where I've spent much of my life. 

Spring is Here

Actually spring came and then departed as I spent all but a couple of days of May in the hospital, missing the warbler migration and many spring wildflowers. But here's a delayed post from the beginning of spring –

Spring began on March 1^st with little to no snow and the first birds returning from warmer climes –

For much of March the weather alternated from warm to cold and back again. Silver maples along the river bloomed and ducks stopped by on their way north –

Then additional treats of spring arrive in April with the return of kinglets, house wrens and the first warblers –

The first insects emerged –

And then the ephemeral spring flowers burst into bloom –

The spring ephemerals have to emerge, flower and produce seed before the trees’ leaves fully emerge and expand to shade the forest floor –

By late April the broad-winged hawks have returned from the tropics to hunt amphibians and snakes and small mammals –

There’s more to spring and therefore more posts to come – but I'll have to wait until next year.

Another Rainy Spring Morning

Rain was falling as in the old rhyme – April showers bring May flowers. Even though there was “stuff” to do at home, there are times when there’s just an inner need to get outside, even if it’s only a ride to the lake to see what there is to see – so off we went.

Naturally, by the time we got to the lake the rain had eased up quite a bit. Oh well, we where there and there were things to see. Among those things were two pairs of blue-winged teal that, frustratingly, wouldn’t come close. No eagle to be seen, ospreys hadn’t arrived, and most waterfowl had already moved on in their northward migration.

As we circled the lake we saw a handful of folks fishing and near one of those boats – a common loon in breeding plumage.

That loon was amazingly unafraid of humans as it repeatedly dove and resurfaced. For a while I thought it might have gotten itself caught by swallowing a hooked fish, but that wasn't the case. Gradually, it moved away from the boat, preening and diving to hunt for food –

When the loon was preening it would roll part way over, sometimes bringing its huge webbed feet above the water –

When it finished preening, the loon moved about, often dipping its head below the surface as it searched for fish –

Emerging with water dripping from its beak –

Frequently, after looking for fish, it would dive and come up some distance away with an empty beak. But once the loon surfaced with large fish that it apparently had trouble swallowing –

When the loon finally got the fish well on its way, the meal made a sizable lump in its neck –

And then the loon seemed to celebrate its success –

Loons are beautiful birds; unfortunately they don’t breed in Pennsylvania. The last verified breeding here was apparently in 1946 and it was a very rare breeder before that. But we do get migrants stopping here to rest and feed. On May 6, 1975 a friend and I found several large groups of loons on this same lake – although they were actively diving and difficult to count, our average of several counts was 112.

Loons face a number of threats: lead fishing sinkers and discarded fishing line, shoreline development, commercial fishing nets, illegal shooting, chemical contaminants, recreational watercraft, disturbance by people and climate change.

But we can still see these beautiful birds in northcentral Pennsylvania –