Overcast

Another trip to Richmond and no pictures to show for it.  Again there was a fiery sunrise over the Chesapeake Bay before the clouds blocked the sun. In Richmond I saw a flock of English sparrows.  ON the way back a half dozen buzzards circled above the highway.  Gulls slept on the street lights on the bridge tunnel.  I left well before dawn and returned shortly before dusk.

A two-fer

I spent yesterday, from before dawn to nearly dusk, on a trip to Richmond.  A spectacular sunrise was followed by drizzle and an hour-plus traffic backup due to a crash.  Richmond was very warm with flickers of sunshine.  The temperature was still around 70° when I got back.

Today began mild and dropped from there, culminating in cold rain around 4pm.  The sky war full of clouds but it didn't become overcast till mid day.  The creek was rough all day.  I saw but got no photo of a brown thrasher, a blue jay, a red-bellied woodpecker, a pelican and a male kingfisher.  But I made up for that with other birds. 

The Carolina wrens were sticking together.  I'm pretty sure there were two song sparrows as well.  The downy woodpeckers and the myrtle warbler continued their power struggle.  A new element disrupted that dynamic: the white breasted nuthatch came back.  It shared with a downy and ignored the warbler after one ambush. 

The male oriole took a turn at the bark butter dish.  The wrens preferred suet.  Four squirrels also displayed their hierarchy.  A crow explored the bank beyond the pool.  The warbler chased titmice and chickadees.  White throated sparrows stayed focused on their foraging. 

Gone away

I left well before dawn and got home at sunset.  We were on the Peninsula when the sky began to lighten and I saw the waning crescent moon preceding sunrise.  It was very bright and cold in Richmond.  While crossing the HRBT on the way back, I saw a pelican crossing overhead.

All day trip

I was glad to be on a bus and not driving!  To avoid congestion, the driver circled around and took the MMBT instead of the HRBT.  The sun had not quite risen when we crossed the James River.  It was a beautiful day, very cold but not windy.  The return trip got me home at sunset which was spectacular, but alas. the camera was in the back seat.  The only wildlife I saw was gulls over the water. 

Windy

The warm days lasted most of the week.  I saw a monarch butterfly, Wednesday I think.  Lots of bees were still visiting flowers.  Fog returned Friday and then the temperature dropped.

Today was sunny again and fairly warm but quite windy.  On a side street, I saw chickadees and up an alley I startled a downy woodpecker.  I was exploring on the last day here. 

Back home

The weather has been lovely for our trip.  I have about 250 photos, but I did not manage to capture the two dolphins I saw from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel this afternoon.  They were between Fisherman's Island and the Chesapeake Channel tunnel.  A sunflower greeted us at home and the argiope is still with us - she's made a fourth egg sac!

While on the road, I twice thought I saw a groundhog, but couldn't be sure.  I did see a hawk on a post this morning in New Jersey. 

Amazing sight

This was not in the back yard, but worth telling anyway.  Last Thursday night (25 July), on a small country lane in County Tipperary, there appeared in the headlights a kitten in stalking posture and a rabbit frozen in its gaze.  It was far too dark for a photo and it happened too fast, but I saw it!

Bats swooped out of the first house where we stayed in Ireland.  There were plenty of bugs in the air for them.  I also saw gulls, sparrows, starlings, a bullfinch, pied wagtails, song thrushes, rooks, swallows & swifts, wood pigeons, and some kind of raptor in the daylight. This is the wagtail - it had a distinctive white face.

For Irish wildflowers I used this site. Mostly it was purple loosestrife along the roads, beautiful there, though invasive here. 

Coast to coast

The only species I saw all week were humans and pigeons.  And there was no sun. Meanwhile, I missed the first snowfall since I began this blog.  Well, I guess Mt. Rainier ought to be enough snow for any reasonable person. 

Fog

It began raining late yesterday,

Magnificent sunrise here

Home again

And all the wildlife I saw in the course of a week was some pigeons.

Pelicans

All the time we were in Cancun, we kept seeing brown pelicans and now that we are home, they're out cruising the creek. Now that's a successful species. But I can't help wonder why the local pelicans stay here through the winter when they could be there.

I can now add frigate birds to my life list - very angular and menacing. I also saw a pair of wild green parrots and some kind of plover, and the ubiquitous herons and egrets, gulls and grackles. The gulls looked like the ones I saw at Cape May. The grackles woke us up every morning with piercing calls. There were boat-tail grackles as well as the regular kind in both purple and bronze.

One small lizard scampered out of sight one evening but otherwise I don't think I saw any wild animals. Oh, lots of dogs, all short-hair terrier-ish mutts. No cats that I recall.

Beautiful day

Cloudless skies are delightful but not interesting to photograph.

I saw some gull-type birds on the Cape May Ferry which I did not recognize. They are small, have a black beak with some dark red, eyeliner, black webbed feet, gray wings and black on the tails. Some - juveniles? - have chestnut on the wings.

I've been trying to ID the birds and the best I can say is maybe they are Common Black Headed Gulls in winter plumage, but if so their feet are much darker than they're supposed to be.

Placid and sunny

It's been warm since the storm, with glorious sunrises. The water in the bay has been quite calm.
I saw cabbage butterflies on Sunday at the bench dedication. But I had no Internet access till now.
No rainbows in New Jersey this time, but I did see three deer browsing on a highway embankment toward evening.

Gorgeous weather

Sunny and hot on Thursday and Friday. I've never been this warm on the Cape.

Very low tides and just a sliver of moon before dawn.

Dreary drizzle

With wind. All is gray. The trees have not turned on the Cape but some have lost most of their leaves, maybe from wind. The flower gardens are still lovely. Hopefully tomorrow will be nicer.

After dark it got really nasty - very windy and wet. We got soaked just walking one block to supper.

Sky red at morning

Used to be a warning to sailors. We will see. Yesterday began cloudy with no sun till nearly 10 am but then cleared and was warm and cloudless. This was around 7am today.

The day turned bright and warm till clouds moved back in around five pm. A lone monarch butterfly and many bees enjoyed the potted mums outside the hotel.

Intermittent rainbows

The skies on our trip have been dramatic and a huge rainbow arched across New Jersey Saturday. I took a great many photos from the moving car. This was the final one. I could not get both sides of the arch into one shot.

Home again

I had hoped to go on a bayou boat ride, but all the photos I got are of clouds as seen from planes. This is practically a diagram of cloud types.

Meanwhile, I thank Mary Reid Barrow for her mention in "Coastal Journal" and hope no one was disappointed that I was away for a few days right after.

The first blueberries ripened already.

Report from San Diego

Hummingbirds were frequenting the bird-of-paradise flowers around the convention center and the palm trees were bursting into bizarre bloom - dangling pink and magenta strings. I can find pictures on the net that match but none seem to be identified beyond "palm tree."

After the convention, we went whale watching. (Of course I'd left the camera back in Virginia.) While waiting for the crew, we saw what I think was a willet, a bufflehead, and mallards of course.

On the sailboat, we were lucky enough to intercept several migrating California gray whales who spouted and sounded for most of an hour. Their tail flukes are very rounded, not pointy like the classic picture. Coming back we ran into lots of dolphins and then saw sea lions on a floating platform. It was the most successful such trip I've ever been on, and being with just a few others on a small sail boat was great. If anyone has the opportunity, I highly recommend Sail San Diego.