Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Red-winged Blackbird

Male Red-winged Blackbird
Yes, the Red-winged Blackbirds have been back a few weeks.  Their sounds are welcome to me.  I remember walking the trails in the winter wishing to hear their sounds and now I can.  The male stakes out his territory and tries to get as many females as possible to nest there.  He is very defensive about intrusion.

Female Red-winged Blackbird
They reused nests from the previous year.  They are so protective of the nest that I can tell when I am close to one by noting the bird's behavior.  I stayed away from the nests until I saw a naturalist go near one and invite others to look.  I then captured the shot below of the blue eggs.

Red-winged Blackbird Eggs
These birds have been know to attack people.  They have flown near my head but never touched me.  I usually hear in the news, each season, that someone has been attacked somewhere.


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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Spring Peepers

Spring Peeper
The Spring Peeper is a small frog and has a cross on its back.  It is a "chorus frog" common in Eastern US and Canada.

I may have heard of it before I married the kid's mother, but my vivid memory of them comes from sitting in the front yard at dusk with the kid's grandfather.  The pond was about 1/4 mile away and they were loud.  They have a big voice.  I think that he may have told me of their living in the pine trees near the pond but my concept of them for years was that they lived in the pond.

Spring Peeper
My understanding, now, is that they travel down to the pond to mate.  Being amphibians, the eggs hatch in the pond and the tadpoles, or pollywogs, mature there.  When they leave the pond they head back for the forest.

Spring Peeper

The naturalist stated that this is a full grown one.  For such a small frog they have an enormous voice.  Listen to my recording of them done this spring.  It is near the bottom of the page on the "Listen to Sounds" page of my web site.

I made this recording near the pond appropriately named the Frog Pond. 

Recording the Spring Peepers


 


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Monday, March 19, 2012

Spring Is Coming Early

Turtles are sunning themselves.  

Red-eared Sliders
The frogs are quite active also.  I love the frog sounds in the spring!  There is one vernal pool which has mostly Wood Frogs at present.  

Wood Frog
They sound a little like the chicken house sounded when I was growing up.  Take a listen.  It is near the bottom of the page.  

Too me, the most memorable spring frog sound is the Spring Peeper which I will discuss tomorrow.

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Sunday, March 18, 2012

Deformed Rock

Deformed Rock
This is another of the rocks I bought last summer.  This one has what I thought were two significant features.  The above shot shows the dark red recessed portion.  

Deformed Rock
I thought these folds most intriguing.  






I have thought that a video showing the rock rotated helps to solidify the concept of the rock, especially after seeing the the macro shots.  Check out this video.  The link is at the bottom of the page.  Note the crystals on top.

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