jueves, 29 de diciembre de 2022

Crow and Hawk, Wrens, and Geese

... When I started my walk today, I heard a crow over head, I looled up and saw the crow chasing another bird; the other bird looked like a hawk. This event was a single crow not a mob of crows.

... I saw a group of small birds hopping about in the bushes along "Pilgrim Run". As I approach they moved more into the bushes so I stopped and waited a bit. Tiger, my dog, also remained quiet. The birds went about their business and returned to the stream to bathe. I thought they might be Carolina Wrens. They were mostly brown with a prominent white bar over the eye. When I got home I looked up images and descriptions of Carolna Wrens; what I found was consistent with my tentative identification.

... I saw a formation of Canada Geese flying over head. They were flying east but circled around.

Publicado el jueves, 29 de diciembre de 2022 a las 03:17 AM por frank879 frank879 | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

sábado, 01 de octubre de 2022

Reflection on Summer

I began to sense a slowdown in the woods about mid-July, a few weeks after the solstice. The avian chorus of spring was quieting; long songs giving way to short calls and chirps. The leaves on plants were showing signs of grazing and browsing as production gave way to consumption. Rainy days turned into afternoon thundershowers unable to maintain the water table; large vernal pools shrank and the small ones disappeared leaving only damp spots on the ground. All, a seeming prelude to fall in the midst of summer.

Publicado el sábado, 01 de octubre de 2022 a las 01:52 PM por frank879 frank879 | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

sábado, 24 de septiembre de 2022

Getting into iNaturalist

Over the years, I have taken hundreds of photos of natural things. No so much landscapes and sunsets but stars, rocks, and living things. I have been looking for a way to curate them so they would be useful to me and perhaps others. I installed iNaturalist on my smart phone a little over a month ago thinking it would help me identify the things I saw and heard. It did not give me on-the-spot results so I let it lie. My interest in using it was peaked, when the leader of a mushroom walk I attended mentioned it and its relevance to her hobby. Based on her, sort of side remarks, I gave it a quick try to see what kind of a response I got; I got none so lost interest again. Yesterday, I decided to look more deepely into iNaturalist. I logged into the iNaturalist website using my PC and spent some time exploring it. I actually read the information and got to understand what it was all about. I read the guides and watched the videos to get an idea of how to use it. This time I was impressed and decided to give it a real try. I realized there would be a learning curve but was determined to persevere. Using the mobile app, I uploaded photos of a few organisms, I felt confident I could identify, filling out the upload form as best I could. Before the day was out, two of the photos were identified by other users and the photos were upgraded to “research grade”; It felt good. Today, I explored some more. Using the website, I uploaded photos I had stored on my PC. I also merged observations, batch edited observations, and entered observations with multiple pictures. I am anxious to see the response. PS: This journal entry is my way see how the journal works.
Publicado el sábado, 24 de septiembre de 2022 a las 09:23 PM por frank879 frank879 | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

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