All posts by laurahinnj

Birds, In the neighborhood

World Series Day

7 Comments

Today was the World Series of Birding here in NJ when birders try to find the greatest number of species to raise money for conservation. I play every year with the Sandy Hook team, but this year only joined the group for a few hours in the late afternoon. While the poor souls who had been at it since 5:30 this morning had their dinner break, I watched the terns feeding on Sandy Hook Bay. That’s a battleship of some sort in the background at the nearby naval weapons station.

The terns weren’t the only ones fishing on the bay, but they seemed to be much more successful than the others. I love to watch the terns wheeling and diving over the water – makes me dizzy!

We did the *death march* out to the salt ponds at the very tip of Sandy Hook and saw hundreds of swallows and some shorebirds. Patrick from The Hawk Owl’s Nest is somewhere in this group photo; he was a co-leader for the day and is a nice guy and has a wonderful smile!

We visited the locust grove looking for warblers feeding at dusk. The sunset over the dunes was gorgeous tonight – somehow I managed to miss the peak of the beach plum bloom, but they’re still very pretty. We ended the day listening for woodcock, barred owls, whipporwills, and nighthawks, but found only a great horned owl perched in the distance. All told, I think the group had about 125 species today which is a respectable number, although they missed some *sure to see* birds.
Bunnies, Garden

Cricket’s garden

24 Comments

I spent the day with the spade in my hands and dirt on my knees and planted a garden of spring flowers around the place we buried Cricket. I planted another section of my little woodland garden with her in my thoughts.

Just a week ago the mountain laurels were delivered and today there was finally the time to plant them. I added some snowdrop anemones, fringed bleeding hearts, lady’s fern, lilies of the valley, and even some Virginia bluebells that were marked down because they’re past bloom now. All of this in the place where she lies with the dogwoods flowering overhead and the scent of lilacs on the breeze. I think I’ve made a sweet place for her.

Bunnies

My heart upside down

8 Comments

I’m afraid even to write it down, for fear that doing so will make it true, but there is nothing else in my head just now. Flowers and birdsong and all of the natural world is fairly shouting about the goodness of life. And again this year I’m turning my back on the Spring that I’ve so waited to enjoy in order to tend to a bunny who is turning away from life.

It all feels very cruel and like some awful joke. That is my luck with these bunnies that I love so dearly. I told my husband the other day that there will be no more – I can’t stand the heartbreak and the helplessness of it. Feeling so powerless to do anything besides wait for what seems inevitable.

That something as innocuous as a hurt ankle should become this just 4 days later is inconceivable to me, but that’s the case. I won’t leave Cricket at the vet because I lost faith in the vet’s power to heal long ago and I won’t take her away from Boomer, not now. I won’t let her die alone or afraid. I’ve made that mistake with too many dear bunnies to do it again. If there’s hope, it’s here at home where she has known only love.

I expect that I’ll be away for a bit, but hope that she won’t suffer for long. Be hopeful please, when I can’t.

Birds, In the neighborhood

Find me a warbler!

12 Comments

If you’re looking for gorgeous spring warbler pics, you’ll have to go elsewhere. The best I can manage so far this season is mediocre photos of the trees I often find them feeding in. These are red oaks (I think) and there’s an overgrown arboretum near to my hometown that has lots of them. I like to position myself on this dirt path that’s lined on both sides by these trees and see what I can find feeding way up in the tippy-tops of the trees. The other day there were mostly black-throated greens and northern parulas, but I also saw a great-crested flycatcher and strangest of all a chipping sparrow! Isn’t he supposed to be feeding on the ground like a proper sparrow?

I’m curious if others north or south (or west) of NJ find a similar preference for red oaks when they’re in flower or if there’s some other type of tree you loiter under looking for warblers?

Snapshots, Wanderings

Same view, new season

11 Comments

I took these nearly identical photos of an abandoned cranberry bog in the Pine Barrens of NJ about 4 months apart. I hadn’t intended to, but guess that some views hold equal appeal, regardless of the season. I think I prefer the photo from late December below; our trip last week was too early for the plants to be showing very much color or any blooms to help identify them. Bev from Burning Silo had suggested a variety of loosestrife when I first posted the photo at the end of last year, but I’ll need a closer look later in the season to convince myself they’re not just cranberry vines run amuck. The working bogs have been drained of the water that protects the vines from freezing during the winter months – those plants are now showing the reddish/purple color seen below and will begin to bloom in the next few weeks. I hope to get back and take some photos of cranberry flowers as they’re quite unique in form.

Pastimes, Pond, Whatever

While I was away…

14 Comments

So I’ve not been around very much this past week, but I’ve been busy finishing up with school and out and about enjoying the bounty of spring. Plus, I didn’t have much of interest to say, still don’t in fact, but don’t want to make it a habit to just post a pic and be off.

Since I last had anything much to say here I’ve been to two wakes for coworkers of my husband and a memorial service for an old birding buddy who passed away back in January. I dragged my husband along on a day trip to the Pine Barrens and spent a lunch hour or two at the little park near to where I work watching the tree sparrows fight over the too few nest boxes. I had a successful evening looking at wildflowers in the woods and three unfruitful visits to various spots locally looking for migrants. The only new birds I’ve added this week are Baltimore Oriole, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Eastern Kingbird, Ovenbird, Oystercatcher, Willet, Common Tern, Laughing Gull and whichever Vireo it is that sings incessantly from the treetops. Other people are seeing great birds, but I haven’t managed to be in the right spot at the right time.

The pond is up and running and the fish are happy, my husband has cut the lawn twice and we got our hands on 5 little dwarf mountain laurels for the woodland border. I’m looking for ideas of what to plant as a groundcover in that area beneath the American Holly trees, so if anyone has any bright ideas I’d love to hear about them soon, while my husband is in the habit of digging planting holes. If I don’t come up with any other ideas, I’ll probably plant a few ferns just as soon as I figure out which ones might actually be able to survive in the dry shade.

Hope you all had a happy weekend; I’ll be around to visit with you before too long.