All posts by laurahinnj

Birds, Whatever

Name that decoy!

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Have I mentioned lately how much I love shorebird decoys?

😉

I’ve more or less run out of room for any more of them, which is probably a good thing! There’s avocets running across the tops of bookshelves, peeps peering around the corner of the tv stand, even a great egret skulking in the living room… never mind the various duck decoys that have found a place here.

This newish one is a favorite, though. Can you recognize it?

I only wish I could convince the relatives to shop for me at decoy shows rather than wherever it is they find all that kitschy bird stuff. Anybody feel like sharing pics of bad bird stuff they been gifted? I’d bet most of us have lots of things buried and hidden in closets! Maybe we could arrange a bad-bird-kitsch swap!

😉

Garden, Whatever

Found ’em!

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So on Saturday I finally found those trilliums I’ve been searching the woods for…

only they were $40.00 each at the local garden shop. I had trouble deciding if I wanted one dozen of each or two.

😉

Honestly, I’m glad to see them selling native plants, but $40 for something Luka would probably lift his leg on? Pfft! I’d rather keep searching for them in the woods.

Growing up, Remembering, Snapshots

Yikes!

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Oh… to be 17 again and a couple months away from graduation! I pulled the yearbook off the shelf today while cleaning and realized it’s (yikes!) twenty years since I finished high school… where’s the time gone? What happened to that girl with the open, easy smile? What ever happened to the two hoodlums that were in that art class with me?

😉

I don’t think you could pay me enough to go back to high school or to see most of the people I graduated with. I’d bet it’s that way for most of us. College was a much happier time, I think. I wasn’t nearly as awkward or as shy and I was able to enjoy the beginnings of adult freedom without any of its responsibilities. I’d always had a job or two, but no bills to pay; lots of schoolwork, but plenty of time to pay attention to it; my choice of fun diversions – days at the beach, concerts in the city, a summer in Spain – all that freedom and all along I was in such a hurry to be grown. Seems silly now that I didn’t realize how good I had it then.

Truth be told… it’s pretty good now. Funny, though, to look at that old pic of me (having one almost-good-hair-day in my 37 years!) and see how clueless I was. That, somehow, is the biggest benefit of youth… being oblivious.

In the neighborhood, Whatever

What’s not to like about a parade?

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I got to perch like a bird at street light height today to photograph Red Bank’s centennial parade. Red Bank’s not my hometown, but I spend enough time there and feel like I know just about everyone, so it feels like home to me.

There were politicians and dozens of firetrucks with their sirens wailing, girl scouts and church groups. And clowns. I liked the clowns best. This was the closest thing to a marching band – don’t high school bands do parades anymore?

Besides the clowns, there were people in funny hats waving and smiling in great old-fashioned cars like celebrities. Small town life… fun!

The firemen were very happy cause their trucks were shiny and they got to play with the lights and sirens without having to rush off to save anyone.

Firemen smile much more easily than policemen do. Ever notice that? He’s my friend and I still couldn’t get a smile out of him! Jeez… definitley not in a parade state of mind.

Part of the fun of a parade and a camera is the opportunity to take random pictures of friendly strangers with funny t-shirts.

Marching through town with an audience on the sidewalk seems to bring out the charisma in some people… this trowel-waving garden club lady was hilarious! She and her cohorts take care of the summer plantings in the downtown area.

The kids in the parade had a ball.. though I wondered how some of the little ones managed to last the whole distance of the parade… it was at least an hour long and snaked from the river on the east side of town to a picnic at a park on the west side.

Tomorrow the fun continues with a boat parade on the river, but I have to miss that for a surprise party.

😉

Birds, In the neighborhood, Snapshots

Softly the evening came

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“Softly the evening came.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

On World Series day, we spent the hours around dusk at North Pond; the others were mostly looking at birds, but I was watching the clouds.

😉

It had been overcast all day, but the sky began to clear in the late afternoon and some of us stood around appreciating that nice light cast on a Canada Goose floating on the pond while we looked for a bittern… on the beach plum and scotch broom and cypress spurge blooming in the dunes. A beautiful place to end a long day.

With the chasing mostly over and the last of the death marches done (I skipped the last one and missed 12 Piping Plovers!) we were hoping then for just a couple night herons, or nighthawks, or woodcock, or owls… we relaxed and found a rock or old fencepost to sit on. Gradually the stories began…

Birders have great stories, you know. Many of us have traveled to interesting far-flung places (not me!) and oftentimes we travel with the same people. Even if we’ve not birded together, there’s a certain easy camaraderie among most birders that feels really nice. Of course, after 12+ hours together on a big day, we tend to get a bit silly and punchy from the lack of sleep/food/caffeine, but that just adds to the fun.

When you consider that our team will have raised at least $3500 for conservation causes, and that’s small potatoes compared to most of the other 100 or so teams, I guess it’s easy to understand why I like doing it so much. Great birds, good friends, great stories, a good cause…

Plus, we ended the day with nighthawks and a barred owl. What more could you ask for?

Birds, In the neighborhood

A day in May

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This Cape May Warbler was the most recent *life bird* for me since the exciting Rusty Blackbird in Cape May this past fall.

😉

A handsome bird who put on quite a show… a treat in spring and not anything I thought I might chance upon so easily. I’m not a lister, really, but I do try to keep some record of what I’ve seen and where, if it’s significant. The longer one spends paying attention to birds, the harder it is to come upon new ones, so that makes each a bit more significant that way. It wasn’t so much about seeing this new-to-me-bird as it was about enjoying the moment with others who were as excited with it as me, or appreciating how nice he looked against the blooming beach plums and flitting in and out of the poison ivy brambles. Janet and I spent a long time looking at him after the others had moved on to the next bird.

Warblers in spring are like a prize for us birders, you know? Imagine if all birds were so colorful and charming and active… I think the world would be full of birdwatchers… who could resist? These birds are the reward for the dead days of June and July, or the late summer days spent on a salt marsh fighting greenhead flies for a chance at a southbound shorebird or the winter days in a biting wind looking at ducks with tears streaming down your face. If only it were easier to take a beginner into the woods on a spring day and have them see these gems of the bird world!

Before I started learning about birds, before I was aware of them, I couldn’t have imagined the chance of anything so beautiful. It makes me wonder how others can miss it… do you do that? Wonder how the rest of the world is able to not see such beauty? Not hear their sweet spring songs? What does the rest of the world do with a day in May?

Birds, In the neighborhood, Snapshots, Whatever

The nimble frolic of terns

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“Don’t think just now of the trudging forward of thought,
but of the wing-drive of unquestioning affirmation.

It’s summer, you never saw such a blue sky,
and here they are, those white birds with quick wings,

sweeping over the waves,
chattering and plunging,

their thin beaks snapping, their hard eyes
happy as little nails.

The years to come — this is a promise —
will grant you ample time

to try the difficult steps in the empire of thought
where you seek for the shining proofs you think you must have.

But nothing you ever understand will be sweeter, or more binding,
than this deepest affinity between your eyes and the world.

The flock thickens
over the rolling, salt brightness. Listen,

maybe such devotion, in which one holds the world
in the clasp of attention, isn’t the perfect prayer,

but it must be done, for the sorrow, whose name is doubt,
is thus subdued, and not through the weaponry of reason,

but of pure submission. Tell me, what else
could beauty be for? And now the tide

is at its very crown,
the white birds sprinkle down,

gathering up the loose silver, rising
as if weightless. It isn’t instruction, or a parable.

It isn’t for any vanity or ambition
except for the one allowed, to stay alive.

It’s only a nimble frolic
over the waves. And you find, for hours,

you cannot even remember the questions
that weigh so in your mind.”


I feel myself so fortunate to have the company of terns to waste a few hours with. Like sanderlings on the beach in fall and winter, the terns have a rhythm to their movements, appropriate to the season and my mindset somehow, that lets me wander to the most playful of places.

Watching them is something of a seduction; my sense of time is lost to the lullaby of the rising tide… there in the glare of the bay is a promise and I sit and watch it becoming. My eye falls on the pilings and wonders at their history… are there treasures hidden below or ruins? The sky is almost too big and the sun too bright to take in all at once, so I follow this one bird dipping in and out of glare and shadow, in and out of water and air, suspended, finally, somewhere between hope and reality.

“Terns” by Mary Oliver

Dog days, Whatever

Monthly pupdate

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Luka’s turning one next month… it’s hard now to remember that he was ever this small and cute!

Just when I start believing that he’s very smart and well-trained… he’s learned to retrieve his own collar and leash from the table when we let him out of his crate to go pee… he does something incredibly pupply-like and stupid. The other morning I stepped out of the shower to find him sprawled on the couch eating a bar of Neutrogena soap, wrapper and all! You know the nice soap, from a hotel, that was sitting in a bag on the top of my desk? Right. He retrieved it.

He eats rocks… why should I be surprised that he’ll eat soap, too!