You've seen, and have hopefully enjoyed, the bird and people photos in the previous blog, "The Year 2018 in Pictures." Now, let's take a look at the 2018 "Elizabeth River Critters List" photos as well, which feature everything from butterflies and blue crabs to dragonflies and dolphins. Please remember that each can be enlarged by … Continue reading The Year 2018 in Pictures, Cont’d
Category: Elizabeth River
The Year 2018 in Pictures
What follows are some of my favorite bird and people photographs of 2018. I'm fond of calling these "indicator photos," or photos that indicate the importance, the health, and the vitality of a restored river: the Elizabeth River in SE Virginia. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed creating them. … Continue reading The Year 2018 in Pictures
The Spirit of the River
We are officially ending the series on bird flight. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you learned something. If you got something out of it, I'd love to hear from you. I learned a lot myself while doing the research. Please recall that our 6-blog flight series began with "Designed to Fly" and … Continue reading The Spirit of the River
Back into Flying
I read a story the other day about pilots who were returning to flying after they'd taken time off for various reasons (raising kids, financial trouble, health issues, etc.). They were referred to in the article as "rusty pilots." Aren't we rusty pilots as well? We devoted time to reading 4 blogs about bird flight, … Continue reading Back into Flying
Loose Ends
We'll continue to "interrupt this program" so that we can tie up a few loose ends. We'll resume our discussion of bird flight in the next blog, I promise. We'll call this our "loose ends," blog, then. And it will be shorter. They say that ideal blog length is 300-600 words. I've used well over … Continue reading Loose Ends
We Interrupt This Program
Hi, everyone. I'm glad you're continuing to read! This is blog #26, and we're going strong. If you'd like to read any of the first 25, and also learn a bit more about me, please visit the blog home here. We haven't given up learning about bird flight. We've devoted our last 4 blog posts … Continue reading We Interrupt This Program
Designed to Fly
In the last blog (last photo), I posted a photo of an Osprey carrying a fish. It was lunchtime on the Elizabeth. That fish, caught in the waters just off Money Point in Chesapeake, VA, that former Elizabeth River "dead zone," appeared to weigh about as much as the Osprey. Heck, it likely weighed more! Here's another picture of the same bird a few wing beats--and a few burned calories--down the flight path. One wouldn't use "down the road" there.
More Shoutouts
We'll start with another shoutout. But this time to the planners of the 2018 Riverfest, which raised everyone's awareness about the progress that is being made to restore the Indian River in Chesapeake, VA. This may not be an exciting photo, but to me it speaks to the beauty of this Elizabeth River tributary.
Two Shoutouts
Or is it "Two Shoutsout"? Anyway...I want to start with a shoutout to those who went on the Great Migration Bird Walk on Sat. 9/29 at Paradise Creek Nature Park. It was a beautiful, birdy morning. Paradise lived up to its name. And we had a great group of 16 people including a few young people who were exploring the hobby. I had a nice conversation with one young lady (Epona?) who was on her very first day trip. She'd gone on an owl prowl previously. I asked her if she sensed any excitement in the others on the trip. She responded with a smile and a very definitive "yes." That meant to me that she was excited too. I have a feeling she has caught the birding spark. That's my hope, anyway.
Sumer is Agoin Out
Hurricane Florence, that 'uninvited brute,' though more like a 'minor annoyance' here, had made landfall in North Carolina. My wife and I went for a walk at the Elizabeth River Park in Chesapeake. Water levels were unusually high. One of the docks was completely underwater and we noted fish in the parking lot. Something in the bushes that line the park spooked me. It was an immature Yellow-crowned Night-Heron wrestling with something in the grass. It was wrestling with a grasshopper.
Elizabeth River Bird Blog 