walking – Rae Spencer

Heron Watching

June 3, 2016Rae Spencer4 Comments

Heron May 21

A few weekends ago, I had another chance to photograph the Yellow-crowned Night Herons that are nesting in my friend’s yard. It was a rainy, gray day. Perfect weather for foraging herons.

Heron May 21

Fortunately, the herons aren’t shy.

Heron May 21

Well, most of them aren’t shy.

Heron May 21

The rainy day suited other foragers, too.

Heron and Egret May 21

Raccoon May 21

I’m hoping to visit again soon. In the meantime, yesterday morning I met two friends at Pleasure House Point, where we enjoyed a walk that started in fog and ended in sunshine.

Landscape June 2

Osprey June 2

Night Heron June 2

Mallard June 2

This was my first visit to Pleasure House Point, but it won’t be my last. As the fog lifted, I fell more and more in love with the mixed terrain.

Landscape June 2

And with the wildlife. Here again, Yellow-crowned Night-Herons were the stars of the show.

Night Heron and Juvenile June 2

Night Heron June 2

There were plenty of other attractions, all equally beautiful.

Snails June 2

Molluscs June 2

Mushroom June 2

Bones June 2

Butterfly June 2

Blueberries June 2

Bee June 2

We even caught a glimpse of a Clapper Rail, a new bird for me. (I sent one of the photos to our local wildlife columnist for identification, because I couldn’t convince myself that it really was a Clapper Rail.)

Rail June 2

I’m eager to return to Pleasure House Point, and to see my friend’s heron nest again. But first on my list are unfinished projects in the house and yard. Then I have a couple of short stories to write. And poems to submit. And manuscripts to revise.

Rail June 2

The list goes on, as lists tend to do.

Little Brown Skinks

January 18, 2014Rae Spencer6 Comments

Skink Jan 13

Earlier this week I took a long walk on the Osmanthus Trail at First Landing State Park. The day was eerily warm, and I was not the only one enjoying the bright sunshine. I saw dozens of Little Brown Skinks (which are also called Ground Skinks.)

Skink Jan 13

All along the trail glittering flashes of brown slipped into cover as I approached. If I stopped and stood very still, they emerged again.

Skink Jan 13

Sometimes they emerged in pairs and scuffles broke out. Or resumed.

Skink Jan 13

I wondered if these were mating displays or true battles for territory.

Skink Jan 13

The skinks were so entertaining that I kept my camera focused on the ground for much of my walk. Even so, I caught a single frame of a curious Hermit Thrush.

And I never pass up an opportunity to photograph Hooded Mergansers.

Hooded Merganser Jan 13

I missed photos of woodpeckers and chickadees and an unfamiliar warbler, but I don’t regret the day’s lizard fixation. I’m delighted to add Little Brown Skinks to the archive, because there is always room for life. My archive will never be full, and I will never tire of trying to fill it.

Fisherman Island National Wildlife Refuge

January 14, 2014January 14, 2014Rae Spencer10 Comments

Fisherman Island National Wildlife Refuge is located off the southern tip of Virginia’s Eastern Shore. The island is closed to visitors during the summer, but guided tours are offered on Saturday mornings during the winter months.

Walking 13

I have passed over Fisherman Island many times, by way of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, but never found time to schedule a tour. Until last Saturday. Which turned out to be a very foggy Saturday.

Walking 12

I have to confess, I still didn’t schedule the tour. One of my dear friends made an appointment for our writing group to visit the island. Add in three tour guides, and the eight of us made enough noise to send most of the wildlife into cover.

Walking 1

But wildlife isn’t all the island has to offer. Its landscape is wind sculpted and salt stressed, trapped between the ever-restless currents of the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay.

Walking 6

Walking 10

For me, the Prickly Ash trees (also known as toothache trees or Hercules’ clubs) captured much of the island’s strange, raw beauty.

Toothache Tree

The Bay-side beach is one of the anchor points for the Bridge-Tunnel. It’s a wide, windy expanse of sand, littered with shells and other offerings from the waves. The tide line is marked by driftwood and heaps of debris.

Beach

Shells

Jellyfish

Beach

Shells

Crab

A short distance from the beach, the tour guides keep a collection of the island’s rarer finds. Our group added a sea turtle rib to the collection.

Shells

Bones

The island hasn’t always been a Wildlife Refuge. For that matter, the island hasn’t always been. According to a handout we received before beginning our tour, the island was first mentioned on navigation charts in 1815. It was only a sandbar at the time. By 1852 it had grown to 25 acres.

In 1886 a quarantine station was built on the island, consisting of seven buildings. During World War I the island became a military installation, and again during World War II. There hasn’t been a military presence on the island since 1969, but evidence of its past importance remains. The whale and sea turtle bones shown above rest on a concrete road. Dunes and rises morph into bunker entrances. Remnants of towers watch over cordgrass marshes, and greenbrier twines through rusty girders.

Abandoned

Our guides told us that Fisherman Island is continuing to grow. What started in 1852 as 25 acres now measures 1850 acres, though they are acres on the move. The entire island is shifting westward. Its drift is slow by my clock, but barrier islands keep a different clock.

Beach

Which might explain why our few hours on the island felt so wonderfully suspended from the world’s usual pace.

A Short Walk in New Shoes

January 10, 2014Rae Spencer4 Comments

Tomorrow I am going on an Adventure! I’m so excited about the Adventure that I bought new shoes, which I decided to test by going for a walk today.

Geese Jan 10

I pulled into Ashville Park barely thirty minutes in front of a line of rain, so I didn’t have time to walk very far. I had enough time, though, to find the resident pair of domestic geese. These geese were featured in our local newspaper in 2010, “Sit back and enjoy the tale of Jack, the lonely goose,” and I’m happy they are still thriving.

Geese Jan 10

Further down the road, I spotted an unfamiliar silhouette on a long, narrow pond. Before I got close enough to try for a photo, a sparrow began sounding an alarm and the slender diving bird disappeared. I waited a while, but the mysterious diver never returned.

Sparrow Jan 10

While I was photographing the sparrow (I believe this is a Song Sparrow), I spotted some unusual activity in a nearby stand of trees. Several vultures were resting together, at least five, and two more joined the group while I watched.

Vultures Jan 10

(The three in the bottom photo are definitely Turkey Vultures, but I can’t decide if the top photo shows a Black Vulture or an immature Turkey Vulture.)

More vultures were circling in as the rain arrived and chased me back to my car. My camera got a bit wet, as did my new shoes, but both have already dried and are waiting by the door for tomorrow’s Adventure. I may not be able to sleep tonight!

More Ducks

January 9, 2014January 9, 2014Rae Spencer2 Comments

Mallard Jan 8

When it comes to identifying ducks, I am woefully inept. For that matter, most water birds are mysteries to me, though there are a few exceptions. Like Mallards.

Mallard Jan 8

And American Coots, which were one of my mother’s favorite birds.

I confess this flock confused me at first, because I am not accustomed to seeing American Coots in such numbers. I usually find single individuals scattered among flocks of geese or gulls, rather than an entire flock all on their own.

American Coot Jan 8

I was bemused by their tight formation. Were they alarmed by something beneath the surface of the water? Were they trying to stay warm? Or is this normal behavior, when American Coots gather into flocks?

American Coot Jan 8

In order to identify a water bird that isn’t a Mallard or an American Coot, I need several clear photos and a prolonged session browsing Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds website. That’s how I learned two new ducks on Wednesday.

Ring-necked Ducks have distinctive rings around their bills, much more easily seen than the faint, reddish rings around their necks.

Ring necked Duck Jan 8

And Redheads are not the only ducks with red heads, but it seems they are the only red-headed ducks with gray backs and black-tipped blue bills.

Redhead Jan 8

Two new ducks should add up to a fulfilling walk with my camera, but, inevitably, each discovery is accompanied by elusive riddles. For every bird that strays within my camera’s reach, many others stay too far away to capture in enough detail for identification.

For example, I’m reasonably certain this is a loon, but which species of loon?

Loon Jan 8

And a rather nondescript pair of ducks teased me with glimpses of white wing patches.

Unknown Duck Jan 8

That might suggest Gadwalls, but what about the hint of a collar?
Unknown Duck Jan 8

These photos simply aren’t clear enough. Another entry for the “Unknown Ducks” folder in the archive.

Unknown Duck Jan 8

Sometimes the photos are clear enough for identification, but only just so. Wednesday’s walk added a new pair of Belted Kingfisher images to the archive, but one photo is out of focus and the other is underexposed.

Kingfisher Jan 8

As with everything else I attempt, success is rare and fleeting. Near misses and utter failures are far more common. It all adds up to happiness, though, because misses and failures mean I get to try again tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that…

Mallard Jan 8

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