Tag Archives: photography

Planning Ahead?

Posted on November 8, 2015 by AnnieRie

Just a couple of really interesting programs are coming up next weekend over at the Howard County Conservancy Mt. Pleasant site. Followed by one of the very popular meteor shower watches on the following Tuesday. Here are the details for those planning their weekends in advance.

Spotting Wildlife in Winter – Saturday morning the 14th at 10am. For the hikers, photographers, and nature lovers who want to learn how to see more during the winter, Frank Marsden is leading a hike through the fields, woods and along the stream out at Mt. Pleasant. Frank has been taking amazing pictures out at Eden Mill Nature Center in Harford County. He is coming into our woods to show us what to look for, and how to increase our chances of seeing wildlife in their natural habitat.

Then, on Sunday, another very special program. Do you know where Patterson Park is? Have you ever heard of Miracle Pond? Middleton Evans had made over 600 trips to this pond in a wildly overgrown section of the park. His visits, and his amazing photographs, span 15 years. He is giving a presentation in the Gudelsky Center at 4pm on the 15th of November. It should be something special.

Planning to check out the Leonids? Want to do it with some of our talented astronomical experts, like Star Doc (Dr. Joel Goodman) and Dr. Alex Storrs from Towson University? They will be bringing high powered scopes, but on a dark night like the 17th, you should be able to sit back in a lawn chair, bundled up against the cool weather, sipping some hot chocolate while looking for meteors shooting across the skies. This is always a popular event, with many attendees. Sometimes we’ve had over a 100 people out there. They will be there from 10pm until the wee hours of the morning.

This trio of programs should give us a few good reasons to “Get Out There”. Details on the Conservancy web site, under upcoming events.

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Posted in Birds, Community, Day Trips, Howard County, Nature and tagged birds, community, day trips, Howard County, howard county conservancy, photography. Bookmark the permalink.

Never A Dull Moment

Posted on September 17, 2015 by AnnieRie

After all, where else can you find the Air Force Thunderbirds practicing in your back yard? Besides at their home base, that is.

This was the second pass over the house that I saw. The first one, I didn’t have the camera. They are performing this weekend at Andrews Air Force Base.

I gather they come up here to get out of the National and Dulles air space. We are a bit west of the BWI air space too. This is the second evening they have been here. I heard them last night but didn’t know until later when I checked Facebook that it was the Thunderbirds.

I also got a good shot of the final formation as they were heading back to the base.

I’m not sure how many people can stand in their yard and watch this. Just another night in West Howard County.

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Posted in Adventures, Howard County, West HoCo and tagged Howard County, photography, thunderbirds, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

A Triple Header

Posted on September 8, 2015 by AnnieRie

This weekend. For birders, and those who want to learn about birds. At Mt. Pleasant on Saturday.

Mike Kerwin is leading three different walks to observe bird migrations. At 8 am, the Howard Bird Club two hour early morning walk looking for migrating birds.

At 10 am, a Conservancy sponsored Wonder Walk which is focusing on identifying hawks while looking for birds.

Followed by an impromptu hang out and watch the hawks in action, as they are very active over the Conservancy property. This is an opportunity to do as much or as little as you wish.

The events are free. After 9 am, the Conservancy building is open for restroom facilities and water.

Mike is seen quite often at Centennial Lake, hanging out over on the southwest side, watching the birds of prey. He is a wealth of knowledge in identifying raptors.

Do you know the difference between a Cooper’s Hawk and a Sharp Shinned Hawk. Mike can show you.

Come join us. At 8 am with the bird club, or 10 am with the Conservancy. Mike will love to have you there.

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Posted in Birds, Hobbies, Nature and tagged birds, hawks, hobbies, howard county conservancy, nature, photography. Bookmark the permalink.

HALO

Posted on July 26, 2015 by AnnieRie

The Howard Astronomical League Observatory. Officially opened last night at Alpha Ridge.

The long awaited observatory that Joel Goodman has been talking about at every opportunity we see him, finally is done and open. It was a lovely night. Many, many people of all ages came out for the ribbon cutting followed by tours followed by a star party.

I love going out there for any reason. I also enjoy every event that “HAL” puts on. Like the transit of Venus a few years back, at the Conservancy. Where hundreds (we think 500-600 based just on the cars) came out to watch the last transit for 104 years.

The sheer volume of people interested in watching the heavens is to me a sign that we in this area really do love science and nature and discovery. Yes, I know, a run on sentence. But, it does feel like we seek opportunities to learn more, and see more.

There were many speeches last night. Lots of people who made this happen. Still, I love to see the children get into it.

My vantage point didn’t let you see the children doing the ribbon cutting. Not the adults. Not the politicians. The children.

Thanks, Star Doc, for your vision. For your leadership. For helping us out at the Conservancy in setting up our “star parties”, like the upcoming Perseids meteor event on August 12th. For all us night owls.

For those looking for the HAL star parties in the new observatory, the next one is August 22nd. Check out the HAL web page for details.

Come on in. The viewing is awesome.

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Posted in Community, Hobbies, Howard County, West HoCo and tagged astronomy, community, hobbies, hoco loco, Howard County, photography, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

Building Fairy Houses

Posted on July 8, 2015 by AnnieRie

It’s that time of year again. The annual program at the Howard County Conservancy to build fairy houses in the woods.

It’s an adventure in imagination, and creativity, and in celebrating the outdoors. It is immensely popular.

This is last year’s crowd. There are many volunteers to help and there is a large amount of material available to use. Part of the fun, though, for many of the families is the pre-event collection of materials from your own area. Bringing leaves and flowers and acorns along to use in the construction.

The event is 10 am this Saturday at Mt. Pleasant in Woodstock. Details here.

Last year they built the houses down by Hodge Podge Lodge. This year, who knows where they will go. After getting a bit of instruction, the families go down into the woods to build their houses.

You can go off into the woods to make that very special, very private house.

I will be wandering around taking pictures. We always make a scrapbook of the pictures to keep.

Come do something truly special and fun. Saturday morning. FREE. They do ask you to email and let them know how many are coming. The more advance notice we have of the potential attendance, the better we can gather volunteers to assist.

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Posted in Adventures, Community, Nature, Volunteering and tagged community, fairy houses, howard county conservancy, nature, photography, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

There’s An App For That

Posted on March 17, 2015 by AnnieRie

iNaturalist.

For the Belmont Bioblitz. Did you know we have a project on the iNaturalist website? Populated by Howard County Public School Middle and Elementary School children. The first blitz. Last fall.

What is a BioblitZ? How do I help with one? How do I record the species observed? How do I document what I see, and identify it? This May two more Howard County 7th grades will descend upon the Belmont site, in Elkridge, and with the help of dozens of volunteers and subject matter experts will spend four days adding observations to the expanding collection to document the species found on the historic grounds.

Belmont is a treasure. In many ways. Historic. Relatively pristine. And, located where the coastal plains meet the Piedmont plateau.

If you ever wanted to volunteer to do something absolutely positively fun, exciting, rewarding and important, check out the possibility of becoming a volunteer at the Howard County Conservancy. As a naturalist, we learn along with the children, more and more about our local environment.

Today my small training group, armed with our smart phones and the iNaturalist app, went out to train and get a chance to record what we found in four of the zones on the property. We found quite a bit of fungi on the trees in our zone. Like this one.

Which we uploaded and will monitor to see who may identify it for us.

The school children have such a great time with this event. They become citizen scientists. They learn to observe, to record, to research, and to monitor scientific data taking and sharing. This year the two schools participating are Ellicott Mills and Thomas Viaduct Middle Schools.

More info to learn how to volunteer here. Yes, I am shamelessly recruiting volunteers. I can see on our data sheets that we have an incredibly busy April and May, with dozens of opportunities to lead hikes, lead activities and to support those hike leaders. Training is taking place this month.

Come take a few walks with us. The views are awesome, and so are the people.

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Posted in Howard County, Nature, Volunteering and tagged Howard County, howard county conservancy, nature, photography, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

Daytripping in Maryland

Posted on March 12, 2015 by AnnieRie

Saturday morning at 10 am the free “Wonder Walk” at the Howard County Conservancy isn’t a walk at all. In the colder months the free monthly programs often are held inside, you know, just in case that foot of snow doesn’t melt out on the trails.

The trails are still a bit messy. But, never fear, in the Nature Center Sherry Conklin and Linda Decker, two Maryland master gardeners will share with us more than 50 of their favorites – formal display gardens, arboretums, wild native places to walk and hike, and historic landscapes.

With the weather starting to change for the better, who among us doesn’t want to stop hibernating and start enjoying spring in Maryland.

You can see all the upcoming events here. You can pre-register for future events on this page. This weekend’s talk still has room and pre-registration closes Friday afternoon. Using the pre-registration email option for future free events guarantees a spot as some of our more popular ones can reach the capacity of the building. Just click on the email link to let the staff know how many people plan to attend.

Today the volunteers finally began our elementary school training to lead hikes on field trips. We were out in the snow and ice looking for signs of the various habitats, in order to lead third graders on their hikes. We found lots of things out there.

Signs of use in one of the snags on the trail. Before the vegetation grows up in the warmth of the sun, you can get up close and personal.

And see where the raccoons have been looking for food.

You can even be serenaded by a very young chickadee, while you are wandering along the local trails.

Come join us Saturday and see what new places Linda and Sherry may show you. Places to put on the list for spring days ahead.

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Posted in Birds, Day Trips, Nature, Volunteering and tagged birds, day trips, howard county conservancy, nature, photography, volunteering. Bookmark the permalink.

The Pre-Storm Frenzy

Posted on March 1, 2015 by AnnieRie

Backyard bird version.

Reminds me of the local grocery stores around here at the start of any snow event. Last minute frantic behavior. The flakes had just begun when the birds (and a few squirrels) descended upon the feeders and the ground by the bird bath.

This was somewhat tame as it did get pretty intense up on the major feeder.

I could almost imagine the parallels to the competition to get that last loaf of bread or gallon of milk.

It’s not like I don’t have food out there constantly. They just get so intense when a storm comes.

And, this one.

Similar to the behavior of hovering for that choice parking spot in the store lot?

I have to admit, the birds that live here in our woods provide us with much entertainment. They know this is a source of food and water, year round. Today they were out there while I was rinsing dishes, and I had to go get the camera to record them.

I do hope this is the end of our winter storms. Enough is enough. And I’m glad we pruned the dead wood out of the tops of our shade trees. If we get a quarter inch of ice, like predicted, there will be branches breaking all around us. Crossing our fingers that Friday’s maintenance prevents any significant damage.

Stay warm and safe out there. We are almost into spring.

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Posted in Birds, Nature, Weather and tagged birds, nature, photography, weather. Bookmark the permalink.

Monday Morning Quarterbacking

Posted on January 27, 2015 by AnnieRie

On a Tuesday afternoon. About that snow?

We did get the 3+ inches predicted for our area. Even though I know the southeastern portion of the county didn’t get much at all. Maybe we need to divide the county in half in order to have two school districts. Then, those unhappy about the schools being closed because of us could not miss another day. I have to wonder though. What do they do at the end of a school year if one half the county doesn’t meet the minimum number of days? Interesting.

We got enough snow for our neighbor’s little ones to build a snowman. We even used the snowblower on the driveway today. So, the storm wasn’t a bust out here. That extra couple of hundred feet in elevation from here compared to the southeastern county makes a difference in temperature and snowfall.

In other news. They postponed the volunteer fair at the Howard County Conservancy until February 3rd. Same time. Same players. If you have the time, and want to hear more about volunteering, come join us. They need office support, event support, field trip leaders, animal feeders and more.

Finally, one more picture from this morning. I have learned how to keep the birds happy without having to go too far into the yard. I also learned to use mess free bird feed on the patio. No hulls or shells.

The red bellied woodpecker even came up closer than normal.

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Posted in Birds, Commentary, Community, Howard County, Nature, People, Volunteering, Weather, West HoCo and tagged birds, commentary, community, hoco loco, Howard County, howard county conservancy, photography, volunteering, weather, West HoCo. Bookmark the permalink.

The Eagle Has Landed

Posted on November 29, 2014 by AnnieRie

Literally.

In the back yard. Less than 100 yards from the kitchen window where I took this really awful picture, but I rushed it hoping he wouldn’t fly away. Which he did, about 10 seconds after the picture. The crows went nuts and he flew down the side of the property and hung around for a few minutes high in my neighbor’s tree. Then, tired of the crows circling and yammering at him, he headed off back towards Triadelphia Reservoir.

What brought him here? The dead deer out there. Probably a car-deer casualty. Which is now mostly hide, hoofs, head and chest cavity. The third one we know of, in our almost ten years here. Usually, we only know about them because of the turkey vultures.

But this morning at 7 am, my husband yelled up the stairs. EAGLE!!! In the back yard.

I’ll have to get up early tomorrow and see if he’s returned.

Just another Saturday in the rural western part of our little Central Maryland county.

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