A pale orb brooding, Omen of menace, Behind winter’s veil, Glares in retreat. Bare boughs stirring, All lacy and dark, In spring never fail, Await gentle heat. Small birds singing, Bidden with hope, Suffered every gale, Lift wings to beat. D...
I caught site of her through the window as she crossed the lawn, heading toward the hill at the end of the house. She was dripping wet, probably just out of the pond. I grabbed my camera and shot out the back door. At the end of the house our path...
To see this bird in real life is to realize how truly big it is, a mature Great Blue Heron, possibly male because of its size, and probably older because of the uneven coloring of its plummage. It certainly lives up to its name. &ld...
I could claim hours of patient waiting, or lightning-fast reflexes that let me trip the shutter at just the right moment. None of that would be true; these photos are the result of dumb luck! A large number of migrating ...
seasons progress, the sunrise moves from the northeast to the southeast over our pond, and then back again, due to a ...
Everything grows old, even trees. There’s a great old willow on my neighbor’s property, at the water’s edge, that’s been dropping limbs. The arborist says that willow wood is brittle by its nature; when the tree g...
I’ve long wondered whether creatures of the wild have an esthetic sense. Is the blue ribbon on this nest a form of decoration, a purely creative expression, as Robin asks, or is it placed there to show pride of ownership, to stake a territor...
warm winter weather suggests a changing climate, along with “winter robins,” and Ruddy Ducks remaining on the pond long after their usual departure. The foggy dawns may also be a sign. Several times in recent months...
It was a sunlit morning in early December. Out of the corner of my eye, I happened to notice a flurry of activity in the little cove between Smith Point and our property. I grabbed my camera, opened the window and began to shoot. It was all over i...
You don’t read much about them. They don’t make the headlines. They don’t run for public office, or get caught in financial scandals. Perhaps we humans take them for granted because they’re so familiar. Of course, I’m...
It flew in from the north swiftly, through the trees, pitching and rolling ever so slightly as if feeling its way through the tangle, alighting finally atop an old willow, high above my head. It was 7:00 in the morning, and the outdoor t...
neighbors, Becca Kaufmann and Robert Hendrick, reported seeing two Bald Eagles cavorting over Hardy Pond today, January 29th, at about 12:45 pm. Robert took photos and kindly shared them with us. Click on the photo, above, to see his ent...
I woke later than usual, that morning. What I saw took my breath away. It was a wide, bright band of orange-gold along the southern horizon. I left the window to wash the pixie dust out of my eyes. By the time I got back, minutes later, the wide b...
Valentine Day broke with an unusual color palate spreading across the southeastern sky. Bright coral-red clouds dominated, wispy and tenuous, like aurora borealis, against a darker blue sky. Between water and sky, lit windows were just visible as ...
This was not one of those memorable winter dawns we’ve seen so often lately — those lavish, ethereal displays far to the southeast. Rather, it was a band of low clouds playing hide-and-seek with the sun, as it rose above the ...
Regular readers know that the image of the Great Blue Heron is a favorite of this blog. The morning this was re...
I like to think of this blog as part chronicle and part photo gallery. Some photographs will be just reportorial. Others will seek to pierce the veil into a world of heightened perception, a world of drama or beauty, or both. This photo ...
Here are two “outtakes” I salvaged from the cutting room floor, to use a movie-making metaphor. I almost deleted these two images, before reflecting on the responsibilities of a chronicler. They weren’t artful, I had earlier felt...
