what Was, what Is, and what Will Be

Call it a stream, call it a creek, call it a canal, call it a man-made drainage ditch that flows into the other man-made lakes so that when it’s the “rainy season” the entire state doesn’t flood, but call it whatever you’d like, this little patch of yard where the water meets the land sure attracts a lot of beasts and birds.

In one morning, the interesting list of occasionally noisy and always entertaining set flitting and floating and flying creatures below passed by my little corner of Florida behind my apartment while I was enjoying some short stories and a tall coffee.  The list includes (in order of picture appearance) an Anhinga, an Osprey, a pair of Sandhill Cranes, copious amounts of Common Grackles, a Great Blue Heron, a pair of Wood Ducks (male only in this pic, but the female was right behind him), a turtle (possibly a Florida Cooter), a male Cardinal (yes, in a banana tree), a little hoppy bug eating small thing that I think is a Palm Warbler, a few ubiquitous Turkey Vultures, some Common Gallinules, and a lot of noisy Northern Mockingbirds.  There were also American Crows and Red-winged Blackbirds galore, but I guess I was too used to those to take any meaningful pictures of them this time around.

I say that this is what “we” saw, because my new faithful companion Flip was by my side the whole time, gently mewing away whenever a bird would come around.  Especially the Anhinga.  She doesn’t much care for the Anhinga, which is admittedly weird looking and much much bigger than she is…

Right!  So, it’s been a while, and I have a lot to share.  Unfortunately, I don’t know where to start.  My journey has taken me to the wilds of the inland isles that is the Lake Wales Ridge in southern Florida.  The Archbold Biological Station, my new place of employment, is home to the desert like scrub, a cattle filled ranch, restored wetlands, pockets of oaks that don’t look like oaks, things called rosemary balds (sounds dumb, actually awesome), and a lake surrounded by places that look like a set of velociraptors could ambush you while you’re trying to work (sorry, we watched Jurassic Park last night…).

For this first post back, I decided to be lazy, and just throw some pictures up.  So here are some ferns!  They’re great!

Nucleation is a fantastically cool thing.  All it takes to make beautiful webs of ice on unsuspecting windows is some cold temps, moisture, and little imperfections or particles of dust on glass.  Once it starts, it takes on chaotic but mathematically predictable ways.  And those ways are awesome.

Well, maybe Winter is Here.

Whether you want to call it Snowpocalypse, Snowmageddon, or Draco, the Midwest got a lot of snow last week.  We have subsequently gotten even more snow, roughly five inches of fluffy powder just a few days ago.  All of these things force me to accept the fact that in Wisconsin, the winters are cold, and occasionally the skies get grey with snow.

So today I choose to highlight the little unassuming chickadees that thrive in this climate.  Regardless of the temperature, these little buggers swoop in and out of bushes, snow covered or open, relaying their strong opinions to anyone around if the feeders haven’t been filled yet that day.  They may be small, but they sure have a lot of character.