Crops & Clips: November 2012 Meme Mashup

This month's potpourri gathered from the archives features the themes of critters, fences, skies, macros and reflections. This presented a particular challenge. It is a retrospective view of photos taken three years ago, in November, 2012.  As you will learn in a moment, events took an unexpected  turn.

At that time I did not seek to portray each of these memes, so it is to some extent a game of chance. Let's see how far I needed to go into the month to find at least one of each. If I can get them all I will have won the game eleven months in a row since starting in January, 2015. This month's flashback once again produced the required set of images, but not until November 26th

Unusually, we started out the month in NE Illinois, partly to celebrate a large Halloween party honoring our son-in-law. Nearly 200 guests attended and enjoyed a Cuban-style pig roast. In lieu of gifts the event benefited a volunteer agency that assists foster children and their court-appointed attorneys.   

Agramonte, one of two Tibetan Mastiffs in our daughter's household, welcomed the cold weather:

 

We discovered that the landscape surrounding our second home had been drastically changed in our absence. The cornfields that had been fallow for over 10 years and which produced a surprisingly rich habitat for prairie species were being "reclaimed." Within months we would be surrounded by new town-homes and lose our view of the horizon. These are not "good fences" except in the sense that they prevent construction debris from blowing about:

 


Migrating Sandhill Cranes, which usually stopped here, instead flew overhead against a gray sky:





We encountered birds that would not venture into south Florida, such as this Long-eared Owl...





...Dark-eyed (Slate-colored) Juncos...





...Red Crossbills...






...American Tree Sparrows...



...and Lapland Longspurs:


 
One of the more impressive "critters" was this Red-tailed Hawk, displayed as a MACRO:



Bundled up against the cold, we birded with our local Kane County Audubon Society group, at nearby Nelson Lake/Dick Young Forest Preserve:






Winter weather on the Great Plains can be extreme, producing dramatic sunsets..

 


...and rainbows over the cornfields:






We had extended our stay to be with our daughter and two granddaughters while her husband was away on a hunting trip in North Carolina. Unfortunately, a deer stand collapsed under him and he broke both of his legs. Roly had to be transported back home for specialized treatment. We therefore remained through much of the month to help them out. Here he is after successful surgery, "walking" in his neighborhood with his daughters and other family members who flew in from Florida and Connecticut:





During our stay in Illinois I failed to capture a single reflection, and my only "fence' was a poor substitute for the real thing. Luckily, our return to Florida, on November 24, produced immediate results. Here is our home, not only including its reflection and that of a backyard egret, but also showing our neighbor's fence!


 
Finally I had a spate of more credible MACRO photos on November 25, unknowingly saving me from "future failure," including a Honeybee...





...and a Zebra heliconian:

 

For the first time over the eight years that we lived there, flocks of White Pelicans and Roseate Spoonbills appeared on the local wetlands! A spoonbill cast a lovely reflection on November 26:





They mixed with the pelicans:





The pelicans fed cooperatively, lining up to herd a school of fish to the lake's margin:





I captured this video of their feeding behavior,  American White Pelicans Feeding Cooperatively (turn the sound down to avoid hearing my New Jersey accent!) If the video fails to load in the space below, try THIS LINK:



https://youtu.be/t7XslbDgSPU



= = =  = = =  = = = =  = = = = =


Linking to Misty's  CAMERA CRITTERS,

Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,

Linking to GOOD FENCES by Tex (Theresa). 

Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy

Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James

Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni

Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart

Linking to I Heart Macro by Laura

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Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display

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Angry Birds?

Birds' faces are frozen for a lifetime. They cannot grimace or smile or furrow their brows. Yet, a bird can exhibit a certain expression that may or may not appear appropriate to a situation or its personality or demeanor. This can cause us to misinterpret its feelings or intentions.

Can a bird, such as the Mad Bluebird, make an angry face? This photo of mine shows a White-eyed Vireo with an "attitude," and was chosen by the National Audubon Society and the Sierra Club  to promote their Climate Change information campaign. 

The "Vehement Vireo"

This likely is a different bird, photographed a few months earlier within 1/2 mile of the above. What is "Vehement Vireo II" trying to say?

Can a bird have a "curious" look? Another of my photos was recently featured in an Audubon bird ID quiz. It shows a female Chestnut-sided Warbler looking quizzically at the camera. She did approach me quite closely, but did her facial expression change? Anthropomorphism at its worst?

Are these two catbirds engaged in an angry confrontation? (Actually, I am quite sure that this was a courtship interaction.)

Many raptors exhibit an eternally fierce countenance. Is this female Bald Eagle mad at the world?

Here she is tenderly feeding her young, not killing them.

Up close, this Red-tailed Hawk has fire in its eye. As it is with eagles, the pronounced bony supra-orbital ridge shades its eye, but also causes a permanent frown.

Instead of a pronounced bony brow, a dark area under his eyes reduces glare for this American Kestrel. He looks quite gentle, incapable of any evil intent to harm a little grasshopper or mouse.

A female House Finch is said to have a "blank" or "innocent" appearance, as her face is unadorned.

Contrast this with the "expressive" face of a female Purple Finch.

Of course, owls are said to look "wise," but this Long-eared Owl seems rather surprised to see me.

These young Great Horned Owls are hardly old enough to be "wise," but they already have that look.

Beyond wise, this Burrowing Owl appears to be omniscient.

The Horned Lark looks like a police inspector who means business.

This Yellow-crowned Night-Heron reminds me of a grumpy old man with bushy eyebrows and bearded jowls.

What about looking "fearful?" I know it is not possible, but to me this Whooping Crane expresses sheer terror.

The American Birding Association (ABA) used my Purple Swamphen photo to announce that this introduced species is now "countable" under their rules. It looks like a "Purple Gallinule on steroids," and has an aggressive style that matches its robust appearance.

Still not "countable," under the ABA rules of the game, the exotic and aggressive Egyptian Geese have spread rapidly up the Florida peninsula during the past five years. (See this video of an intense battle between Egyptian Geese, filmed by StuartDutchmanHQ of the Netherlands.) We just had the first pair on our lake, and the male viciously fought off a competitor, no holds barred! Like a masked gangster, the male (foreground) celebrates victory with his "gun moll." 

Parting shots-- eagles, owls and longspurs

With this post I have begun migration of my blog to this new site:  http://rosy-finch.blogspot.com/ (Note the hyphen in "rosy-finch" to avoid visiting a Japanese site!) My previous blog archives will still be available at http://blog.rosyfinch.com, but I have had to turn off the comment feature because the other ISP lacks effective defense against comment spam. It has gotten so bad that I often receive over 300 comments daily and must spend much time trying to weed out the legitimate comments among all the spam, much of which has objectionable content. There may be a few bumps in the road as I become familiar with the new system,  so I ask readers to be patient. I will turn off word verification and trust the new host to do a much better job of filtering out the spam.  Please direct any comments to this new site, or contact me directly if necessary. Thank you!

I love the texture of weathered old barns. This one is on our way to the cornfields out west of our Illinois condo.



It has been an eventful two weeks since our son-in-law Roly, while deer hunting in North Carolina, fell 20 feet from a tree stand and broke bones in both of his legs. He was admitted to a rural hospital and transferred to Raleigh. After being stabilized he was transported back to Illinois and underwent surgery a few days ago (ten screws, a metal plate and a bone transplant in his right knee area, and two big pins in the other ankle). We had planned this unusually late trip up north because he celebrated a milestone birthday on Thanksgiving Day (which also happens to be the 55th anniversary of the day I proposed to Mary Lou!)

 Roly is now back in his home in a hospital bed in the great room, as he is unable to walk or climb the stairs. He took a "walk" outside for the first time on Thanksgiving morning, with his daughters, brother, cousins and his two Tibetan Mastiffs.



The house is abuzz with relatives in from Florida and Connecticut as well as well-wishing neighbors and friends. As it turned out, it was lucky that we were here to help our daughter take care of their two daughters. His parents arrived just after the injury and will stay on to help out, so we do not feel bad leaving them for sunny Florida. We are more than ready for some mild weather!  

Most of our birding has been watching the feeders from the windows and back deck of their home, as Black-capped Chickadees carried sunflower seeds off, one at a time, to crack them in the trees.





The dark "bibs" of male House Sparrows have been overgrown by gray winter fluff.





When Blue Jays arrive at the feeder, all other birds retreat.





We did get out into the field several mornings. Some "outdoor" highlights of the final weeks in Illinois included taking the granddaughters to a park a few doors from their home to see the Bald Eagles that have nested there for the past couple of years. The nest tree is just across a busy thoroughfare, opposite Hawk's Bluff Park in Batavia. The girls crept up as far as they could to get a better look at a roosting eagle.







The park includes a woodland with some big old oak trees.





We watched the eagles until nearly sunset, when it suddenly turned very cold.





A few days before, I was with another birder when he discovered a pair of Long-eared Owls in a grove of evergreens. They were roosting near an old nest that included some fresh vegetation, suggesting that they may be setting up housekeeping. Like some other owl species, they may nest as early as late winter. We are sworn to secrecy about the location of the owls, as they are rare enough to induce crowds of birders to enter the sensitive area of their roost.







We took a few photos and quickly left them in seclusion. The camera's automatic focus did not work because of the branches in front of the owls, and my vision is not clear enough for proper manual focusing. I was so intent on trying to focus on their eyes that I did not realize that my shots did not include the lower parts of their bodies! Although Mary Lou and I had seen Long-eared Owls previously, this was my first photo opportunity.





Mary Lou and I returned to the cornfields and this time got much better looks at Lapland Longspurs. We used the car as a blind and drove slowly toward the flock. We failed to sight any Snow Buntings, though another birder photographed one at the same location a day later.







We did see a female Rusty Blackbird foraging among the corn stubble.





A brief walk in nearby Prairie Green Wetlands preserve in Batavia produced these three Sandhill Cranes.





Numerous Canada Geese flew overhead. As common as they are, I find them beautiful in flight.





American Tree Sparrows have arrived from the north.





The tree sparrow has a rather bright brown line behind its eye that does not extend to the area in front of the eye, nicely shown in this photo.





Among the flock of nearly a dozen was a single Swamp Sparrow. Note its pale throat, the more extensive gray area on its face and the dark "mask" created by the dark edges of its cheek patch.





The somewhat similar Chipping Sparrow (photographed in our daughter's back yard) has a dark line that passes through to the front of its eye.