Still Catching Up, Distracted by the Worm Moon

…or if you prefer the chaste moon, death moon, crust moon, and sap moon. Whichever, it is considered the last full moon of winter.

This is last year’s Worm Moon, taken by, at Virginia State Parks, a very different moon, orange because low on the horizon (attribution: https://www.flickr.com/photos/vastateparksstaff/26458503316/)

This brings to mind a non-birthday birthday gift I received recently:

Growing up in New England we would complete that saying with “…sailors’ delight, red sky at morning, sailors’ warning.” But in the UK, instead of ‘sailors’, I have heard ‘shepherds’.

Whichever the perspective, the book is full of all kinds of interesting things, one being the addition to the naming of the full March moon as ‘the storm moon’. Also, within this month, we have the Vernal Equinox to look forward to, as well as Lady’s Day which, according to Struthers, “until 1752…was the first day of the new year in Britain and its colonies. In the Christian calendar, the Lady in question is the Virgin Mary  and the day marks the Feast of the Annunciation.” (P209) Oh, and Struthers says if you want to know whether the air around your house is clean, go outside and search for lichens” “if you can’t see any at all, it means you live in an area where the air is badly polluted.” (p60)

Tales from the summer year 2019

I am still sifting through photos, mostly taken by, you will be grateful to know, our friends Tony and Jo.  I had forgotten that we had two woodpecker babies, of the lesser spotted variety I believe, fighting with the baby blue and great tits for feeder rights:

Tales from the Winter Yard 2020

Not animals, but signs of…

Whose work is this?

Whose taken over this accommodation?

Not quite sure to think of this…

As with most new technology, I can always see the good and bad sides. We all are firmly locked into the digital environment, no escaping. Just as there has been no escaping our streets, houses being photographed by Google Street Maps (except if you have high hedges…). The good side is the help it offers with directions; the downside invasion of privacy. But this is a new, well new to me, possible upside:

A Google Street View tour of Sand Island, Midway Atoll, can reveal tens of thousands of Laysan Albatrosses. Image from Google Street View.

There is a group of what would seem like incredibly patient people who scroll through Google Street Views looking for birds. Can’t say I’d have that kind of patience, but kind of like the idea that there are those who do.