our nation's symbol in my neighborhood

I say it's high time we, the bleeding heart, recycling, organic eating, enviornmentally & socially conscious liberals, reclaim our awesome national symbol from the ddt-spreading, forest destroying, chemical dumping, pipeline laying, hate mongering, right wing jingoists. After all, it was the Rachel Carson following activists that saved the bald eagle from destruction. They're our birds now!

last gasps of an era

seen in Windsor Farms on River Road

Richmond VA

not my county

dead wren

window casualty - made quite the thud

fears

I obsess about two leeches found on the bottom of my kayak Sunday.
I draw comfort in thoughts that bears are not common here & are unlikely to walk through my screen doors.
My friends worry that, driving home, I'll strike.
My government wants me to dread foreign terrorists, nuclear weapons & chemical attacks.

Watch List

treefrogs on windows, doors, walls & plants
spring peeper - actually seen!
Eastern box turtle - brilliantly colored strolling after rainstorm
yellow-bellied flycatchers
acraea moth caterpillar
woolly bear caterpillar
hummingbird moths
monarchs
Eastern tiger swallowtails
Eastern black swallowtails
more Eastern black swallowtail caterpillars
neighbor's pet duck eloping with Canadian geese
swimming otter
compost eating raccoon
2 leeches on kayak bottom
pencil sized brown snake, not venomous
ravenous, territorial & perching ruby throated hummingbirds
(smaller than swallowtails)
barred owls - heard & seen
bald eagle perching
many Carolina wrens
laughing gulls
unrecognzed woodpeckers after storm
duct-taped tuba at the dump
mushrooms - brown, red, white, fresh & rotten

Brooklyn-born woman eats local in New Kent County

We're eating local with global tastes

Admire our reuben sandwiches made on our own home-baked rye bread with locally soaked & smoked corned beef from nearby smokehouse/biker bar.

Sauerkraut, 1000 island dressing, half-sour pickles, & pickled tomatoes trucked in from outside our region but, oh, they tasted so perfect.

Lake Chickahominy, Wednesday

Duck Blind - New Kent

hummingbirds, feeders & ants

Are ants on the hummingbird feeder a problem?
Really? Other than aesthetic?
Saw ruby-throated female do something that looked a lot like eating ants off feeder & pole.
Organic, free range, wild ants?
That would be an ecosystem!
Based on red dye, sugar & water.
Yum, yum.

avarice curtailed, re: homing pigeons

Homing pigeon, not yet home.


"It shall be unlawful for any person at any time or in any manner to hunt, pursue, take, capture, wound, maim, disfigure, or kill any homing pigeon of another person, or to make use of any pit or pitfall, scaffold, cage, snare, trap, net, baited hook or similar device or drug, poison chemical or explosive, for the purpose of injuring, capturing or killing any such homing pigeon, provided that any officer, employee or agent of a city or county acting pursuant to authority of an ordinance thereof may take, capture and kill pigeons in, on and about any building or structure devoted to business, commercial or industrial purposes when any pigeons are using such premises for roosting, resting or congregating thereon; all pigeons taken upon such premises shall be conclusively deemed not to be homing pigeons or the property of any person. Any person violating any of the foregoing provisions shall be guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor. " Virginia Code § 18.2-145. Protection of homing pigeons. (Code 1950, § 18.1-160; 1960, c. 358; 1975, cc. 14, 15.)

Oh, I lusted for that bird on the shore of the Mataponi.
Note the two green leg bands.