May Day at Historic St. Mary's City

Historic St. Mary’s City celebrated the coming of spring on May 3^rd at 11AM with a dance around the May Pole near the St. Mary’s River, for visitor’s and staff.  The colorful satin ribbons were delightfully woven at the end of the dance and were slowly unfurled by the staff, preparing for a second dance at 3 PM.  Visitors also participated in crafts and colonial games.

For some reason, I always wanted to watch a May Pole Dance.  (I must have read too many British novels!)  I wish I could have figured out a way to take pictures and dance at the same time. It looked like fun.

The Private Osprey War 2014

I captured some somewhat unusual video footage of a male osprey attacking the pair on our nearby osprey nest.  Six short videos totaling about 3 minutes of footage have been pieced together.

The attacking bird was extremely aggressive.  He actually picked up a bird by the claws (not shown) and tossed it into the water, stomped on the birds,  and tried to knock them out of the sky.  One bird was cut on the leg.  Meanwhile, the nesting pair tried to build up their nest, even carrying a large stick that had fallen into the water to add to the nest.

The private war was quite exciting to watch, but I kept hoping that none of the birds would be critically injured. (and I don't think they were)  I am wondering if the birds were fighting over the nest or the female.  The nest is quite popular and there might be a shortage of good nests nearby. 

The female is the larger bird with a sort of brown necklace of feathers.

Please comment if you like or if you notice anything interesting about the behaviors of the birds.

Cherry Blossoms at the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.

 Jim and I spent a lovely day in Washington DC photographing the beautiful Cherry Blossom Trees at the Tidal Basin on the Potomac, the circular basin surrounding the Jefferson Memorial, the FDR Memorial, and the nearby Washington Monument.  I hoped to be there just after sunrise, by getting up a 5AM, but that was much too late. 3AM might have worked or an overnight in town.  The weather was gorgeous and I tried to capture some of the curves of the basin and the trees, as well as the paddleboats.

Most of the Cherry trees along the Tidal basin are single white flowered Yoshino Trees, with some single flowered pink Akebono trees.  We took a $1 shuttle to East Potomac Park to view the many other Japanese Cherry trees:  Weeping Cherries, Kwanzan, Autumn Cherries (double flowered), Takesimensis, Afterglow, Sargent, and Okame.  The park has a golf course and picnic area.  The West Potomac Park also has some different cherry trees along the water.

Here's a few photos from our memorable day.

             Tidal Basin Panorama

                          Japanese pagoda

     Washington Monument with Paddle        Boats

                       Looking up!

Easter cards

Check out my Easter cards on Zazzle from the top of the page or http://www.zazzle.com/calmreflectionsphoto  

I have a cute Easter dog a gorgeous pink flower and cherry blossoms.  You've got to be quick though!  

An Unexpected Visitor

Imagine my surprise when two daring geese decided to check out the view from the osprey nest, after the osprey had returned for the season.  These two were keeping an eye out in both directions.  Beneath the nest, two friends kept watch for dangers below.  So far I have seen osprey, eagles, great blue herons, geese and various little birds on the nest.  Popular place!!

My Osprey in snow just got posted on the Bay Net

See my little annoyed osprey in the snow, (similar the the well known "angry bluebird") on the Bay Net at "State gives Schools a Spring Break".  The photo was taken in Tuesday's flurries.  Here's the link.  

http://www.thebaynet.com/news/index.cfm/fa/viewstory/story_ID/36195

Please comment if you like.

Winning photos from St. Mary's County Camera Club

I had several winning photos last week in March Camera Club competition.  There was a theme contest of close up and macro photography.  I had photos of flowers, but the subject didn't seem too creative.  I thought my photos had impact at least and I am very much into color, although black and white can be fun too with the right subject.  I really liked the color combination of the water lily.  Here are my winners. 

 First Place Macro-Exotic Purple Water Lily

 Second Place Macro-Sunflower and Bee

I also won first place in the advanced category in March for a photo from last year.  This owl had a damaged wing, couldn't fly, but did flap his/her wings.  An interesting fact about Long-Eared owls is that their ears are uneven, the left one is higher than the right.  This helps them locate their prey.  To learn more about Long-Eared Owls, visit http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/long-eared_owl/id

First Place Advanced-Long-Eared Owl