What a Week

Since the first of the year, I’ve been out every day. Walking well before dawn and walking a couple of hours past sunset. Now that we are past 6-Jan, the days are beginning to “open-up”. The sunrise and the sunset are both moving the proper direction. I look forward to the return of the light- but the only way to endure the darkness is the get out in to it.

Sharp-shinned Hawks are amazing flyers. They can twist and turn around tree trunks and branches with an almost unimaginable speed and grace. Merlins are fierce, but they are built for high-speed. The two individuals in the images (below) actually fought briefly while I watched. Initially, I only saw the Merlin sitting on a pole and surveying the area as they often do. As I was readying the camera, I saw a second bird fly in and harass the Merlin. I thought it was probably a second a Merlin- though it appeared a little larger. I watched the sortie- which was over very quickly as the Merlin chased the second raptor off quite nicely.

As I thought about the interlude I had seen, I realized that one of the birds was much more aerobatic- two or three quick arial twists and it got away. The Merlin was having a hard time connecting- but the intruder was driven away anyway. The Merlin went right back to the crossmember on the pole. I walked a few more meters and found the second bird sitting rather deep inside a protective cover of branches. I realized then that I needed the camera again and that it was likely to be a Sharp-shinned or Cooper’s Hawk.

Prairie Falcons are one of my favorite birds. I think they are quite beautiful. I tend to see them more in the winter, despite the fact that they are here year round. I really like the markings on their face- and they tend to be less skittish of me as I (slowly) approach. Peregrine Falcons and most other raptors make me make he most of the zoom function on the little Nikon. This individual really sat for a photo session. The fog made all of the images a little gauzy, but being able to see the nostrils and cere (the yellow, fleshy area at the facial end of the beak) helped me identify this as an adult Prairie Falcon. Immature falcons have grey ceres.

Ah, yes. The fog.

The fog is actually really wonderful. Where I live, it is very dry and when the occasional fog fills the valley it muffles the sounds and makes everything seem a bit more exotic. Trees loom out of the gloom, geese announce their arrival long before I can see them and then they, too, loom and vanish into the thick air.

In addition, most other people tend to stay inside, so the Labrador and I tend to have all the wild places to ourselves as we ramble about. Lastly, the fog coats everything with a variety of patinas. Some surfaces go almost matte grey, some shiny with a texture like an orange peel, and then, there’s the rime ice. I love rime ice and both kinds of frost*. They add to the visual landscape and softens the audible landscape.

It’s mornings like these that I am glad I use a FrostBlocker window cover for the van- as much as I enjoy the rime and frost, I don’t love it on the windows. I don’t park in a garage or other covering, so this helps me get a move on quickly in the mornings.

Anyway- I hope you can get outside and get away from the human world a bit.

• 

• 

• 

*Rime Ice and Hoar Frost-these are two of the cooler things that happen during winter- if you can pardon the pun. 

Rime ice is what occurs when fog freezes to the surface of things- like pine needles and tree branches, etc. So, rime ice is when visible droplets of very cold water condense onto subzero surfaces. Rime ice occurs when there is fog.

Hoar frost is when water vapor goes from its invisible state to water deposited on surfaces and then freezes to form ice crystals. Hoar frost happens under clear conditions- that is, no fog.

Frost is when the vapor skips the liquid stage and deposits as a thin layer of ice. This is called deposition and it is the opposite of sublimation.

For what it is worth, sublimation is what happens when dry ice goes from solid to gaseous without bothering to become liquid.