2•22•2021
Snowdrops in February
Dear Nature,
“Snowdrops: Theirs is a fragile but hardy celebration… in the very teeth of winter.”
– Louise Wilder
As I write this postcard, it is softly snowing outside my window. I’ve realized that I wished I had planted snowdrops in my garden so that I might enjoy them every February.
I found these snowdrops blooming in the leaf litter at a wildlife sanctuary while searching for a saw whet owl. We found the owl, but somehow it was almost just as exciting to find this fragile breath of spring on a frosty February day.
With Love, Kelly
2•23•2021
Cayman Blue & Green
Dear Nature,
Wherever I go, I try to find time to get outside and look for wildlife. Accompanying my husband on a work trip to Grand Cayman was no exception. The Cayman Islands are home to species that are found nowhere else in the world. One of those is the Blue Iguana, once considered functionally extinct, with only 10-25 animals left in the wild. Conservation groups created a Species Recovery Plan and now the iguanas are listed as endangered. We visited the island’s breeding facility. It’s hard not to fall in love with these amazing blue green ‘little dinosaurs!’
We continued to walk in the park where the facility was located, hoping to catch a glimpse of another rare species, the national symbol of Grand Cayman, the Grand Cayman Parrot. It was once listed as endangered, but again, due to conservation efforts, is now listed as vulnerable. My husband spotted the small flock first, happily settled into a large tree. Blue & green, the colors of the Caribbean Sea.
With Love, Kelly
2•24•2021
Who’s More Surprised?
Dear Nature,
We try to make a yearly winter pilgrimage to Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge in Rhode Island to see our favorite winter ducks, the Harlequin. Today was the day. And what a day it was! Beautiful blue skies under a warm February sun as the temperature flirted with 50 degrees.
While we almost always see the harlequins, and we did, the one constant we can count on is seeing the Refuge’s deer. They know they are safe from hunting, so they are not that afraid of humans. I think we take the plentiful white-tailed deer for granted, and some even think of them as pests. But how can you not love catching a deer by surprise as you round a corner on the trail, as you both stare intently at one another for just a fleeting moment, before the deer moves on, though at Sachuest, it’s not with a vanishing white-flagged tail, just a meandering disappearance into the matching underbrush.
With Love, Kelly
2•25•2021
Moon Ballet
Dear Nature,
What do you do when you’re out winter birding in gale-force winds and you need to find temporary respite from the wind gusts that are threatening to blow you off your feet and rip the car door off? But you still want to see nature?
Well, when you’re birding Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey, you can visit a tiny hidden jewel of an aquarium in Atlantic City. For a few hours, we got out of the harsh wind and learned about the sea life of the Jersey shore, visited with an enigmatic iguana, and stood transfixed by the languid, liquid ballet of the moon jellies. Slowly pulsing and swirling, upwards and downwards, the moon jellyfish Corps de Ballet stole their watery stage in an unearthly, glowing blue spot light. Ethereally beautiful.
With Love, Kelly
2•26•2021
“Timberdoodle”
American Woodcock
Dear Nature,
There are a few bird songs & calls that I know immediately, and I think my favorite one to mimic is the nasally ‘peent, peent’ of the odd, awesome bird, the American Woodcock, also adorably known as the folksy ‘Timberdoodle.’
We left Forsythe NWR at sundown on our first day. Imagine our surprised delight to discover a twilit field, called a ‘singing ground’, full of shadowy small birds rapidly ascending with a whirring noise created by the air through their wings, momentarily hovering at the top, then rapidly descending in zigzagging spirals, warbling a liquid “pee chuck tee chuck chip chip chip chip:. Once back on the ground, they resume their strutting and announcing “peent, peent.” It’s the annual courtship dance and chorus of the Timberdoodle. Magical.
With Love, Kelly
2•27•2021
All the Lords & Ladies
Dear Nature,
As I said a few days ago, my favorite winter duck is the spectacular Harlequin Duck. We were not disappointed last week and got to see several large flocks in Rhode Island. Like so many other birds the male is so much more colorful than the females, and the Harlequin is especially so! It takes its name from a colorfully dressed character in Commedia dell’arte, as it is so gaudily dressed in a fun pattern of multicolor feathers. In contrast, the females are drab and plain, leading to one of the colloquialisms for this species, “Lords and Ladies”. I thought it was a perfect title for my painting of a Harlequin duck line in the Rhode Island waters.
With Love, Kelly
2•28•2021
Razorbill at Beavertail
Dear Nature,
We went off to Rhode Island to see the Harlequin ducks, finding most of them at Beavertail State Park. We sat on the rocks below the lighthouse to soak up the fifty degree late February sun, gazing out at the rough surf. The Harlequins were diving just beyond the breaking waves which left a swath of almost Caribbean blue in their wake between us and the ducks. I was watching the ebb and flow of the turquoise water when a small black bird bobbed up onto the surface. I knew immediately that it was not a harlequin! I was able to get a few photographs off before it dove. I grabbed my binoculars and watched for it to surface again. It popped up again a little further away, but still in the sea green water. We were both surprised to see it was a razorbill, a bird I’ve only ever seen once before in Maine.
With Love, Kelly