Earth Explorations

I am enjoying my new camera. I am practicing the same skills I was when I last posted which means there are features on my camera I still don't know how to use. No matter. For the moment I am enjoying learning how to take pictures of birds at the feeder maintained at a nearby state park by volunteers from the Audubon Society. When I am ready to learn more about the camera, I will move on. Today is National Bird Day so I will share a few bird photos. I find taking halfway decent photos of birds unexpectedly gratifying, especially when I share them on iNaturalist. The photos I'm sharing below aren't my best photos but the ones that I am learning from. What I've learned so far: I've learned that snow is hard to get the right light. The birds in the photos I took on a snowy day come out a little dark. See the American tree sparrow photo one below. I've learned that autofocus may or may not always pick the right thing to focus on. I've had more than one p...

I've mentioned the Prairie Ecologist blog before. Chris's most recent post dedicated to his friend and inspiration hit me right in the emotional xiphoid process. I noticed immediately how Chris described his friend Ernie as an explorer of landscapes and philosophy who was "incessantly curious, thoughtful and kind". That description checks two big boxes on the NatGeo Learning Framework which describes the mindset of an explorer. In case you are wondering, those boxes would be the curious and responsible boxes. I also like the post because, well, clouds and sky. I've been nattering a lot about robins lately but clouds via  GLOBE observer app is one of my two other citizen science activities, iNaturalist being the third. During the winter we have lots of cirrus, stratus, and nimbostratus clouds around here. I am not-so-patiently awaiting the first cumulus cloud of spring which is a surer sign of warm weather than even robins. Cumulus clouds, the Rorschach fl...

As I left the SD Discovery Center last night after meeting with the GLOBE team, I saw AND heard a male robin. Yes! The reason for my exuberance is everyone else in my household has seen a robin; I was feeling behind. Not that first robin sighting is a competitive sport or anything, but I am quite eager for a sign of spring. He did a peek and tut call and then flew away with the low, skim the ground then arc up swoop. I watched him till I lost sight in the late winter dusk. Of course I immediately reported this sighting on Journey North when I got home. When I logged on FB there was another post proclaiming first robin heard. The robins will probably flock back up today with the high winds and snow we are having. But for a few brief hours last night they, and by extension I, were feeling the spring. Further happiness, I saw a Great Horned Owl sitting in a tree down the block and around the corner from my house. One of the household reports hearing it in the morning dark when ...

I write in the About section of this journal that doing field research is not a requirement to be an explorer. However, if you want it to be - and who among us doesn't want to live that Walter Mitty fantasy of the intrepid scientist doing field research in an exotic locale - you can make it so through citizen science. GLOBE is my professional citizen science project while iNaturalist is my personal AND professional project. I also use Journey North for robins. As this journal develops, I anticipate that it will become a citizen science document through the power of tagging and search. 

Sunday was sunny and the warmest day we've had in a while-actually above freezing-so I decided to set out to see if I could find any robins. I walked Hilger's Gulch and the play trail, a short circuit around La Framboise and to the river and back on Farm Island. I don't know where the robins are but they weren't in any of those places. I might pop out again Wednesday the next day we are supposed to have a sunny, warmer day. Despite the lack of robins, I did enjoy many birds. 7 grouse along the playtrail Canada geese and assorted ducks, gulls  A single chickadee on La Framboise A bald eagle on Farm Island Waves of purple and house finches (Farm Island) Flocks of starlings (Farm Island) A cardinal calling his pew, pew, pew, pew. (Farm Island) A downy woodpecker (Farm Island) More chickadees (Farm Island) I tried to capture the sound of the birds on Farm Island, particularly the cardinal in this video. I think I might need more specialized recording equi...

I have been using Facebook as a robin journal of sorts, documenting observations (or in this case lack of observations) of robin activity. Last year I shared my  First Seen observation via Journey North but I feel the need to bring it all together in one dedicated place. I will pilot using this journal to see if this fills that need.  

The last few years I have launched Robin Watch, a social media outreach through the SD Discovery Center, on Valentine's Day to encourage people to be more aware of or perhaps hopeful about the arrival of spring. I chose Valentine's Day because Robins have red breasts and red is the color of hearts and Valentine's Day. Birds often start courtship behaviors this time of year. Even Chaucer noted that. I wanted to give teachers a more content rich way to observe the holiday other than a party and requiring kids to give each other Valentine's Day cards. As a kid, I hated Valentine's Day and all the mushy cards and the ensuing cries of disgust boys made at getting a card from me. This year, I expanded the outreach a bit by making it an official event both on Facebook and our website. My outcome assessment will be if we see an increase of activity on the Journey North website. Below is the kick off post.