A short drive this morning - literally a couple of miles down the road - in search of the ever-elusive Great Blue Heron. Didn't see any. I might have had more luck had I set out a few hours earlier. But I did get a great picture of this Northern Flicker and an interesting shot … Continue reading Today Oneida Lake

(Max's blog today comments on the reasons and needs for Barak Obama as our next president. I started this as a comment on his blogsite but decided to expand on it here)I was raised Republican. More than that, my dad was a true believer in the political process and in the ability of the Republican … Continue reading Mr. Obama and My Change

More birds at the observation area- a goldfinch and a black-capped chickadee...a really unusual above-ground root system - kind of looks like some kind of camping structure with a little campfire in the middle...and some fern fronds - I was trying to get real close and see how fractal they really are.

Today's destination - Beaver Lake Nature Center. I took the Lake Loop Trail, 3 miles around the lake. The day was mostly overcast and very muggy. Much to my disappointment I saw very little wildlife. A spider web and a bunch of bullfrogs, but otherwise pretty quiet (except for the dueling squirrels which were a … Continue reading Spiders and Birdies and Frogs, OH MY!

"Humanity is a parade of fools, and I am at the front of it twirling a baton."spoken by Odd Thomas in Brother Odd by Dean Koontz

My plan was to write about fractals. Since I first learned about them I was fascinated by the concept: Symmetry in nature. Objects that appear to be asymmetrical or randomly constructed have a symmetry – what is referred to as self-similarity, a characteristic in which the component parts resemble the structure as a whole. A … Continue reading Fractal Lives

Today was the annual AIDS Walk/Run at Beaver Lake Nature Center. Amelia and I volunteered and checked in the 10K run participants. My daughter Sarah, her husband Jeff and several friends and co-workers were a team in the 5K walk. Amelia and Sarah have participated before but this was my first year. It was fun … Continue reading Are you listening Freddy?

Did you know that Stephen Crane, famous for his novel, "The Red Badge of Courage," was also a poet? I discovered this several years back, I think in my senior year of high school. I was never particularly interested in Crane until I found his poetry. Don't really like his prose but boy do I … Continue reading Beyond the Red Badge

Saturday - cool, breezy, threatening clouds, off-and-on rain. Still we saw plenty of birds and not just geese and ducks as we've seen on previous days this spring. At least one lifer for me - a Redhead (noooooo, not Lucy - think duck). Red-winged blackbirds are always everywhere around the preserve but of course since … Continue reading There’s Always Something to See at Montezuma

When I was a kid we used to buy our groceries at Curtis & Ward, the mom & pop store in the nearby village of Lysander. I remember Mom ordering chicken, pork roast and other meats from the butcher counter in the back. There was a big spool of string hanging from the ceiling that … Continue reading Penny Candy