Cicada 2021

Cicada shell

 This is the year for the 17 year cicada brood to emerge for Baltimore and surrounding region. Cicadas are an insect that spends most of its life underground before emerging, shed their skins and fly off to find a mate. And part of that mate finding includes making a loud chirping clicking sound. Once mated their adult part of the life cycle ends. They have been out since mid-May and yet I haven't seen many in my area. I hear them when near wooded areas but it wasn't until yesterday that I finally really saw them. I might have seen one or two these last few weeks but that is it. 

I went for a walk along a parking that was surrounded by many trees. And on the ground I found cicadas crawling about, and not crawling. I went off to go chat with friends and noticed something odd sitting on a rock. It wasn't moving, and looked like an insect of sorts. So me being me I snapped a picture thinking I will identify it later. After getting home on closer inspection of the picture, I figured out what I found, a cicada shell, the exoskeleton. It is the skin left behind from a molting larva into adult cicada form. Look closely and you will see a slit along the middle back and counting legs there are only four and not six. It also has a translucent quality to it. It's pretty cool when you think about.

A Rainbow Walk

I went for a walk around Federal Hill today to get a little sunshine. Along the way I decided to take pictures of flowers and plants of different colors of the rainbow. Not quite sure what all of the different plants are but that is why I have downloaded the PlantSnap app, you can load a picture from your phone and it will give you options for which plant you may have. It has been useful in helping me identify some of the unique flowers I find on my walks. What colorful things would you find on your own rainbow walk? Explore the colors of the rainbow on your next adventure, Meet Me Outdoors.

Blue Crabs - Inner Harbor, Baltimore

I was on my lunch walk and found something that I have not seen in the harbor on my walks. I saw blue crabs!

Coworkers of mine catch them to show them to the Science Center visitors. This was my first spotting of them on my own.  If you look in the pictures and see shadowy blobs in the water along the edge, those are the crabs.  The ducks are my usual find on the harbor walk. You never know what new things you may see.  Keep exploring, Meet Me Outdoors.

On my way to Panama City, Panama

I had a window seat on my flight. Outside my window I watched the sunset behind and to the right. This means I had the western sky out of my window and I was definitely flying south.  Above the clouds I saw two planets, Jupiter on top and Venus below. 

This will be further south than I have gone before. And for someone who teaches and observes the night sky, Panama will show me more of the southern sky than I have ever seen.  Not only am I looking forward to night sky observation. I am also looking forward to seeing the tropics and exploring the nature of being in a new habitat region. Awaiting my next adventure armed with sunscreen and bug spray, Meet Me Outdoors.

Why did the toad cross the road?

I decided to take a quick evening stroll down my street and saw something different in my path.  All along the way I saw many leaves and twigs scattered around the sidewalk and road. Then I saw a lump in the path that was out of the ordinary.  I stepped closer to the lump and it hopped! It was a toad.

I was able to get a picture of the toad. It is the green lumpy thing near the center of the image. When I first saw it in the sidewalk its green coloring stood out more compared to the white cement. On the mud it is a little more camouflaged, but still easy enough to see.

I am glad I took the evening stroll.  It's good to have some fresh air and get outside after being stuck inside from all of the raining over the last couple days. The surprise toad was a nice bonus.  Take a chance and go for a stroll what will you find, Meet Me Outdoors.

Look what I found - Jellyfish!

I am trying to get back into walking during my lunch break. I was walking along Baltimore's Inner Harbor and decided to take a look and see what is in the water. I first saw a few ducks then farther down I noticed something different. For a short moment I thought it was a plastic bag, then I saw it move.  It was a jellyfish. 

Last time I saw a jellyfish in a harbor was when I was in Boston when there was a large group of them. 

I only saw three of them when I was on my walk today. Two were near each other and one was farther down the way.  I recently learned that a group of jellyfish is called a smack.   

It was definitely a surprise to see something other than ducks in the harbor.  In doing some research I found jellywatch.org that is a citizen-science site where people can add their sightings. It also is full of interesting information about jellyfish. Learning new things every day, Meet Me Outdoors.

Ducklings of MSC

Rumors have been going around the Maryland Science Center about ducklings hatching nearby.  When I left work today I saw a crowd of staffers looking towards a small cornered section of the outside wall. As you can see in the picture the mother duck, a mallard, is sitting on her nest. I  heard that four (4) duckings have hatched so far and must be taking shelter behind the mother.  Because it has been hot out, one staffer put a tub of water so they can cool off while waiting for the last of the hatchlings to emerge.  The one white shell you see off by the bucket of water is likely from one of the already hatched ducklings. If you look under the mother duck you can see one more egg waiting to hatch.

 

I will try tomorrow to see if I can catch the ducklings out from the nest. The mother duck and ducklings have coloring that helps them blend in with the ground and nest area making them well camouflaged. Likely once all have hatched they will all go to the harbor water for their first swimming lessons. 

Remember to take care when near wild animals.  This area is sectioned off so the mother duck isn't disturbed by people. Look around and see what new things you find, Meet Me Outdoors.

Baltimore Harbor

Lately I have been taking walks during my lunch break in the Federal Hill and Baltimore Inner Harbor area near my work. One of my routes takes me along the water and I like to look to see what animals are around. Usually I see a lot of ducks but sometimes is see something new.

Today, I looked over the edge of the harbor walkway and saw a turtle.  It was sunning itself on one of the stones. You can see it in the picture centered at the bottom. 

Besides the turtle, I did see a bunch of ducks bobbing up and down in the water looking for food.

If you take the same routes every day, try looking around. There may be something new that you walked by and missed. Meet Me Outdoors.

Robert E Lee Park Walk

I went on a walk today with a friend at the Robert E Lee Park which is north of Baltimore.  I walked there before with a hiking meetup group a few years ago.  That time it was just following a group with someone who knew the trails well. This time I did my best to follow the trails stayed on the path but there were a few places where the path crossed with another or veered off in to some direction.  I used my walking app that maps where I walk with GPS and was able to see where we were going and where we needed to be. So we made a big loop but not exactly the trail that we were aiming for.  

 The first critter we saw was a snake as you see it on the bridge stone.  Of course when my friend went to get a closer picture she scared the snake and it slithered off. The park is dog friendly so in a lot of mud spots of the path we saw paw prints from dogs.  Other tracks are people's shoes and bike tires. Sometimes I saw deer prints in the mud patches. We even saw a deer off in the woods but it ran off out of sight. The last picture was an attempt to catch a frog in action. It was a teeny tiny frog.  It was so small I was amazed I even caught sight of it in the first place it is pretty well camouflaged. It was about the size of my thumb nail. To find it in the picture look on the stick, just to the right of the light. It kept hopping away from one side of the path to the other.

In all we did 4 miles of walking. It was hot out so afterward we made sure to get something to drink to rehydrate. It was good to walk get fresh air while exploring the trails.  Robert E. Lee Park is just up the road from where I live, so it was good to see try the local trails. Find a local park near you to explore, Meet Me Outdoors

 

Little Purple Flowers - Mystery Solved

Almost a year ago has gone by since my neighbor's kid pointed out to me that the little purple flowers had disappeared from around the yard. The flowers came back again this year and I remembered to take a few pictures.  I used the pictures to help identify the flowers using a dichotomous key.  I narrowed it down to crocuses. The name was familiar from hearing it around the office as first sign of spring.  So now the mystery is solved.

Late winter, crocuses are of the first to bloom. While they do come in different colors, it seems that someone scattered only purple ones in our area and they come back each year. Best part is that even when there is snow they may bloom, are still there when the snow melts again.  Go out and enjoy the first signs of spring, Meet Me Outdoors.

Little purple flowers

When I came home from work today one of my neighbor's kids was out riding her trike along the sidewalk.  She stopped when I pulled up my car and couldn't wait to tell me about some flowers that seem to have gone missing from the lawn of my house. Earlier this spring, maybe around late February or early March (I know spring is technically end of March but it was a mild winter) there were these nice little flowers that popped up around the lawn. They had broad petals, a light purple in color and were relatively low lying along the ground, should have taken a picture.  Anyways, my neighbor was eager to point out that they not there anymore, and wondered where they went. My answer was that the flowers may show up again later but for now there are yellow flowers in the lawn. She pointed to some other smaller purple flowers on her lawn that were near some yellow ones. I was happy that she was noticing all the different plant life in our area, even if most people would identify them as weeds. 

Between when I last saw the purple flowers of a few months ago and today there have been a series of mini-snow storms that could have frozen some of the early bloomers. However the daffodils in the median of our road toughed it out despite the bit of snow and are now in full bloom. Also in bloom are cherry blossom trees, I passed a few with white flowers and pink flowers on my drive. I hope to go out and take some pictures.  Keep exploring your neighborhood green spaces, Meet Me Outdoors.  

A Tampa Vacation: Downtown

I spent the day walking around in Downtown Tampa, FL. There is a walking path along the Hillsborough River including a great stretch of green space at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park.  Since I came in winter holiday time the park has a tented public ice skating rink, but that goes away after New Years. I noticed that the waterfront park is family and dog friendly, even has a playground!

The weather was great.  I decided to walk along the river and explore between stopping at various museums in the area.  Across the river I found the Henry B. Plant Park which is a historic park from 1891 which was a part of the Plant Museum.  Not knowing the area or the history of the Plant Museum, I originally thought by its name, like some of you may have as well, that it was going to be some sort of botanical garden.  Turns out it was a hotel called the Tampa Bay Hotel built in the Moorish style as a luxurious stop along the Plant system of railways, steamships and hotels and named for Henry B. Plant. Right now a part of the building it has been preserved as museum to show what life was like at the time it was built, the rest of it is part of University of Tampa.

Tampa Bay Hotel now the Plant Museum and University of Tampa

The Henry B. Plant Park has twisting paths and sculptures among some amazing trees.  IT was the garden for the visitors of the Tampa Bay Hotel. While the University was closed for the holidays and students not around at the time, I could imagine it to be not only a great place to sit under a tree and read a book or to get a few friends together and toss a frisbee.

The picture on the right with the squiggly sculpture is part of the park. The sculpture is in the park and the building on the right side is on the other side of the river but from where I stood they looked the same heights. I thought it looked cool so I took a picture.

While walking around in Plant Park I saw some interesting plants that I have yet to identify but I noticed there were roots that were coming out of the stem. Only other time I saw that was on orchids, however they aren't the only plants that have these types of roots called aerial roots.

The picture here is a closeup of some of the details of the Plant Museum. The top part the looks like a weird cone shape is called a cupola, there are 4 on the top of the Plant Museum and they standout in the skyline because of their unique design.

It was lots of fun to explore the downtown area of Tampa, FL, especially the green spaces along the river.  The architecture was also nice to see along the way. There is only so much one can do in a day.  If you live in a city or visiting one take a look at some of the pockets of green space.  Meet Me Outdoors.

Chloride, AZ - Middle of nowhere but...

After crossing that Hoover Dam Bypass to get into Arizona from Nevada we took a minor detour off US-93 to the small town of Chloride, AZ.  We stopped at the visitors center, that is located in the local restaurant, called Yesterdays to get a map to a rather unique site.  Down the road about 1.3 miles, with a bit of off road driving, or walking if you doubt your car will survive, are cool murals painted on boulders. These pics are a random sampling of the paintings. 

 I also took some pictures of the area around where the murals are located.  Some interesting plant life, mostly things like cacti and other native desert plants.  I even saw some time of small lizard, but it moved too fast for me to get a picture of it. Another awesome find was a couple darkling beetles.  They were found scurrying about between rocks, not in the same places.  Darkling beetles is a very common type of beetle that is found all over the world, with over 20,000 species.  They are easily recognizable because they are usually have black or brown coloring to them.  I was able to get a few pics before it ran away. I only picked one to post here.

Darkling Beetle

 It was nice to see that even small towns have an interesting things to see and do.  Next stop is see Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. Until next time, Meet Me Outdoors.

Driving through the middle of nowhere...

Many days of this road trip that I am on have been spent driving through the middle of nowhere. From Spokane, WA to Salt Lake City, UT have been filled with roads that go through mountains and trees and more mountains. Some areas we went by have lakes, rivers and even farms.

These are just to give an idea of some places we drove through. While I couldn't tell you where half these pictures are from it has been an interesting time driving through and seeing the beautiful sights.  We soon discovered that calling out every cow, horse, tree and mountain can be tiring after the first ten that you see.  However, a quieter game of road trip bingo is sometimes needed for the sanity of other riders.  Sometimes its just easier to pick up a camera and record what you see, of course taking time to just enjoy the sights and sounds is just as good.  The road trip continues, Meet Me Outdoors.

Craters of the Moon National Monument - Idaho

After a long drive through a corner of Montana we made our way back into Idaho for the journey south and stopped in a really awesome park called Craters of the Moon National Monument. It a place like no other I have been to.  An area that was once volcanically active many thousands of years ago is now covered in lava rock.

While very desert-like as you look around there is some plant life in very unusual forms. The lichen that grows on the lava rocks come in all sorts of textures and colors, from bright green to orange to bright yellow. 

I liked how you can see ripples lava rock showing the flow of lava from long ago.  It was very different in the way it has ripples rather than more chunky, rocky texture of other lava in the area. 

The boulder near the top of the frame looks like a frog sitting on a rock. It caught my eye as I was taking in the scenery, just had to take a picture to share.

   There was a ranger there that was going around to the visitors to let us know that a program was going to start soon about bats, since there are a few caves in the area and the bats live down there.  It was part of a Junior Ranger program, but she said that you didn't have to be a kid to join in the fun. We had a limited amount of time here since we still had to get to the next town to find lodging, but the time we did spend was lots of fun.  

Since the landscape is so diverse and has an out of this world feel, astronauts from the Apollo missions trained at the park before going to the Moon.  They had to be trained on relaying their observations to the scientist back on Earth.  Imagine having to look out and have to describe what you see, from the shapes of rocks, big and small, to the way the horizon looks.  Do you think you can describe a scene for your friend to draw who isn't there to see it for themselves?  That's what the astronauts had to do when they went to the Moon. Try it on your next adventure, Meet Me Outdoors.

Vancouver

Fountain in front of Lonsdale Quay Market

 First full day in Vancouver started off with SeaBus ride to Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver.  The first picture is of the entrance to the Lonsdale Quay Market.  There are lots of great shops in the market: food shops, trinkets, even some toy shops. We, my travel buddy Kevin and I, got some apricots and apples from the fruit stand because they were both locally grown. The apple was from Okanagan... around 180 miles from the market, not bad for local.

The view from North Vancouver is rather nice even for a cloudy day.  On the first night we had walked around the convention center which is seen in the second picture on the lower left as the white sails. 

At the edge of the Quay is this look out tower.  For those of you who know me well, you would know that I would never in my right mind climb to the top of that thing... and you are still correct. I got to the top floor of the building it was attached to while Kevin climbed up more to get more pictures of the city and harbor.  Directly behind me from this picture of the lookout platforms is a large crane that blocked most of the view but with creative image selection we got some good pics.

They were setting up for a concert in the park area near the fountain as part of Summer Fest.  We didn't get to stay for the concert because were planning to go meet some friends across town and had to catch the SeaBus back. 

Fountain from above

This is a view of the fountain from where I was on the top floor of the market.  From ground level you can see details of the mosaic but from above the whole under water theme becomes more apparent. We used the fountain for a picnic bench while eating the apples and apricots and enjoying the view of the city between the crane.  It was a great way to start the day in the morning.  We saw lots of families walking about and enjoying scenery as well.

Walking along the harbor we came across various garden patches like this one on the right. Many have some historical connection in relation to unity among nations.  The plaque below the statue shows flags of both Canada and South Korea for this particular.

One of my favorite stops walking along the water has these carved Greeting Figures of the Squamish Nation.  They were at the entrance of a pavilion greeting visitors to the Trans Canada Trail.  The next few pictures show them from various angles.  Each of the carvings have a lot of great character.  The plaque on the first picture explains what each carving represents. This pavilion is located in the west of the Lonsdale Quay where we got off the SeaBus.

Black Squirrel

After leaving the Lonsdale Quay we took the SeaBus back and with a series of trains we arrived at Central Park in Burnaby, Vancouver.  This is where I saw my first black squirrel! Of course it didn't feel like posing for a picture, so you can see it running away in the picture here on the right.  I think I counted three by the time we got left the park. There were also gray squirrels at the park but those I can see any day.

Over all it was a great day in Vancouver, lots more pics that didn't make the cut but I may post them at a later time.  Next stop Seattle... Meet Me Outdoors.