hen evades tom turkey

two turkeys roosting

turkeys out back

This past Saturday morning, a hen and her young (ten or so chicks) stroll through.

(Later, this evening, a different set of wings . . .)

the tom turkey strut

Local turkey hopes to attract any hens in viewing distance. At 3:46 he even flaps his wings.

UPDATE: On audiokayness, the sound of one turkey gobbling. Also the sounds of the same turkey in a thunderstorm . . .

robins

As some deviation from the closeups and scans of old stuff, here is a short clip of some robins nesting out front.

They're also mentioned here.

on & off the five mile loop

After riding north on the Jamestown Ferry, I drove the five mile loop on Jamestown Island.











Though hardly a naturalist, I'd never seen this plant before.



One common name for it is American Beautyberry. I'd later see it growing near the river at Chippokes Plantation.





An osprey's nest, I guess . . .





I'm a sucker for wooden causeways.



And the places they cross.



After the five mile loop, I rode along the Colonial Parkway and stopped off by the James River. (Click here for sounds of the James that day.)





A distant view of Hog Island:

north on the Jamestown Ferry

Late September during an extended visit with family, I took the Jamestown Ferry just to cross the James River and feel the river breeze.

Here are some pictures while waiting at Scotland Wharf and riding north to Jamestown.





Below are a couple of the spare ferries, Surry and Virginia.



Virginia is one of those ferries I wish was running but rarely is when I ride. It has the open upper deck to take in a wide view of the river and feel the air. Great for a warm September day.






After boarding the ferry Williamsburg, here's a look back at Scotland Wharf from an upper deck window:



A heron on the pilings at Scotland Wharf:



Here we go . . .



Views of historic Jamestown:





Bridge on the scenic Colonial Parkway:



A whole other kind of bridge . . .



Abstracts of the deck's metal plating and painted markings:





The ships at Jamestown Festival Park:

turkeys go roost

What were once turkey chicks (if I'm not mistaken) are now about full grown and roosting in the pines with the mother.

Above you can see one turkey (the mom, I think) working up the resolve to fly. Then a clip of the last of the other three turkeys flying up to roost. (I lost track of their roosting positions--so there's only three roosting turkeys in the final frame.)

hawk on wind vane

Our friend the hawk is perched on a wind vane on top of the Stone Library at the Adams National Historic Site in Quincy MA.


Here's the same vane without the hawk.


Closer views of the hawk . . .

turkey hen & chicks

Prevailing with the woodchucks is this hen with her three chicks.

Not the clearest pictures, but below you might pick out the third chick on the far side of the hen.


And here the hen spreads her wings.

outstanding in their fields

Moving to the audio portion of our program, here's a snippet of a recording I made of some birds and one somewhat faraway cow.



A couple of days later, in the evening after a drenching downpour flooded my mom's backyard & the surrounding fields, many frogs near & far were serenading anyone who'd listen. In this next recording, there were also fireworks booming from towards the James River (maybe part of the Jamestown 400th Anniversary celebration?) some 10 or 15 miles away. Later on, dogs joins the choir.



Meanwhile, field recordists are picking up cool sounds from all over. Like Quiet American's collection of short soundscapes called one minute vacation.

scenes from the James River, Richmond VA

While at the aforementioned National Folk Festival, I took some stray pictures of the James.