Step Art

I've been meaning to write this post for almost a year now.

Two sets of steps near the Rose St parking lot in Clifton Forge became a middle school art project last spring.

This set of steps going up to Keswick St from the Rose St parking lot is hard to miss as you come down Rose St.

The complementary set of steps across Keswick St goes down to the parking lot behind Jack Mason's Tavern and has a more unified theme.

They may not be as elegant as these professionally painted steps on the South Side Slopes in Pittsburgh,  ...

... or these on Mount Mary Road, Bandra, Mumbai, India, but I'm very proud of our young artists in Clifton Forge and Alleghany County. (Virginia, that is. Pittsburgh is in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. It can be confusing at times!)

Vacation Wildlife

We just returned from a three-week trip to Antarctica, South Georgia, and the Falklands. While we were away, the game cameras recorded a lot of wildlife activity.

I'll start with a beautiful daytime photo of a coyote.

Even a hungry coyote knows better than to mess with a skunk. (This is the first time our cameras have captured a skunk.)

A bird captured in flight - I think it's a northern flicker (woodpecker). We've got plenty of them around here.

The cameras are set to take a sequence of three photos, 1 second apart. Here a camera caught a bobcat stalking something a bit further down the road - most likely a rabbit. (Get those rabbits! They love to eat my landscaping!)

A couple of days later, the bobcat posed for a portrait.

Ice

We had a cold snap earlier this week, and with abundant moisture, temperatures in the teens (-10°C) made for some interesting and beautiful ice crystals.

The top rail on the deck sparkled with ice.

Lots of feather-like ice.

A closer look.

Vegetation also sprouted ice needles at the margins.

More needles along honeysuckle vines.

The ice looked like flowers.

Illumination at the Morton Arboretum

Last week we returned to the Morton Arboretum to view the 2019 "Illumination" - an after-dark sound and light show in the trees. It changes slightly each year, and we hadn't gone since 2017.

Certainly new since 2017 is "Sneaky Socks Alexa" troll near "Symphony Woods".

Next to Alexa is a symphonic light show featuring Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" and two other classical-music-style pieces.

Projected dots on trees. (Similar projectors have become quite popular in campgrounds over the past two summers. I would prefer that they would be kept out of camping!)

It's not all natural trees. These large "lawn ornaments" change colors in a two- or three-minute cycle.

Back to the trees.

Many people think the "cathedral" is straight out of Hogwarts and Harry Potter.

Coyote Videos

What's better than cat videos? Coyote videos. The real deal - not staged.

I accidentally turned on video mode on one of our game cameras. While the videos take up a lot of disk space (and consume battery power), they do give more insight into wildlife behavior. Here are two recent coyote videos that we enjoyed.

Three coyotes running down the road. You can hear the two running before they enter the frame.

One of the three coyotes is clearly subordinate to the other two.

Coyote

Many nights we hear coyotes, but don't see them. And it's usually after sunset. And it's usually more than one. And the howls and yips rarely last more than half a minute.

This evening we had a lone coyote enter our "meadow" (aka septic tank drain field) a few minutes before sunset and vocalize for almost an hour before moving on. Although he/she knew we were out on our deck, as was our dog, the coyote did not seem to care.

I was surprised that the coyote stayed in the field long enough for me to get my camera. Our moving around on our deck didn't scare the coyote away - unusual.

The yellow eyes are particularly unnerving.

Letting loose a howl. It wasn't until I looked at these photos that I realized that this was not a happy coyote. The tail is firmly tucked between the legs. Contrast that with the usual pictures of confident coyotes on our game cameras (below).

Note the difference in the tail posture. Looking at the white stripe at the shoulders, this may even be the same coyote, captured on camera in November 2018.

Spider Webs

A morning of thick fog can magically transform spider webs.

A spider web of water-droplet "pearls" hanging under the railing on our front porch.

The central portion of the web.

Webs in tall grass really stand out when highlighted with moisture.

Same with webs in pine trees.