Back in the fall I was asked to take over the Visit Ithaca instagram page. I gladly accepted and then the day before I was supposed to start the election happened and all the wind went out of my sails. Key to my not losing faith in humanity was the task of highlighting the beauty if the Ithaca area. Here are a few shots from the effort.
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This poppy is from an evening lecture by Gary Snyder with an awesome garden party in the Botanical Gardens after. Ithaca glow
I was one of the few people in Ithaca who was not at the national bird dork conference this week, so I had lots of time for hikes, creek sitting, small animal tracking, photographing tomatoes as if they were newborn humans, pig roasts, pond swims, rainy farmer's market treats, yoga downtown, and salamander crossing guard walks. Before I got married and lived with my husband, and had a job rather than being a grad student, I was better about spending time outside on hikes and meanders, but then this person came along who I enjoy being with and I forget to do the other stuff. It was a week full of the other stuff and just in the nick of time to really savor the last bits of summer. #soakitup
Kruger National Park, Lower Sabi and Skukuza 4/10/16 Lower Sabie journal ramblings 7pmish chillin at the #50s plaza with a braii fueled by ironwood after another spectacular day burned into our eyes. Holy shit, we covered so much ground today (140ks @50 by law), but it took us from 8am until 6pm. We went from our gloriuos perch atop the Olifants River cliffs through some really hot and dry country. We saw lots of mopani shrubland, viewed a pond with a a dead tree containing two different species of weaver nests, White-winged terns, a group of hippos, elephants drinking water, Egyptian geese, Vervet monkeys, Black-winged stilts, Dabchicks (Little grebes), and the whole shebang. Overwhelming. Between the turnoff Lower Sabie and Lower Sabie, we checked out two overlooks. We looked down on cacti-esque trees down onto really sparsely vegetated red and rocky soil. Leopard Tortoise moving at bird-nerd speed African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) and my fearless driver. Apparently that huge bone shield on their heads is called a "boss." It is sort of like chest hair emerging from a field shirt. Also, I think they look a lot like Arthur's friend Francine, but apparently she is an orangutan. Who knew. At any rate, her hairdo is very boss-like. White rhino Lion pride traffic jam and Broville units = science Blue wildabeests, Nothing-to-see-here giraffe and an Egret-topped rhino nap Burchell's Zebra (Equus burchelli) Fever trees (Vachellia xanthophloea) have greenish bark and are one of the few species where photosynthesis takes place in the bark. Greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros) Red-billed hornbill And another Lilac-breasted roller 4/11/16 Skukuza I'm not getting enough writing time in. We arrived at Skukuza at 1:55pm today after a bumpy backroad meander from Lower Sabie. We saw Temminck's coursers whose very red heads matched the soil. It was hot! We ate tuna salad while watching White-fronted bee eaters fish in the water, Hamerkops take naps, Vervet monkeys groom, Pied kingfishers pounce on the water, and an amazing, but nameless (to me) tree gave us shade. 5pm The golden sun just faded on the railroad bridge that I can see from our bungalow #84 with "no view." At least 12 hours of birding today. We went to whatever fancy pants steakhouse exists here for some delightfully cheap drinks and sunset. What a beautiful, but crazy scene. It was super ooey gooey great (that might be my champagne talking). And wifi. Blow your mind. Wifi. Crazy. Then, we went to the shop to get some kudu and wildebeest, and cooked some pasta, I showed Eliot how to use a old school (born before 1982) can opener, and we had a lovely meal. prime real estate ceaseless presence When they both finally arose from their bath, the had a butt war of epic proportions attempting to nudge each other out of the clay soak. Pin-tailed wydah Slightly warm 4/12/16
Day 2 at Skukuza, last night in Kruger Hot. Overwhelmed by animals and rapid-fire range shifts. Birding all day every day. Today we saw some kind of mongoose, five rhinos all of which we think were White rhinos. I have a lot to say about how nice it was to have no working phone, but I also went through hashtag withdrawal, so here are a few: #beatingthebushesforbirds #birdtrolling #nobirdleftunseen #tickinghoneymoon #birdtillyoureyesbleed #honeybirding #pishingeverybush #birdtillyourbrainmelts #nowearentlookingatlions Questions that we would google if we could: Why do some of the giraffes look like they have warts? What's a group of giraffes called? Are males darker? Just coincidence? Do males and females hang out together? Kruger National Park, Olifants vicinity From my journal: The braided river below is spectacular! Hippos, lines of elephants drinking and river-crossing, giraffes, and huge flocks of birds. We tried for a while today to find a Red-crested korhaan. It sounded like someone tapping a pick axe on a rock, but then there was a song. We finally put two and two together and figured it out with some research. Luckily, we bumped into the sound a little later in the day and were able to watch them, which is my favorite way to commit a sound to an animal in my memory. We did a short loop near camp and came back early to drink beer and eat nachos at the overlook restaurant (honeymoon....remember???), then headed back out on a road that winded along the river where we managed to find many impala, waterbucks, hippos, Fish eagles, Egyptian geese galore, and a double rainbow. Yep, a double rainbow. A good sign. Superb day! Eliot nearly convinced me of a rare sighting of a Pel's fishing owl, but after many hours and then an entire night of being perched on the same Boulder (capitalized in my journal because it was once my place name home, so I'll leave it), we realized it was an elusive Pel's fishing owl rock. Trickster. I think my our sheets are made from old woven barbie doll hair and combined with Lariam are giving me very bad dreams. Rondoval living Olifants curtains for our view of the Olifants River Marabou stork soaring and a Helmeted guinea fowl foraging Waterbuck mimics dead tree shape Camp Olifants and tire repair Marabou stork Giant Kingfisher Cape glossy starling
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