My friend arranged for a group of us to go see the firefly display. It was magical! I’ve seen fireflies before, and even spent childhood hours catching them in my hands, but I have never seen so many. Constant little lights. Of course I had my camera and tripod with me.

The host has made observing very easy. He has made paths with chipped wood, which makes for easy walking. He even has observation posts with posts!

OM System has a computational feature in some of their cameras (I have the OM 1 mark ii) called live composite. With this setting, the camera takes a base photo, then repeats the exposure for as long as you like, adding only new light to the image. That way the overall exposure does not increase. I used this feature a few years ago to photograph fireworks. What works for fireworks (and star trails, and tail lights and headlights, etc.) also works for fireflies.

After creating a few images I realized that the paths of individuals could be captured. Just imaging connecting the dots.

The largest tree on Earth (by volume) is a Giant Sequoia, General Sherman, in Sequoia National Park in California. It is estimated to be about 2,000 years old, clearly much older than the two specimens at Blithewold. Although General Sherman is the largest, it is not the oldest. Some of the specimens at Sequoia National Park are over 3,200 years old. Sequoias used to be prevalent throughout North America and Europe, until the last ice age reduced their range to a small region in central California, mainly in Sequoia National Park and parts of Yosemite National Park.

Although the largest, neither General Sherman nor any other Giant Sequoia is the tallest tree. That honor belongs to Hyperion, a Coastal Redwood that stands over 379 feet in height. The redwoods are also found in California, although they have a much larger range. They are primarily found in Redwood National and State Parks. Blithewold has some examples of Coastal Redwoods as well.

The Sequoias and Redwoods are not the only surprisingly large trees at Blithewold. They also boast an enormous American Beech (Fagus grandifolia). What is surprising about this tree is that it seems to have avoided the tendency of the trunks of mature Beeches to rot.

We wandered around some other areas, including the bamboo grove. Then we passed across the lawn in front of the mansion in search of some cooling breezes at the shore. Enjoy this refreshing video pause as you imagine those breezes cooling you on a hot summer day.

The lotus flower is a symbol of life, of purity, of resurrection and new life. How fitting at this time, as members of the Jewish faith celebrate Passover and Christians exult with the Easter season. Buddhist legend holds that where the Buddha walked, lotus flowers appeared with his every step. So many religions, so much symbolism. Today is a fitting day to acknowledge this beautiful expression of life. May your life be fuller, more joyful and peaceful with this video.

When fully formed, the blossom looks like this:

Enjoy this timelapse video of a day in the life of a lotus blossom.

These little guys–Red-breasted Nuthatches–used to be a regular at my suet feeders during the winter. Then for a few years none appeared. This winter, however, a pair seems to appear sporadically. Red-breasted Nuthatches do nest in Rhode Island. In fact, I spotted a nesting pair a couple of summers ago while participating in the RI Bird Atlas. So, why a post about them when their cousin, the White-breasted Nuthatch, is so much more common? Here are the Whites, for comparison.

My father taught me to love the natural world. While serving in India during World War II he collected butterflies. An unfortunate plane crash took out his efforts, as well as the pilot, sadly. My naturalist education began with the study of butterflies when I was in the fourth grade. We spent summers in Michigan, so I became rather proficient with species from central Ohio and northern Michigan, though they are quite similar. Nuthatches are cavity nesters, as you can see from this image.

The next step for me was birds. I loved watching them come to our home feeders. One of my absolute favorites was–and still is–the Red-breasted Nuthatch. They are slightly smaller than their White-breasted cousins.

My father broadened my birding experiences over the years. More than once we drove from Columbus to the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge and the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area near Toledo. As any serious birder will confirm, these locations are among the premiere places to see warblers. As these colorful little birds migrate to their nesting grounds in Canada they stack up along the shore of Lake Erie, feeding and resting, awaiting just the right conditions for taking off over the lake. I remember one time, after a morning of constant warbler sighting and identifying, we were sitting in the car eating lunch. The warblers literally dripped off the tree in front of the car! What a memorable experience.

By the time I reached the seventh grade I wanted a pair of binoculars of my own. “OK,” said my father, “but you have to pay for them yourself by saving your allowance.” At that time Columbus was home to a company that made binoculars–Burton. I needed $65.00 to purchase a pair of 8-power binoculars suitable for birding. It took me a year, but I made it. My father drove me to the factory store, and I handed over my hard-earned cash for my new birding companions. I vaguely remember that Burton was bought out by another company, but I can’t remember exactly who. Perhaps it was Bushnell. At any rate, a Google search yielded this ad from a hunting magazine.

I had those binoculars for several years, until an unfortunate roll in a canoe proved that they were, indeed, not waterproof.

Binoculars today usually look quite different. The Burton ones were of the porro prism design, the only thing available at the time. Because of the interior placement and shape of the prisms, the objective lenses in porro prism binoculars are wide-set in relation to the eyepieces. This makes them awkward to hold. The roof prism design allows for the objective lenses to be in line with the eyepieces, making for lighter weight and greater comfort, at the expense of greater cost. This article gives some historical insight on the shift from porro prism to roof prism binoculars.

From butterflies to birds to nature as a whole. I love it all. In recent years I’ve added photography to the ways I enjoy the natural world.