Thursday, June 3, 2021

The Sandpiper ...

“The fleeing sandpipers turn about suddenly and chase back the sea!”

   ~ J.W. Hackett

   ~ 1929 ~ 2015

 ~ James William Hackett was an American poet who is most notable for his work with haiku in English.

I spotted this Solitary Sandpiper, the first I’ve ever seen in Pennsylvania, peering into the Jordan Creek on a mid-May afternoon at Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville in this sepia image. 

The Solitary Sandpiper is a shorebird with a prominent eye ring. Small white spots mark the back of this breeding adult.

The Solitary Sandpiper, a wading bird, foliages along the edges of shallow wetlands, muddy fields and small ponds.

  

It is solitary not just because the sandpiper is alone, but because it’s part of its name. The solitary sandpiper (Tringa solitaria) is a small shorebird. The genus name Tringa is the New Latin name given to the green sandpiper by Aldrovandus in 1599 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle. The specific solitaria is Latin for “solitary” from solus, “alone.”

 

Solitary Sandpiper has two subspecies, solitaria, which breeds and migrates east of the Rocky Mountains, and cinnamomea, which breeds and migrates west of the Rockies. The two subspecies winter in different parts of Central and South America.

 

The Sandpiper is also the name of the 1965 American drama film starring the wonderful Richard Burton & Elizabeth Taylor and directed by Vincente Minnelli.









 

Monday, May 31, 2021

In A Mountain Greenery ...

“… In a mountain greenery

Where God paints the scenery

Just two crazy people together

While you love your lover

Let blue skies be your coverlet …”

      ~ “Mountain Greenery”

    ~ popular song composed by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Lorenz Hart

for the 1926 musical “The Garrick Gaieties,” first performed on stage by Sterling Holloway

    ~ recorded by artists including Bing Crosby, Mel Torme, Ella Fitzgerald & Tony Bennett

 

Shades of green color the bloomin’ Kittatinny Ridge – also called Blue Mountain – as it ascends toward a bright blue sky on a beautiful spring afternoon in late May along the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail) near the East Penn Township Trailhead in Bowmanstown, Pennsylvania.

Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.