Woodpecker at the Bird Feeder?

He came a couple of times, but I never was able to get a picture. Who knew that red-headed woodpeckers ate seeds? I thought they ate insects from the inside of trees. He wasn't really all that big, but looked really huge at the feeder compared to the finches, titmice, and waxwings that have been the most frequent visitors. He was a lot bigger than the cardinals, too.

A test of JMUtube

I am running a performance test on the video performance of a test site the school has put up for faculty. I would appreciate it if you, the reader, would please click on the link below, and then watch a minute or so of the Brugge video and then come back here and leave a comment about how well it performed. In particular, I'm wondering about the "latency" time (e.g., delays, places where the video pauses, the music pauses, stops momentarily, freezes, etc.) based on your location. I'm also wondering if you have any problem getting it to run in full-screen mode. I am experimenting to see whether or not JMUTube will be a feasible site for posting videos in the future. I'd like you to comment on whether you consider the performance "good", "acceptable", "marginal", or "unacceptable". Any additional information, commentary, description of problems, etc. would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for leaving a feedback comment. Here's the link: http://jmutube.cit.jmu.edu/content/fordhadr/playlist/2859/play/

Lyme Disease?

Enjoyed a nice visit by DJ and Al this past week and weekend, respectively. It was good to see both of them again. It was great staying up till late playing games around the kitchen table. Al and I moved some railroad crossties Saturday morning, and afterwards I felt miserable. Dubby posted about our shooting trip Saturday afternoon -- lotsa fun, although afterwards, I still felt even more miserable. Fever of 101.8 Sat. night. Sunday, still felt miserable. Fever of 101.4. Drove to D.C., stayed in a Hilton. Felt miserable, fever of 101.6. Woke up every hour all night long. Got up Monday morning, gulped the ibuprofen so I could speak before the Virginia Society of CPA's annual conference for an hour, and afterward drove home. Still felt miserable Monday night, fever of 102.1. Dubby noticed the rash on my calf. I had noticed it Saturday morning in the shower, but it had grown considerably (about 10 times its size). No pain, no itch, no burn, but it looked bad. Dubby did her on-line thing, made a few phone calls, ended up going with me to hospital and staying up all night. Spent Monday night in emergency room asking (begging) for water, warm blankets, etc. ... Final diagnosis: Lyme Disease. Bottom line: today, I feel miserable, but its more from the mega-doses of antibiotics than fever. Fever was 96.4 this morning, presently it's 99.7, a great improvement from Monday. Still no burning, itching, pain, or even discomfort at the site of the rash. Dubby is worrying needlessly. I refuse to let a bite from some dumb hematophagic arachnid keep me from hiking in the mountains. John Lithgow was turned into a newt but "got better". I plan to do exactly the same.

Rip Rap Trail

I spent the weekend in Florida, going through my Dad's old papers and financial records. The old fella had financial records going back to the 1940's... no joke, I've got mortgage documents and deeds and tax records from 1946. Anyway, I'm now pretty much done going through the old finances. G'ma is moved into her new apartment, and aside from needing someone to talk to every now and then, is doing fine. Traffic coming back from Florida is horrendous. Took 14 hours to drive it Sunday. Long Day. Bopnopper is home to the Valley for Spring Break. We went hiking up RipRap Trail this afternoon. The trail follows Cold-Springs Hollow, which is a lovely gorge with a crystal-clear, cold, rushing stream.

Nice waterfalls, too.

Below: Looking downstream down the gorge.

We went a couple of miles up the trail, then came back down, taking a nice, leisurly 4-hour hike round-trip. Afterwards, we went to PizzaHut in W'boro for dinner. Overall, a very nice relaxing day.

Mom's Daffodils

A New Entry on my list of Favorite Hikes

I've added a new item to my list of favorite hikes in the Shenandoah National Park. Saturday, April 3, I took the day off, ignoring my lengthy To-Do list, and went hiking in the mountains. How far did I go? It depends on who you believe. The trial guide doesn't agree with the mileage post on the trail markers, and even the trail markers don't agree with themselves! For example, the marker at the Furnace Mountain Trail says it is 0.7 miles to the Austin Mountain Trail intersection. But at the Austin Mountain intersection, the marker points back and says it is 0.9 miles to the Furnace Mountain intersection. I hiked a loop which was either 12.1, 12.7, 13.1, or 13.3 miles. depending on which source you consider authoritative. I started out at my usual parking place at the bottom of the Madison Run Fire Road, east of Grottoes. Spring has not broken out up here in the moutains yet, although there are some hints occasionally. Do you see the bug? Below: I was taking a picture of the snail shell and didn't realize how colorful this photo was until I got home and looked at it. Click on it for the full-size version and look at all the color. Moss. And a large aperture opening. A short depth of field.

Some of the rocks are beautiful. Again, the colors are better on the full-sized version.

This bee's nest is probably intended to look like tree bark, but the bee's overbuilt a little.

Another nice depth-of-field illustration below.

A colorful bug. He flies.

Since I mosey, I can often sneak up on wildlife that skeedaddle from other hikers.

Of course, the little beep from the camera alerts them to my presence, and it's game-over.

Bye.

I don't know my birds, but this one below had a lovely song.

The fire road goes up from the base of the mountains, elevation 1010 feet, up to the summit of the Blue Ridge at Browns Gap, elevation 2100'. Depending on which source you use, the fire road runs for 5.2, 5.5, or 5.7 miles.

At the top, I ate lunch, and then took the Appalachian Trail north for just under a mile to its intersection with the Big Run Loop trail.

The Appalachian trail goes higher, probably another 300 feet or so of elevation change. After a mile on the AT, I took the Big Run Loop Trail west for just over a mile to the RockyTop Trail, which follows a nice ridge through what's going to be a lovely forest once the leaves come out.

After another mile and a half on the RockyTop Trail, I then hit the Austin Mountain Trail, which gently slopes downhill for about two miles as it follows the ridge to Austin Mountain. The trail then drops sharply, very steep and rocky, south for the final two miles to the Madison Run Fire Road, where I turn west again and walk the final mile back to the car.

It's still winter up here, but there are signs that Spring isn't too far away. Another week or two, and it'll be real pretty up here. The views along this trail, especially from Big Run Loop, RockyTop, and Austin Mountain's upper 2/3rds, are fantastic. I'm adding this all-day hike to my list of favorites in this park.

The Trip Down: Austin Moutain Trail

I've hiked the lower half of the Austin Mountain Trail many times, but have never done the upper half. While the lower part is rocky, steep, and strenuous, the upper half is almost perfectly level and quite nice. It follows the ridge for about two miles from RockyTop trail for about two miles before getting to Austin Mountain proper, then descends steeply into Madison Run to the fire road. This trip, I had the good fortune of starting at the top, and coming down. That's my new hat from Glen's Fair Price store. It has a chin strap to keep the wind from blowing it off on the ridgetops. You can see how high up I am. This is from the halfway point on Austin Mountain, looking south towards Trayfoot Mountain. That's Furnace Mountain on the far right edge.

Below is the view towards the valley, looking out past the ridge of Austin Mountain out the Madison Run pass.

One of the few critters out this early in the spring.

The rocks on Austin Mountain are gorgeous. Notice the trail is following the ledge along a steep cliff. One misstep and you're suddenly 500 feet down.

Yes, that's the trail below. When the trail guide said this trail was rocky, rough, and strenuous, they mean business. This trail always tires me out when I'm coming UP it. (That's why I've only ever been halfway. Two miles of steep rocky climbing is about all I can take.) But going down, it's a lot better. This hike is now added to my list of favorites in the Shenandoah Park.

However, it is indeed steep, rocky, rough, and not for the beginner.

This trail runs along a ledge slabbing the southeast side of the the summit. The ledge runs along the cliff for about a mile. Great views to the east.

I got back to the gorge of Madison Run just about sunset, and still had almost a mile to walk back down the fire road to the car.

Although most people would not think that a fifteen-mile, eight-hour hike with over 2400 feet of elevation climb is relaxing, I cannot think of anything I do that is more relaxing, unless it's sitting in my recliner listening to Rossini, Beethoven, or Handel. Ahhhh, I really, truly, need to do this more often.

Sunday: Views from Furnace Mountain

Another hike on Sunday evening, just a couple of hours before sunset. Again starting at the bottom of the mountains at Madison Run Fire Road, and going up to the summit, this time taking a shortcut up Furnace Mountain Trail, a little bit steeper. Below: Yes, the trail goes right across this rock slide. Makes you glad you're wearing hiking boots and not Nike's or Reeboks. I always take my ham radio with me. Even surrounded by mountains, the ham radio gets out where the cell phone doesn't.