water

A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species.
I've been putting water out for the birds in a stainless steel dog bowl. Holds about a quart. The birds are thirsty. They've been drawing the bowl down daily. The weather is hot and dry. Birds walking around with their beaks open. Birds that normally don't tolerate each other, standing side by side, drinking.

new citizens

new citizens
Independence Day. Monticello’s 48th annual celebration and naturalization ceremony. New Americans from Pakistan, El Salvador, Panama, Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Guatemala, Colombia, Jamaica, Germany, China, India, Burma, Russia, Honduras, Venezuela, Peru, South Africa, Bolivia, Belgium, Canada, Afghanistan, United Kingdom, Sierra Leone, Ukraine, Brazil, Phillipines, Korea, Vietnam, Armenia, Ghana, Netherlands and Azerbaijan recite the pledge of allegiance following their recitation of the oath of citizenship and acceptance as US citizens.

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.


Charlottesville Municipal Band
time-machine Independence Day 2005

Acer saccharinum

robin on her nest during a thunderstorm
We had a severe thunderstorm in Charlottesville last Thursday. It snapped power poles, uprooted trees.
The robin made this nest in a 120 year old silver maple. The dread silver maple.
Outlawed by municipalities around the country. Experts say it is a weak wooded, weedy, infrastructure trashing tree.
Sure enough, this tree lost limbs, is that weak wooded or smart?
Instead of hanging onto all its limbs and blowing over in one beautiful piece,
it dropped a few limbs and lived.
Sister robin protecting those youngsters. Mommas all right.

lightning bugs

fireflies in a tree at night.
10 seconds, Lampyridae display. They are hanging out in a quercus palustris.
They don't hang out in the tulip tree to the right.
This chemically-produced light from the lower abdomen may be yellow, green, or pale red — wavelengths from 510 to 670 nanometers. Most fireflies are quite distasteful and sometimes poisonous to vertebrate predators.--Wikipedia

Wikipedia