November butterfly

This morning while waiting for the furnace maintenance man to come I used the fine weather to rake leaves in my backyard. I was surprised to see a Cabbage White land on a low spruce in my backyard and spread its wings in the sun.

It's rare that I see a Cabbage White with its wings spread.

Later I was returning from Ann Arbor after having my hair cut. I stopped at Vreeland and Gottfredson Roads to look for Lapland Longspurs. I saw a large flock too far out in the large field to do anything about it. In the field opposite some rows of corn remained and someone was hunting from or within the rows. I heard a couple of gun shots but didn't think too much about it. While I tried to scan for birds that might be closer, I heard a gunshot ring out and the shot, though I didn't see anything, went sailing over or by my head. I quickly returned to my car and high-tailed it out of there. Clearly someone with a gun was not a very good shot.

Driving east on Geddes Road there was a Red-tailed Hawk running after something in a field. It pounced. I pulled over to the side and switched on my emergency blinkers.

This is a very poor shot, cropped way down. It seems to me that the bird has something in its beak.

Even though I was quite far away, apparently I was too close for comfort for this Red-tailed Hawk because it took off. This banking photo is also cropped way down, but I still like it for the visibility of the bold, red tail.

When I returned home I received a phone call from my friend, Colleen, in Ocean City, Maryland. Ocean City, along with most of the east coast from North Carolina to New Jersey, was hit by a huge nor'easter in the past two days. Today was the first day she was able to get on the beach for some shell hunting. Apparently there were plenty of others on the beach who had the same idea. She still came away with quite a haul of whelk shells.