Abiquiu News
  • Home
    • News 06/06/2025
    • News 05/30/2025
    • News 05/23/2025
    • News 05/16/2025
    • News 05/09/2025
    • News 05/02/2025
    • News 04/25/2025
    • News 04/18/2025
    • News 04/11/2025
    • News 04/04/2025
    • Criteria for Submissions
  • News and Features
  • Dining
  • Lodging
  • Arts
  • Bloom Blog
  • Activities / Classes
    • Birding
  • Tech Tips
  • Classifieds
  • Real Estate
  • Real Estate by Owner
  • Support
  • Home
    • News 06/06/2025
    • News 05/30/2025
    • News 05/23/2025
    • News 05/16/2025
    • News 05/09/2025
    • News 05/02/2025
    • News 04/25/2025
    • News 04/18/2025
    • News 04/11/2025
    • News 04/04/2025
    • Criteria for Submissions
  • News and Features
  • Dining
  • Lodging
  • Arts
  • Bloom Blog
  • Activities / Classes
    • Birding
  • Tech Tips
  • Classifieds
  • Real Estate
  • Real Estate by Owner
  • Support

A Predator Comes to Call

11/18/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
I was putting old chandelier crystals on my little Norfolk Island pine as I do every year around this time of year to honor all evergreens. It was almost November. I recalled a childhood experience… my little brother and I used to clink the beveled crystal pieces together in order to hear the music they produced when adults weren’t paying attention. Now each crystal shimmered like liquid rain caught by the late afternoon light. Suddenly a loud crash and thump interrupted my reverie. Oh no, a bird had hit the window – hard. I raced out the door. Yellow talons shuddered, but the hawk was dead when I reached it.
​
 Hawk is considered to be a Messenger from the dead by some Indigenous peoples – and the tidings the bird brings may be positive or negative… Hawks speak to power and they are also predators. In my life, hawks appeared the day I buried my brother; I also found a dead one on the day my mother died.

Context fleshes out the individual tale…
I brought the sharp shinned hawk in the house to examine it in detail; later I buried it outside my window.

Close up it was easy to identify this hawk. He had a small head, a squared tail, short wings, and spindly yellow talons. This one was quite large and brown with yellow eyes (adults have orange to red eyes) so I knew it was a young female; they are sometimes almost twice the size of males. Some are large enough to be confused with the Coopers hawk who look almost exactly like the Sharp shinned hawk except for size; the former has a larger head and a more rounded tail. 

The Sharp shinned hawk is the smallest of the three Accipiter hawks; the other two are the previously mentioned Cooper’s hawk and the large grey Goshawk. I have seen all of them in flight or perched on a fruit tree near the house; I have also seen them in Abiquiu during the winter. 

Read More
0 Comments

The Oyster in my Woods

11/6/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
This year I have spent a lot of time in the woods to escape the parched earth and the relentless heat during the hottest summer I ever remember. In the woods it was still cool and moist, and although mushrooming was poor overall, I still found some of these fungal fruiting bodies growing in the usual places.
 
Recently I was delighted to discover an oyster mushroom cluster growing on a dead poplar tree. I love these pearl white oysters because of their graceful clustering shapes, and of course, they are edible – especially tasty when young. They first begin appearing in June and can be found throughout the summer and sometimes, like this year, during the fall.
 
How does drought affect the timing of emerging mushrooms, I wonder. Does the underlying mycelium take advantage of rains that come at unusual times and begin fruiting when conditions are right?
 
We have two common species of oyster mushrooms that grow in our area –Pleurotus populinus grows only on poplar and aspen trees. It has a white spore print and an ivory colored fruiting body and P. ostreatus grows on hardwoods like sugar maples and beech. It has wheat or grayish caps, and a lavender spore print. This latter species is more common in the fall.


Read More
0 Comments
    Submit your ideas for local feature articles
    Profiles
    Gardening
    Recipes
    Observations
    Birding
    ​Essays
    ​Hiking

    Authors

    You!
    Regular contributors
    Sara Wright Observations
    Brian Bondy
    Hilda Joy
    Greg Lewandowski
    ​Zach Hively
    Jessica Rath
    ​AlwayzReal

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    September 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018

    Categories

    All
    AlwayzReak
    AlwayzReal
    Brian
    Felicia Fredd
    Fools Gold
    Hikes
    History
    Jessica Rath
    Karima Alavi
    Notes From Nagle
    Observations
    Profiles
    Recipes
    Reviews
    Rocks And Fossils
    Sara Wright
    Tina Trout
    Zach Hively

    RSS Feed

affiliate_link