Delaware II
We are back in West Lafayette from our back east road trip. After we did our Lewis and Clark stops in Pittsburgh and Harpers Ferry, we headed to Delaware for some fun. The usual stuff like kayaling, birding, chasing dragonflies, and hitting the ocean. And eating fresh seafood Like crabs and oysters just out of the water. I don’t eat clams and oysters in the Midwest. Sure, with modern shipping methods and the interstate highway system they can get the beasts here within a day of coming out of the water. It still ain’t the same. Sorry, but no. I want my filter feeders fresh.
Been so long since we were there Shelob started guarding the kayaks.
The birding was good. We filled in some gaps of species we should have already seen this year. We also got a few unexpected species, notably roseate spoonbills and black-bellied whistling ducks. Both were very out of range. The spoonbill is a southern coastal bird, and the whistling duck is normally southern Texas coast and Mexico. These particular ducks have spent the summer at a subdivision stormwater retention pond. Not very classy birding. You drive up and there they are. At least it didn’t smell as bad a garbage dump or a sewage treatment plant, both of which we have birded at.
Black-bellied whistling duck. The field guide said they are “unmistakable”.
The retention pond where they have been living. Not the classiest, birding but it was another species for the year.
Roseate spoonbills visiting from Florida. At least these were in a wildlife refuge.
Spoonbill Paparazzi.
Great blue heron trying to take a carp. It didn’t work.
I got two new dragonfly species too. Needham’s skimmer and great blue skimmer. The Needham’s skimmer is a species of the Atlantic coast, going down into Central America. Common in the right habitat along the Atlantic Coast but not something you will see in the cornfields of the Midwest. Unlike the Needham’s skimmer, the great blue skimmer is found here in Indiana. There’s a good chance that I have seen it before but mistook it for a slaty skimmer.
Needham’s skimmer.
Great blue skimmer.
Slaty skimmer.
Eastern pondhawk.
Having a really bad day. A dragonfly being sucked dry by a wasp.
You could tell the summer season was winding down. Some of the passerine species we saw in the spring had had already headed south. The shorebirds we saw migrating north in May made it to the arctic tundra, nested, reared their young, and were in the middle of their southern migration when we saw them this trip. There were not a lot of dragonflies to be seen, and most of those I saw were ragged.
I believe a female great blue skimmer that has seen better days.
We also spent a couple nights with Molly and Mitchell in Philly before heading back to Indiana. All in all, Philly is a lot more fun than West Lafayette. The Midwest cost of living is way less than Delaware or Philadelphia, but you get what you pay for. You’re not going to find a one stop shop for accordions in West Lafayette. OK, maybe that’s a point in West Lafayette’s favor. To quote Gary Larsen’s The Far Side cartoon, “Welcome to Heaven, here’s your harp. Welcome to Hell, here’s your accordion”.
Liberty Bellows accordion shop.
If you’re interested in U.S. history, in particular Revolutionary War era history, Philly is a great place to be. You can just wander around absorbing it all. This trip we went to the Museum of the Revolution, which has among its many artifacts, George Washington’s battle tent. Not a replica, the actual tent.
Philly is also a great place to eat. Not particularly healthy eating, but really, really good eating. Where else can you get an appetizer of Philly cheesesteak eggrolls. Philly cuisine doesn’t “stick to your ribs”, it lives in your aorta.
In addition to soaking up history and packing our arteries with lard, we had a couple new Philadelphia adventures. First, Molly took us to a graffiti park, A completely unstructured, unofficial park, and quite impressive. This graffiti park is an abandoned coal loading pier along the Delaware River. It’s completely hidden from sight in a somewhat sketchy looking area. You walk around a gate and follow a well-used trail through some woods then suddenly, wham, there it is. The structure itself is interesting but the graffiti is amazing. There’s the usual junk you might see in a city alley, but there is also some impressive work. Something someone had to put some time and planning in to. Some are high off the ground. Either someone humped ladders back there or they climbed the structure and rappelled down.
I do not condone vandalism, but this is something different. Somewhere a threshold was crossed that moved it from your run of the mill vandalized alley wall tagged with gang symbols to something interesting. It’s not art with a capital A, but it’s but it’s sure fun to see. Apparently, I’m not the only person that likes the place. An article from a couple years ago said it’s the most tagged place in Instagram posts from Philly. A huge development of 1100 townhomes and condos is being built right by the park. I can’t help but feel that a gentrified population is going to want something “done” about an unstructured and unofficial park. Pity.
A graffiti sampling. Unfortunately the dancer was in a darker area so I had to shoot handheld at a very slow shutter speed. The painting is much sharper than my image.
The other interesting little adventure was seeing the Hu, a Mongolian rock/heavy metal band. They use traditional instruments, sing in Mongolian, and do throat singing. Can’t get much more interesting than that. One of their songs has over 68 million YouTube views. Not bad considering Mongolia has a population of just over 3 million. They were playing at a small venue a block from where Molly and Mitchell live. We walked there. First live music event we have been to since COVID and it was great.
A couple cell phone photos in a dark concert hall. I have a video clip that captures the energy of a Mongolian rock band but apparently my WordPress blog account does not allow videos. I need the “Premium” plan. Check out the Hu on Youtube to get an idea of what they sound like, Then picture them in a small concert venue.
Ed's and Lise's Biggish Years 