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Loving Tribute to Ann Margaret Ferrante

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Several thousand people were in attendance at Ann’s funeral mass this afternoon. Friends and colleagues, including Governor Maura Healy, State Senator Bruce Tarr, and Ann’s chief of staff Dru Tarr, spoke in loving memory, with Reverend Jim leading the mass.  Ann’s profoundly positive impact on the life of so many in our community will be felt for generations to come The service was live streamed by Streamography and you can watch here. The mass starts at about 21 minutes into the video.

Bruce Tarr ended his tribute to Ann with these transcendent words from Emily Dickinson –

Unable are the Loved to die
For Love is Immortality,
Nay, it is Deity—

Unable they that love—to die
For Love reforms Vitality
Into Divinity.

The photo of the Snow Moon setting behind Saint Ann’s steeple is for Ann. Despite her wonderfully full life, every now and then she would write to say how much she liked a photo I had shared, usually a harbor scene with a fishing boat or some beautiful Cape Ann building.  She loved this photo, and another Moon one with Our Lady of Good Voyage, and I will try to locate that one too.

On the back of Ann’s program was the poem “On Children,” written by Kahlil Gibran –

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Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay Airing at Prince Edward Island!

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I am delighted to share that The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay is playing at the City Cinema of Charlottetown, PEI, on Thursday evening. This is a very special screening to me, brought to you by the Island Nature Trust; special because the INT is a fabulous organization striving to protect species at risk and to conserve their habitats. The Island Nature Trust is a model of great stewardship and I am honored that our film has been selected for screening.

Read more about the outstanding work being accomplished by the Island Nature Trust here.

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Best Director at the London Vision Film Festival!

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Dear Friends,

I hope you are doing well. What a lovely weekend weather wise for we in southern New England although we’re getting ready for the big cold snap coming. Right after Dia de Muertos, we plant paperwhites and amaryllis bulbs to force indoors. We switch up the colors of the soft furnishings in the music living room from warm weather blues and greens to white, rose, red, and greens. It’s a cozy (and gradual) way to get in the holiday spirit.

I am so very delighted to write that we received the Best Director Feature Film award at the London Vision Film Festival. It’s a wonderful honor and my first ‘Best Director’ award. I thank all of you everyday. Both Beauty on the Wing and The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay would not have been made possible without your generosity and I am so very grateful for your interest and kind support.

If you have a chance, there’s a very fun new film about the vibrant music scene in Boston during the 70s and 80s, Life on the Other Planet. Beautifully produced and directed by Vincent Straggas, we went to the premiere at the Regent Theatre in Arlington several weeks ago and it is again playing at the Regent on Thursday, November 19th. Along with a great many Boston musicians, my husband Tom Hauck and Fred Pineau from The Atlantics are featured, as well as local Gloucester musicians Willie Alexander and Jon Butcher. There is talk of Life on the Other Planet coming to The Cut!

The Rat

Here’s a link to a short video and photos of the amazing Pectoral Sandpiper that stopped over for a day on its arduous migration to southern South America. I mentioned the pair last time I wrote and wanted to make the video before too much time had passed. I wonder what the predicted whoosh of arctic weather will bring to our shores next!

Sending you kind thoughts and much gratitude,

xxKim

 

 

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MONARCHS ON THE WING

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Kim Smith is an award winning documentary filmmaker, environmental conservationist, photojournalist, author, illustrator, and an award winning landscape designer. For over twenty years, she has taught people how to turn their backyards and public spaces into pollinator habitat gardens, utilizing primarily North American native wildflowers, trees, shrubs, and vines. Kim’s programs and events are developed from her documentary nature films and landscape design work.

Her most recent feature length documentary Beauty on the Wing: Life Story of the Monarch Butterfly,  currently airing on PBS, has won numerous awards and recognition, including Best Documentary at the Boston International Kids Festival, Best Documentary at the San Diego International Kid’s Film Festival, Best Feature Film at the Providence Children’s Film Festival, the environmental award at the Toronto International Women Film Festival, and Gold at the Spotlight Documentary Awards. One of the greatest hopes for the film is that it would be inspirational and educational to both adults and young people and we are overjoyed Beauty on the Wing is finding its audience.

Iceboating in Gloucester!

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Iceboating in Gloucester at beautiful Niles Pond! The last clip is in slow motion so you can see how the boat lifts up at high speed.

Thank you to Geoff and Pilar for taking Charlotte on a sail. She loved it! <3

 

Looking to 2026

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Dear Friends,

I hope you are finding renewed hope in the new year.  As we turn the page away from 2025, one thought burns so brightly in my mind and that is to Power On. We’re all in this together and as we become united, we will be empowered to right the wrongs.

This last photo of 2025​, from the 31st, is​ of a Wild Turkey taken in the Wolf Moon a few days before it was completely full. Charlotte and I watched in wonderment as the turkeys took flight at twilight. It takes a good amount of energy for their ungainly bodies to become aloft and ​turkey flying comes with much noisy whooshing and vigorous wing flapping. They sleep in trees for protection from mammalian predators and even young poults learn to fly and roost on low branches, at the ​very tender age of only a week or two.

I have been meaning to share this video of Gray Seals singing. For about ten years or so I have been watching the growing population of seals at Brace Cove, which isn’t really very long in the grand scheme of things. When I first began to notice the congregation there, it seemed as though it was all Harbor Seals. More and more Gray Seals seem to be coming each year. One day in November I counted 14 Gray Seals hanging out together in the water, not on the rocks. Another day, there were 34 all told, both Harbor and Gray, in the water and on the rocks. There possibly may have been many more as they move around the cove and are often emerging from underwater.

The first clips are of a chorus of Gray Seal bull songsters; the last two clips happened several days later when two were behaving very affectionately towards one another. Notice how the more active the males became, the more anxious the small seal in the center of it all became before giving up its spot on the rock. Turn up the volume to hear the full chorus! Gray Seal mating season is happening now and the singing can be either amorous or territorial. Mating takes place underwater but I wonder if the clips where they are behaving affectionately is a form of courtship. Everything I have read states mating is violent but watching the seals playfully rub each other and dive together for fifteen plus minutes makes me think perhaps there is another side to Gray Seal breeding.

Power On Friends,

xxKim

 

A Great Day for Gloucester!

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City Hall was packed this afternoon with well-wishers for the newly elected Mayor Paul Lundberg, City Council, and School Committee members.  Emcee Bob Gillis did an excellent job conducting the ceremony while Alessandro Schoc gave a pitch perfect and stunning rendition of the national anthem. In between the administration of oaths of office, Chris Langathianos and Joe Wilkins provided musical interludes. Gloucester’s co-poet laureates, Jay Featherstone and Heidi Wakeman, along with Anne Babson Carter, read original poems. Governor Maura Healey addressed the audience via video and Senator Bruce Tarr gave an uplifting key note address.

Mayor Lundberg’s inaugural address was inspiring and I thought also very unifying. It was a great day for our fair City, welcoming all these newly minted, and incumbent, public servants who so generously give of their time. Thank you!

Alessandro Schoc sang the national anthem – truly a magnificent voice!

Heidi Wakeman’s inauguration poem “Abecedarium: 26 Lines for 2026” was so on point and the audience loved it!

Mayor Lundberg, Jack Clarke, Jim Cantwell from Senator Markey’s office, and former Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken

Wild Turkey in the Wolf Moon

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Last photos of 2025 –  Just as i was readying to return home after a twilight walk, the local turkeys began migrating up into the trees for their nightly rest.

Blitzen at the Lighthouse

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Blitzen taking a break from wooing the does in the neighborhood.

We passed several does and a juvenile deer foraging in the snow and were just about to turn around when our favorite buck appeared alone and silhouetted against the sunset. He only stayed a moment before bounding away.

Clement C. Moore, author of A Visit from St. Nicholas, originally named Dunder and Blixem for Dutch words meaning thunder and lightning. He later changed Blixem to Blitzen for the German word meaning a flash of light.

Good Morning Cape Ann!

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Gloucester’s beautiful Lobster Trap Tree and FV Ramblin’ Rose

Happy Holidays with Rare and Splendid Little White Geese in the Falling Snow

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Dear Friends,

I hope you are doing well and enjoying the holiday season. I feel deeply blessed to have my family home for Christmas-making this past week and we are almost ready for tomorrow morning. I am thinking about you and grateful for our friendship. I hope you are finding joy despite these difficult times.

For the past several weeks a pair of Ross’s Geese has been residing at Parker River. They are really quite exquisite with their friendly little faces and punch pink beaks and legs. Smaller than Canada and Snow Geese, the adult is almost pure white, save for black wing tips, while the juvenile’s plumage is mottled with some gray and brown. I couldn’t tell what they were foraging for until looking at the footage back home, but it appears as though they are eating slender green grass shoots buried under the snow.

 

Seeing the Ross’s Geese reminded me of the beautiful and tender story of The Snow Goose. You can read it here: The Snow Goose by Philip Gallico. If you have never read it be forewarned you may be crying your heart out by the end <3

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and peace and love in the coming year.

xxKim

 

Where you would more typically see Ross’s Geese. 


Map courtesy Cornell.

Last Minute Gifts from Mother – Daughter Ventimiglia Authors!

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I’m so looking forward to giving our granddaughter the newly published Making Waves: Ocean Activism for Beginners, by Laura Jones Ventimiglia. I read about the book through her Mom, Laura M. Alberghini Ventimiglia. Charlotte’s East Veteran’s third grade class has been studying Jacques Cousteau this past fall and I know she is going to love it! All proceeds from the sale of the book go to Surfrider Foundation. You can purchase Making Waves through Laura directly and you can read more about the stellar work of Surfrider Foundation here.

Laura M. has a new novella out as well –The Women of Light: Betta’s Story.  Based on a true story passed down through generations, The Women of Light takes place in the Italian fishing village of Terrasini and is a tale of resilience and courage in the face of tremendous adversity. Our daughter purchased a copy for me and after all the Christmas-making is done, I’m looking forward to curling up on the sofa with Laura M’s book. The Women of Light: Betta’s Story can be purchased at the Bookstore of Gloucester, which is open tomorrow, Christmas Eve day. 

Spellbinding Woods Walk with a Young Buck

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Walking through a semi-wooded area I came upon a buck that seemed wholly unbothered by my presence. So much so, that he stopped at various points to snuffle through the fallen leaves, reach for branches, and relieve himself. As I crossed the road, so did he, and when I paused to film, he wasn’t spooked. We came to a clearing where another person was approaching. All too soon the enchanted spell was broken and he picked up his gait. I didn’t hurry after him as I didn’t want to break his trust and just watched in wonderment as he loped away.

 

I wonder if he’s the same buck that I filmed in early spring and then again in summer? Here he is with new antler nublets, and later with velvety fuzzy antlers growing in.  I read no two deer antlers are alike, similar to human fingerprints. In the photo below, the buck’s first set of tines are similar to the buck’s tines in the film; the right tine is straighter than the left tine.

Composition by Reynaldo Hahn • “Danse pour une déesse, pour flûte et piano.” Recorded by Jean-Pierre Rampal and Francoise Bonnet form the Internet Archive of Royalty Free Music.

Gloucester Firefighters Rigging the Star to the Lobster Trap Tree!

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Many, many thanks to Gloucester’s awesome firefighters for each year braving the cold and wind to attach the Christmas star atop the Lobster Trap Tree.

Miss Celebrity Scissor-tailed Meets Miss Annie and Miss Ethel Piggies

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The elegant Scissor-tailed Flycatcher gracing our region is the second Scissor-tailed to land in Massachusetts in as many years, two winters in a row. They both made their stopovers at similar habitats, wide open fields with berry-rich shrubs and trees outlining the fields. Last year’s Scissor-tailed perched on the Bluebird boxes at Audubon’s Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary, foraging over the field for insects and dining on crabapple and bittersweet berries. This year’s beauty is making her home in a field that includes a pigpen!  She skirts the edges looking for berries and insects but spends most of her time perched in the pen with Ethel and Annie. In addition to the insects the Scissor-tailed forages for in the pen and farm fileds, there are crabapple trees, bittersweet, Staghorn Sumac, and Pokeberry.

She has the gorgeous tail characteristic of the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher however, the male’s tails are even longer. The long forked tails assist the expert aerialists in catching insects mid-air, a behavior called ‘hawking.’ Hawking is described as a feeding strategy where the bird sallies forth from a perch to snatch an insect mid-flight, then returns to the same, or to a different, perch.

If we lived in Texas or Oklahoma, these birds would be run of the mill, but here in Massachusetts she is a rare treat. As much as she is a joy to observe, Miss Scissor-tailed is sooo far north and east of her range, I truly hope she departs soon. She should be in Central America by this time of year!

Many have noticed when observing her, she tolerates very well the farm animals and small quiet groups of onlookers however, one recent Wednesday we observed a birding group of 16 tromping noisily through the snow-crusted field. The were boisterous and talking loudly amongst themselves. The Scissor-tailed suddenly became very still. She did not budge from her perch for a good 25 minutes while the group was there. The very moment they left the field, she resumed foraging. With temperatures in the teens, these migrating birds need every minute of the shortened days of sunlight to forage. Several of us turned to shush the group, but they ignored and even the group leader was holding a very audible discussion in close proximity to the bird, about the bird.

It would have been so much kinder to the little migrant if the very large group broke up into smaller groups. The leader sets the tone of the encounter. She could have offered the bird’s life history back at their vans and made an effort to keep the chatter down. There were many other interesting birds in the surrounding field to look at while they awaited their turn. The group didn’t get to see the beautiful Scissor-tail in action displaying her fascinating foraging habit because she was frightened and stayed very still. Tenderly and reverentially is the way to approach wildlife, especially one so vulnerable. People will surely see much more of the animal’s natural behavior if we at least try to make ourselves invisible.

Orange = breeding, yellow = migration, blue = wintering.

 

Great Horned Owl Rescue

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The Great Horned Owl that has been seen at Parker River National Wildlife Refuge the past several days was found alive but immobile in the Hellcat parking lot this morning. A kind photographer shared the information but that is all she knew. I was just glad to hear of the rescue because when we saw him from the road Sunday morning, he was tucked way back in a tangle of trees and appeared as though his left wing was drooping. I am hoping one of our readers may know more about the rescue. Please write if you do, thank you!

900 LOBSTER TRAP TREE BUOYS!!

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Cape Ann kids have painted an astounding 900 plus buoys for the 2025 most grand of all 25th Anniversary Lobster Trap Tree.

 

Director Traci and program manager Darcie are adding the finishing elements of ropes and hooks to attach the buoys to the tree, then lugging all 900 to Gloucester Maritime.

The Lobster Trap Tree lighting takes place after the Middle Street Walk on Saturday, December 13th, at 4:30pm, at Solomon Jacobs landing (adjacent to Maritime Gloucester).

Hurting hearts for the passing of Ann Margaret Ferrante

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We can’t possibly list all the extraordinary ways Ann Margaret impacted our community. I’m just trying to hold onto some. Ann’s integrity, her compassion, her deep spirituality, her incomparable and highly successful advocacy for the people of Cape Ann, her vision for the future of Cape Ann and her fierce love of Gloucester are just the first few that come to mind. Sending love and deepest condolences to Ann’s family and friends

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours <3

I am thankful for your friendship and for your support of our film projects, Beauty on the Wing and The Piping Plovers of Moonlight Bay. Both films are continuing to do well and were only made possible because of your generosity and kind support. A most heartfelt thank you!

I may have but don’t think I did, shared this clip of a late hatched Turkey poult. Watch how Mom patiently waits for her poult to take a tiny seed from her mouth. Turkeys are so outwardly cumbrous but have such tender tendencies towards their young.

Happy Thanksgiving!
xxKim

 

No Soliciting Boys!

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Happy Thanksgiving Eve <3

 

 

 

 

Gulf Fritillary Butterfly Depositing Eggs

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We were observing several female Gulf Fritillaries depositing eggs amongst (what i think is) the foliage of Corksystem Passionflower (Passiflora suberosa). To my surprised delight, one had been hovering over a Gulf Fritillary caterpillar!

Gulf Fritillaries are also called Passion Butterflies because they rely on species of Passionflower as their caterpillar host, or food, plant. During the summer months, you can purchase Purple Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) vines at Wolf Hill. Native Purple Passion flower is also called Maypop because the new growth pops up in May, and not necessarily in the same place where you planted the vine. Another popular thought as to the origins of the name is that when the edible fruits are stepped upon, they pop.

In the last clip you can see the large white cells on the underwings of the Gulf Fritillary. The cells are actually iridescent and when the light is captured just right on the iridescent patches, it creates little flashes of light which confuses predatory birds.

 

While we were at a Gulf of Mexico small inter coastal pond for only about half an hour, in that very brief window, we saw Zebra Longwings, a Monarch, Gulf Fritillaries, and a new-to-my-eyes butterfly, a well camouflaged White Peacock. These butterflies are all considered tropical and subtropical species and aside from the Monarch, it would be very unlikely to see the Zebra Longwing, White Peacock, and Gulf Fritillary in the northeast.

White Peacock Butterfly

 

Good Morning!

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One of a pair of Snow Bunting spotted recently, on a sunnier morning. 

Boston International Kids Film Festival at the Mosesian Center November 21st through November 23rd!!

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Showing Short Films Made For Kids, By Kids, and About Kids

Welcome to a weekend of workshops and screenings of family-friendly films, both professionally and student-made, hailing from countries that span the globe!

Filmmakers Collaborative created the BIKFF in 2013 with a goal of showing kids that making a film can be a powerful way to tell a story, express your emotions, state a point of view and (more importantly) to have fun!

By screening amazing student-made films from around the world while at the same time offering these young filmmakers a look at professionally-made films created just for them, we are enabling the next generation of filmmakers to realize the power and potential of media.

The young filmmakers that participate in FC Academy, our after-school and summer filmmaking program, are given center stage at special blocks throughout the weekend, as we screen the short films that they have created in front of their family and friends.

Combine all that with hands-on workshops on filmmaking and stop-motion animation meetups and you are in for an event that families of Greater Boston will be enjoying for years to come!

Bats, Birds, Butterflies, and Baby ALLIGATORS!

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Recently we returned from the eastern shores of the Gulf of Mexico to attend the memorial service of my beloved, and the kindest and best, Aunt anyone could wish for. It was a lovely service and we loved seeing our cousins and family we don’t get together with often enough.  When we weren’t with family, Tom and I went off to explore local habitats and we were fortunate to see some spectacular wildlife in the shortest amount of time imaginable, including a great cloud of flying bats, Gulf Fritillary and White Peacock Butterflies, an Anhinga, Double-crested Cormorants, many different species of herons and shorebirds, Brown Pelicans, White Ibis, and our favorite, four baby American Alligators with their mom. A singular Monarch was fluttering around my Aunt’s garden during the outdoor service. Monarch Butterflies are thought to symbolize the spirits of deceased family members, returning to Earth to be remembered by their loved ones and I felt her presence so very much.

The American Alligator babies we saw were new hatchlings and much smaller than Charles, the juvenile Alligator recently rescued from the Charles River. The four were only about 10-12 inches in length and well-disguised in the reeds growing along the banks of the small pond.  Their mom was dozing nearby but also keeping  a watchful eye. I read that she stays with the young ones until they are at a minimum one year old and possibly up to three years old.  Alligator hatchlings feed mostly on a protein rich diet of insects, snails, worms, mosquito larvae, minnows, and tadpoles. Guided by their mom, the juveniles begin to eat larger prey as they grow. The hatchlings have many predators; Racoons, Great Blue Herons, and other Alligators for example, and there was a much larger Alligator lying in the reeds not too far from the mom and her babes.

On the two days that we observed the Alligator family it was warm and sunny and at mid-day They were in the exact same spot both days. I was hoping to see the hatchlings actively foraging but read that Alligators, including the babies, are both nocturnal and diurnal. They bask in the sun during the day to regulate their body temperature and for the most part, feed at night. The first two clips are of a much larger Alligator that was across the pond in the reeds. The mom is in the third and fourth clips.

Mom and hatchling comparison

 

The Halls of Gloucester High School Are Alive with The Sound of Music!!

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Gloucester High School Drama Club Presents the Timeless Classic

THE SOUND OF MUSIC

Music and Lyrics by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II

Book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse

on November 20, November 21 and November 22

At Gloucester High School

The Gloucester High School Drama Club proudly presents one of the most famous musicals of all time: The Sound of Music  Youth Edition on Thursday, November 20 at 7:00pm;  Friday, November 21 at 7:00pm;  and Saturday, November 22 at 2:00pm and 7:00pm at Gloucester High School on 32 Leslie O’Johnson Rd, Gloucester, MA.  Advance tickets are discounted. Tickets at the door are $15 for adults and $10 for Students and Senior Citizens. Tickets purchased in advance are discounted. To purchase tickets go to http://gloucesterhighdrama.ludus.com  Show Sponsorships, Program ad space  and Messages to the Cast in the Program are available for purchase. Contact Heidi Dallin, GHS Director and interim Drama Teacher at hdallin@gloucesterschools.com

Directed by GHS and Harvard University magna cum laude graduate professional actress Heidi Dallin with Music Direction by Cape Ann Symphony’s Wendy Betts, the production features GHS students  playing some of the most beloved characters in theatre history. The Sound of Music was the final collaboration between Rodgers & Hammerstein and features many cherished songs, including “Climb Ev’ry Mountain,” “My Favorite Things,” “Do-Re-Mi,” “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” and the title number, The Sound of Music.  The book of the musical was written by the Pulitzer Prize winning writing duo of Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. A Broadway legend, Crouse spent his summers living in the Annisquam neighborhood of Gloucester. The Sound of Music won the hearts of audiences worldwide, earning five Tony Awards and five Oscars. 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the 1965 film adaptation of The Sound of Music. The film won 4 Academy Awards including  Best Picture, Best Director,  Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Scoring of Music

Set in 1938 Austria, before the Nazi occupation, this inspirational story based on the memoir of Maria Augusta von Trapp, follows Maria Reiner, an ebullient postulate who serves as governess to the seven children of the imperious Captain von Trapp, bringing music and joy to the household. Director Dallin who appeared in the show as Sister Sophia while a GHS freshman is eager to revisit the show,” Sound of Music is a classic!   I am so excited to share it with a new generation of theatre artists at GHS. It is especially thrilling to perform the show here in Gloucester knowing the special relationship The Crouse family has with Cape Ann. Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Sound of Music Russel Crouse and his family spent summers in Annisquam. His daughter Lindsay Ann Crouse rode Rolf’s bicycle from the Broadway production of Sound of Music through the streets  of Annisquam! It seems fitting to pay tribute to this beautiful  and uplifting story during this anniversary year.”

GHS Seniors Niava Friday and Sean Buckley playing Maria Reiner and Captain von Trapp lead the cast of GHS  actors. Director Heidi Dallin is joined by Cape Ann Symphony’s Wendy Betts as Music Director.  The Student Production Staff includes Choreography: Anaya Briguglio; Scenic Design : Amos Telep; Costume Design: Annette Lane;  Prop Design:Nathan Gorman-Melo and Kathyrn Wall; Stage Manager: Kassidy Klopotoski.

The Gloucester High  School  production of The Sound of Music Youth Edition will be presented at Gloucester High School on 32 Leslie O’Johnson Road, in Gloucester, MA on on Thursday, November 20 at 7:00pm;  Friday, November 21 at 7:00pm;  and Saturday, November 22 at 2:00pm and 7:00pm.  Tickets can be purchased by using the qr code below or by visiting https://gloucesterhighdrama.ludus.com/200502487

Thanksgiving Feast Online Ordering from Cedar Rock Gardens!

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Produce Ordering!
Our website is open for ordering farm fresh produce. Orders must be in by Friday at 7PM 

Please pick up your produce on Monday 11/24 between 2PM and 6:30PM in the big red barn at Cedar Rock Gardens.

Order Here

We will be on a little break until mid December after Thanksgiving. Produce pick ups will most likely move to every other week in December, January and February as we give the greenhouses time to grow back in between harvests.

Thank you all for your ongoing support this fall season! We are so very thankful for you and our community as a whole. I have said it many times and i will hopefully say it many more – growing food and plants for you all to take home and share and plant and consume brings me more joy than I could possibly explain. What goes into a successful farming business is not only hard labor, thoughtful planning and good weather – its the people all around it and in it too.

 I want to really truly thank you all for making Cedar Rock Gardens a place that will continue to grown for many seasons to come.

All the very best,
Elise

Golden-crowned Kinglet – tiny bird with the outsized name!

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A mini flock of mini birds – every few years or so I am fortunate enough to catch the Golden-crowned Kinglets traveling through our neighborhood. In perpetual motion when foraging, they are challenging to film and even more so to photograph. You would think the Kinglets would be interested in the magnificent buffet of ripe crabapples but no, they were devouring the insects and web encased egg sacs found mostly on the undersides of leaves.

One of these days I may be lucky enough to see a Golden-crowned Kinglet with his crown puffed out like this-

Photo courtesy American Bird Conservancy