Walk at the Pond

The sun was out yesterday morning, and I urged the girls on in their schoolwork, dangling the carrot of a walk in the sun. They rose to the challenge, and we headed off in good time.

First to sound the alarm was this guy: “Humans! Humans!”

Apparently he was ignored, because just beyond him we saw a couple of green herons.

There was a whole cavalcade of geese camped out on the berm across the pond. They made an impressive racket as they took off. We could almost feel the wind from their beating wings.

There were some other water birds around too.

There were several great blue herons there — 4 or 5. They may be feeding young at the heronry down the river.

The bracken was particularly lush…

And there were some wildflowers around. Learning the names is helping me to feel more like I belong in this place.

Back at the car, the oriole that usually hangs out in Old Man Willow was humming his way through lunch. I thought that the Burgess Bird Book named the oriole “Glory,” but it’s actually “Goldie.” I prefer Glory. It doesn’t get any more glorious than this colorful bird with his agreeable warble.

By then the sun was retreating behind a bank of clouds, so the flash of fire from Mr. Oriole was all the more welcome.

When we got home, Younger Daughter requested tree swallow coloring pages. Older Daughter requested a library book on caring for injured robins (for reasons I’ll share in a later post). I’ve been slacking on official nature journal pages, but I think we should probably get back into them. They’re not necessary for learning, I don’t think, and only sometimes are they an aid to seeing. But they do document the experiences of our various walks together. Someday I want the girls to have them to look back through. Once they learn the name of a flower or the habits of a bird, they will remember. But the particular treasures of particular walks may fade or get mixed up over time.