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Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge
Before starting out to visit the refuge, I practiced on a few earth-dwellers in our yard.
It’s nice to know the critters have good personal hygiene…
Our aim in visiting the refuge was to see birds — usually raptors and waterbirds. The entry in seemed promising as we saw a bald eagle perched in a tree.
But generally speaking, it was the yellow warblers that stole the show.
We heard chestnut-sided warblers and yellowthroats, and we were hoping to see a cerulean warbler. The yellows were the only ones who cooperated, though. Good thing they’re so beautiful.
There were a few more common sights as well.
We saw several ospreys, some geese, a couple of sand hill cranes, some orioles and some cedar waxwings.
Returning home, we marveled again at the number of species frequenting our bird feeder. The most unusual visitor is the pileated woodpecker, but we’ve enjoyed the orioles this year as well.
There’s always a group of squirrels and chipmunks feasting on the dropped seed. This one kept rushing the others, and my daughter decided to fly her drone out from the kitchen window to see if it would startle him enough to have better manners.
He was, obviously, unfazed and applied himself steadily to eating.
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Mother’s Day
We set out bright and early on Mother’s Day. It was clear and cold, and we had the woods to ourselves.
We weren’t sure what this bird was. It made no sound, was about the size of a female cardinal, and hawked insects. My daughter and I snapped some photos, and when we got home and looked in the bird book we realized it was a great crested flycatcher. This photo is posted not as an example of a good photo, but as an example of how the camera is an aid to figuring out what things are. It’s a damage-free hunting tool.
Black-throated green warblers were singing around the creek. No great pictures, but we enjoyed seeing them all around, feeding along with some yellow-rumped warblers. Here, the camera magnified something too small and high to see clearly, and enabled me to see its markings. Again, an example of a camera as a tool in nature study, even when the result is not a good photograph.
The glen was lovely, though choked with blown down trees.
The trillium is blooming, along with other vegetation.
On the way home, we observed another mother — a leucistic redtail keeping her chicks warm.
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Walk in the park
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Spring woods
Let’s take a walk. We’ll go through the woods to the pond…
…and enjoy the wild cherry blossoms.
The trail is grassy there, so we have a good view of the water and its life.
Just remember that no matter how many things we see — warblers, geese, blossoms, color, tracks — we’re always being watched as well!
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Greening up
The light in the woods is taking on a greenish tint at last. The trees are beginning to produce leaves, and the mosses are incredibly varied. This rock is just one example, showing a number of different textures.
This tree reminds me of hobbits, thanks to its fuzzy toes.
Chipmunks are always watching. Though they’re not secretive enough to go unnoticed, they do blend in pretty well.
I’ve photographed this boardwalk many times, but it always intrigues me. Yesterday it saved our shoes in the extremely muddy woods.
A little photo-editing was done on this one. Fiddleheads are starting to appear…
My pictures don’t show it, but there were quite a few people taking advantage of the nice day to walk in the woods. This is due to pandemic cabin fever. I wonder if it will last.
The crowded woods didn’t prevent us from visiting some favorite spots, and all in all I’d say it’s a great development that people are enjoying the outdoors. . . ourselves included. Hopefully next time we’ll spot some warblers.
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Dinner Theatre
From our table, we’ve enjoyed seeing this red squirrel doing its Spiderman imitation on the stone wall across the lawn.
Is there a nest with some baby squirrels inside the wall?
No way to be sure at this point, but it’s fun watching such dramas play out — and inspiring to see such incredible core strength.
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One step forward, two steps back
We’ve had precipitation of various kinds since last time I posted, including snow. This is typical for spring in the northeast. Here are some shots from the most recent walk — over a week ago now. The lighting is rather severe, but finding beauty in overcast days is also part of living in the northeast…
Interestingly, when we tried to go for a walk on a sunny day last weekend, two local preserves were absolutely mobbed. Very unusual! We gave up, mainly because we had our (crazy) dog with us, but it was amazing to see so many people looking for outdoor things to do on a nice day during the coronavirus shutdown.
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House Guest
My daughter was riding her bike one day early last August when this plump caterpillar, perhaps 3 inches long, brought her to a screeching halt in our driveway. We all ran over to examine it, but we couldn’t help noticing the number of watchful, hungry birds around as well. We moved it to the grass, but it was still too big to maintain a low profile, and it seemed to be in a big hurry.
I dashed inside and hurriedly scanned our caterpillar book, delighted to discover it was a polyphemus moth caterpillar. The book noted that this was a great caterpillar to bring inside to observe the metamorphosis, so we got the aquarium and put it inside with some walnut and hickory leaves, which the book gave as the caterpillar’s preferred food.
By the next morning, it was spinning its cocoon in the corner of the aquarium. “Great,” I thought. “In two weeks, we’ll have a beautiful moth to let go.”
We had a polyphemus moth stay with us for a few hours once before, so naturally we thought of ourselves as experts.
But… did I mention that I “hurriedly scanned” the caterpillar book? Therein lies the joke. I failed to notice with sufficient attention that the late-summer caterpillar overwinters in its cocoon.
So since August, Polyphemus has been our house guest. There on the bookcase, he’s slept through Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, both daughters’ birthdays, Easter, and the state’s shutdown due to COVID-19. Unbeknownst to him (such a long-term visitor deserves a better pronoun than “it”), he has shared in a large portion of family life, all without being the least bit demanding or objectionable.
And one of these days, we hope, he will emerge to show off his glorious beauty for an incredibly brief winged life.
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Wood Between the Worlds
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Who knew?
Chipmunks eat larvae.
Somehow this is disillusioning…
…yet this cute and cuddly looking rodent doesn’t seem at all self-conscious about it.
