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Buttermilk Falls, Ithaca: October
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Tanglewood Trails
We hustled through our schoolwork in the morning and drove to the Tanglewood Nature Center in Elmira yesterday. It was a beautiful sunny day, and we took the trail up to an overlook over the Chemung River Valley.
We spotted two redtails circling over the river, but by the time I got my camera back out, they were high above us.
We ate our lunch there, and I enjoyed reading about Mark Twain’s thoughts on such an experience, posted nearby:
On the way back down we paused at this lower point, and a juvenile eagle soared past at eye level. No pics — but a grand sight.
Of course there were many beautiful perspectives on the trail. We passed through yellow sections, red sections, and conifer sections. I was partial to the golden yesterday — even though “nothing gold can stay.”
The reds were lovely too.
I commented on these bi-colored yellow/red maple leaves, and the kids proceeded to gather specimens.
There were apple trees, and faded pearl crescent butterflies.
We enjoyed the many fossils seen along the trail, too.
When we got back to the bottom, we rested a bit…
…and saw several bluebirds. They were perching in a walnut tree, then swooping down to hawk insects near the ground. It’s always a treat to see our state bird.
I was surprised to see red-winged blackbirds too, plucking and eating the keys from this tree.
On the whole it was a grand way to drink in the sights and smells of autumn.
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Chickadees
We were looking for warblers, but these chickadees stole the show on a walk last week. They were plucking these fruits, and trying to hold onto them with their toes and devour them with their beaks.They dropped many prizes, and the plops were like rain on the dry leaves.
They are great little acrobats, and they earned every delicious bit.
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Brown Thrasher
I tried numerous times to capture a photo of this thrasher in the springtime, but it was too elusive. Who would have guessed that in the fall — the silent season, when the bird isn’t calling attention to itself — it would pose for me?
Thank you, Friend Thrasher.
Also saw some kinglets…
…an ovenbird…
and, across the street, some suburban deer.
This one begs for a word bubble…
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Bittersweet
Fall is filled with a sense of foreboding. It precedes the cold, colorless season, and I dread that.
Yet I also love the fall! It sure looks amazing here in the Northeast.
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Another migrant hummer
This tiny visitor was as interested in us as we were in her.
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Oblivious
Yesterday, trying to create a new email address, I stumbled upon my gmail account — the one through which Feedburner sends out the emails of posts on this blog. I discovered a number of emails from readers, responding to different posts over the last year. Presumably they were sent by simply hitting “reply” to the blog posts — something I didn’t realize could be done.
It was a great encouragement to me to read these emails. I’m very grateful to the readers who have been so appreciative of my attempts to document my family’s nature sightings! Thank you!
I was also very embarrassed not to have responded to those emails. I haven’t realized my gmail account was accumulating them; the address I check regularly, and which sends me notification when comments are made on the blog, is the one I have listed in my sidebar here.
I’ll be sure to check my gmail account more than once a year in the future! Please accept my apology if you are someone who has sent some kind words my way and received only silence.
Fledgling osprey, Moss Lake — 8/13 -
Dead garden fun
Our garden is still producing beans, broccoli and tomatoes. But they aren’t worth picking anymore. It’s officially past its prime, and I took down the fence a couple of weeks ago to let the critters have at it.
It’s fun to see the birds fluttering around among the ragged sunflowers, eating seeds and bugs. But as it turns out, my daughters managed to have some fun out there too.
This bunny is, I believe, the same one that inspired the fence in the first place. He looks like a gangly adolescent now, and I got a few photos from the kitchen window at dusk the other night of him giving himself fully to the task of raiding the pole beans. I’m glad he’s still around.
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Mrs. Hummer
This female hummingbird has been hanging around for awhile, chasing away other hummers who venture too near. She’s recognizable because she’s on the big side, with a little dark fleck on her breast.
This morning, she was actually on the feeder when we came out to breakfast. We think she spent the night there, in torpor, and was just coming out of it — just sitting there, fluttering her wings occasionally, and then finally taking a drink.
She flew away, and I think it may be the last time we see her.
Fascinating to read here and here about both torpor and migration. Her departure for the south seems a little late, but I wish her a happy journey.
She was quickly replaced by another female today, more skittish and slender — probably a migrant passing through.
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Fall exploring
The girls, the dog, and I had a great walk today. Our dog, we recently learned, has a tumor in her spleen, and the doctor speculates that she has perhaps 2-6 months to live. We are grieving, but trying to give her good quality of life in the time we have. She’s always loved a good woodland explore.
It was a brilliant, clear day, cool and comfortable. Here a few of the sights we took in.
New York Aster 
Pay no attention to that munk behind the curtain… 
See ya! 
Black-throated green warbler, non-breeding plumage 
