This is a favorite picnic spot. I was able to get in close for the first time the other day; it’s been a steep and icy descent until now.

Another welcome sign of spring: water. Most of these streams have been silent, but now the woods are full of the sound of rushing water. It corresponds to the freedom I feel as winter releases its grip.

Always I am reminded that we are only the most recent of a long line of visitors here.

The woods were full of them today: soft, high-pitched peepings and flashes of bark-colored movement. There’s one on this tree. See it? It’s a brown creeper.

I love these tiny birds with their amazing protective coloration.

I have no idea how many there were; I saw one at a time. But they seemed to cover a wide area. There must have been quite a few.

I watched them hop up the trunks, checking under each flake of bark or lichen for insects.

They would hop to the top, then drop back down to the base and start back up again.

For them, the wood full of trees must have been an absolute delight — kind of like I’d feel in a chocolate factory acres wide.

They are always a treat to see, and seeing them feels like an accomplishment — so tiny, quick, and camouflaged.