• Walks,  Woods

    Something there is that doesn’t love a wall

    history

    My husband took us for a walk in the woods he played in as a child. There were several of these old stone walls converging in the middle of “nowhere.”

    Once, it was “somewhere.” Someone’s fields. Several someones’ fields… Three walls met at this ancient oak, which still had rusted barbed wire emerging from its bark at several points. “Good fences make good neighbors.” Or so one man in Robert Frost’s poem says.

    oak

    For perspective, here it is with the dog…

    oak2

    How old must it be? It’s lived through many years there — long enough to see at least this group of neighbors building and mending their walls. But now the forest is reclaiming this ground.

    Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
    That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
    And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
    And makes gaps even two can pass abreast…

    And yet, something there is that does love a wall, too — loves being reminded of a larger order that we’re all a part of, and loves, always, to be reminded of good poetry and meditation.

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  • Birds

    Bathsheba

    titmouse

    My daughter named this titmouse Bathsheba. It seems always to know when I change the water in the birdbath, and it comes to bathe. We watch from the window — like King David watching Bathsheba bathe.

    titmouse1

    Well, okay. Maybe it’s a little different…

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  • Miscellany,  Plants,  Woods

    My brother’s woods

    quiet

    My brother took us on a walk through a tract of woodland that had several sections with several different characters. I heard many birds I never saw in the denser areas.

    He pointed out lots of clues pointing to the land’s earlier life and uses, and he did a great job getting my daughters to hone their observational skills.

    tunnel

    Jack in the pulpit
    Jack in the pulpit

    stargazing

    Looks like wild lily of the valley, but bigger, and with different leaves
    Looks like wild lily of the valley, but bigger, and with different leaves
    Red-winged blackbird nest
    Red-winged blackbird nest

    Not all the sights were wildlife…

    hoss twins

    This guy won my younger daughter's heart for life.
    This guy won my younger daughter’s heart for life.
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  • Birds,  Butterflies & Moths,  Ponds & Streams

    Pond Walk

    My dad took the girls and me for a walk around a different pond yesterday. These are some of the sights.

    Pearl crescent butterfly
    Pearl crescent butterfly

    Supposedly the underside of the hind wing has a crescent, though I confess I have a hard time seeing it.

    006

    There were LOTS of polliwogs — enough that we ended up taking some home in a goldfish bowl to observe.

    009

    The Wog Whisperer -- my younger daughter
    The Wog Whisperer — my younger daughter
    This photo shows an adult frog chilling on the bottom while the younger generation swarms over it.
    This photo shows an adult frog chilling on the bottom while the younger generation swarms over it.
    Feeling watched?
    Feeling watched?

     

    The fields around the pond were filled with red-winged blackbirds and bobolinks. The bobolinks sang a two-note song, then a long string of gibberish that sounded exactly like R2-D2.

    020

    I haven’t tried to identify these caterpillars yet.

    caterpillars

    Near the car, Older Daughter spotted this tiny moth — and I do mean tiny!

    025

    When we got home we identified it as an eight-spotted forester moth.

    eightspotted

    The day was complete when we pulled into the driveway at home to find some great crested flycatchers. They’ve been around the yard for the last couple of days but they’re hard to get a good look at till they’re on their way out. My youngest spotted this one.

    gcf1a

  • Birds,  Plants

    Seen here and there…

    Bad-wing moth
    Bad-wing moth

     

    Interrupted fern
    Interrupted fern
    Northern flicker nesting in last year's pileated woodpecker nest cavity
    Northern flicker nesting in last year’s pileated woodpecker nest cavity
    Sentinel of the back yard
    Sentinel of the back yard
    Yellow warbler catching a meal...
    Yellow warbler catching a meal…
    ...and eating it.
    …and eating it.
    Starflower (second attempt)
    Starflower (second attempt)
    Gaywing (second attempt)
    Gaywing (second attempt)
    Opening fern (I never tire of them...)
    Opening fern (I never tire of them…)
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  • Birds

    Gray Day Grosbeak

    051crb

    Such a handsome bird.

    048crb

    We have two grosbeaks out back. Maybe it’s a territorial thing, but one of them seems to be singing nonstop. He sang all day Saturday. He sang all afternoon yesterday. He started just before 4:00 this morning, singing again.

    mrgb

    Unlike some of the warblers and other birds who throw their heads back and open their beaks wide when they sing, he doesn’t open his beak very far. But his throat puffs out, and he turns his head from side to side.

    For the first time, I really get it — the description of a grosbeak’s song as being “like a robin who’s had voice lessons.” It certainly cheers me  to hear him in this run of overcast days.

    I’m trying to think of suitable words for his song. Occasionally, when the robin sings just before it starts to rain, I can hear in its song,

    Betterget

    IN-side —

    Hurryup!

    Hurryup!

    I’m not sure what I hear in the grosbeak’s song, though.

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