Ponds & Streams
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Spring Walk
It’s been a cold, overcast spring. Daffodils and forsythia are finally open, and today the sun came out and warmed us to the heart.
So we went for a walk — and discovered others were enjoying the warmth, too.
We decided to name this guy Thanos, even though we haven’t seen the new Avengers movie yet. He has a sinister look about him, even sluggish and mud-covered.
Under the water near where we stood, another snapper looked more awake, and more malevolent.
He rose to periscope depth to examine us.
We saw more agreeable spring pond-dwellers, too: a kingfisher, a number of box turtles, a deer, a green heron, and a snake. Younger Daughter saw muskrats twice, but her sister and I didn’t get there soon enough to see. We also saw bluets growing, and a goose family.
Oh for more days like this!
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Summer Falls
Wild geranium at the entrance to the trail 
The first of many stairs 
One example of the harmony between human stairs and natural stairs 
There’s always a mixture of darkness and light 
Greenery is everywhere 
There were brook trout in most of the pools, waiting for the next rain to raise the water level and carry them further down the falls 
Sun peeks through 
Peace 
Forget-me-nots along the bank 
A female mallard that plopped in for a rest while we watched 
Turning to look back down the stream This is a 3/4 mile walk along a gorge, but that short span includes something like a 600 foot rise in elevation. We climbed a lot of stairs, then walked down the other side on a more gradual trail. It was an absolutely lovely day.
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Chipmunks or deer?
New Monarch 
Resting deer 
Water droplets 
Bracket fungus (also a nice shelf for a nutshell) 
Squirrel Nutkin 
Lichen-covered stump 
Weird yellow fungus 
Bracket fungus 
Fall garter snake 
“Not in my back yard!” 
Sassafrass 
Tiny toad 
Dragonfly 
White-throated sparrow “What would you say?” I asked my daughter on our way out of the woods. “Was this walk mostly about chipmunks or deer?”
“Chipmunks, probably,” she answered.
But three deer, resting and grazing, were the first things we saw — after the monarch mudskipping in the parking lot. Later, we heard the snorty scream of a deer warning call, followed by some banging sounds, and then a young buck running through the woods across the creek from us. Could he have been clashing antlers with another deer? Or did he get stuck in a tight spot somewhere? Strange. We back tracked to see if we could get another look at him, and though we did see him we didn’t get any pics. Still another young deer bid us goodbye as we left the woods, too. They were surely out and about.
The chipmunks were definitely impossible to ignore, however! They scampered everywhere and chirped till the woods rang with it, warning everyone that we were intruding. The little guy pictured in the log was close enough to his safety zone to indulge his curiosity about us somewhat before disappearing inside.
The other story, for me, was the busyness and color of the woods. It shows up especially in the stream/bridge pictures. It’s difficult to find a single area of the scene that isn’t already brimfull of other outlines. It reminds me of those art class exercises where you are instructed to fill every space with a different pattern.
Not a ton of color this fall — mostly yellows and rust colors. It’s been dry. But it’s enough to tint the sunlight, giving it a beautiful burnished glow before it hits the ground.
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Virescent Green Bee
This brilliant green fellow landed just as I was photographing this aster. I learned his name here. He’s just another example of how you can live in the same place for years and years before noticing something common and very beautiful. He adds a new dimension to the already rich fall colors.
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Fall Marsh
“I’m not here.” 
“Too hungry. Truce.” 
“You STILL here?” 
Flicker 
Woodland sunflower 
Lilies 
Droplets 
Forget-me-not 
White wood aster 
Lady’s thumb 
Flicker foreground 
Ready to launch -
Spring Thaw
It was in the 60’s, the snow was melting, and the sun was out. We decided to head out and see what the woods looked like on such a welcome spring day.
A stop at the vernal pool didn’t seem like it would be too promising. But despite the ice…
…I saw the first tadpole of the year.
There’s something incongruous about the stealth of such a plump fellow darting along in his underwater world. I was glad to see him.
He wasn’t the only one enjoying the water. A big snapping turtle was floating on the pond, bleary-eyed. There were many ducks around the area, and I wondered if they realized he was there. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him if I was a duck.
We took our dog Lucy. She had a blast, of course.
We certainly appreciated her supervision playing in the stream. Where would we be without someone to catch every splash?
But I felt an unexpected sadness, remembering how our old dog, Katie, who died over a year ago, used to love coming here too. I remembered how we had to leave her at home toward the end because she was so unwell, and she’d stand at the back window and watch us drive away. Memories are a part of these familiar places. Rest in peace, Katie.
We needed the warmth and sun, and we saw a number of other people out and about in the woods too. All of us are ready for the snow to be gone — even though it means the season of mud begins. It was good to be out and feel the balminess and promise of spring.
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Adirondack Album
We visited the Adirondacks in July. Here is just a sampling of the beauties we enjoyed.
Bog 
Distant haze 
White-throated sparrow 
Mystery trail 
Hidden art 
Broad-winged hawk 
Maze 
Roadside frill 
Crowded hilltop 
Mountaintop view -
Green Heron
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Tanglewood
Sometimes, even the tail end of wildlife can be pretty cute…
…but then, goslings are cute from all angles.
Other things, close-to-the-ground, may require a certain perspective to be seen as “cute.” At the least, they’re indisputably well adapted.
We saw any number of butterflies, including this tiny specimen — which I believe to be an American Copper.
We were not only the observers at the Nature Center we visited today, however. Sometimes, we were the observed.
I think this is a young tree swallow. It didn’t take off the way I’d expect an adult to. It just observed us keenly.
This young oriole was one of a pair of males. They appeared to be getting along equably, then suddenly the mature one chased the immature one off across the field.
I enjoyed the red-winged blackbirds around the pond.
They seem common enough, yet I find them very pleasing to the eye.
One of the first things we saw was a bluebird — our state bird. On our walk we saw any number of chipmunks in the woods, and witnessed a drama between a blue jay and several great crested flycatchers darting and screaming at him until they finally chased him away. We also saw some downy woodpeckers, and lots of evidence of woodpecker carving in the trees. The prize was a sighting of a red-eyed vireo — a bird often heard but rarely seen. It sang right over our heads for a while, pausing only to smash a caterpillar to pulp at one point.
We heard several birds we never saw: oven birds, chestnut-sided warblers, a prairie warbler, a house wren, a common yellowthroat, a cardinal. A few months ago, a robin sighting would have been a highly prized assurance of spring; today we saw many robins without a second thought. A yellow warbler posed nicely for pictures (which I’ve posted in the preceding post).
Fortunately we got by without seeing a timber rattler. They’re common, but snake sightings in general (especially poisonous ones) are so far an aspect of nature study that has failed to win me over.
Tanglewood, the preserve we visited today, was a bit of a drive for us. It’s a nicely situated place with lots of walking trails and a mixture of meadow, pond and woodland. The grounds are well-kept both outside, and inside the nature center. They have a few captive raptors (a broad-winged hawk, a red-tail, a barred owl and a great horned owl), a possum, and a few other small rodents, birds, and reptiles. They also have an active honeybee colony — very neat to see. The exhibits are much nicer than our local nature center, which is choked with dusty taxidermy specimens, only a few of which are native species. It’s a hodge-podge, really, like someone’s attic full of collected natural artifacts. But at Tanglewood the exhibits are thoughtfully organized and effective as an educational experience.
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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 Supposedly the underside of the hind wing has a crescent, though I confess I have a hard time seeing it.
There were LOTS of polliwogs — enough that we ended up taking some home in a goldfish bowl to observe.
The Wog Whisperer — my younger daughter 
This photo shows an adult frog chilling on the bottom while the younger generation swarms over it. 
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.
I haven’t tried to identify these caterpillars yet.
Near the car, Older Daughter spotted this tiny moth — and I do mean tiny!
When we got home we identified it as an eight-spotted forester moth.
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.
