Walks
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Waterfall
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.
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Best Kept Secrets of the Woods
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.
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Lucy
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Deer season
The deer were everywhere in the nature preserve where the girls and I took our walk yesterday…
Inquisitive, but not especially easy to spook. It’s bow season right now, and I know some hunters who would have been glad to see them. No hunting in the preserve, though. I think the deer must know.
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Muted colors of late fall
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Chipmunk
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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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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 
