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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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Bridge to Spring?
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Lucy
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Winter melts into spring
Some of these are from January, and some from early March.
Tree tunnel in a snow globe 
Snowbird house 
Two mice leave their tracks 
Encrusted twigs 
Boardwalk in March 
March woods melting 
Ice-traced leaves 
Moss and bracket fungus emerging 
Early spring tree tunnel 
Boardwalk, toy camera effect 
Mud-coated stream 
Mysterious boardwalk -
Patience
It’s been a long, very cold winter this year. Since my last post here, I’ve said goodbye to our dear 14-year-old border collie, had foot surgery that kept me convalescent for weeks, gotten a new puppy, and generally been unable to get out and about with my camera. But things are warming up a bit at last, and I hope to be able to enjoy some of the welcome sights of spring.
I’d like to post some of the few winter photos I have gotten in the last few months. This one is of a redtail that sat behind our neighbor’s shed all afternoon one day back in January. I wondered if it was hurt, but it eventually flew off. My guess is that it was feasting on mice around the shed. I’ve always wondered how long hawks will sit in the same place hunting. The answer, in this case, was hours.
We named her Patience.
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Bear country
Our friendly neighborhood bear made another visit yesterday in the early morning. This time, he left tracks so we could reconstruct his vandalism. He bent the feeder pole to the ground and ate a seed cake along with all the black oil sunflower seeds, then walked around to the front of the house where he actually stood up and leaned with his paws against the front of the house while he removed the nut feeder. He apparently examined the Christmas wreath on the front door as well, judging from the huge paw prints next to it. Then he shambled up to a neighbor’s feeder and gave it the same treatment.
Wouldn’t you know? The one morning I let the dog out and then go back to bed for awhile, to rest up for the Thanksgiving preparations. Wouldn’t that have been amazing to see!
Here’s hoping he goes into hibernation soon. He totally mangled our nut feeder and generally has dietary requirements far beyond our bird-feeding budget!
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Lunch
Yesterday I looked out the window while I was making lunch — and saw this.
I’ve often seen pileated woodpecker excavations in the woods and wondered what these large birds look like while they’re making them. How long do they stay in one place? How do they go about their work?
This fellow stayed for 15 minutes or so. He had been at work for a bit before I saw him, as the hole he was working on confirmed. It was amazing to see him hammering, pulling away bits of bark, and occasionally twisting his head to get at the bugs apparently deep inside the wood.
After awhile he hopped to the other side of the tree before flying away, giving me a glimpse of woodpecker tongue.
It doesn’t bode well for the tree; I’ve read that they only work on trees that are already dead or dying. But what fun to have him in the neighborhood! Now I want a larger suet feeder more than ever.
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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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Golden-crowned kinglets
These little birds were fluttering in the apple tree beside the horse paddock where my daughters were riding yesterday. They move so quickly! — but at last I got one decent picture, and several mediocre ones.
