This past Saturday was chilly and gray and rainy, and I did a dance with the weather for much of the day -- I kept trying to go outside, and then the rain would push me back inside. But I saw so many creatures in the time I was outside. Lots of birds that I hadn't seen yet this year are now back in the area, and they were out despite the wet weather, so I needed to be out there, too!
On Saturday morning, I drove out to a nearby park, and on my way home (after the rain sent me back to my car), I stopped to admire a bunch of swallows gathering on a fence next to the road. Tree Swallows are always beautiful, even in the rain:
I'm not used to seeing Tree Swallows and Barn Swallows hanging out in the same spot like this:
The birds seemed to be taking the rain as a bathing opportunity. Shake off those raindrops, little bird:
When I got home, the rain let up again for a bit, so I wandered outside near our house, where fields of bright yellow flowers make for quite a dramatic landscape, especially below heavy clouds and mist:
I'm guessing these yellow flowers are some sort of mustard, and the Red-winged Blackbirds at least seem to be making good use of them. I saw several male Red-winged Blackbirds displaying in parts of the field, and this female was picking up what looks like nesting material from among the yellow flowers:
So many birds in the area were taking advantage of the halt in the rain to move around. Every few minutes, I'd look up and see a different bird passing by overhead -- a heron, various hawks, vultures, ducks.... An Osprey circled over our neighborhood a couple of times, perhaps eyeing the ponds:
Even a Common Loon flew by at one point, heading toward the nearest Finger Lake, I'm guessing. I'm amazed that this creature could fly with all those damaged feathers on its left wing (and now I know that loons trail their big feet behind them when they fly, how cool):
Lots of birds were moving around in the trees next to the fields, including my first Baltimore Orioles of the year. This handsome male oriole had an especially brilliant breast that was almost red in places. What a sight on a gray day!
I was very excited to see a male Bobolink, too, who was singing his weird robot-song and snacking on flower petals. I've only seen Bobolinks twice before, and that was a few years ago, all the way back at the Connecticut shore. It's so cool to have these funny meadow-dwelling birds nearby:
A few White-crowned Sparrows have been hanging around our yard for the past week or so, and one fellow in particular frequently takes up a post in the blossoming apple tree outside our window to sing. White-crowned Sparrows only pass through this area during migration, and I'm glad to have these pretty birds as neighbors at least for a little while. Here's a picture of our apple-tree-songster from inside the house on this rainy day:
At this point in my life, the place where I've heard White-crowned Sparrows singing the most was at the coastal dunes in Humboldt County, CA (since these birds breed there). It's been very strange to hear those dune sounds again here in rainy, lush, springtime Central New York! Best wishes on the rest of your journey, little sparrow, when you do decide to move on; and thanks for stopping here for a few days:
A Green Frog was also out and about on this rainy Saturday, settled nicely in a puddle next to a field:
Hooray for spring, when even rainy days are exciting and full of things to see!
Every week when I visit Silver Sands State Park, I get a little more attached to the place. I love getting to check in with familiar creatures, and there's always something new to see! Here are a few sights (mostly birds) from this morning's visit.
The Piping Plover chicks east of the park are getting even closer to adulthood (including the chick with the injured leg, who's still running around and foraging with its siblings as of this morning). It looks like they just need some longer wing and tail feathers, and then they should be good to go!
While the four chicks foraged in the sand, Dad kept careful watch; he even chased a House Sparrow away at one point. A folded mat makes a convenient lookout perch:
The plovers aren't the only bird family with growing babies around here, of course. I was very happy to see a gangly Clapper Rail chick wander out of the marsh grass; such a cute little dinosaur-like creature:
The Barn Swallows are nesting under the boardwalk, and this adult perched on the railing for a rest between hunting flights:
There were actually dozens of swallows hunting in the air over the marsh, more than I think I've ever seen here at once. The swirling (and chittering) cloud of birds was mostly made of Barn Swallows, but there were also several Tree Swallows in the mix, as well as a few Chimney Swifts, which I've definitely never seen hunting in this spot before. This picture may not look like much, but its quite a busy scene for this airspace:
On the beach, a pair of Great Black-backed Gulls made an imposing sight:
I'm surprised to notice that I've actually never posted about Great Black-backed Gulls before. They show up around here pretty frequently, and they have the distinction of being the largest gull in the world. These two were quite noisy, and they kept striking these odd tilted postures and tossing their heads; I can only think this is some sort of courtship display, but it seems kind of late in the season to be thinking about making a nest:
A Common Loon was floating close to shore. This bird was looking a little less than pristine (it was presumably molting out of its breeding plumage), but it was still such a handsome creature:
A Yellow-crowned Night-Heron was hunting at the water's edge (not quite as elegant as the Black-crowned Night-Heron I saw last week, and I always think that dark mask looks strange):
Although I often see many species of egrets and herons in this park, I don't usually see Great Blue Herons here. It was quite a treat, then, when this huge creature soared by:
I love those wings, and those big legs! This bird circled overhead a few times, so here's another view:
As I was leaving the park, I checked out some Common Milkweed plants to see what sorts of bugs might have been hanging out there. A few of the flower clusters were looking pretty well decimated.... Someone was hungry!
A closer inspection revealed that the orange pollen-like dusting on the plants' stems and leaves was actually tons of tiny bright aphids (probably the species Aphis nerii). These guys were everywhere and they were having a feast:
Fortunately, there were many more milkweed plants without aphids, so there's still plenty of this apparently delicious (for bugs) plant to go around.
Here's to another great day at the beach!
Last Wednesday, I visited a strange and foreign land: Canada! I had some work-related obligations in Ottawa, Ontario -- which, as it turns out, is a mere eight-hour drive northwest from my house, just up past the middle of New York state. So off I went, and of course I had to make time to get out into the woods while I was there. I've traveled in Canada before, but I've never been to Ottawa, and I couldn't pass up this chance to explore!
As soon as I checked into my hotel in downtown Ottawa on Wednesday afternoon, I headed off to Gatineau Park, a few miles north of Ottawa and just over the border into Quebec. This really did feel like a foreign country, since everyone I passed in these woods was speaking French! I spent most of my time in this park walking around Pink Lake -- named after a person, not the color -- and the change from Connecticut was dramatic. The air was cool and clear instead of hot and muggy, and there were conifers and rocky inclines all over. Pink Lake itself was gorgeous:
Right in the middle of the lake (a tiny black dot in the above picture) was a Common Loon! What an appropriate first Canadian creature to see:
According to the various informational signs along the trail, this lake is meromictic, which means that the upper and lower layers of water don't mix. Apparently the only creature that survives at the bottom of Pink Lake is an ancient bacteria that lives off of sulfur instead of oxygen. That's preeeeetty cool. In any case, the lake's water was also just really lovely and clear, and I often looked in to see fish staring back at me:
An amazing number of creatures popped out along the path as I walked around the lake. These are all animals I'm familiar with from Connecticut, but I loved how frequently they showed up here and how active they were! An Eastern Chipmunk darted right out onto the path's steps only a few feet in front of me:
And then it proceeded to just sit back and groom itself:
Eh, so there's a human looming over me, no big deal:
I noticed the same sort of nonchalance in the chipmunks and squirrels when I visited Utah last summer, whereas the chipmunks I see in Connecticut are extremely skittish! I wonder what causes this difference in behavior.
At other points along the path, a gorgeous Wood Frog bounded into view:
An Eastern Garter Snake rustled in the underbrush and then slithered back into the leaves:
And a small Painted Turtle walked across the path, with another creature in tow:
I've never seen a leech on a turtle shell before, but I guess it happens. Poor little guy:
There were some really cool plants in these woods, too. Here's something we don't have in Connecticut, Pinedrops (Pterospora andromedea), big (2 or 3 feet tall) flower stalks that emerge right from the forest floor:
Pinedrops are some of those weird plants without chlorophyll, and they get their food from underground fungi. These flower stalks are definitely striking, and the flowers are quite pretty up close:
In the sunlight, those stalks practically glowed red -- pretty, and very weird:
Finally, these lovely flower buds looked vaguely familiar, but I haven't been able to identify the plant they belong to. (Help is appreciated if anyone recognizes them!) I just love these purple stars floating in the dark forest:
The sun was quickly setting, so I left Pink Lake. It was a wonderful first taste of this awesome area, but I wasn't finished yet! More pictures of creatures and plants coming soon!
There were monsters in the woods today.
I'll start with the lesser of the two monsters I saw -- monstrous because of its size more than anything else:
This Bullfrog was at least 5 inches long -- not the biggest Bullfrog ever, but certainly the biggest I've seen in these lakes. This frog was totally confident in its command of the lake, refusing to hop away even after all of its smaller cousins dove underwater at my approach. OK, so it's maybe more impressive than scary (and I want to give it a hug, actually).
This next creature, though, lurking just a few feet away from the Bullfrog, is a monster fitting the title of this post. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have nightmares after looking so closely at this thing:
Is that a stick poking out of the water? Hardly, although that's what I thought at first. I actually started taking pictures of this thing because I liked the novelty of a stick that looked so much like it had an eye... and nostrils... and an open mouth.... It took me a little while to figure out that the "stick" was alive -- the decisive clue was that it was slowly sinking below the surface of the water as I got closer, only to resurface again after I'd sat still for a few minutes.
I find this picture deeply creepy, maybe because that eye looks so human to me.... I can't think of what else this could be besides a Common Snapping Turtle, and it must be a huge one -- that part of the head sticking above the water alone was at least as big as the giant Bullfrog. There were fish swimming around nearby, probably unaware of the presence of that gaping mouth.... *shiver*
But it wasn't all monsters today, thankfully. I was excited to see this Common Loon in the middle of one of the lakes -- this is my first time seeing one in Connecticut, and the only other times I've encountered loons has been on trips to the Far North (i.e., Maine). I couldn't resist showing this teeny picture -- the loon was so far away, but still so cool.
And the wildflowers are really starting to come up. This is the part of the post where I just throw out a bunch of pictures with quick descriptions. Ready? Here we go! :P
This is an Azure Bluet (or just "Bluets", Houstonia caerulea), so dainty and pretty. Apparently this plant is supposed to grow in clumps, although I only saw this one flower.
Here's Coltsfoot, a plant that sends up its bright yellow flowers before it opens up its leaves. I just learned that Coltsfoot is not native to North America, and it's actually listed as invasive and "banned" in Connecticut -- does that mean that you can't bring new plants into the state, or are they trying to eradicate the plants that are here? I haven't done enough research to have an answer to that question.
This is a Wood Anemone. I've been seeing the tiny buds of these plants in the woods for a while now, but they just burst into bloom today -- what pretty, luminous flowers.
And here's one of my happiest discoveries of today, a patch of Wild Strawberries in bloom. This plant is being visited by a Cabbage Butterfly (I think). I was trained to dislike Cabbage Butterflies when I was little, because they're invasive and the caterpillars are really hard on garden plants -- but if this guy is going to help pollinate the strawberry plants and create delicious fruit (and I mean delicious, way better than cultivated strawberries in my opinion), then I say go for it.
Oh good, with all those flower pictures, I've almost forgotten about the Snapping Turtle already. Except that I just reminded myself of it. Yikes, those eyes....
