It was downright warm yesterday (nearly 50 degrees) and I just couldn't pass up the chance to walk outside without needing to bundle up and bury my face against the cold. So I visited the Roy H. Park Preserve, which always seems to have something new going on despite being a rather small park. We'd had a couple inches of snow the day before, followed by a layer of rain/sleet, making the snow-covered ground weirdly sleek and shiny:
I had a lot of fun crunching through ice-encrusted snow, and a few cool creatures showed up as well. A male Belted Kingfisher came speeding over the marshy area, calling more loudly and constantly than I think I've ever heard from a kingfisher, and he kept his tail cocked up whenever he landed:
This was one punky bird! Say it, loud kingfisher:
A Swamp Sparrow did a good job of staying mostly hidden among clumps of dried vegetation:
And I was very happy to see a Red-breasted Nuthatch working through the trees at the forest's edge; I love these little guys:
Red-breasted indeed!
I'm glad I had this snowy walk yesterday while I could, because now after another day of warm temperatures -- and plenty of rain -- the snow is all gone. It looks like the warm-ish weather will stick around for the next week or so, but winter certainly isn't over yet. I'm sure we'll have snow again before too long!
The trees haven't quite reached their peak yet, but everything was looking very fall-ish when I went to visit the meadows at Naugatuck State Forest this morning:
The goldenrod stalks that were ablaze with yellow blooms in August are now topped with gray-fuzzed seeds, which several small birds seemed quite crazy about today -- a group of Yellow-rumped Warblers and Palm Warblers was moving constantly from tuft to tuft the whole time I was there. This Palm Warbler took time out of his/her busy feeding schedule to pose for a few pictures:
How lovely you look next to those old flower heads, little bird, their muted fall yellow being so similar to your own.
Thank you for humoring me and my camera clicks!
Also thoroughly enjoying the goldenrod's bounty this morning were a few Swamp Sparrows, a new bird for me:
These little guys are quite fun to watch, with their rufous-striped crowns and quirky perked-up tails (at least, this particular fellow kept his/her tail up high).
Little birds down in the grasses, and big birds above. Turkey Vultures are so common around here that it's easy to overlook them, but they're really quite majestic in flight:
And lest we think the insects might have gone away already, this wandering Ichneumon Wasp (species unknown) says otherwise:
It was a great walk, and I'm looking forward to more gorgeous fall days like this one!
