If the Canada goose had not jumped off her nest, I might have stepped on her. I love finding nests, but not when I create a disturbance.
I was delighted to discover Cornell’s Nestcam, which lets me watch the activities of several species of birds, revealing images I might not otherwise get a chance to see.
I was not the one to find the first morel of the year. Luckily, I’m very fond of my friend Zaac, who has a wonderful ability to spot an emerging morel in leaves.
I was surprised to see how much time this garter snake spent checking me out:
If you look carefully at the center of the video you can see the squirrel who climbed a honey locust tree to enjoy a black walnut. It took just under four minutes to clean the hull, penetrate the shell and enjoy the walnut. I wish I could work that fast.
The original footage is gorgeous, but to upload this image, I had to compress my avi file. Ah, technology.
It’s odd to see maple trees with leaves just beginning to turn color in mid November. That grey blur is a squirrel enjoying a black walnut.
It has been unusually warm for several months, so the snow covered leaves are both beautiful and disturbing.When I was growing up, farmers used to say that the day of the month when the first snow falls is a predictor of the number of blizzards to expect. Like any folk wisdom, some years it worked out that way.
Ten blizzards would add up to a lot of snow, but if it relieved the drought, provided great skiing and ensured a bumper crop of morels, I would welcome a real winter.
When it gets hot and humid, I try to take sunrise hikes. Right now, sunrise is closer to 7:00 AM. I typically end my sunrise hikes by 7:00 AM in the summer.
I got close enough to these birds to be sure they are not turkey vultures. Black vultures have white legs and white marks on their wings.