Tag Archives: birds

April Showers bring May Flowers

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Seems that the April Showers have continued into May with an annoying persistence. Oh I know we need the rain. I know that since we had so little snow that we are starting out in a drought (not good) but it would be so nice to have a little sun peek through.  One acquaintance asked “Why can’t it rain at night and be nice during the day?” So as I sit here listening to the rain pitter patter on the deck I am counting my blessings that I got out on Monday..the one sunny day we had, and enjoyed some time in the outdoors.

I picked Nancy up about 11 am. We drove to Hingham where I had some business then grabbed lunch at Panera. By 1pm we were free for a few hours. Like a couple of kids playing hooky we kicked around our options. In the  end we headed over to Sharon to explore the Moose Hill Wildlife Sanctuary. This is another of the Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuaries.

There are 20 miles of trails through fields, forests and wetlands. We chose to try the Vernal Pool trail. It looked pretty easy on the map but I think we got twisted around a few times. It was very quiet. There were occasional bird calls but we never spotted the birds.

We did upset a black snake. In fact I almost stepped on it. Too bad it was too fast to catch on camera. All I got was empty trail!

 The only other wildlife we saw was a gray squirrel but he was also quite far from us on the trail.  I was disappointed that we didn’t see a rabbit or two but we were walking at a steady pace with occasional rest stops for  the old lady (me) .That may have been why we didn’t see much in the way of wildlife. We were just tramping along as well as chatting so quiet we were not. 🙂

Back at the visitor center we explored the Art Exhibit and I spotted some birds on the feeders.

We were so close to Wards Berry Farm that we decided to stop back over there for a soft ice cream.

Here were found the spring flowers in full bloom and tons of little sparrows.

It was hard to believe that it was 4:30 already and time to get back to the real world.

A Family Day

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Even when work keeps me from wandering around the dusty roads, I can revisit places I’ve been.

These guys were having a Family  Day.

 

Photo of the week~ Week 16

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This week there were 3 possibles for the Photo of the Week. After much consideration and close examination of the technical aspects of each photo, the Tree Swallow was the chosen photo.

Scenes from Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary

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After the drama on the pond in Plymouth I headed  up to Marshfield and Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary. I was hoping to add to my deer picture collection but It was a little too early  when I got there. I settled into one of the  blinds to wait.

There were turtles, turtles and more turtles.  As I sat in the blind there was a steady stream of people who were not bird watchers but rather turtle watchers and counters!

There was a water mammal of some kind nibbling on the reeds. I think it must have been a muskrat. I can tell you it wasn’t a beaver. One of the people in the blind with me called it a water-rat. I still think it’s a muskrat.

Of course there were the ever-present Canada Geese.

But a bird I’d never seen before made itself at home among the geese.

It’s a Glossy Ibis. While I watched a second one flew in. The bird seemed to be almost a rusty red when the sun hit it just right. The bird book describes it as having dark maroon plumage with iridescent  green and purple coverts.

The little birds that make me think of swallows continued to swoop over the water and then one landed on a bird house right near the blind and I could see it was a blue bird. It didn’t stay long and it was off again swooping and sailing after tiny bugs that we couldn’t even see.

Around 4:30 I left to check out the secret meadow. Along the way enjoying the blooming trees and flowers.

The meadow was empty. That’s unusual for this time of day but I am seldom here on a Weekend. There were a lot of people so that may have caused the deer to stay in the woods longer. I waited for about 15 minutes and had 3 groups of people pass by me during that time. It was definitely too busy for deer. I’ll get them another day.