Tag Archives: Green Heron

Spring Excursions

Blue Winged Warbler, Bluff Point, Connecticut, CT, ducklings, Ducks, Greater Yellow Legs, Green Heron, massachusetts, Nature, New England, snapping turtle, , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Well, you haven’t seen any blogs in a while because this spring has been so busy.  Yang and I have had more than a few excursions, so I have plenty to report.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of pictures because we were too busy enjoying the wonderful scenery or sighting extraordinary critters.  So, let’s get started.  To get a really good look at the photos, be sure to click on them.

While I was busy educating myself on Medieval and Renaissance literature, history, philosophy, and culture at the Keene State College Medieval and Renaissance forum, Yang was chugging up Mt. Monadnock.  This was an extraordinary day with the temperature surging to 85 degrees. Still, you can hear the wind whipping through the trees in this video. 

Nevertheless, Yang almost made it to the top of the mountain.   As you can see from these photos, the view was gorgeous. However, this is my favorite shot.

 

Later on, we were off on our bicycles and checked out the extension of the Fairhaven trail to Mattapoisett, MA.  The day was warm and sunny.   We were lucky enough to catch some sightings of neat shore birds.  We saw this Greater Yellowlegs.  You can’t actually see how yellow his legs are because he’s in pretty deep water.  These birds are tall.  This spring, we’ve also seen these guys in Connecticut and in western Mass.  They love the shore on a lake or the ocean.

We also saw a Great Egret.  Sorry, no picture.  But his legs and feet are something:  long black gams finished with big lumpy bright yellow tootsies!  Like clown shoes!  We do have several pictures of a particularly gorgeous bird:  Green Heron.  His colors  are gorgeous – green/blue crest and back, chesnut neck, white stripes from his eyes to the back of his head, splashes of white  dripping down a beautiful chestnut front.

 

 

 

 

Bluff Point is near Mystic in Connecticut.  So, after a nifty lunch of croissant sandwiches and (for me) coffee latte, we drove over for a new walk.  You start out along the shore, on the edge of the woods, then the trail can lead you into the woods where Carolina Wrens call out to you and songbirds tease you.  One trail veers back toward the shore where  you can walk or swim (not when we went, though!), then along a rise that becomes the point at the end of a peninsula.  Lots of water birds like Cormorants sport in the waves, while I saw three Guillemots fly past, which Yang missed because he was looking out to sea with his binoculars.  Bluff Point is beautiful place for a hike and even a picnic.

 

 

 

 

We made it to the trail we call “The Secret Place,” even though it’s not so very secret since we usually see at least one person walking there – and that day we saw a few kayaks on the reservoir.  Anyway, I’ve blogged on this spot before:  click here.  On this Sunday, after bagels at the best bagels I know, Bagel Time, we saw some cool birds.  Here’s a shot of a Golden Crowned Kinglet.  These guys are so high up, it’s hard to get a really good picture.  Last year, we saw Ruby Crowned Kinglets like nobody’s business, but no Golden Crowneds.  So, yay!  we finally got to see the Golden Crowned.  We also saw one of Yang’s favorites, the Eastern Kingbird. Thank goodness these guys LOVE to sit on top of dead trees and stand out against the sky.  They are extremely bold and vocal.  You can see from his ‘tude, how he got the “King” in his name.  Yang also got this great shot of the Kingbord soaring through the blue, below.

And wouldn’t you know, here’s another Yellowlegs.  I’m not sure if it’s the Greater of the Lesser, but it’s definitely a Yellowlegs. To get a really good look, be sure to click on the photo.

We also saw a Mamma Mallard with her ducklings.  At one point, the kids swam into and around the Yellowlegs.  He was all, “What in Sam Hill?!”  But he kept on trucking in his direction and the kids kept trucking in their own. We saw Pappa Mallard fly off squawking, leaving Mom alone with the kids – and on Mother’s Day, too!

Finally, we did sight an extraordinary  first-ever bird for both of us:  a Blue-Winged Warbler.  Of course, we were unable to get a good shot of him, so I’ll include a professional photo of one.  this guy was a brilliant yellow, almost with a hint of orange; his wings were a blue-grey.  His color reminded me of the yellow warbler.  It was cool to hear him serenade us whole heartedly from atop a towering Maple. This photo perfectly captures exactly how he looked as he sang.  Click here for more info on this bird from the Cornell Lab “All About Birds,” also the source of this image

 

Finally, here’s a tale of Yang’s heroism.  We were walking on the Blackstone River Trail in Worcester, when from our vantage point on a bridge, Yang spotted a Gamera-sized snapping turtle flailing away on its back.  Yang’s first thought was to flip the turtle.  My first thought was for him not to have any limbs snapped off.  He figured on getting a a branch to use as a lever.  I figured to tell him to make sure the branch was thick and looong.  He managed to get down to the river bank, and it took him three thick long branches (because two of them snapped under 100lbs. of turtle), but he did it.  So enjoy the shots of the turtle he rescued.

 

So, that’s all for now – and I haven’t even reported on everything!

 

 

A Visit to the Connecticut Shore

American Black Duck, big bands, birds, Black Swallowtail Butterfly, ducklings, female mallard, Green Heron, hawks, herons, jitterbug, Joan Bennett grave, Nature, Osprey, Redtail Hawk, Rocky Neck Pavilion, Rocky Neck State Park, summer, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In the midst of all that God-awful rain last week, we had a day full of sun and warmth on Tuesday.  So we hopped in our car and headed for the Connecticut shoreline and some of our old haunts!  First, we stopped at Bill’s seafood for our annual (and more often if we can!) fix of lobster rolls!  Mmm, Bill’s has the best, with a handy helping of crisp and hearty french fries and cole slaw with a nice tang. You can see Yang enjoys his repast!

As usual, we sat on the deck, which is next to a river and salt marsh flowing to the sea.  We especially love to do that because you always see loads of seabirds there.  This time, we could espy teenage ospreys in their platform next out in the marsh, while wild cries overhead alerted us to their hunting parents flying overhead.  We couldn’t take pictures because the platform was too far out, but we’d remembered to bring binoculars.  so, we got a good look at the young osprey.

We also had the pleasure of seeing some less fierce feathered critters.  We got a few pictures of some American Black Ducks, as you can see here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was also a mamma Mallard with her three babies scooting around.  It was cute to watch her leisurely paddling while her kiddos worked those webbed feet furiously to keep up!  Someone commented that this must be her second clutch, since they were so little so late in the season.

 

After Bill’s, it was off to Old Lyme to visit Joan Bennett at the Pleasant View Cemetery.  there used to be a riding academy and horse-boarding farm across the street, so I used to think that Joan, who was a rider, would have found that view pleasant, indeed.  Today, the grass wasn’t too bad in the cemetery, and it was filled with butterflies.  I saw a Monarch, the Black Swallow Tail in this picture (thanks to Charmaine Kinton for the i.d.) and a beautiful bright yellow butterfly (no, not a Tiger Swallow Tail).  I know Joan loved yellow and butterflies are symbols of the soul.  Do you think she was  saying “hi” to me?  I also noticed that there was a sign for a house for sale on the street.  should we all chip and buy it so that we visit our friend more easily – and keep the grass trimmed?  I also noticed that Joan had a cousin, Patricia Morrison (not the actress), who died very young.  Does anyone know the story there?

Anyway, we checked ourselves for ticks before we got in the car – we were in Lyme- then went off to Rocky Neck State Park.  This park is a wonderful place to hit the beach or take hikes along trails.  Once more, we saw several nesting platforms for ospreys with young ospreys in them.   There was one that had a nest not as thick as the others, so we thought it was unfinished or abandoned.  We found out later we were wrong. Once again, thank God for binoculars!  We also saw many Cattle Egrets and Great Egrets, as well as a Kildeer!  Yang even managed to get this shot of a Green Heron!  So, in case you’re still wondering, what was the deal with the underdeveloped platform nest?  Well, we were checking it out with the binoculars when a red-tailed hawk came sailing in.  The hawk kept looking at something in the nest that we couldn’t see, but we suspect it was his/her family.  Thanks to the binoculars, we got a great closeup of the bird’s enormous eyes, powerful hooked beak, and beautiful feather patterns.  A formidable creature, indeed!

Finally, we moved on to the beach and then up to the huge, field stone pavilion that had been built in the 1930s as a WPA project.  The building was one of the reasons Yang had wanted to come here.  He’d been reading the draft of my third novel, Always Play the Dark Horse, and its description of the setting whetted his appetite to return to one of our favorite places to go walking.  The pavilion is a long building with beautiful hard wood floors inside.  Couldn’t you just picture a big band playing there, and people dancing on a summer’s eve with a tangy salt breeze cooling off all those hot cats and kittens?  It turns out you can rent it for $3,750 for a gathering of  under 200 people.  A larger number is less expensive.  Any one want to GoFund a swing night there – and I mean swing dancing!

There are also some beautiful views of the ocean from the pavilion.

 

 

 

 

Then we closed out the day with dinner at The Main Street Grille in Niantic – well, not exactly.  We also went for a 30 minute walk on the boardwalk in town as well.  No wonder I was limping on Wednesday and Thursday.  Nevertheless,  I was recovered enough to jitterbug, cha-cha, rhumba, and fox trot to Dan Gabel and the Abletones at Moseley on the Charles on Friday.  Good bless heating pads and Advil!