Category: Autumn

Meditation Gift

A late autumn walk in the wetlands at Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary ended with the discovery of a thoughtful gift.

A boardwalk ends with a quiet resting place.
Something caught my eye.

I found a bracelet, a branch, a stick and an acorn sensitively placed.
Later, I met the gift creator. For his meditation, he braided the bracelet using nearby cattails, then left this humble and generous gift for another to enjoy.

Fall Walk

It’s delightful to explore the common flora and fauna of Central Massachusetts on a cool autumn day.

Eastern Grey Squirrel

Adult Squirrels can consume about one and a half pounds of seeds and nuts each week.
Goldenrod
Eastern Blue Jay
Oriental Bittersweet
The first Dark-eyed Junco of the season.
Common Milkweed

First Fall Color

Foliage around Wachusett Meadow’s Wildlife Pond glows in the late afternoon sun.

The beaver lodge is enveloped in color.
Canoes await at the pond edge.
Sumac trees, such as the one in the left of the photo, are among the first trees to change color.
A closer view of the beaver lodge.
The sheep graze just above the pond.
View from the Observation Pier.
A long view of the pond as the sun begins to set.

Something Told The Wild Geese

Something Told the Wild Geese    
by Rachel Field     

Something told the wild geese     
It was time to go.     
Though the fields lay golden
Something whispered,—‘Snow.’
Leaves were green and stirring,
Berries, luster-glossed,
But beneath warm feathers
Something cautioned,—‘Frost.’
All the sagging orchards
Steamed with amber spice,
But each wild breast stiffened
At remembered ice.
Something told the wild geese
It was time to fly,—
Summer sun was on their wings,
Winter in their cry.

Tunnel Vision

A tunnel on the Mass Central Rail Trail provides a surprising sight for both art and nature lovers.

One can walk through the hill on the Mass Central Rail Trail in Rutland, MA.
Brilliant colors and exposed layers of rock vie for attention.

Unexpectedly, hikers spy a tunnel up ahead.
Inside, wanderers find a colorful woodland mural created by local amateur artists of all ages.
Flora and fauna of the nearby woods and fields are depicted on the walls in this work in progress.

Nature artwork blends with the leaf-strewn path at the end of the tunnel.
And it’s off on the open road (or trail) once again.

Mass Central Rail Trail

An autumn stroll on one of the Mass Central Rail Trail’s fifty-one miles of linear park.

Mass Central Rail Trail, Rutland MA
Partners in twenty-six communities are working to reopen a disused railroad line that spanned 104 miles from Northampton to Boston, MA. The line is being converted to a linear park for hiking, biking, jogging and relaxing. So far, fifty-one miles have been repurposed.

Heron Hike 2

The foliage in Central Massachusetts is becoming more brilliant each day. Swamp maples surrounding the beaver lodge at Wachusett Wildlife Sanctuary are nearly at peak color.

Meanwhile, the juvenile Great Blue Heron featured in the previous post is still roaming the sanctuary. It seems in no rush to migrate, perhaps because of the warm weather this week.

Beaver Lodge, Wildlife Pond, Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary

Juvenile Great Blue Heron, South Meadow

Lunch Break

From apples to zinnias: visitors can choose from a wide variety of tasty treats in my garden this week.

Eastern Cottontail Rabbit/ Scarlet Emperor Greens
Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird/Scarlet Emperor Bean Blossoms
Eastern Chipmunk/Acorns
Downy Woodpecker/Baldwin Apple
Monarch Butterfly/ California Giant Zinnia

Painted (Turtle) Portrait Redux

Out with the old, and in with the new: a turtle sheds its shell.

Last June, I photographed a turtle on this exact log at Mass Audubon Wachusett Meadow. Yesterday, the turtle I saw there was shedding its shell. As a turtle grows larger, the outer portion of the shell, called the scutes, must fall off to make way for the newer, larger scutes.

#OptOutside

I was surrounded by a colorful group today as I opted outside for Black Friday. The Summer birds are long gone, but my Winter feathered friends enlivened the landscape with flashes of red, white, gold and blue.
A bonus: it didn’t take me long to find these birds. They all visited the bird feeders within the space of a half an hour as I sat quietly watching.

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