The Contented Naturalist

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape — the loneliness of it — the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it — the whole story doesn’t show.
~Andrew Wyeth, c. 1973, quoted on http://www.quotegarden.com/winter.html

A wintertime visit to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens might seem boring or dull compared to the summer. We don’t have much growing– all the lotuses and water lilies are dormant in the cold weather. Wildflowers have died back too, and all the deciduous trees have dropped their leaves. But there actually is a lot to see even in the coldest weather. And if there’s a little snow on the ground, even better.

Most of the activity at Kenilworth in the winter is of the bird variety. Lots of sparrows and finches flock to bushes that have seeds or berries, and often they’re joined by dapper Cedar Waxwings. Out in the marsh, if it’s not frozen over, you’re likely to see lots of geese and ducks. Sometimes if you’re lucky you’ll spot a less-common duck out there– we often see Ringnecks, Pintails, and so forth, but not frequently enough to be able to expect them. It’s a roll of the dice any time you come to the park, wondering what you might see.

There are many things to be observed at the park that even most dedicated visitors might miss. That’s the benefit of working at the same place and walking the same trails every day– we get way more chances to see special sights than someone who comes only once in awhile.

One of the most special sights I’ve seen this winter was a tiny one: just a few drops of blood in the snow. But looking closely at the scene, I could see the rounded depression where a hawk or falcon sat with its prey. A little blood stains some of the snow pink, and beside the depression is a tiny scarlet splash– crystals of blood frozen in the snow.

We didn’t observe this happen, but sometimes the coolest things at a park visit are what you can decipher from clues, about the unseen activity. I don’t know what kind of hawk this might have been, nor what its prey was. But noticing this tiny detail feels to me like discovering a secret door. I love that feeling when I see some unusual or uncommon sign of unseen wildlife.

It’s clear that when the park closes for the night, there’s still a lot of activity going on among the animal life! I know a lot of our most dedicated visitors wish we could be open 24 hours a day, but I think it’s important that we turn the park over to the animals some of the time. I love feeling like we share stewardship of this place with the plants and animals who live here.

I hope you’ll come out to Kenilworth, or another park near you, sometime soon to look for your own secret signs. Let me know in the comments what you find!