Category: winter
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Secret Signs in the Snow, part 1
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…
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Coot Feet are the Best Feet
One of my absolute favorite birds showed up at the park this winter: an American Coot (Fulica americana). They seem like a fairly plain bird, until you get a look at their amazing feet! The first picture in the gallery above is zoomed in on the best shot I could get of the coot walking…
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Feral Winter Lace
This was the scene I arrived to at work several weeks ago. Snow overnight had glazed the unkempt meadow just outside our gates. My footsteps crunched and my breath fogged in the cold air as we got the park set up for the day. I paused briefly to snap this photo before continuing on my…
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Snow Rangers
Like I mentioned in my last post, we tend to get a little silly sometimes at work. Especially when several of us are there early in the morning, without a visitor in sight. Earlier this winter, I think it was after our first snow of the season, a bunch of my coworkers and I were…
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Snow Silliness
At my park, one of the things we do to open up each morning is to take a walk around the park and the boardwalk as a group. It’s a nice way to start our day, checking in with each other and looking for cool wildlife. Several weeks ago we got a light dusting of…
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12 Days of Solstice
What if we celebrated 12 days from the winter solstice, instead of from Christmas? What kind of things might we celebrate and honor? Here are my suggestions.
The Contented Naturalist 