Friday, April 24, 2009

A walk in the woods

The kidlet and I returned to one of our favourite spring haunts today. The trails at Wellesley Island State Park are, simply put, the best science lab and the best gym a homeschooling family could ever hope to find. We find it to be most beautiful in the spring of the year, when everything is waking up again after the long, cold winter.

The Ospreys, whose regional population was nearly decimated in the middle of the 20th century, is clearly thriving in the region now. One swooped in front of our windshield as we crossed the Thousand Islands bridge this morning, the closest we have ever come to this bird of prey.



After dozens of excursions to the beaver pond, we finally spotted the busy engineer at work, and were treated to its iconic slap of the tail against the surface of the water.



The Canada Geese appear to be settling in to their nesting grounds, and may have already begun to lose their flight feathers. This one made no effort to fly away as we walked past its section of the marsh.



No sooner did I wonder aloud if the garter snakes were awake yet, did the first of a dozen rustle through the leaves and taste the air.



The chipmunks entertained us with their Napoleonic posturing.



And, to our utter, utter surprise and delight, we saw the season's first ~



~ wildwood flower, ~



~ butterfly, and, ~



~ A BLUEBIRD!!! SQUEEEEEEE!!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

All I can say is WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
what a wonderful way to learn about nature.
(yes even about Sneaky Snake)
RBC

Anonymous said...

This sounds utterly delightful!

Elizabeth

Exela said...

Wow - what a wonderful hike through nature! Great photos and great prose!!!

I think you should publish a book!!!!