We Are Not The First

Unfortunately, the temperature Wednesday morning was warmer than predicted and the skies were mostly cloudy, trending towards totally cloudy. That was not a good omen as I met Ken Proulx in the parking lot. Ken is another talented photographer, that periodically visits Great Meadows.

After yesterday's eagle visit we were hoping for continued freezing overnight pushing the birds closer to our cameras on shore. Unfortunately, the reduced light made photography more challenging. I played around with using my flash with as many failures as successes.

It was a cool, gray, quiet, almost boring morning. While walking along the upper impoundment near the poison ivy bench we saw coots running out of the reeds, collecting into a tight group. When they exhibit this sort of behavior, you start looking for the threat. Soon we spotted it. The eagle was content to make a fly-by pass, deciding that there was too much water and hunting coots would be too much work. Almost as quickly as they came together, they started attacking each other, and ran away to disburse.









A group of coots has many collective nouns, including a "codgery", "commotion", "fleet", "shoal", and "swarm" of coots. When we first saw them, this was definitely a commotion.

It was fun photographing with Ken. He has great eyes.   I hear most birds long before I see them. While wandering around he spotted this Brown Creeper. They are tiny, camouflaged to look like the trees. They are similar to the nuthatch, except for the fact that nuthatches general walk down the tree trunk, brown creepers climb up!



Sorry Alan, he was just poking beneath the bark, no signs of a nest.

There was a small flock of Goldeneye ducks in the upper impoundment. Thankfully one got within camera range and parallel to shore to show their distinguishing characteristic.




I always think of woodpeckers on trees, so I find is humorous when you encounter them on the cat tail reeds. The Downy Woodpecker was just doing was woodpecker do, looking for bugs.


An unusual viewpoint of the Downy Woodpecker


A more typical pose


After finishing our photography of animals I decided to go check out the stone foundation that's back in the woods. It is a reminder that long before we started coming here, other people had tamed the area, erected buildings, which have long since disappeared except for some tell tale signs like a foundation, some bricks, and a bit of mortar.

Solitude

One nice thing about the approaches to the bridges being flooded is that since most people don't bring their "Wellies" to Great Meadows once you have waded through the water you pretty much have the refuge to yourself. Today it was cold, but sunny. There was lots of animal activity. I pretty much had the place to myself. It doesn't get much better than that.

Walking in from the parking lot, I started looking at all the frosty plants. But in the end I found these patterns the most interesting. Can you identify what they are?






Give up? They are the mud in the path freezing and taking the shape of the ice crystals.

The first thing I noticed was that a lot of the water in the impoundments was frozen. As a result the geese and the coots were crowded together in the patches of open water.




Coot on ice braking duty


Must be warmer than standing on the ice


Canada Goose comes to evict the Occupy Concord movement


Suddenly, I heard a lot of noise from the far side of the impoundment. Looking over, I noticed many birds rapidly moving across the water. Looking up the cause of their sudden activity was apparent, as a mature Bald Eagle was doing a bit of "fly fishing" or hunting as the case my be. The photos aren't great because of the distance. If I had known there would have been excitement, I would have set up where the reeds wouldn't have been in the shot.








Having struck out the eagle retreated to the trees near the treatment plant. I relocated to a spot where the reeds wouldn't interfere. I waited 40 minutes. The coots came back, but the eagle was content to sit in the tree.

There was a lot of animal activity this morning.


Some of these birds are not like the others. Buffleheads in the midst of the coots.


Finally saw the Belted Kingfisher inside the refuge


The consensus of the experts is that this mystery bird, is just a Goldfinch in nice light.


House Finch




Down by the river there were quite a few bluebirds, flying to and fro. Only on occasion would they stop at the Winterberry bushes. I am still hoping to improve upon last winter's Bluebird images. Today, I was able to capture a few nice portraits.


Male Bluebird


Female Bluebird




The ubiquitous sparrows seemed crowded out of the lime light by the flocks of bluebirds, goldfinches, and downy woodpeckers I encountered. This Song Sparrow posed so nicely I had to include him.




I don't know if this fish (yellow perch or raccoon perch (Perca fluviatilis)) was stranded by the receding water or whether he was caught by the tail. I do know that it wasn't there on Sunday when we walked through the water across the bridge.




I think I have enough photos of Downy Woodpeckers, but walking through the forest, I encountered this one. The colors in the background were so nice, I couldn't pass it up.

The Tide Comes In

In a rare occurrence for late fall / early winter the several inches of rain we received pushed the Concord River high enough to start to spill over its banks into the impoundments. That added a totally different flavor to Cherrie Corey's walk.

Thankfully, Patricia MacQueen had been there Saturday and had Cherrie alert her mailing list to bring our "Wellies". Unfortunately, for those weren't on her mailing list, it was a very short distance before they needed to decide if they were going to proceed cold and wet or remain warm and dry back at the car.






Right near the water control gate on the Cross Dike trail, on the right hand side of the trail we encountered the Sora. This may be the latest one has been seen at Great Meadows. A small crowds appearance didn't seem to bother it.








The water was probably only six-eight inches deep at the deepest point. Most of the trail was "dry". However you do have to be careful where you step. There were several places where muskrats tunnels into the dike had collapsed. The water will have to recede a bit before they can get out to mark them with cones.



The wildlife was limited. Except for the Sora, it was the usual suspects. The rain and flooding combined with cold temperatures resulted in ice forming in low lying areas. In some areas the ice was a grayish frosty type coating floating on the water, while in a few places it was clearer with more interesting formations.


Reminded me of a topographic map


Oak Leaves under Frosty Glass


After circumnavigating the lower impoundment we arrived back at the tower to enjoy the colors of the setting sun and the return of geese and ducks to the safety of the impoundments


Geese Returning Home


Tree Silhouettes Against Setting Sun


End of the Day