Good to be back!

Cedar Waxwing

It's been far too long since I've been able to get to the park. It was so nice to go over this morning. It was a pleasant 66 degrees and overcast and thankfully, not very buggy.

I was immediately greeted by the bubbly song of a house wren which is always a nice way to start the morning. As I started down the path to the lower gardens, I heard very high pitched sounds and I started looking for cedar waxwings. And there they were - all around me! Even got to see one feeding it's

Waxwing baby being fed

baby! There were bunnies of all different sizes all over the place. I saw some disturbing looking fluttering coming from some netting and I went over to investigate. There was a young cardinal caught inside. I went to try and help her, but she finally figured out how to exit the way she most likely got in - through an opening in the bottom on the ground. Thank god she got out of there. She was very panicked.

There were robins, song sparrows, mourning doves and maybe one or two yellow warblers. What was noticeable was the lack of tree swallows and yellow warblers. Time is marching on....

Yellow Warbler

The upper gardens yielded some chickadees doing their aerial feeding gymnastics in the trees, more bunnies, cardinals, chickadees, goldfinches and a flicker. Caught a really quick  glimpse of a hummingbird, but couldn't even tell if it was a male or female. I'm just glad it was there. A catbird meowed from some shrubs at the back. The sumac is starting to bloom as well as lythrum, fleabane, St. Johns wort and coneflowers in the meadow. A beautiful color palette of white, yellow and purple.

Gloriosa Daisy

The gardens are looking quite successful with lots of ripening vegetables and the 6ft or more towering sunflowers are in bloom. They're always so spectacular! I headed down to the soccer field where I could hear the titmice calling from the woods. I was hoping for a heron or sandpiper in the pond, but just as I got there it started raining. I was worried about my camera, so I headed back and saw this gorgeous doe in the meadow!

Doe

It's just amazing what you can see when you least expect it. We are so lucky to have this park. I'm including a photo from a very brief visit yesterday, where I saw this butterfly that I don't think I've ever seen before. It's called a red spotted purple and it looked as if it had just emerged from its cocoon as it was on the gravel drying its wings in the sun.

Red Spotted Purple Butterfly

The firestation is fully ensconced but doesn't seem to be bothering anything. I hope they enjoy their beautiful surroundings! There will be some great fall bird walks that I'll be posting soon to the NahantonPark.org website, so please check it out soon....