Lynch lake

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Bright Winter iced lake

Sun warms Eagle above snow

Bluest of cold skies

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Wednesday’s Woodland Walk #9

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Eastern Worm Snake

(Carphophis amoenus amoenus)

It likes my hat

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Shaking Hands

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It says “Hi”

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Wednesday’s Woodland Walk #8

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BEAR

Strolling along the side of the road

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Full grown adult

American Black Bear

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I found some smaller tracks up the road

(My hand for comparison)

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Wednesday’s Woodland Walk

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Woolly Aphids dancing on a Beech limb

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Wednesdays Woodland Walk

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That’ll do Donkey!

Who let the Cows Out?

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Rustling Autumn Leaves

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Woods     Forest     Deep

Moving fast quiet

Instinct to survive

Running through understory

Hidden from above

Alone fighting selection

Must be superior

Combat the environment

Self and nature

Claw     Bite     Flee

Day to day

Granted ever nothing

Nothing ever given

Get through today

Live for tomorrow

Eat     Seek     Breed

Not just inches

Take only yards

Never question why

Accept only how

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Wednesdays Woodland Walk

BLACK SNAKE IN TREE STUMP

This is to show how docile black snakes are. You can pick them up with relative ease. The worst thing that they’ll do is to skunk you. They will produce a musky oil on their skin which gets on you when handling them. To get it off requires only a few washings of the hands & arms. I’ve never had one try to bit me. They prefer to escape by speed or burrowing. I would have liked to pick this guy up to give you the full tour. However, this is in a large poison-ivy patch. Not a good place to tangle with snake. Enjoy.

Through my Office Window

I am sitting in my office banging away on the ‘puter when I see a flurry of activity out of the corner of my eye. I turn to look and see a Sharp-Shinned Hawk take down a pigeon. Fortunately the windows at my office are one-way so the hawk can not see that I am only EIGHT feet away from it. To top it off my handy-dandy camera is sitting on my desk. Below is one minute out of about fifteen it took for the hawk to eat lunch. Pigeon, Mmmmmmm..

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Standing on a Block

Standing
Standing still
Still in the forest
In the forest looking down
Down at my feet
At my feet feathers
Feathers from a hawk
Primaries, tail, many
Many feathers beside a Beech tree
A Beech tree with a hole
A hole filled with the remains
Remains of a Red-Shouldered Hawk
Kneeling
Kneeling near a different tree
A different tree with another hole
A hole in the base
The base filled with leaves
Leaves covered in blood
Blood dripping
Dripping from higher inside the tree
The Owls tree

The Hawk

Dance you

On the wind you ride

Silhouette against the sky

One missing tail feather

Still the master

Power of the thermal

Unfolding beneath your wings

Born to fly

Hunting to survive

Moment to moment

Innate prowling

No alternative

Yet

Unmarked time

Away from the nest

Away from instinct

Nobody is looking

Dance you

On the wind you live