Let me bring you songs from the wood:
To make you feel much better than you could know
Jethro Tull – from Songs From the Wood
The weather report indicated that it was going to rain that morning. But I was determined to make it to the towpath anyway. The irony was that we had had good weather earlier in the week, suitable for outdoor activities, but I had successfully made excuses for not going outdoors and doing my exercise. The weather turned out to be bad on the one day I was going to be making up for my laziness during the week. Rats!
It rained as we drove to Pennyfield Lock last Sunday, and it was raining as we began our walk.
The rain was not too heavy, and I kept my camera under a poncho that I was wearing. We were comfortable. And the rain did peter out as the morning progressed – even though the skies continued to look threatening from time to time. The wet weather did nothing to dampen our enthusiasm for the walk.
When we arrived at Pennyfield lock, we were met by a steady background noise, the sound of some kind of an insect it seemed, emanating from the woods all around us. We stopped to listen, but we still could not make out the source of the sound. It seemed to be everywhere. You can listen to these sounds in the background of this recording that I made in a section that also happened to be full of birds. I am thinking of crickets, or maybe cicadas.
There were more Spring flowers to be seen this week along the trail, including the unique Dutchman’s Breeches!
We also saw Cutleaf Toothwort, Gill over the Ground, and some small yellow flowers that I did not recognize.
We also encountered a few different birds. There were quite a few Great Blue Herons in this section this morning.
The Canada geese were also plentiful. They seem to be somewhat ornery this time of year. I think it is nesting season. They were squawking at each other, and we even witnessed one loud fight going on on the river.
We speculated that this was a situation of two males fighting over a female. We had no informed basis for coming to such a conclusion.
We saw a few of the musical Carolina Wren,
and the colorful Northern Cardinal.
They brightened up the place.
A Barred Owl also made an appearance.
I even sighted a couple of Wood Ducks. They are not that common in these parts, and the only time you are likely to see them is in winter.
As usual, there were noisy sparrows in the bushes all over the place. I reacted to their presence by dismissing them, half jokingly, as “just sparrows”. I think it was an unfortunate response, and it happens a lot because we see a lot these birds. The truth of the matter is that they are also amazing creatures like all of the other birds – regardless of how often we get to see them. Perhaps people would tend to respond differently in places where there are fewer of them. I am sure any curious child would find them amazing. Can any of us even claim to be able to fly around effortlessly like these birds? How many of us really understand the phenomenon of bird flight? And yet we take it all for granted….
The lyrics of the song I noted at the beginning of this blog are worth listening to:
Splattered Brains 