Birds, Bears, & Blueberries
Hmmm, a whole month without a post - this cannot be! Let's just say that I've been busy, and not many of my photos have been coming out well lately...well, not the ones that people besides myself care about seeing. Case in point - a rather fresh blueberry-filled bear scat I found yesterday at the Montague Plains in the midst of the endless acres of 
wild lowbush blueberries (two species, Vaccinium angustifolium ripe now & V. pallidum about a week behind). Thanks to MassWildlife's deliberate forest thinning for restoration of the pitch pine-scrub oak savannah, these blueberries have exploded to the delight of both man and beast! I've picked three pints thus far, some of which made their way into blueberry muffins this morning. Okay, maybe that's a picture worth seeing, complete with my trout-adorned camp coffee mug.
Another picture that not many would care to see - but you're getting it whether you like it or not! - is of a very passive hognose snake we found this week while cutting aspen sprouts. These are rare toad-eating snakes limited to sandy terrain, and it doesn't get much sandier than the Plains! Some days I swear it feels like I'm at the beach, complete with tan and the scent of sunblock.
Things that people would love to see pictures of are lacking, like the moose that live around Lake Pleasant adjacent to the Plains, or a wonderfully framed landscape shot of the unique pitch pine-scrub oak savannah. Birds must be known in the moment by sight or sound, always beyond view or resolution of the lens. Wild turkeys (eating blueberries), hermit thrushes (singing their pleasantly dissonant woodland songs), prairie warblers (ecstatically praising their renewed habitat), rufous-sided towhees (incessantly urging me to "drink my tea!"), tree swallows (impossibly iridescent blue), brown thrashers (brazen in attitude and plumage), and scarlet tanagers (boldly red, tropical even) have all graced my workdays with regularity. That should suffice, knowing that I am good company whilst out of contact in the field.
wild lowbush blueberries (two species, Vaccinium angustifolium ripe now & V. pallidum about a week behind). Thanks to MassWildlife's deliberate forest thinning for restoration of the pitch pine-scrub oak savannah, these blueberries have exploded to the delight of both man and beast! I've picked three pints thus far, some of which made their way into blueberry muffins this morning. Okay, maybe that's a picture worth seeing, complete with my trout-adorned camp coffee mug.Another picture that not many would care to see - but you're getting it whether you like it or not! - is of a very passive hognose snake we found this week while cutting aspen sprouts. These are rare toad-eating snakes limited to sandy terrain, and it doesn't get much sandier than the Plains! Some days I swear it feels like I'm at the beach, complete with tan and the scent of sunblock.Things that people would love to see pictures of are lacking, like the moose that live around Lake Pleasant adjacent to the Plains, or a wonderfully framed landscape shot of the unique pitch pine-scrub oak savannah. Birds must be known in the moment by sight or sound, always beyond view or resolution of the lens. Wild turkeys (eating blueberries), hermit thrushes (singing their pleasantly dissonant woodland songs), prairie warblers (ecstatically praising their renewed habitat), rufous-sided towhees (incessantly urging me to "drink my tea!"), tree swallows (impossibly iridescent blue), brown thrashers (brazen in attitude and plumage), and scarlet tanagers (boldly red, tropical even) have all graced my workdays with regularity. That should suffice, knowing that I am good company whilst out of contact in the field.
posted by Pete at 10:34 AM
1 Comments:
According to my National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians, Eastern Hognose snakes will play dead if you pick them up. Wouldn't that be fun to see!
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