Terra Spongy

It's been a crazy week.  Mom was in the hospital for a couple days.  The rest of my free time has been occupied preparing to conduct Saturday's Glennie International Nature Photography cometition.  Looking at almost 1,000 beautiful nature images, definitely had me in the frame of mind to sneak over to Great Meadows early this morning for a little photography of my own.

From the tower, you could see the US F&WS staff already out taking the census of birds visiting the impoundments.  There were lots of types of ducks, a griebe, and plenty of Canada Geese.  Unfortunately for me, most of these birds are shy and generally stayed outside camera range.

Several Red-Winged Blackbirds were posing and singing while sitting upon Cat Tail Reeds in the golden light of dawn.  With the light and the pose, I didn't even need my flash.  Normally, they are a bit skittish, but these two birds allowed me to get pretty close.

At the refuge water in a few spots water is still overspilling into the impoundments and over the dike path.  But now you measure the depth in inches, not feer.  Most of the paths are still soggy, reflecting their recent submersion.  With careful walking I was able circumnavigate the lower impoundment and the length of the upper impoundment without water coming over my boots.

The Canada Geese were honking up a storm.  Soon clusters of geese were up and taking to the skies.  Their webbed feet allow them to run along the surface of the water, until they are up to speed and take flight.  Ironically, as one of the gaggles of geese took flight, a C-130 transport plane also lumbered into the sky from Hanscom AFB.  The geese are starting to pair off, however the water level is a little high for them to start building nests.

Species more common to spring were active.  There were plenty of robins and sparrows feeding along the paths.  

I spotted two birds that I hadn't seen yet this year.  First, a small flock of 8 Tree Sparrows were rising, dipping and circling along the reeds along the back of the the lower impoundment.  Later in the morning, two Osprey stopped by to do some fishing.  On the edge of the refuge, I encountered some carp that had been washed or  brought ashore.  Several had obviously been a meal for some other animal.

Finally, a few days late, I was finally able to stop by the deck to capture a spring panorama.