Birds, Snow, And Other Nonsense

The good news is that I was able to go on a little adventure on a nice clear day. The bad news is that I keep going out at the time of day when the animals are hiding. It's feels kind of strange when I've walked all the way to the back of a nature park and I haven't even heard a bird in the distance, much less seen something.

But then clear at the back of the park I had a small change of luck. I heard some very faint cheeping sounds coming from high in the trees. Then I saw some mysterious white bellied birds up there. I stood there with my camera, hoping for any kind of picture. But the bird I targeted flew away. There were more sounds, but I never found the birds.

The bird in the picture above is a black-capped chickadee. You can follow that link for more information about it. But as I said, I didn't get any pictures. This one is from almost a year ago. But I've never shown it here before, so I say that counts as brand new. How do you like it?

After the mysterious little white birds, there seemed to be nothing more but silence. I kept thinking that last year there would at least be the sounds of woodpeckers out here, but there was nothing on this day. Then as I entered the trail that leads out of the park, I heard a faint rapping sound high in the trees.

I hoped my luck would be better this time. But of course, different sounds, same situation. Actually, I never saw the woodpecker, but I know what kind it was. It was a downy woodpecker, like this one. There's another cool link for you. This is the kind that just loves this park.

Anyway, after standing there stupidly staring up at the treetops for about five minutes, I heard somebody coming with their dog. I knew there would be no finding my little woodpecker now, so I moved on my way towards the front of the park. Game over man. Game over.

The best picture of Ratty ever

Well this is no nature picture! Can you guess what white rat this arm belongs to? This is the result of the IV that was in my arm the other day. I just thought it might be amusing to show it. From the red marks to the yellow bruising around it, I think it maybe looks more gruesome than it really is. But look at the bright white skin around it. Look at it too long and you might go blind. And I bet you thought the picture I have of a white mouse wasn't really me.

My adventures aren't all nature related. I've been writing a serial horror story over at Rat Tales. The first episode is already up, and the full story is going to be a long one. I've been wanting to write this one for a long time now. I'm well on my way, and the second episode is coming along nicely. There's only one unexpected problem though.

I've wrapped myself up in the story so much that it's been giving me nightmares! I've put myself in the point of view of the main character so deeply that I feel some of his fear. I thought that was a bit of a crazy road to go down, so I decided to take a short break from that today. It's been fun to write this one though. It all made me a little too nervous, but I'm feeling muuch better now.

And finally, this is one of the pictures from my newest adventure. I would have shown more of them instead of the others above, but how many pictures of snow do any of us really want to see? Don't worry though, there was something else interesting, with pictures, that happened to me on this little adventure. That's a story for another day though.

Oh. Wait. What about this last picture? This is just the side of Carpenter Lake. I liked the look of the area this time as soon as I looked at it. And the picture seemed to capture it perfectly. Sometimes something you see very often can just look so beautiful if you look at it right.

I'll be back soon, soon, sooooon...



Nature Center Magazine - Gloobidy gliggl fllibbi gerf fgapugs ferbul nerj. Figure that one out.