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Tree Swallows

We walked through the muddy Lower Arboretum on this lovely spring afternoon. The tree swallows, who routinely commandeer the bluebird nesting boxes in the prairies, danced around our heads like birds in a Disney cartoon. Here's one of them, sitting on his roof. A little further along, we passed Kettle Hole Marsh, which was filled with the amazing racket of spring peepers.
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Christopher Tassava said…
I can't quite place that particular nesting box, but last weekend, running along the path along the ridge, just short of the path east to the von Trapp memorial, I saw an ENORMOUS hawk - probably a red-tailed hawk, but I wasn't sure - resting on one of the boxes, no more than five feet from me. S/he just eyed me as I slowed to an awed walk, then fanned his/her wings open and resumed scanning for some unfortunate rodents. I've never been so close to a raptor in the wild. Very impressive (but more Tolkien than Disney).

(Do you ever walk in along the new path at the very top of the ridge, east even of the memorial? It winds through a little copse and then comes up on back side of the Kettle Hole Marsh, where the water has been almost right up to the path. I saw a big heron there last week, perched oddly in a tree.)
April 14, 2008 at 8:46 PM
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