Camoflage

See the bird nest here?

No? How about now?

Why there they are!

And here’s a parental unit keeping a watch on trespassers.

This well-concealed Eastern Phoebe nest is right in the middle of the Indian Ladder Trail, one of the most-used in the area. I didn’t notice it until one of the adults flew in with food for the other. We kept our distance until both were off the nest for a moment, and I took one quick photo of the fuzzlings. Meanwhile, on a blazing hot day, dozens of people walked past us and them wholly unseeing. Here’s to stealth nesting!

 

Thacher Park, 7/23

Thacher Park is one of my favorite local places. Perched high on the Helderberg Escarpment, the views to the east across the Hudson valley clear across to Vermont and Massachusetts are spectacular, while Turkey Vultures and Ravens take advantage of the strong updrafts and soar above, below, at eye level.

The Indian Ladder Trail runs below the cliff’s edge so streams cascade from above and offer a cool spray on a summer day. Rock-clinging ferns, lichens, and wildflowers decorate the stable rocks, while massive fallen boulders and the long talus slope give evidence of the power of erosion. Upstream creeks thunder in the spring melt exposing fossils like trilobites in the streambeds.

Almost 700 acres have been added to the park recently, so we decided to explore some of those new trails. The point we started from is a reclaimed quarry mined down to the bedrock, making excellent footing. This wooded area led out across fields to a small but active pond, with a shaded bench and remarkably few mosquitoes. On the way back we were intrigued (as who wouldn’t be?) by the Hang-glider Trail, so we followed that to the end and its unfenced jumping-off point.

We got a little turned around at an ambiguously-marked crossing and the day had gotten sticky, so we decided to save the rest of the North Trails for another day. Not a very birdy day at all, unsurprising for midday in midsummer, except for the ubiquitous Red-eyed Vireos, Common Yellowthroats, Ovenbirds, and Cedar Waxwings. I think it will be worth trying next spring, especially the young forest.

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Hairy situation

Back in the spring I hung Randall’s trimmed ponytail from a post in the yard, and watched as Orioles and Titmice (mouses?) tugged away the long blondish strands. Well, in a recent windstorm, this blew down from a spruce tree in the yard.

Notice the finely-woven cup, just the color of my son’s sun-bleached hair.

 

 

 

Reptile rant

One day on Long Island a neighbor dashed into our driveway, screaming she had seen a viper! a viper! in her yard. Her husband heroically shouldered a hoe and before we could stop him, chopped a harmless terrified Garter Snake* into pieces. Needless to say, there are no vipers on Long Island, no poisonous snakes of any sort, and this was my first exposure to the ignorant animosity people hold towards snakes.

A more amusing story: a girl at camp decided to smuggle home a Green Snake very much against her mother’s wishes. No, she said, there were no snakes in her backpack, her duffle bag, her sleeping bag… She might have gotten away with it, too, but that the snake poked its inquisitive nose out between the buttons of her blouse. The snake went back to the grass, and the bra may have been burned.

Come on, tell me this isn't adorable. This photo © http://www.marshall.edu/ herp/Old/smoothgreen.htm

I know Milk Snakes are not-uncommon here, but I rarely see them unless they’ve been run over. This morning, though, I saw something in the road — a branch? No, it was a big dark milk snake, as long as my arm, lying still. I thought at first it had been hit, but no, it just didn’t want to be disturbed. My usual tactic, stomping my feet nearby, only seemed to annoy it and it coiled up and made a few open-mouthed strikes in my direction. I was casting about for a stick to move it — they’re not venomous but it was big enough to give a painful bite — when a car stopped and the driver jumped out shouting, “Lady, that’s a rattlesnake!”

“No, sir, it’s a milk snake. They’re not venomous and they eat a lot of mice. Good neighbors to have!” He didn’t look convinced yet, but I think my calm demeanour and the way I prodded the snake with a stick only a foot long seemed to take the edge off his nervousness. “There are rattlesnakes in the Catskills and some in the Adirondacks, but not right around here. Almost any snake you see is harmless, and it’s doing you a favor eating ants and grubs and mice.” The snake finally uncoiled, stretched to its full impressive length, and undulated into the undergrowth.

So I saved a snake today, and just maybe I made one person think twice before running over the next ‘viper’.

*Garter Snake. Gar. Ter. Not ‘garden’. Even the NYTimes has gotten this wrong. Grrr.