Today is day one of Willow's Pond Walks! I went with my mom and dog to walk Hail Pond together in the evening. I don't think I got bitten by anything this time, but maybe I just didn't notice. I had a lovely encounter with a chickadee, although I didn't have anything on me to take a photo so I could add it to the gallery. There's plenty of time for that yet. I've never walked so close to a chickadee before; it was so small and lovely, flitting about from branch to branch, staring at me. I saw some blackbirds too, although I'm not sure what species they were. They made a lovely noise and were in a big group in the grove just beside the water. I know they weren't crows, as they were too small and not dark enough, and they didn't look like starlings either, as they were missing that distinctive yellow beak. I suppose I'll just have to investigate further.
Something I want to look further into over the next couple of days is this strange flowering bush I've encountered on my walks. The flowers are white, sometimes pale pink, and the leaves on the stem are toothed. They grow in great big, wild bushes all along the sides of the trail, and they have a lovely sweet fragrance that adds a pleasant aroma to the muggy air we've been having recently. I've tried to identify them before, both with my nature guide books and through Google Image searches, and I wasn't able to make a definite assumption as I was lacking some information on their stems and structure that I couldn't gather just from the photos I'd taken. I'm betting that they're an invasive species of wild rose, the kind I read about in the local news in my identification search the other day. The fact that they're so massive and overpowering compared to the rest of the vegetation on the trail leads me to suspect that they're just that, and I think they're simply too large to be any other similar species. In addition, I found large thorns on the stems upon further investigation today. Still, I want to be completely sure before I add the species to the gallery, so tomorrow I plan on arming myself with knowledge beforehand so I know what to look for to make a proper identification.
It was so lovely today to be able to name certain species as I went along the path and recognize specific plants I'd photographed and investigated prior. There's still plenty to be discovered, but I already feel so much more connected to my local ecosystem!
- W
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