Beaver Meadows

Robert and I drove to the Beaver Meadow Audubon Center, in North Java, NY on the first day of Spring just to get away from the 'burbs and see some wildlife and get some fresh air.  It's one of our favorite places to go to, but we didn't realize that it was the weekend of their Maple Fest.  It was busy with many rowdy little kids doing what they're best at - being rowdy.  We took a little hike around the preserve, but didn't really see much.  It's still too early!

We did see some really neat birds and I finally saw my first Eastern Blue Bird, though didn't get a good photo of it :(  I forgot to change my camera settings!  By the time I finally got the right setting it had flown away.  Anyways, I snapped this blurry photo of it.  Unfortunately we didn't "see" any more of them, but I think we heard them chirping in the trees.



My lens isn't ideal for bird photos but I try my best with what I have and it gives me lots opportunities to practice creeping up on things like a stealthy ninja to get closer to things.  You never know when that skill might come in handy ;)  I think I'm starting to master my skill at creeping up on Robert and scaring the bejeezus out of him :)

We saw a ton of birds at the bird feeders and many geese in the ponds, but other than that there was no other wildlife that we saw.  They have this little section of the park called "Hawk Watch" but in all the three or four times that we've gone there over the past few years, we haven't seen a single hawk or falcon or whatever.  Robert says it's the worst "Hawk Watch".... EVER!  When we got home, we saw TWO in our own backyard.  Oh, the irony.

One of my favorite birds, the Black Capped Chickadee, all puffed up and keeping warm:


A Dark Eyed Junco:
 

Some very obnoxious geese:


A female woodpecker.... not sure if it's a downy or hairy:


And some puffballs I spotted underneath a pine tree: