Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

cattitude and I got up very early this morning and walked over to the Alewife Reservation to look at (or at least for) birds and frogs, and listen to the dawn chorus. This was my idea, in conversation on our way home yesterday: I suggested that it might be fun, but maybe later in summer when sunrise is later. He mentioned that he is often up around dawn these days, so we agreed that if he was up anyway, and wanted to go for a walk, he would wake me gently by calling my name.

We pulled on clothes at about a quarter to five, and walked down the bikeway; unusually, we saw no cyclists, though one pedestrian passed us, looking as though he was hurrying to catch the first or second subway train of the morning.

We heard more birds and frogs than we saw: the ones we heard included what sounded like two or three large bullfrogs. I spotted one large frog, lying on the surface of the water with all its legs spread, near enough to us that I could see some yellow on its body as well as the green; Cattitude found a few that were either sitting on lily pads or doing their best imitations of random lump of vegetation.

The sun rose while we were on one of the paths in the Alewife Reservation, that first blaze of orange on the horizon. *smile*

We heard some familiar birds—red-winged blackbirds, mallards, a cardinal, grackles—and some birdsongs neither of us recognized. We also saw swallows (in the air, of course) and what might have been wrens or warblers, tiny birds on the path some distance away. My immediate thought when Cattitude pointed them out was sanderlings (sandpipers), but the Alewife Reservation is a freshwater wetland, not a tidal marsh or mudflat.

On the way back I got a glimpse of a heron, flying up and curving away from the path as we approached. (It looked white enough that it might have been an egret, but a great blue heron is more likely based on what we've been seeing around there, and the dawn light can do odd things to color.)

We also saw several rabbits, of which there are a lot living around here, and one chipmunk. No muskrat—the last time we were over there we got a good look at one swimming near the surface of the water, biting off a lily pad and taking it away somewhere, presumably to its den.

That was a lot of fun, but may not have been prudent, because I got about hours' sleep last night. We tried going back to bed when we got home, and I dozed a while but didn't really get back to sleep.

I got up again around 7:30, had tea and breakfast, and then went out again to do some gardening before it got hot. "Gardening" in this case means looking at what's currently growing there, and quite a bit of weeding. We have three sunflower plants (I'd only been sure of two), but no flowers left, and the cucumber is being enthusiastic enough that I'm trying to figure out how much I can reasonably cut the roses back to make room for it.

adrian_turtle, cattitude and I went for a delightful walk today. Yesterday I'd figured we would need to get out in the morning in order to avoid the rain; that turned out not to be true, but by the time we realized that Adrian was over here, and Cattitude and I were ready to head out, for what turned out to be a couple of hours in the sunshine. (It was mid-60s F (18 C) when we went out, very good walking weather.)

I wanted to head south on Lake Street and explore a little I hadn't done before; the two of them worked out a route while I was tediously renewing my prescriptions. (Rite Aid's system is a lot more efficient than Walgreen's, in case you're trying to decide between those two chains.)

We walked down Lake Street past Route 2 into Belmont, and revised our plans when it transpired that Google Maps had tried to guide us onto the highway. The streets in that bit of Belmont are curved around Little Pond. We found the unpaved, very pleasant access route from the street to the pond, and spent some time looking at the water. That bit of woods is mostly conifer, so we were walking on dried pine needles. The other pleasant surprise in Belmont was some late, very fragrant honeysuckle blossoms: I smelled them before I saw them, which is unusual. (I like honeysuckle, but not as much as Cattitude does.)

After Little Pond we found the Fitchburg Cutoff Path, which connects to the Minuteman Bikeway at Alewife Brook T station. There's a boardwalk leading from that path into a delightful constructed wetland, built for storm water management. In among the water lily pads, we saw several frogs, the first Cattitude or I had seen in the wild in years. (There is, alas, a worldwide amphibian shortage.) First Cattitude spotted two fairly small frogs sitting on lily pads (not jewel-colored tree frog small, but small), and then Adrian saw a much larger one swimming below the surface. We spent quite a while watching the frogs sit, swim, and even hop, and then walked a little further and saw more frogs, including another large one. There were also dragonflies and a goldfinch and a wood duck, all of which are good, and all of which we had seen in the area earlier in the summer (okay, we probably hadn't seen these dragonflies before, though the goldfinch or duck might be one of the ones we'd seen in August).

We eventually decided that lunch would be a good idea, walked the last bit to the T station, and went to Central Square for lamb shank, pumpkin kibby, and then ice cream and tea.