Nest

Nest

Fine spring days have me clipping and raking in the garden. When the weather starts to warm we tend to clean up our homes inside and out, putting winter past us and readying our “nests” for a new season. Outside this is not so much a chore for me, but a pleasurable activity as I am also looking for signs of rejuvenation.

Our Winter Gift

Our Winter Gift

Many Long Islanders look forward to the winter. It’s a time for skiing, skating, sledding, and snowman building. It’s an invitation to walk along quiet coastal beaches devoid of the maddening crowds, and it certainly provides the opportunity to reconnect with family and friends during the holidays.

A Blue Jay Morning

A Blue Jay Morning

Every morning has its share of routine chores: get-newspaper, retrieve-garbage-cans, check-weather, wash-breakfast-dishes, etc., etc., etc… But then, there are mornings when chores get interrupted by the force of an unexpected event… as recently happened to me on a November morning, not long ago.

Phoebe: Audubon’s Bird

Phoebe: Audubon’s Bird

If you love observing the natural world, once in a while you receive a gift. Maybe it’s a special moment of excitement such as with an osprey hitting the water with talons flaring and, with labored flight, lifting off the surface with a writhing fish firmly ensconced. Perhaps it’s a moment of intimacy provided by a doe nuzzling her fawn or a mother cottontail rabbit licking her newborn young.

Lovely Longtails

Lovely Longtails

A few weekends ago Georgia and I decided to explore McAllister County Park in the Village of Belle Terre with the goal of seeing some winter birds, and secretly hoping to spy a Snowy Owl, a winter visitor occasionally seen here. This not-well-known county park is on the east side of Port Jefferson Harbor and consists of a mined out section of the Harbor Hill Terminal Moraine and a sand spit that extends west to the jetty connecting the harbor with Long Island Sound.