I love a good walk. It gets the heart pumping and fills the lungs with fresh air. It eases the tensions of to-do lists and day-to-day circumstances. Sometimes I pray aloud on my walks too. Here in Northern CT, we are blessed to live near the Granby Land Trust area as well as a rail trail. So I have places to walk. I walk for exercise first, but I love the fresh air and I love watching nature, especially birds, plants, rocks, animals and flowers and trees.
Today I walked farther than usual, hiking to Carpenter Falls, a beautiful hidden falls near the top of Broad Hill. Because of the rain last night the creek there was running a little more than usual too. One has to hike down into the small gorge to see it. The collage and the gallery with this post are from that spot today.
This spring the birds have seemed more abundant than usual. Probably I have just been walking at better times. I keep a journal of my bird walks, jotting down the species seen on each walk when I get home. In May I have seen about 36 species of birds on my walks, and I seldom stop just to bird watch for very long. I mostly just glass what moves.
I also had the unusual privilege of observing a small mink hunting up the shore line of our local creek just as I looked down from the Broad Hill Road Bridge. He darted in and out of holes in the rocks both above and below the water searching for prey. Once he swam across a section to a small group of rocks he wanted to check out.
