I've hardly made it through half of what I want to tell you about my trip to the prairie and already I'm off to the mountains!;-)
I'm leaving on Friday for a couple days in the Adirondacks; one of my most favorite places. It's a trip for birds, ostensibly anyway, but the fact is that I've already seen most of the specialty birds the area has to offer on past trips there. Except for Spruce Grouse and that's a long shot, as even the trip leaders admit. I have wonderful memories of Evening Grosbeaks, Boreal Chickadees, Gray Jays, Winter Wrens, Lincoln's Sparrows, Ravens, and Black-backed Woodpeckers. I don't much care what birds I see this time. So long as I see some, of course!
I'm more looking forward to hearing the cry of a loon or seeing the spruce and tamaracks mirrored in a lonely pond. Standing at the summit of Whiteface Mountain with alpine plants at my feet and Lake Champlain and Quebec off in the distance, while Bicknell's Thrush sings somewhere below me. Waking to morning mist rising from the lake outside my door. Paddling that lake for an hour or two between birding and dinner. Watching the stars for a few quiet hours each night...
13 comments:
oh enjoy!
I love to hear loons cry on the lakes in upstate NY.
Have a restful time.
Say hi to everyone for me. I did that trip back in 2004 and it was terrific. I'll get back there again in a year or two. Enjoy!
It sounds like a perfect, relaxing trip. Have a wonderful time.
It sounds so beautiful and serene. Enjoy!
Enjoy your trip!
Have a wonderful time Laura and take lots 'o photos!
I grew up in the southern adirondack region. Of all places, Indian Lake was always my favorite.
Your description of the solitude there makes me long to return.
Unfortunately, that doesn't happen often.
Have a wonderful respite.
I vividly remember how the Adirondack mountains fold back upon each other toward the horizon, marked in myriad shades of blue. Your post brought the images flooding back; thank you! I had the good fortune to discover them while living in Québec, studying French. By coincidence, my daughter and I are in Québec now, on our annual summer pilgrimage, getting ready to celebrate its 400th anniversary.
It would be another interesting coincidence if you'd met my daughter's father, Jay Davis, in ND. He's an entrepreneur, inventor of birdJam, a very cool birder's tool for the iPod. If you didn't meet him, you should do yourself a favor and check out his website, www.birdJam.com.
Vive les Adirondacks!
Beth: Hey! I did, except for the bugs! How do you stand them?
KGMom: I've not heard their call yet ever in NY, but hope to.
Patrick: I guess you went one of the years I skipped.. fun trip... I said hello for you.
NCMountainWoman, Bobbie, John, and Jayne: Thanks! It was fun!
Nina: Oooh.... I can just imagine how nice it must have been to grow up there. I haven't been back in a few years, but the changes (little as they are) are hard to see. I can imagine what it must be for you. I don't know Indian Lake... where is that?
La reine: Thanks for saying hello... those mountains today were more shaded in black and the darkest of green, but beautiful nonetheless.
The middle of winter, covered in white, is almost more beautiful, I think. Cold as hell, though!
;-)
birdJam? I think I may have heard of it.
(laugh)
;-)
There's probably pictures here, somewhere, of a few of us frolicking with royal terns and black skimmers at Cape May with birdJam Jay. He's something of a local celebrity.
Funny... small world.
;-)
(However did you find your way here?)
Through Julie Zickefoose. She's amazing! (Pardon me while I state the obvious; I'm a birding neophyte!)
Take yesterday's post on Carolina Wrens: her empathy is palpable, her photos worthy of publishing, her insights so deeply rooted they're intuitive.
BTW, check out her reference to using the iPod!
Your writing has really touched a chord in me, Laura. Your entries about your father, especially. I'd no idea blogging served as an outlet for such literaries. (Jay would ask, "What planet do you live on?!")
I've spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get photos posted on my fledgling blog. Any advice on where to start? Has the series, "...for Artists" been published yet, as in "Blogging for Artists"?
;-)
Oh Laura, I'm so far behind on everyone's blogs. Did you have a good trip? Did you hear loons? Is it far enough north that you got to see the Northern Lights also? (that's always what I get up in the middle of the night for when we visit up north of Ely)
La Reine: Part of the fun of blogging is struggling through the mechanics of it... try the Blogger help page for photo posting advice... or I could tear out a page from my dog-eared *Blogging for Dummies*.
;-)
Glad you like what you find here anyway.
Ruthie: No loons - no Northern Lights.
:-(
It was too rainy and cloudy for stars. Fun trip... stay tuned.
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