Wednesday, May 12, 2010

ABC Wednesday: Q is for A Quiet Afternoon Walk in the Woods

In Taipei, it is hard to have a nice quiet walk in the woods.  Most likely we stroll on the street and do window shopping.  It is not Quiet at all.  Things are different on Cape Cod.  There are multitude of woods, marsh lands, kettle ponds, beaches and sand dunes for us to explore.  South Cape State Park is not far from our house and has all these features.  That was what I did last Sunday afternoon.

It was a beautiful day.  I normally walk on the trail along the beach, but this time I first tried to explore the Great Flat Pond Trail that took me through the pine barren and passing through Flat Pond, a kettle pond, which was left over from the last glacial.

The trail is well marked but not very wide.  It is Quiet for the season.  I expected to hear more bird singing, we are coming into the bird migration season on Cape Cod.

The first bird that I spotted was an American Goldfinch.  The picture is not as good as the one I took last year.  But I was happy just to see a bird.

Then came alone this Morning Dove, I was able to get a very clear shot at it.  Click on the photo to see the detail.

Finally, at the end of the trail, I came upon a pair of Rufous-sided Towhee.  I had to keep very Quiet to sneak on them.  Here is the male.

Well, it is not American Robin or Baltimore Oriole for sure, notice the distinctive white belly.  The female looked quite different from the male, she was very shy and did not let me have a shot of her.

I came back to the parking lot and was going to continue my afternoon walk along the sand dunes and you can follow with me on my Camera-Critters #109 and Today's Flower #93.  But before we get to that, while getting into the car in the parking lot, I noticed something moving on my jeans.  I got off the car and removed over 10 ticks from my blue jeans and three from the car seat.  I discovered two more in the car when I got home.  I was lucky that I had my socks outside of my jeans.  Those warning signs posted for ticks along the trail were not for nothing!!

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20 comments:

Sylvia K said...

What a lovely post for the Q!! Lovely photos, but I could do without the ticks!!! Great bird shots! Looks like a fun afternoon! Hope your week is going well so far! Enjoy!

Sylvia

Mara said...

Good thing you noticed those ticks! I hope never to encounter them, although I do have the 'proper' pliers!

Roger Owen Green said...

Very tranQuil. Ticks, though - yuck!

ROG, ABC Wednesday team

Kim, USA said...

Lovely shots! I too love to walk on trails but I am afraid of snakes ^_^

ABC Wednesday~Q

photowannabe said...

Glad you found the ticks before they found you. Inspite of that it seems like you had a magical walk in the woods. Perfect choice for Quiet.

fiziskandarz said...

Very interesting story, amazing + amazing + amazing pictures. With this perfect combination, it's just impossible not to award ur blog with the Sunshine Award :) Have a great day! :D

Hildred said...

A lovely walk, - but so glad you found the ticks in time to dispose of them, - dangerous creatures and so prolific in the woods and on the hills in the spring. They invade the black-eyed susans on the hills of our part of B.C. and it's wise to be well covered when you go amongst them.

Jama said...

Good thing you didn't bring the ticks home with you!

Carol said...

Looks like a nice place for a walk, except for the ticks. You took some great bird shots. Cape Cod is a beautiful place. I used to vacation there years ago.

Strawberry Jam Anne said...

Sounds like a beautiful place to walk. The birdsong would be delightful. A

Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪 said...

I too went on a quiet walk, a bit cold, but with enough clothes, it is ok.
http://annkschin.blogspot.com/2010/05/my-world-tuesday-walk-on-volcano.html

Jayne said...

Thanks for taking me on your quiet afternoon walk. Really pretty photos but ooh, just thinking of ticks creeps me out!

x_pEpPeRoNi_x said...

Looks like a nice, refreshing walk.

Lol, and there are definitely other things to look out for in nature walks compared to the city!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful bird shot. We have ticks in the backyard that fall out of the cedar trees. And off the deer that wander through. Other than that, it was delightful to walk with you.

Jay said...

Ugh! Ticks!! I love insects and don't mind spiders at all, but ticks! NNOOOOOO!!! I'm glad you didn't get bitten.

Love the bird pictures! The goldfinch is quite different to ours!

Tumblewords: said...

What a delightful place to stroll and observe. Great photos!

Johnny Nutcase said...

Great photos and sounds like a great walk! I love the towhee shots especially, cool birds! The goldfinches here refuse to let me get a photo of them!

Shu said...

Lovely and beautiful walk! Glad you took pre-caution with socks outside of your jeans. Look careflly making sure you don't have tick bites and tell-tale signs of red ring on your skin. NE ticks are known to inflict Lyme Diseases. Do take a test if you have bites, even the bites show no red-rings.

Unknown said...

Beautiful photos of the woods and birds. Really great shots. A wonderful post for Q. Well-chosen Q-word.
Best wishes,
Anna

http://annasadornments.blogspot.com/2010/05/q-as-in-quilts-quartz-abc-wednesday.html

Reader Wil said...

Thank you for this wonderful walk! Your bird photos are great and your knowledge of birds is excellent. Have a nice Sunday!

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