t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


the rarest thing we saw this morning on our expedition to great meadows wasn't any sort of bird or wildlife but actually a car with mexican license plates, all the way from nuevo león, like some sort of neotropical migrating vehicle.

when bruce and i finally got to the refuge, it wasn't a surprise to me that we found the trail completely flooded; i had my own share of water adventures this past weekend at the sudbury half of great meadows. left with no other options, we decided to follow an inland trail, the only one that was submerged.

there was more heard than seen: the songs of grackles, and red-winged blackbirds, and the squeaks of some unknown ducks fleeing from the shoreline as we approached. there were singing sparrows and chickadees, much of the usual. from the water we could hear constant splashing - at first i thought it was just the waves but bruce told me they were actually giant spawning carps and even though i never saw one, i could see the random splashings, almost like the whole place was a breeding ground for fish.

i saw my first frog of the season, a female green frog trying to avoid detection on the flooded forest floor (i heard my first frogs last week when i went to blue hills). i'd never been on this particular forested path and was surprised to find some small wet areas that looked to be empty vernal pools (not even fairy shrimps, so who knows). at one point we lost sight of the trail, but only because a large pine tree had toppled over and covered up the marker.

before we left we climbed the observation tower. when we first came in we spotted a female wood duck hiding in the thickets. now from up high we saw more wood ducks off in the distance. they were too far away for me to get any good photos other than mere dots. the only other time i've seen a wood duck before was also from a distance; i hope one day to get a closer look.


oh what a pretty bird you are!

back at home it was time to work. i felt guilty stealing away some precious time to go naturing when a deadline loom so close by, so i was determined to make some serious coding progress today. every day this week i haven't been able to get a solid day's worth of programming, unable to find my code groove, at least when it comes to client S. at this point though i have a pretty good feel for the work i need to do and i think when i make another delivery end of friday things will be alright.

my mother swung by briefly to drop off a rotisserie chicken for my dinner. i stopped working by 8pm to take a shower then eat and watch some television.