WEEDS

Thomas Gray wrote in "An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" that:

"Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air."

Perhaps this could be said about weeds, also. As I walk along the Riverwalk each day, I see glimpses of purple and blue and white and yellow and a multitude of other colors that come from either wildflowers or weeds. Often the weed's beauty is never seen; sometimes, as it happens, Sadie's paw steps on a weed before I get a chance to photograph it, and no one gets to see its beauty.

With springtime comes pollen, weeds and poetry. Here is a poem called, "Weeds" which I wrote this afternoon.

WEEDS

MY NEIGHBOR’S YARD IS GREEN WITHOUT THE WEEDS
THAT GROW AND CHOKE WHAT LITTLE GRASS I HAVE;
EACH SPRING MY YARD GETS SALTED WITH GRASS SEED;
YET EVEN THIS CANNOT MY WEED-YARD SAVE.

“SO WHAT TO DO?” I ASK MYSELF EACH SPRING;
I SEE THE ADS WITH CHEMICALS THAT WORK
TO FERTILIZE THE SOIL AND KILL MOST THINGS
THAT CHOKE MY GRASS INCLUDING WEEDS THAT LURK.

“THE CHEMICALS MAY HURT THE DOG,” I SAY;
OR, “MAYBE WILL NOT WORK THE WAY I HOPE”;
I KNOW THAT THESE ARE REASONS SO I MAY
PUT OFF THE WORK AND LAZE AROUND AND MOPE.

ALAS, NOT DOWN THE WORRY PATH I GO;
THE WEEDS ARE SUBJECTS NOW OF MY PHOTOS.

It was another beautiful morning on the Riverwalk, and the weeds help make it more interesting.

DUCKS AND GEESE

(April 17,, 2010) My heart never ceases to skip a beat when I see a flock of Canada geese flying over as I walk along the Riverwalk. Sometimes I have counted as many a 25 in a V-shaped flock as they fly overhead and often land right before my eyes in a field or on the river. Though on the ground they are just waddling geese, in the air they become beauty in motion.

A few weeks ago, my wife (Elizabeth), Sadie and I were walking one morning and I, as usual, was a few yards behind them stopping to take pictures. On the way back I stopped to take one last picture, and Elizabeth asked, "What are you photographing?" I said, "These geese over here." She said, "You have a million pictures of geese." I said, "Well, actually, only 500,000 pictures of geese, but each one is different with lighting and subject."

When Sadie was less than a year old, Elizabeth and I were walking on the Riverwalk with Sadie. We approached some Canada geese on the trail, and they began honking loudly as they do when they see Sadie. They began their parade down to the river, as they usually do, except for one. This goose came right at us charging and honking, and Sadie, a born and bred bird dog, cowered behind Elizabeth. We had come between the goose and her new gosling which had wandered on to the other side of a fence. That goose, at the time, was larger than Sadie, and Sadie was going to have nothing to do with this monster coming at her honking.

Sadie is now a 4 year old, the Riverwalk is something we walk on at least once a day, and she now knows how to deal with ducks and geese. This evening we went for a short walk (a couple of miles) at Angler's Park, and as we walked near the marsh, I noticed a mallard pair not 15 yards from Sadie; Sadie noticed the pair, also. Sadie stopped, pointed, and gently lifted her front paw as she began her approach to them. Of course, she never had a chance since she was on a leash. However, I allowed her to approach the ducks, and when got within 10 feet of them, they took off, landed in the ball field, and Sadie was jumping and pulling to get at them. Most of the time on the Riverwalk near Dan Daniel Park, she ignores the ducks; however, this evening she decided to flush these two out of the marsh.

At certain times of the year I see nearly a hundred Canada geese on the river in the mornings as they group to fly off to some feeding place for the day. After they are gathered, they begin their honking sound, and then, when the group is in place, they take off in nearly a V-shape from the river. In the fall, I watch them return right at sunset. They come in by the dozens and land in the river.

One evening, I headed to the Riverwalk, about an hour before dark; I always take Sadie with me, and I told my wife that I was going down to "watch the show." She asked, "What is that?" I told her that within 15 minutes the cormorants would be leaving the river and circling around overhead and perch on the trees across the river. I have seen as many as 60 of them on the river at one time, and it is amazing to see them walk on the water as they take off and then circle around like gothic birds over head and land, gently, on the trees across the river. After watching this part of the show, I move up the river to near the train trestle and wait for the Canada geese to fly in. If the sunset is right, there is a spectacular image of the geese landing in the red or golden sunset.

DUCKS AND GEESE. Amazing creatures.

Sadie still shies away from geese, but it was another amazing day on the Riverwalk.

THINGS ARE DIFFERENT

(April 14, 15, 2010) For three days, now, the emergency services of this community have banded together while searching for a five year old boy who fell out of a boat into the river near the Dan Daniel Park. Now the underwater search has been called off, and there weren't as many rescue vehicles at the river this morning as there have been during the past few days.

This activity has had an impact upon our English setter, Sadie. After her walk on Tuesday morning, when the activity there was at its height, Sadie seemed to notice there was sadness in the air. She came home after her walk, didn't want to eat anything, and lay around the house, not being the active 4 year old she usually is. She had cheered up, somewhat, by evening. Things were different.

On Wednesday morning we were walking near the site and saw a couple heading down towards the cordoned off area. I asked them if they were related to the young man, and they said no, but they were best friends of the parents. I told them I was sorry about the young boy. The lady commented what a pretty dog Sadie is and put her hand out to her. Sadie, who usually goes ballistic when she hears someone call her name, calmly stood up on her hind legs, embraced the lady's wrist with her two paws and lay her head down on the back of the lady's hand. Sadie stayed like that for several minutes. Things were different.

Last night (Wednesday) I took Sadie to Angler's Park near dark. As we walked around the field there, I couldn't help but think of all the activity that had gone on there during the weekend rugby tournament - now it was completely silent. Even the red-winged blackbirds had ceased their rrrrnnnnnnnggggg mating call; even the chirping frogs had ceased their irritating chirping, even the parking lot had ceased its sound of people talking. As we looked out over the near dark marsh, where we often see mallards, Canada geese, and killdeer, there was a silouette of a large prehistoric looking bird standing in the water. It was, of course, a great heron, something I had never seen in recent times at Angler's Park. This was nothing extraordinary, nothing unusual, nothing that had significance at all - it was just different.

As were were approaching the woods to return to my car this morning, I saw a swallow perched on the branch of a tree. I turned to take some pictures and had also noticed that there was a young woman jogging in my direction and my friend John, and another regular walking coming up behind her at about a 20 yard distance. I shot some pictures of the bird and heard the lady pass. After taking a few more shots, I walked toward the woods. When I passed John, I said, "John. I must be getting old. I preferred to take a picture of the bird in the tree and not even noticed the young lady running." He said, without missing a beat, "David. You're not getting old ----- You ARE old." Things were different.

In life things change, but there are the constants that we all hang on to. There is the love of family, the sounds of birds chirping, and the beauty of the river even after a tragic event has taken place in its turbulent waters.

And there are two other constants: There will always be robins and it will always be another great day on the Riverwalk.

DISCOVERY

This morning I didn't make it to the Riverwalk, but Elizabeth took Sadie. Some of the paths were closed off for rescue of the boy who had fallen into the river. Tonight, I see that the newspaper is referring to the work going on at the dam as a "recovery." My heart goes out to the boy's family.

Discovery - this is what happens every day I go to the Riverwalk with Sadie. I may see some of the same birds, but often they are in various temperaments from complacent to aggressive. The mallards I spoke of yesterday is a good example of how the temperament of the birds change - a few days earlier there were three mallards swimming together (two males and one female). And then, the one mallard attacks the female and then the male, and the pair fly away leaving the single mallard doing his little "victory dance." Discovery - either a mating ritual or a territorial dispute - likely the later.

Discovery - Yesterday afternoon I took my second walk with Sadie, but instead of starting at Dan Daniel Park, I decided to go to Angler's Park. I saw the black and red red-winged blackbirds in all their glory, sitting on the top of trees making their rrrrrnnngggg sound. I never thought that those I had spotted there were all males until I happened upon a shot I took of some "unidentified" birds in a tree nearby. This morning I looked in a bird book and thought I had spotted some sparrows, but I recalled that the birds in the pictures were larger than any sparrows I had ever seen. This evening I looked in the book again - I checked information about the red-winged blackbirds and noticed that the female are not as ornate as the males - in fact the females are rather drab looking. The picture I had taken was of two females to whom the male was calling. rrrrrrrnnnnnnggggg - a bell went off in my head, and I learned the difference between the males and females of this particular species.

I got a short sojourn at Angler's Park this evening with Sadie. I talked with a friend, and Sadie played tag with his small dog (both on leashes). I took twenty pictures - some bad shots of red-winged blackbirds, some very dark mallards on the marsh, and Louie, the small white dog of my friend. Louie, the dog, is still discovering things - he is learning to socialize. He is a rescue dog that never had much to socialize about (he may have been an abused dog). But, Louie has learned to play with Sadie, and Sadie enjoys the small dog's company.

Discovery is about a small dog learning that it is much more fun to play with some other dog than to be aggressive; Discovery is a mallard coming back to his territory and finding two other mallards there. Discovery is being able to finally identify a picture of a bird, and when the discovery comes saying to myself, "The female red-winged blackbird which is much duller than her male counterpart - duhhh). Discovery is realizing that your child is missing and may have drowned, and coming to grips with the fact that your life is going to be very different from now on.

Discovery is what I do everyday when I go to the Riverwalk. It was a another great evening on the Riverwalk.

TERRITORY

(APRIL 12, 2010) This story begins Sunday evening as Sadie and I went back to Angler's Park where we had enjoyed the rugby games the day before. When we got there, at about 6:00, the tournament was winding up and we passed a number of cars and a large bus on the winding hill down to Angler's Park. When we arrived, the players were packing up. Upon getting out of the Jeep, I noticed a strong smell of beer and sweat. The Budweiser concession was still there doling out cups of beer to the thirsty players.

The field was full of empty cups. At this moment the term "territory" came to mind as I thought of this as part of my territory and the field had been terribly littered.

We walked toward the bridge, stepping over cups here and there, and Sadie saw a larger dog squatting in the field; the owner had a bag ready to clean up the mess. I thought about the mess on the field and that it would likely remain there until tomorrow when the city work crews came and swept up the cups. As Sadie pulled to get nearer the larger dog, three of the players walked by and one said, "He knows a good piece of butt when he sees one." I turned to the fellow and said, "First of all, Sadie is not a "he"; Second of all, she has been spayed and has no interest in the other dog except for friendship purposes, and lastly, if Sadie gets near the larger dog, there will likely be some butt sniffing, but I'll guarantee there will be no conjugal relationship between these two dogs." The three players seemed to get a chuckle from my comments, and we completed our short walk as I thought, "Territory."

This morning on the Riverwalk, I passed a lady I hadn't seen in some time. She said, "Happy New Year" to me, and I realized that she hadn't been out on the Riverwalk this year. I acknowledged here and walked on toward the train station. At the 3/4 mile mark we spotted our friendly mockingbird sitting on the bush in his usual photogenic way. I took a few pictures as I thought about how he looked so angelic now but had buzzed Sadie on a number of occasions when we got too close to the mockingbird's nest.

On our way back from the train station, we started to cross the bridge near the Public Works department and I looked over the bridge and saw a mallard couple swimming under the bridge toward the river. Another mallard drake landed just around the corner where the creek met the river. This mallard swam rapidly toward the female mallard causing the female to take flight; he did the same movement towards the drake, and he flew away. The conquering mallard did a little victory dance on the water. It must have been a territorial thing.

This evening we went to Angler's park where I had hoped to see the red-winged blackbirds. I was not disappointed; there were 4 of them in the tops of trees making their rrrrrngggggg sounds. I took some pictures and then started shooting pictures of what I thought were more blackbirds, but, as I looked at the pictures taken, I realized they were some large bird I hadn't identified yet. Well, the blackbirds were not too happy to share their marsh with these birds and dive bombed them. The other birds flew away, and the blackbirds continued their songs. Territory seems to be very important to birds.

William Faulkner once referred to property as his "little postage stamp of native soil." Humans need territory as do the birds and other wildlife.

It was another beautiful day (and evening) on the Riverwalk.

SWALLOWS

It was a foggy morning on the Riverwalk as Sadie and I started our morning walk. The river stopped half way across with a wall of fog obscuring the other side. As the sun broke through, the fog lifted showing a beautiful blue sky and birds enjoying the sunlight as they fluttered around and sang their melodious songs.

It was also cool this morning - in the 30s when I set forth. There were few people on the Riverwalk and only two young men fishing near the bridge at the Public Works Department. They had felt the chill and had started a small fire on the bank of the river to keep them warm.

We stood and watched 5-6 tree swallows as they played above the wires in one of the large fields near Dan Daniel Park. They would do large circles in the air, fly out over the river, skimming it, and returning to the field, perch on one of the wires, and then flutter off again. Often they would do a duo dance where two would look as if they were in a whirlpool in the air. I assume this is a mating ritual.

As we got near the parking lot on our way back to the car, we saw a squirrel on the rim of a trash barrel enjoying the wealth of munchies left there the day before. He was a happy fellow, munching away, until he saw Sadie, and Sadie saw him. Sadie paused, pointed and stood motionless, as she does when she sees an animal. She is very graceful as she tip toes forward ever so slowly - ever so gently placing one paw down and then another one. However, the squirrel let her get only so close, and then up the tree he scampered. Sadie went around to the back of the tree to see where the squirrel had gone - she didn't see him. He was about 20 feet above us safely hugging the tree.

It was a cool, foggy start this morning on the trail, but it was another great morning on the Riverwalk.

COLORS

(APRIL 10, 2010) During this time of year there are splotches of purple, blue, yellow and green in the woods and in the fields of the Riverwalk. This morning I saw a bluebird staking claim to his bird house and a couple of swallows flitting about before landing on the rung of a large pole at Dan Daniel Park. There were also the purple, blue and yellow flowers surrounded by the lush green foliage of Spring.

This morning we walked from Dan Daniel Park to Angler's Park. We enjoyed the colors of nature, but at Angler's Park there were multi-colored shirt on the large field as a rugby tournament was being held. Sadie was humbled by a large black lab (about twice her size held back by a lady with a Cornell t-shirt) and wanted to chase the strange looking ball the ruggers (don't know if that is a word, but I may have just made it up - it sounds right, though) were carrying and kicking a football shaped ball to score points in this very rough game where there are few pads and the object is to get the ball to the other end no matter what happens. The game is continuous, and I noticed three rescue squad vehicles lined up ready to take care of any broken bones or cuts or any other medical care needed in this very physical game. We stood and watched for a half hour, spending some of that time talking with friends who were working there with the Rotary Club and the Parks and Rec. dept. It was a perfect day for any outdoor activity.

It was another great day on the Riverwalk.