Pine Streets Morning Walk

Mollie and I went up to Pine Street Woods for our morning walk. I brought the camera along with my 500mm f5.6 lens. Yesterday morning I heard the five sharp calls of a Pileated woodpecker while we were out for a walk. It has been a couple of months since I had seen or heard them there. During the fall I could count on seeing or at least hearing them every few days. So we set out hoping we might spot one and I could get a nice photo.

The morning looked like we might get some sun as the clouds were somewhat broken in places. I decided to take Meadow to Momentum to Crackerpants then down Green Heart then up Zen Garden to Pinecone trail and back to the parking lot. The snow from two days ago was still present to Mollie’s great joy as she bolted across the meadow in a fit of joy that snowy ground always engenders.

By the time we got to Green Heart we had some views of the hills.

We proceeded down Green Heart and heard some scraping noise. I took it to be someone clearing snow and ice across the valley. Lower down though Mollie started to get spooked so I leashed her up. There have been bear, cougar, and moose spotted in these woods. She has gotten spooked by the smell of moose before. We proceeded into the valley but never saw anything.

We next climbed out via Zen Garden, a steep but pretty climb. I found some more subjects to photograph.

A could see a young deer way down on the valley floor.

As I climbed higher I realized Mollie was missing, probably bored with my photography. I turned a corner and she was neck deep in the soft dirt at the base of a rotten stump. I interrupted her and took this photo. She seems slightly upset I interrupted her terrier fun.

We did hear the woodpeckers again this morning but they sounded like they were across the valley. I will have to hope they will get around to these woods soon.

By now the sun had come up and that combined with some breezes that brushed some snow from the trees and led to the following.