The great outdoors

I’m back in Philadelphia after five days of the outdoor life. We spent most of the family camping trip in Trap Pond State Park in Delaware, but we made a day trip to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge on Maryland’s eastern shore, and paddled three miles up a marshy stream and back again, looking for unusual birds. I discovered that I can canoe for four hours without ending up in major pain the next day, an accomplishment about which I’m rather chuffed. The total bird sighting count from both parks came to something like this:

red-winged blackbirds: far too many to count
cormorants: at least 7
great blue herons: 2
big white birds that may have been snowy egrets: 2
woodpeckers (either downy or hairy, I couldn’t tell from a distance): 1
hummingbirds: 1
ospreys: 1
and, the big excitement of the Blackwater trip — bald eagles: 1 (wheeling overhead right as we were about to drive off)

We also heard but didn’t see assorted bobwhites, Carolina wrens, and bullfrogs. Legions of bullfrogs, by the sound of them. I’m now most of the way through Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Dolores Umbridge: hands down, best villain of all the HP books I’ve read so far), and looking forward to devouring Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince before the final installment comes out. Also, I had completely forgotten how much fun competitive watermelon-seed spitting can be, even when one doesn’t win. Fresh air and exercise must do me good; my good mood wasn’t quenched either by the pile of e-mail to catch up on or this morning’s soaking rain.

Drexel’s summer term starts this week; my first cataloging class is tomorrow night. Back to civilization…

Comments are closed.