Adirondack Chronicles 2021.4: Glorious Nature

In our very busy lives, sitting in offices or driving to appointments or riding Metro hither and yon, we often fail to see the glorious natural beauty all around us, and the beautiful wild things that also go about their business heedless of human concerns.  So it is that in my usual frenzied life, I would not have had the time to stop to observe birds on a fence, and I would have completely missed the beautiful northern flicker, above, just calmly perched for a minute above the Raquette Flow lake.  I love flickers, they are handsome birds with that beautiful red crown, spotted bodies and underneath the tail feathers a bright yellow patch.  And check out those talons, just perfect for climbing trees!

Not to be outdone in the beauty department, I also love the cedar waxwings — so regal, with those piercing black eyes set in the face mask, the tufted crown, yellow body and red-tipped wings — with the yellow tips on the tail feathers.  Gorgeous!

Not such a great photo, taken at a distance of about a football field near Bear Pond, but this hungry kingfisher was making herself a lunch that clearly was going to last for a long time!  That is a Big Bite!

Monarch butterflies are far more delicate as they flit among the milkweed enjoying the nectar and laying the eggs for the next generation:

Meanwhile, out on Tupper Lake, the parents continue to teach the new generation how to stay afloat in choppy waters: