Adirondack Chronicles 2022.3: Hungry Critters

We live in such very stressful times, it’s important to step back from the headlines once in a while to see the whole of the natural world.  There is considerable beauty and serenity in nature — as well as drama, violence and competition for dominance, just like with humans!  Just quietly observing the wild things is instructive, seeing behaviors and listening to the unknown languages of the forest.  The blue jays, for example, never stop moving or talking to each other, their loud chatter echoes through the forest as they scavenge the tall grasses for tasty bites.

On the other hand, the hungry kingfisher just likes to gobble its prey no matter that the fish seems bigger than the bird’s head:

The little hummingbirds are much more elegant about how to get their nourishment:

While the goldfinch just chomp away on the cattails…

I went looking for cedar waxwings on the service berries but, instead, found this sly chipmunk gathering berries in his cheeks…

And then there are the hummoths — not quite bees, not quite butterflies or hummingbirds, but quite busy sucking nectar…