A beautiful day, with attitude

Attitude?  Moi?

Come over here and say that!

Seriously (hah!) we had a beautiful day here--

70*, sunny, etc.  So once the boys had finally cleaned their room and the two little ones had taken their naps, I took the girls and the two little ones on a walk in Rock Creek Park, while Feivel rode his bike through the park up and back over several miles.  We saw almost no animals at all, I don't think we even spotted a squirrel, but Gilad did spot a big caterpillar almost as bright yellow as his chartreuse shirt, so he was happy, and it was lovely out, and we walked a couple of miles.

I finished clue 5 of the Mystery Shawl

and got my batt from the Ring Your Bells fiber club spun up as per the Spin-a-long directions, though it was tough--I'm very biased towards spinning fine, coming out with 2 or 3 ply fingering or sport weight yarns, and this called for a bulky singles!  Mine is definitely not quite even, but it was a very good exercise in controlling my spinning.  I'll have more pics as well as measurements once I get it washed and skeined, hopefully within a day or two.

Tweet, tweet, I say!

On our last foray into the park we saw a Pileated Woodpecker and a Scarlet Tanager (a first for me!).
But no heron.
We even crossed the heron's bridge and searched on the other side of the creek, but to no avail. Gilad's theory is that it's a female heron and it's nesting right now (which was a pretty sophisticated supposition for a three year old, to my mind). After seeing a pair of mallards, he also said he hopes to soon see ducklings.
I'm not sure why I crave the birding so much right now; is it the librarian in me, who wants to catalog everything and build as large a collection as possible for future use and reference? Is it the shopper who wants more, more, more? Or is it the simple academician, who is fascinated with the straightforward advancement of familiarity and information about our local park?
In any case, we'll keep looking (sorry, Gilad will keep 'ooking) and reporting.

Ducky Day

Still no heron to be found in the park; obviously it was because Gilad wasn't with us. Rather, today was mallard day. Just as we got to the main path, one and then two more male mallards flew down into the creek. Up a little farther, there were two more. Then, as we returned, a male and a female crossed the path in front of us (why did the duckies cross the road? to get to the water slide!) to go down one of the deer-trod trails through the brush to the water.
As Gilad would say, "La-la-la-la-lei." You have read The Story about Ping, haven't you? Gilad is very upset that the copy we have now is a library book and needs to be returned.

Jeffrey's on his way home now with the older kids. They should be home in an hour. Cue the "end of peace and quiet" code!

Spring Beauty

It's a lovely spring day here on the east coast of the US, and to keep Addie from eating books I took her for yet another walk through Rock Creek Park. I only wish I could take a sound recording there; the lyrics of the birds, frogs, and squirrels are far more meaningful than any description I can give here. I'll only say it's peaceful and delightful.
We tried to visit Gilad's friend the heron, but he was nowhere to be found. I understand from Jeffrey that apparently the heron followed Gilad to Norfolk, where they saw herons, ibises and many other water birds today at the aquarium and preserve.
We did find plenty of evidence that the local beavers
are about and active,
but we simply saw nothing beyond the prosaic cardinals and sparrows. We heard, oh we heard so many other birds, but they were far out of sight in the trees and the overgrowth.
Even out of the park, with the azaleas blooming, we are surrounded by Spring.
Of course, the loveliest sight of all this afternoon was

It was a golden!

Golden eagle, that is! We saw a pair in Rock Creek Park about 10 days ago.

I knew I would eventually track the size, configuration and especially the wing feather detail, which was quite distinctive (see the photo here for why I would notice and remember it).