It's the Little Things

As in young birds and other things I photographed out of focus

Young common gallinule

Last night, daughter Gwen sent a message from a local birding spot that she was looking at three young Common Gallinule if we wanted to come by and see them. This birding spot on Hile School Rd in Freeville is a good 5 minute drive from the Pink House so we jumped in the car, Tim armed with a big camera and me content with my iPhone.

I love this spot. Hile School Road is named for the one-room school that used to sit along it. When the school district consolidated in the early 1930s and built a wonderful low-slung brick school in 1936 in the middle of Freeville (named the “most beautiful one-story school” built in the state that year) Hile School and the other dozen or so one-room schools closed their doors.

At the top of the hill where we turn onto Hile School Road is a patch of woods that we all know as the trillium woods because in May it’s carpeted with the beautiful white (and occasionally red) flowers.

Lovely trillium

At the low spot in the road is another patch of woods leading into a swampy, marshy area on both sides of the road. It’s turned out to be a bit of a birding hot spot in the area. Last night, in addition to watching these young gallinules forage among the cattails, we watched a beaver swim toward us underwater and when it popped up about three yards away it scared the bejeezus out of us and it. A green heron did a fly-by then perched near the top of a dead tree.

A blurry photo of a green heron

These little forays into nature always take me out of my head, for which I am thankful. No one wants to be in a head muddled with lists of painting supplies, ideas for books, regrets, and ever-changing notions about what to pack for an upcoming trip. It bores even me.

So to stand on a gravel road and look for birds and other wildlife while the sun is beginning to dip toward the horizon was a moment of bliss.