Today we visited the Pheasant Branch Conservancy, interested in finding a lot of different bird species. A few steps down the trail, we spooked a great-horned owl off its perch and it flew away through the snowy aspens. We saw eighteen bird species in all, but I also noticed some plant life that "stuck out" in this all-white landscape. This is the winter look of the wild cucumber (Echinocystis lobata), a tall viny plant with star-shaped leaves and these spiky seed pods, which are said to look like little watermelons in the spring.
"January observation can be almost as simple and peaceful as snow, and almost as continuous as cold. There is time not only to see who has done what, but to speculate why." Aldo Leopold, SCA, January Thaw, essay.
ReplyDeleteThank you Tom and Ann. Kathy