Today Was A Great Day - Or - My Little Chickadee

Today was a great day. As you can see in the picture, I got to hold a black-capped chickadee. I let him or her go. I'm sure he or she was thinking, "You big lummox! Pick on someone your own size." This chickadee had lots of moxie because he kept biting my finger to make me let go. I could feel it's little heart pounding in my palm. This chickadee flew into the house. Another guy rescued it and showed me how to hold it. What else made today a great day? The weather was wonderful. I got to see an esker, climb an esker, walk the ridge of an esker and climb down the esker. I had never recognized an esker before so I was pretty excited. An esker, in case you don't know, is an elevated ridge left by the dirt that settled from a glacial ravine. This esker was near Princeton and was at least 20 feet high and a couple football fields long. I got to see a couple deer scrapes, some raccoon scat, a couple sand hill cranes, two juncos, and a old cow hoof left in the woods. We saw an entire hillside loaded with snake grass. We called it snake grass as kids but most people call it horsetail. It's that plant that comes in sections that you can pull apart. I learned the Native Americans called it scour rush because it's stiffness was helpful in cleaning pots by the river. Horsetail is a prehistoric plant that has survived since the dinosaur days. My Master Naturalist class went on a field trip. We had a wonderful day together. The people in this class are really great - full of ideas and willing to share. We all brought food for a pot luck feast. It was nice enough to sit on the deck while we ate and watch the river flow by. Honestly, my cheeks hurt from laughing so much. I couldn't ask for a nicer day.