A Forest Walk

After setting out with a collection of zoom lenses hoping to see a Great Blue Heron, I soon realized that I had ventured out much too late to see one. I decided to shift my attention to one of my favorite subjects, and one that I never grow tired of — the forest around me. My first subject was a beautiful old tree stump which had the richest deep-red colors in the morning sunlight.

Sitting on a bench behind the Cheshire Medical Center near the Ashuelot River, I noticed the morning sunlight on the ferns just a few feet in front of me. I had paused there hoping to catch a duck or a Great Blue Heron flying by, but fortunately my eyes were still open to seeing other things.

Cutting through the Drummer Hill forest on my way home, I came upon a Canadien Tiger Swallowtail butterfly that was lying upside-down on the forest floor near the edge of the trail, its wings twitching in spasms. I gently coaxed it into a right-side-up position, and it seemed to gain a bit of strength before resuming the twitching. I decided to leave it be, since I was not sure if it would live or not.