Bonaparte’s Gull (winter plumage)

Botany Highlight: Oriental Bittersweet

Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus)

Species list: red-necked grebe, double-crested cormorant, mute swan, Canada goose, mallard, American black duck, gadwall, American wigeon, bufflehead, greater scaup, long-tailed duck, red-breasted merganser, herring gull, ring-billed gull, Bonaparte’s gull, northern flicker, downy woodpecker, American crow, black-capped chickadee, northern mockingbird, American robin, golden-crowned kinglet, ruby-crowned kinglet, house sparrow, rusty blackbird, northern cardinal, American goldfinch, American tree sparrow, song sparrow.  (29 species)

Ring-billed Gull

American Wigeon (male)

Mallard (female)

Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius)

American Robin

Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina)

Northern Mockingbird

Miles Hearn

                                           NATURE THOUGHT

So let us then try to climb the mountain, not by stepping on what is below us, but to pull us up at what is above us, for my part at the stars; Amen.

–M.C. Escher (1898–1972)