Farm Pond

I took my lunch break at Farm Pond in Framingham.  Today has been filled with non-stop local news reports on the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.  It is unbelievable to me that one is still on the loose.  I was glad to turn off the volume and have some respite out in nature.

On my drive over to the pond, I saw a Cabbage White butterfly.  As soon as I started walking down to the water at Farm Pond, a Mourning Cloak flew past me, circling around in the wind.  It landed briefly 2x, and I snapped a quick photo of it.  The wind picked up pretty steadily at this point, and I didn't see any more butterflies.

I did see:

(1)  a Double-Crested Cormorant flying high above the pond......

(2)  several song sparrows among the yet-to-sprout reeds......and

(3) my first female Red-Winged Blackbird of the year.  Up to now, I had seen tons of males (they return first).  There was a male already paired up with this female but I didn't get his photo.

and (4) an American Robin already sitting on her nest.

Note:  I returned on May 7, 2013, to check on this robin's nest, and it appeared to have been abandoned.

In spite of all the local craziness in the human world of lock downs, SWAT teams, manhunts, bombs and middle-of-the-night gun battles, the cycle of life continues to unfold in the natural world.  Migrating, mating, and nesting are going on around us.  We might as well focus our attention on that.