28 November 2021 (Acadia)

low arc of the sun

the rosy glow

of Acadia granite

for Brad, Acadia National Park’s 2021 Artist-in-Residence

6 June 2021 (Somes Sound)

Somes Sound

thrush song rising

from the spruces

4 October 2019 (Acadia)

Hiked within sight of the U-shaped valleys of Acadia National Park, at the south end of Eagle Lake, today.

a bowl of sky

between the mountains

feeding the soul

3 October 2019 (granite)

pink granite

only recently sprouting

with ferns

2 June 2019 (rhodora)

purple finch singing

the color of rhodora

in the fog

May 31: Camden Hills

The mountains of home--

obscured by curtains of rain

till ten miles away.

Posted with Blogsy

May 1: Frog pond

My husband and I are spending the weekend at the Schoodic Institute, part of Acadia National Park in Down East Maine. This afternoon before dinner we walked through spruce woods to a small pond filled with singing frogs. They quieted when we showed up but eventually started up again, enveloping us in a music so loud we could feel the sound vibrate in our jaw bones. Our ears hurt by the time we left. Overhead, a raven chortled, used to it all.

 

Old frog pond--

we wait long enough

for the chorus to resume.

Posted with Blogsy

June 15: Little Moose Island, Schoodic

Spent the morning on Schoodic Point in Acadia National Park. The tide was low, so we were able to walk over to Little Moose Island on an exposed natural causeway. I was with three botanists, so learned a lot about the plant life: the male Roseroot Sedum has yellow flowers and the female has red; what we call juniper "berries" are actually tiny cones; and Xanthoria lichens do not just grow where rodents have urinated...

Even sea-scoured
bare granite harbors flowers,
blooms of lichen.

Blue Flag & Xanthoria lichen

Bunchberry and gull feather

Cinquefoil? tucked in granite

Roseroot Sedum

Xanthoria lichen rings

Roseroot Sedum and Blue Flags

June 1: Nest

Helped lead a walk today as part of the Acadia Birding Festival on Mount Desert Island, on the Wonderland Trail in Acadia National Park. The short trail passes through stunted boreal spruce and jack pine forest to emerge on the granite shores of the sea. As we scanned the waves, one participant looked down instead... and found the nest of a Song Sparrow tucked in a rose bush, neatly cupping four mottled blue eggs.

Vastness that is sea
alongside these small blue eggs,
singing sparrow.

June 3: Rain in the spruce forest

This morning I and others led a bird walk for the Acadia Birding Festival on Acadia National Park's Ship Harbor Nature Trail as the rain fell and the tide came in. We could hear waves crashing from beyond the wall of spruce trees, and in the treetops, the tinkling notes of the kinglet's song. Small rafts of eiders rode the swells into the harbor, unbothered by rain, shielded by waterproof feathers. From amid the misty tangle of trees, a white-throated sparrow sang loud and clear. Wet sweet fern, crushed by fingers, seemed particularly pungent. Mosses burgeoned, green sponges massed over the forest floor. Water had formed a small pool at the root base of a fallen spruce, creating a wet cave--what might hide in there? Walking the rain-softened trail, our footsteps were dampened, allowing us to hear well the repeated song of the black-throated green warbler. In the dim light, half-concealed amid wet leaves, the warbler's yellow face shone like a tiny sun.

Raindrops on flat leaves
are easily mistaken
for movements of birds.