So Many Gifts

So lately I've been playing a little game with myself where as I'm walking through beautiful Barry Park, I ask myself: What are today's gifts?  I first started this game when I randomly spotted 2 muskrats chewing up early river bank greens a few weeks ago.  I'd never seen a real muskrat before, and it kept repeating in my head: "What a gift."  So each time I returned for a walk in the park I kept my eyes open and (tried to keep) my head quiet.  Some days it was a beautiful bird that let me get real close, other days a coincidental repetition of a certain kind of tree that suddenly seemed to be popping up everywhere now that I was on the look out. 

Today - this morning - was a plethora of "gifts."  In addition to our usual Syracuse red-wing blackbirds, I saw a brilliantly orange bird with only a few streaks of black near its wings (it might have been a Summer Tanager?? Thanks Google!).  A violent rustling through a stand of old cattails proved to be a squad of hungry goslings hurrying up the bank toward their mama.  I watched a muskrat steer himself across the pond using his skinny little tail as a rudder - all with a huge mouthful of tender greens stuffed in his mouth.  Oh, and then I watched a heron stand at the edge of the pond for about 10 full minutes.  He was facing the sun, stick legs akimbo.  I got to see some neck gyrations, some graceful high stepping, and - eventually - an elegant take-off when I got too close :) 

What gifts! So many gifts!

(P.S. No pics, today, trying to not take my phone out so much!)