February 29th. I passed the Connecticut Eastern Railroad Museum in Willimantic as I headed west on the trail towards the bridge over the Willimantic River.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Following the trail towards the bridge, the river came to me, flooding a portion of the trail.

 

Turning back towards town, I made a slight detour to the right on Bridge Street...

 

...and had nice view of the falls there. The right top of the photo is the backyard of an apartment I had on Mountain Street.

 

The rocks were a great picnic spot.

 

From there, I headed to Kingsley Road where I parked at the trail crossing and headed east to the bridge I couldn't reach from the Willimantic side.

 

Um, yeah.

 

To the left on the bridge is the start of the Hop River Trail.

 

 

 

 

 

Part of the railroad museum ahead, but the flooding was at the bottom of this ramp.

 

Heading back to Kingsley Road, the trailside ditch was bright green with algae. Bet there will be frogs and tadpoles in there soon.

 

 

 

Across the road (heading west), note the sign board on the left.

 

Those are my photos which appear on similar boards at road crossings along the trail.

 

Barry Ford had the DEEP contract to create the signs and I provided the photos gratis to the State.

 

My last stop of the day, the barnyard east of Cook Hill Road.

 

Several bright blue male Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis).

 

 

 

Lots of these female House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) around. Thanks to J. Macaulay for the ID.

 

 

 

 

 

My horse buddy got some pets.

 

 

 

March 1st .Nineteen degrees. Tree Swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) at the marsh again.

 

All males? Do they arrive first like male Red-winged Blackbirds?

 

Back to the marsh in the early afternoon, thinking that I might find a turtle basking in the sun. Wishful thinking, but a pretty day.

 

A Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) was singing.

 

 

 

Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis). A backlit photo highly edited to be barely usable.

 

That's the original photo.

 

A Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora) leafing out way too soon.

 

Back over to the pond east of Route 207 to see the Ring-necked Ducks (Aythya collaris). I didn't notice it until I started editing, but there's a Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) sunning in the top left background on an emergent log.

 

 

 

One of two female Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) that flew in.

 

 

 

March 3rd. Mixed clouds with temp in the 40s; clearing and close to 60 later.

 

Ripples at the outlet stream. Some reflections look like bugs. (Well, to me at least.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) basking despite the clouds and trail traffic.

 

 

 

It soon gave up and submerged.

 

Wild Chives (Allium schoenoprasum), another sign of coming Spring. Or possibly Wild Garlic (Allium vineale).