Time is fleeting. What did you do with your last slice of it ? What will you do with your next ?

Tufted Titmouse milliseconds before landing at one of the feeders to the left of the Sportsman’s blind at Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge on Sunday 3-15-2009. Sorry about the distracting background. There was a support beam for one of the fences next to the blind that got into the frame.

For more information on the Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge, visit their web site at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/greatswamp/.

For more information on the Tufted-Titmouse, visit the Cornell Lab Of Ornithology.

A Tufted Titmouse dives in to knock a White-breasted Nuthatch off of one of the feeders at the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Basking Ridge, NJ on Sunday 3-15-2009.

For more information on the Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge, visit their web site at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/greatswamp/.

This is an adult Bald Eagle, one of over 100 raptors of 20 different species found at the Raptor Trust, a private, non-profit facility dedicated to the preservation and well-being of birds of prey. It is located next to the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Millington, New Jersey. The facility is very well run and open 365 days a year and staffed by a full time work force of six and a volunteer corp of several dozen.

Most of the birds are rescued birds. Many have been injured at some point. Some are birds that were orphaned or abandoned at birth. Some are rehabilitated and released back into the wild, wild those that are too injured to live on their own, have become permanent residents at the Raptor Trust. Even the ones that are permanently injured looked very healthy and in surprising shape. You can really tell they care for these birds with all their heart. They also are responsible for community awareness programs about Raptors and they take in birds of Prey from the public that are in need of rescue and rehabilitation. They don’t charge an admission but donations are requested and gladly accepted !

If you are ever in the North Jersey area, I’d suggest a visit. You can find them on the web at www.TheRaptorTrust.Org

Canada Goose taking a drink from one of the water areas at the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in northern New Jersey on Monday 3-9-2009.

For more information on the Great Swamp NWR, visit their web site at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/greatswamp/.

“In the streets and in society I am almost invariably
cheap and dissipated, my life is unspeakably mean.
No amount of gold or respectability would in the least
redeem it,– dining with the Governor or a member of Congress!!
But alone in the distant woods or fields,
in unpretending sprout-lands or pastures tracked by rabbits,
even in a bleak and, to most, cheerless day, like this,
when a villager would be thinking of his inn,
I come to myself, I once more feel myself grandly related,
and that cold and solitude are friends of mine.
I suppose that this value, in my case, is equivalent
to what others get by churchgoing and prayer.
I come home to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home.
I thus dispose of the superfluous and see things as they are,
grand and beautiful. I have told many that I walk every day
about half the daylight, but I think they do not believe it.
I wish to get the Concord, the Massachusetts, the America,
out of my head and be sane a part of every day.”

– Henry David Thoreau. From the Journal (January 7, 1857)

One of several boardwalks that make up a part of the trail system of the Great Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in northern New Jersey. A great place for a walk in the woods and quiet time to reflect on life.

For more information on the Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge, visit their web site at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/greatswamp/.

Processed with Topaz Adjust plugin “Spicify” for Photoshop CS-4 for that “HDR without the HDR” look.

I found this female Red-Bellied Woodpecker feeding on seed in one of the nicely stocked feeders at the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in Basking Ridge, NJ on Monday, 3-9-2009. A constant rotation of several different bird species would visit the feeder in rapid succession including Black-Capped Chickadee, Blue Jay, Red-Winged Blackbird, Tufted Titmouse and this Woodpecker. This was taken at the largest of the three permanent blinds on the boardwalk trail at the refuge.

During my visit I also was privileged to see Wood Ducks, Black Ducks, Canada Geese, American Widgeon, Mallards, Blue-Winged Teal, Great Blue Heron and a small contingency of White-Trailed Deer. It was my first trip to Great Swamp but certainly not my last. The boardwalk trails make this refuge very accessible for all ages and abilities and the three blinds that I was able to use (two with roofs) were niely accommodating and had the weather cooperated a little better, I’m sure they would have made a world of difference in landing some great shots of waterfowl and other birds.

For more information on the Great Swamp Wildlife Refuge, visit their web site at http://www.fws.gov/northeast/greatswamp/. For more information on the Red-Bellied Woodpecker, visit the Cornell Lab Of Ornithology.