Mllbrook Marsh in Summer Green

While the marsh is one of my favorite winter haunts, I do not get there often in summertime. The truth - which I'm reluctant to admit - is that I much prefer it in dressed in snow and ice. And one of my favorite hobbies in winter is to go to the marsh in search of the frost mist rising. It's become something of a favorite quest of mine.

In the summertime, the water is usually low in the run, and the mosquitoes will sometimes chase you from one end of the boardwalk to the other. But we've had lots of rain recently, and I was curious to see how the marsh was faring. So on this morning, I went back.

I strolled along the wooden boardwalk, and noticed there was actually a tiny bit of mist rising off the creek! The water was higher than usual, but not shockingly so, like it was that time last May when I visited the marsh in full flood stage and feared I might end up clinging to the boardwalk as it floated away. . . .

In the spring, the marsh is loaded with red-winged blackbirds, but I didn't see a one on this day. I did spot some robins, as well as a flicker, in a craggy tree branch high above the ground. I was watching for hawks but did not see any this time.

Millbrook is as green as green can be, though, after all of the recent rains. And everything is all grown up. There are places I routinely walk to in winter, along the creek, that you just can't get to in summertime due to all of the tall grass. (Which you can walk through, of course, but I'd watch out for chiggers if I were you.)

The morning light was kissing the tops of the trees and moving down from there. Red berries were everywhere; shockingly red, I mean RED. And they were shiny too. Swamp milkweed was everywhere, with tight pink buds soon to open. I saw my first big spider web of late summer. There will be many more of them coming up on damp August  mornings; I will have to go back for that.

I awoke a group of mallards napping along the stream and set them squawking. Sorry, guys and gals! Just the photographer, coming through! Carry on as you were.

The song to accompany this summer image of Millbrook Marsh is A Summer Song, by Chad and Jeremy.