Ice and Snow in Heckscher

Heckscher State Park in the winter

 

 

 

Lately the weather in our area seems like a roller coaster ride; the temperature is up one day and then down another. This past weekend it was freezing and there was a lot of snow and ice, but this didn't stop me from walking in Heckscher State Park. The winter bleakness was rather beautiful and there was something eerie and magical in seeing the surf frozen upon the coastal rocks. It gave the illusion that time had stopped. This Arctic-like environment made me feel as though I was the only living creature until I saw a Northern Harrier hawk soaring across the gray sky. The phrase, "a terrible beauty" (a line from a William Butler Yeats poem) came to mind; it seemed to sum-up the serenity of this cold bleak morning.

Merlin in Sans Souci County Park

Merlin in Sans Souci County Park

 

Last Saturday I walked in Sans Souci County Park, which is in part both in Sayville and Bayport.  I hadn’t gone very far when I spotted a bird of prey, roughly the size of a large robin, looking down from a tree limb.  It turned out to be a Merlin. These small but fierce falcons have the nickname “lady hawks,” because in medieval times they were commonly used by female falconers for hunting Skylarks. Seeing this bird splendidly perched on a tree limb reminded me of a wall painting I saw a few years ago when I visited Chateau du Haut-Koenigsbourg in Alsace, France.  The painting is of an exquisitely dressed noblewoman holding up on her gloved hand a hooded falcon.  Reflecting on the painting made me wish I could be transported back to medieval times and have a lady hawk of my own perched on my arm as I walked in the woods.