Drumlin Farm

In my quest to be greener and more "local" (more on this later), I signed us up for a Mass Audubon membership - before we were even married at that. Of course with wedding stuff and then the more hideous than normal New England winter, we didn't get around to taking advantage of the sanctuaries for months. For most of the winter, I fantasized about taking Jamaal to the places I loved as a kid, particularly the Trailside Museum and Drumlin Farm.

In early April, I had to put 150 miles on my car (another story altogether) so I tried to think of a place kinda far away, but not TOO far because my car didn't have a valid inspection sticker on it, that would allow us to get outside and enjoy the fresh air. Why not Drumlin Farm? Since we didn't have anything else to do, we piled in the Subaru, expired inspection sticker/check engine light on/busted catalytic converter and all, and headed to Lincoln, located in one of my favorite areas of Massachusetts.

I promised Jam that he'd get a chance to see some of the flora and fauna of New England up close. Of course something you thought was HUGE as a kid always seems smaller as an adult. I seemed to remember aviary after aviary of birds that were unable to return to the wild, but in actuality, there were about five. Nevertheless, the birds were absolutely beautiful. It's so nice to see an organization caring for wildlife that cannot live on its own.



This pheasant was clucking away at the bottom of its aviary.




Love the intensity of this red-tailed hawk's stare



Great-Horned Owl - I think she's missing an eye, not actually winking



We took a stroll through the chicken coop - I liked this chicken in particular



How cool is this mobile coop? The chickens are wheeled to different parts of the farm each day.



It was lambing season at the farm. Glorious. This little Romney was playing with the other lambs and munching hay. awrr.



Yeah, even though it was April 2nd, there was snow on the ground. Ugh.



We decided to take the least-muddy path we could find - turned out to be a path around the fields. We walked for a bit, and decided to turn back to walk near a stream....which is when we saw BLUEBIRDS!!!



Yes, I've seen bluebirds before, but I've never seen an Eastern Bluebird this close - plus there were three, PLUS they didn't seem to mind us watching them do their thing.



Then this one came closer and closer...sat on a branch, and then let me come closer and closer. It was glorious!



YAY!!! I love Drumlin Farm as it is, but this made the trip positively wonderful. Even Jam, who respects my bird-nerd-ness but tends to get less excited about bird sightings, was impressed by this gorgeous bluebird. He kept saying "it's SO blue!"

It was so nice to be able to escape the confines of our apartment for a few hours and get some fresh air. Though we need to make an effort to hit up other Audubon sanctuaries in Mass, I'm guessing that we'll be making several repeat visits to Drumlin, especially when the trails dry out and we can take a nice loooong walk. I just noticed that they're having a "pick-your-own strawberry day" the third weekend in June. Think I've got that repeat visit scheduled....