Walking The Rails Again, Never Gets Old.

I stayed close to home again today, and hiked out the local railroad tracks.  And, as is always the case, there was so much to see. It was a cool start to the day again here in Northeastern Pennsylvania but by the time I got out this afternoon it warmed up. It was still mostly cloudy but enjoyed those big puffy cumulus clouds. 

I noticed a lot more bees buzzing around the flowers as well as an assortment of other insects. The bees enjoyed the comfrey flowers. The daisies are now blooming everywhere, a sure sign Summer will soon be here. 

I walked out the tracks to the local ponds and noticed hundreds of tiny frogs on the shores. There were still thousands of tadpoles in the ponds too. And a lot of large bullfrogs but they were too quick for me and my camera.

And there are now a lot more dragonflies  darting and hovering along the ponds. Saw a lot of the females depositing their eggs in the water.  I was able to get some photos of one of them, shown above,  hovering in mid air. There are some more photographs in  the gallery I uploaded today, and the link can be found below. 

I was fortunate to, once again, have a freight train come along as I walked the tracks. I have always enjoyed walking these tracks, and, as a child, often wonder where they would take me. And how I wished I could just hop on the passing train and find out. I still have that wanderlust.

I headed back and encountered the only mammal on the hike, a  groundhog chewing on some leaves. he was as curious about me as I was of him. So, I didn’t travel very far again, but was still able to see a lot of the natural world. All you have to do is keep your eyes peeled. 

This is the link to some more photographs from my hike this afternoon. https://keepyoureyespeeled.net/photographs-5/nggallery/blog-photos/railroad-tracks-hike-june-5-2015

“The restlessness and the longing, like the longing that is in the whistle of a faraway train. Except that the longing isn’t really in the whistle—it is in you.”
― Meindert DeJon