Cocoon

Sunday, a warm April noon, found me in the park with the dog.  This after an entire Saturday spent under covers and comforter, dosed with Nyquil, fighting a nasty cold after a perfectly lovely evening with friends, enjoying dinner and a great performance of "The Book of Mormon" at the Benedum Theater. Glutton/punishment?

Carl was sick too, but on Sunday I came up out of my raspy, stuffy fog, long enough walk Twist.

We

Bird Park creek edge

wandered down to the park, and while she had her nose down in something savory, I saw, for the first time, a yellow-bellied sap sucker. They are very shy, hopping out of view, apparently, on whatever tree they are perched on, if anyone is watching. I learned this after I got home and consulted my Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds. He was very interesting, too big to be a downy woodpecker and about the same size as a hairy, but with different markings, red on the head and white/black/white stripes along the side of his face.
Then, to complete the walk, a Mourning Cloak butterfly (in rather ragged shape) flitted across our path and basked quite elegantly on an fairly ancient log. I don't have a butterfly book, but I'm thinking after all the interesting ones I saw last summer that it's time to get one. Mourning Cloaks are very pretty: chocolate brown wings edged in ivory, with sapphire dots lined between the brown and the ivory. They're not unusual but I thought this little guy, with his raggedy ivory-edged wings, was lucky to have survived nasty March, cocooned safely against cold.

Maybe why that's he was not in such great shape.

March took its toll. On just about all of us.