Norumbega Park

We've been eager to check out more parks in the area, and Norumbega Park was high on the list due to Chrissy's finding out about the legend of Norumbega from the book Weird New England. Apparently some crazy amateur archaeologist thought (and thought he could prove) that at one point, Vikings lived in Watertown. We had to see for ourselves.

Not a lot of Viking artifacts left in Norumbega Park these days. In fact, there are more artifacts from the time during which it was a popular amusement park, such as lamps growing out of tree-trunks and the foundations of old rides. It's a lovely place to explore, even on such a cold spring day as Saturday was. I enjoyed the chance to witness nature making its progress toward the verdant time of year. Here are some small things I noticed.

 Buds spilling forth into beauty.

 Brown giving way to green.

 An eager tree in bloom.

 An evergreen past its prime.

I mean, look at those folds!

                                                          An obese tree.

 A flower so blue that it's white.












Norumbega Park is a great place to look at stuff. I brought along my binoculars and saw some pretty great things. Here's the day's list:

European starling
American robin
black-capped chickadee
downy woodpecker
red-winged blackbird
wood duck - male and female for the win!
mallard
Canada goose
tree swallow
white-throated sparrow
great blue heron - I saw this guy swoop in, snatch a snake or an eel out of the river, and bide its time with the creature in its beak until it was still enough to choke down. Very cool.
mute swan
chipmunk
squirrel

I also saw some awesome fungi, one of which I really wanted to share with you, but I couldn't get a good photo. What was neat about it was its position: it hung from a nearly-horizontal birch that stretched out over the Charles River. I never saw a mushroom grow down before.

Can't wait to explore more places in the area - got any suggestions?