Today was the day that I promised to take the McAnalloy family and some of their friends on a wildlife tour of the park. I suggested that they meet me at the park at 11 a.m., then we could take a tour of the park, they could have lunch in the meadow or orchard, and the boys could run around and blow off a little steam before being packed in the van for the trip home. It was one of those late summer wierd weather days. I left the house at 9:30 a.m. so that I could scope out the park a little before the tour group arrived. It was only 59 degs F. outside, and I was cold, so I threw a hoodie on over my long-sleeved teeshirt. By 11 a.m. the temperature had climbed to 69 degs F. and I ended up stripping off my hoodie and stuffing it inside of my pack. The hoodie filled up every spare inch of my pack, making the job of finding anything inside of it highly problematic.
I got this wonderful bird hat at GearCon in Portland. When I put the bird hat on with my EarthCorps teeshirt, it made me instantly recognizable as the tour guide and crazy old bird hat lady. The kids loved the hat and kept adding to it during the day. Every time one of them spotted a feather on the ground, they picked it up and gave it to me to add to my hat.
I started off by talking about the Denny and Barker cabins and encouraged them to come back to the park on a Saturday when the cabins are open so that they can see what's inside of them.
Our next stop was the habitat restoration site where the hawthorne tree is. I made them all promise me that they'd be careful not step on any of the new plants, then took them back to look at the northwestern thatching ant nest. I think this nest has almost doubled in size since it was first spotted several months ago. Of course, one of the kids was immediately bitten by an ant, causing all of us to beat a hasty retreat.
Since the trail begins as gray gravel, one of the fathers was beginning to buy into the crazy part of crazy old bird hat lady. He'd been promised a boardwalk and there wasn't a board in sight. I think he was greatly relieved when we finally reached it. The kids were treated to a visit by a very large red-legged frog who was sitting on the edge of the boardwalk. This poor patient frog was surrounded by a bevy of chattering children, two of whom squatted down to get a closer look. The frog was probably having an amphibian version of a heart attack.
Here's a closer look. What a beauty! You can clearly see why he's called a red-legged frog. Look at how long the middle toe is on his hind foot. After the kids got a good look at him, I hurried them off so that Mr. Frog could make a quick getaway. He's going to have some story to tell around the dinner table tonight......all about how he was suddenly surrounded by a tribe of brave warriors, but managed to fake them out by pretending to be dead. Learned that trick from brother opposum, he did. Learned it well, indeed.
I found this beautiful garter snake sunning itself next to the boardwalk when I scoped the park out prior to the tour. Of course, he was all warmed up and long gone by the time I got the kids down there. It didn't matter though. The kids seemed to spot snakes everywhere and one of them said that he even attempted to pick a snake up. People are so funny about snakes. Their reactions to spotting one seem to run the gamut from terrified screaming and dancing feet, to "Come here my little slithering serpent. I vant to take you home and make you my friend. You can live in a shoebox under my bed and I'll feed you juicy wee mousies." One never knows.
Another, much smaller, red-legged frog was spotted on a tree in the tree-well near where the baby owl was spotted. That particular pool of water has gotten very small. It's in dire need of a good rain to fill it up. One of the kids said that they spotted a tadpole in what little water was left. It's way past tadpole season now, but it's possible that he saw a juvenile salamander. I've seen them there before with their wonderful gill ruffles.
Someone finally clipped back all of the vegetation that was blocking the view in front of the Brooklake viewing platform. Whoever did it really whacked it down to the ground, so it's going to be a while before it becomes a problem again. Well, you know me.....I always say that, despite the fact that I've been proven wrong time and time again. Once it takes off, it'll go from ground level to six feet tall in a matter of weeks. I was glad to see it gone for now because it allowed us to see this green heron fly in. It was all of the way over on the other side of the lake, so I had to use my extreme zoom, and with all of those kids making the viewing platform bounce up and down, it was impossible to get this amazing bird into focus. I don't see the green herons very often, so this was a real treat. It looks like something is wrapped around it's beak. Could that be a snake?
When we got to the bridge where the school kids set their salmon fingerlings free, another one of the kids spotted this lovely frog. I didn't even see it until he pointed it out to me. It didn't take these kids very long to become experts at spotting amphibians.
The mallards at Marlake were taking a little siesta under the bench on the dock. When I scoped out the park earlier, I startled one of the muskrats that was feeding in the grass close to shore. The water is usually much deeper, so when you startle the muskrats, they just submerge and swim away. The water has gotten very shallow where this muskrat was feeding, so when I startled him, he had to waddle away to where the water was deeper. I wish you could have heard the sound he made as he took off waddling. Gosh, that was funny!
One of the dragonflies left it's exoskeleton sitting on a leaf near the edge of the lake. The kids were fascinated by this. Dragonflies only grow their wings when it's time to mate. Until then, they live in, or near, the water as nymphs. Just like butterflies, when it's time to mate, they go through a metamorphosis, then crack out of their old useless shells and fly away. Pretty cool, huh?
Look at this fungus we found near Marlake. It's huge! That's my foot in the photograph and I wear a size 6 women's shoe. Wow! It's almost big enough to use as an umbrella.
Then, it was back to orchard for a picnic lunch and a little running off steam time. I had suggested that they bring lunch and do this, but I hadn't expected them to include me in their lunch plans. This is the point where I usually say my goodbyes and leave people to their own devices, but these truly wonderful folks brought lunch for me as well. I felt very honored to be invited to break bread with them. Good food, good company, good weather, beautiful park......what more can you ask? What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon!
Teri I. Lenfest
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