Sunday, August 3, 2008
As I drove back toward Albany, I briefly considered stopping at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center to walk around the ponds and see if any of the turtles or fish were sunning themselves... but given that my legs were fairly tired, and the sky was mostly clouded over, I decided not to stop. So of course by the time I drove past the ponds the clouds had mostly cleared and it was bright and sunny! In the end I stopped and headed down the path to the pond.
There were several smaller turtles out sunning themselves, including one right next to the bridge that seemed remarkably unconcerned about my being right nearby. I saw no sign of the larger snapping turtles until I crossed the road to the upper pond, where I initially spotted only smaller turtles... but then realized that there was a large snapper floating in the weeds just in front of the observation platform.
I headed up the hill toward the visitors' center, planning to check out the activity at the bird feeders, but the real treat was at the butterfly garden, where there were several Hummingbird Hawk-moths feeding at the flowers... I spent quite a while trying to get a good picture of one, with limited success. There was also a nice variety of birds at the feeders.
The sky was starting to darken with potential storm clouds by the time I'd finished my wanderings, so I decided to head out before I got wet. While I only walked a short distance, this was definitely a worthwhile stop, even given how tired and sore my legs were.
JMH
