the Way of the Turtle

SUNSHINE, BIRDS, & DEER
1.2 Mile Walk at Mendon Ponds Park
Monday, March 8, 2010

For some reason my legs were a bit tired today (OK, that was no surprise) so Ann and I decided to go for a relatively easy walk at Mendon Ponds Park, with a bit of feeding the birds and checking out the deer thrown in for good measure.

Given what a gorgeous sunny day it was, I guess we shouldn't have been surprised to find lots of other folks there as well, many with small children in tow. We started at the Nature Center and headed down the path, spotting a deer a ways off immediately. When we stopped at the spot where people feed the birds, we were a bit disappointed that the birds didn't seem all that interested... we had a couple of chickadees come to our hands but that was it. Of course, with all the seed on the ground it may just have been a case of the birds being so well fed that they didn't have any need to take food out of our hands. We spotted lots of them while we were there - there were chickadees, titmouses, cardinals, juncos, sparrows, downy woodpeckers, and nuthatches all around us. We also saw a couple more deer, including one that appears to have figured out that people can mean free food, because it kept wondering out onto the path not far from where all the people were, even after getting chased by a toddler at one point.

From there we headed over to the other spot where we've fed the birds, catching sight of half a dozen deer along the way. Apparently they were enjoying the warm sunny weather too! We had a similar reaction from the birds at the 2nd location, and the usual spot was in the shade (and thus a bit chilly) so we tried a sunny spot nearby. Ann had a titmouse come to her hand; I gave up after a bit and put my seeds on the top of a fence post, then sat on the fence and watched the birds come in to eat. I also watched a pair of nuthatches at a suet feeder someone had hung in the trees a little ways off.

We drove the long way through the park to see what we could see on our way out, and spotted even more deer. There were two by the Cobblestone House parking lot, so we pulled in and spent a while watching them. Ann even put some seed on the snowbank and managed to lure the smaller one over to eat... given how unconcerned they were about our presence (as well as people running and riding by on the road nearby) I suspect these two have done the "look cute for the humans and get a snack" trick before, though the larger deer was much more interested in the grass where a patch of snow had melted.

The Monroe County website refers to Mendon Ponds Park as the crowning jewel of the county parks system, and I will definitely agree that it's one of the more beautiful places to go in Monroe County (which is saying a lot... western NY has many wonderful parks and greenspaces.) There's an excellent article by John Sheret at the Crooked Lake Review which discusses the history of the park and includes a number of cool historical photos. At the end of the month I'll be over at Mendon again, for the Spring Forward 15k... though that only runs small part of its 9.3 miles through the park. On the other hand, the Medved Madness 15 mile trail race in early May will once again give me a chance to see the Mendon trails up close and personal - and if the snow and ice that are there right now are any indication, it should once again turn out to be the Medved Mudness trail race I've run for the past three years.

JMH