the Way of the Turtle

2 Mile Hike at Tinker Nature Park
Sunday, May 18, 2008

A grey rainy day... Ann surprised me by wanting to get outside for a while. We were a bit limited in terms of time, so we needed to go somewhere nearby with relatively short trails... we ended up heading over to Tinker Nature Park, because it not only met those requirements but also because there was a very good chance we'd see some wildlife...

No surprise, only one other car in the lot... though we did pass several other walkers out on the trails. Along the way we also saw several deer, a group of very vocal geese (complete with a couple of cute fuzzy goslings), and a number of mallards back in the swampy woods (complete with tiny ducklings.) Other than occasional traffic noise, it was pretty peaceful, and I enjoyed seeing how much greener it was than when I walked there back in March!

Probably the coolest wildlife sighting was a bluebird that spent a few minutes perched in the huge oak tree right near the entrance to the trails - even though bluebirds are the New York State bird, I've never actually seen one before. That alone made it well worth the visit... and wandering through some quiet woods with my sweetheart was also a major plus!

JMH