the Way of the Turtle

1.2 Mile Walk at Tinker Nature Park
Saturday, September 18, 2010

We definitely didn't want to spend a beautiful afternoon indoors, so after lunch Ann and I headed over to Tinker Park for a short walk. When we got there we were surprised to see the parking lot filled and cars parked out along the road, and lots of people around the nature center... it wasn't until we were able to check the events posted on the message board that we found out that today was the annual Honey Harvest Festival. For a few moments I was at a loss for where we could go instead, then I remembered the 2nd parking lot over near the pond. That was mostly empty, and not too many people were over that way.

Lots of geese near the pond... from the sounds they made mostly youngsters , though they're now visibly tough to tell apart from the adults. Spotted a few fish in the pond but the real find was a variety of types of frogs in the wetlands along the boardwalk... we saw at least four different kinds, and heard plenty of splashing that indicated there were more around.

Things were winding down over at the Nature Center. We went inside and checked out the displays, then headed back out on the trails. One of the deer had come out under the big oak tree; after spending a while watching her munch leaves and acorns we headed back into the woods, where we saw plenty of squirrels and chipmunks. We also saw four more deer just before we got back to the pond.

Some of the geese had moved out onto the water, and while we were there several more groups came flying in, which elicted a lot of noise from the ones already there... for a little while we wondered of we were going to see a goose-fight. But eventually they calmed down, and we headed back home to have some dinner before it was time for me to hit the long road (4 hours) to Akron, OH, where I would be spending the night before heading to the duathlon at Portage Lakes State Park tomorrow morning.

JMH