the Way of the Turtle

1.4 Mile Walk at Five Rivers EEC
Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Since the streams up at Thacher were running higher than normal, I decided to stop by Five Rivers on the way home to see how things looked there. The parking lot was unusually busy - turns out there was a program about nighthawks going on, apparently it's not uncommon for them to migrate through the area around the end of August.

Took a spin through the gardens, said hi to the frogs, then headed down the hill to the ponds. Along the way I saw signs that the trails along the stream are closed - while the streams aren't that high now, there were clear signs that they flooded earlier in the week. A tree had fallen on the shore of the Heron Pond - a gorgeous old tree with a lot of character. Sigh. Startled the heron, which flew up to a perch overlooking the pond, and spotted a single duck.

 Lots of signs of flooding along the marsh side of the Beaver Pond, and the dam the beavers were building along the spillway had been washed away. Spotted one beaver out in the pond. Back at the parking lot, I spent a while watching the bats - I think there were four of them in all, zipping around catching insects. I always enjoy seeing them, both because I think they're really cool and because it shows there are still some that have survived white-nose syndrome - hope they make it through this winter, too.

JMH