the Way of the Turtle

2.3 Mile Walk at Ooms Conservation Area
Thursday, April 5, 2012

Columbia Land Conservancy scheduled a "Nearly Full Moon Frog Walk" for tonight at Hand Hollow. I had planned to put in 90 minutes or so on my bike before driving over there, but it was too darn windy and chilly for me to be very enthusiastic about that... so instead I decided to go for a walk on the way, and Ooms was the most convenient place to go.

For once I actually had the trails to myself, though someone did show up toward the end of my walk. I checked out the shoreline below the parking area - the beavers have been very active! Lots of blackbirds around, plus I spotted a pair of blue-winged teal. I followed the path up to the gazebo, then mad my way through the fields and along the other side of the pond.

No sign of any nesting activity at the new osprey nesting platform... I fear they're going to be disappointed at how that turns out. Osprey have always seems pretty skittish to me, and there's an unofficial connecting path from the gazebo to the next hilltop that passes very close to the platform - I suspect any osprey that gets interested in the possibilities will quickly be dissuaded by the foot traffic. (With luck I'll be wrong and we'll get to see osprey nesting there!)

Took a bunch of photos with the new camera along the way; I've got mixed feelings about how they came out. Some of the features are great (especially given the price I paid) but then there are other annoying quirks that have me asking "what were they thinking?" I suspect there's going to be a bit of a learning curve until I can use it the way I want to - hopefully at times to take even better pictures than I can with my Canon (a tough act to follow - my Canon is fantastic!)

I would have liked to walk back to the car along the trails, but time was getting along, so I followed the road instead, and headed over to Hand Hollow with plenty of time to get in some additional walking before the CLC program started.

JMH