A Walk in the Woods

Let's take a walk together, Reader. It is humid but cool and still cloudy after the rain. MH doesn't want to leave the house and test his balky knees, so let us be traveling companions this time. We will go to a local county park called Patriots Path, and because I don't want to muddy my sneakers we'll walk along one of its paved areas.

Patriots Path (Margo D. Beller)

There are paved paths and unpaved paths, deep woods and hills to climb over if we walked the whole thing. We will only walk one relatively small area. We'll see trees and a host of plants, some of which are now blooming. There are even bears, although I've only come upon one once, in a different area, and this one was more scared of me than the other way around and just kept going.

You and I will keep an eye out for bear and an ear out for birds.

This place is not far from my home. When I have a tremendous need to get out of the house, as I usually do during the northbound bird migration time, I come here to walk, relax and test my memory when the birds call. Like a great blue heron seeking a meal, we can stand very still for a while or walk slowly and find out if that slight movement in the tree over there is something common, like a catbird, or more unusual, such as a blue-gray gnatcatcher.

Let us begin.

We are in luck. Besides being cool and cloudy today there is no one else parked in the lot except mine and one other car. That means there should not be many joggers, dog walkers or mountain bikers passing through while we are on the path.

Notice all the water. It rained heavily last night and this area is prone to flooding. There are even mosquitoes to annoy us.

Marsh marigold (Margo D. Beller)

Everything is so green and lush from all the rain, more like mid-summer than late May. There are all the weeds growing. Lamb's quarter, a form of spinach that is rather tasty when eaten when it is small. There are ones to avoid including garlic mustard, swamp cabbage, Virginia creeper and, yech, poison ivy. We have other colors, too. There are yellow dandelion and marsh marigold. These pink flowers look like a form of geranium. These small whitish flowers are hepatica, I believe, a buttercup.

Lots of robins and catbirds flying everywhere, and a calling great-crested flycatcher (FWEEP!) and what's that reddish-brown bird that has flown to that tree up the path? A veery, cousin to the robins and other thrushes. They skulk on the ground but have a lovely, electronic-sounding song.

Stop and listen a minute. I can make out singing yellow warbler, song sparrow, American redstart and - there! - the sweet, fast song of a rose-breasted grosbeak! They came through our yard earlier this month to use the feeder. We had at least two males and two females but they nest elsewhere, not suburban yards like ours. And what is that in the distance? Sounds like the "tea kettle, tea kettle, tea kettle" of a Carolina wren, one of my favorites.

Mosquito breeding ground (Margo D. Beller)

So many birds, it's hard to separate one call from another sometimes. And there are likely many more birds around here that aren't calling and so I can't see them because of the foliage.

Some people think the state bird of NJ is the mosquito (it's really the American goldfinch) and the one that just got into my face and made me miss the bird calling from the branch overhead seemed about as big as a bird. That's the problem with birding at this time of year. I know there are birds around but the tree foliage makes it hard to see them and once there is rain the mosquitos, gnats and other insects hatch and only make things worse.

So let us return to the car.

Hold on. Did you see that branch move? That is another problem. Unless a bird is singing, it is hard to know what's around until you see a bit of movement. Was that the breeze or a bird? And which bird would be moving on the ground between the bushes? Stand here quietly with me. It is moving along...slowly...slowly. Ah, good, it has come to a place where I can see it and turned its head - a male common yellowthroat warbler. See the mask? He acts like a wren but sings "witchety, witchety, witchety."

Now there are more dog walkers and here at the lot there are more cars. School will be letting out soon and the rush hour traffic will pick up. It's already getting noisy. Time to put the binoculars away and head home. But wait, did I just see a mallard male quietly swimming? Yes I did, somehow.

Always something. Always.