Spring & Fall Wildflower and Forest Walks

The weather was perfect for our April 18th Spring Walk. Our small, but stalwart and persevering group, hiked up and down hills in the Ten Mile Creek Conservation Park, which abuts our new property. We visited  wetlands, beaver dams, upland forests and tributaries of Ten Mile Creek and enjoyed the variety of natural beauty. Due to the excessive heat in early April, most of the ephemeral spring flowers such as Bloodroot, Toothwort, and Trout Lily, were finished…but not all. We saw Wild Geranium, Dwarf Ginseng, Pinxster Azaleas, Dogwood, Black Haw Viburnum, Violets, and carpets of Spring Beauty. We enjoyed munching on the twigs of Sweet Black Birch, eating the tips of common Greenbrier, tasting the tops of Pennsylvania Bittercress. We also discovered a new plant species for the Ten Mile Creek flora inventory - Shining Clubmoss at the Skunk Cabbage seepage. Happily, we saw a Box Turtle, then proceeded on to enjoy a lunch break on logs in the old beaver wetland where the uncommon Red-headed Woodpeckers were flying about the snag trees where they live. Afterward, as is custom, Jay and Anne Cinque treated us to food and refreshments at their farm. Come join us on our Fall Forest walk, Saturday, October 24.  [Link to Ten Mile Creek Flora Inventory]