Another Day at Shawnee Preserve

Wow, Georgia really learned a lot at her nature class about wildflowers! As we entered the woods she immediately started pointing to and identifying different species, telling us if they were native or non-native, their history, where they are from, what they were used for, and why they are beneficial or bad to have around! Again.....WOW!

Here she is telling us about the Winter Creeper,

and the dreaded Garlic Mustard!

Onion Grass

Olivia is checking out a fallen tree that is rotting...and climbing it.

Ah ha! Olivia found some Mayapples! That is one of our species we are observing and reporting to Project Budburst.

Saw a white butterfly on a white flower...but it flew away before I could get a clear shot. Looks like he is on some Garlic Mustard flowers.

Honeysuckle...

There's Mark doing some birding! We saw four soaring Northern Harriers, some Carolina Chickadees, and this beautiful Downy Woodpecker.

Olivia traded in her walking stick for a sturdier one.

Georgia told us this was caused by "bugs that crawled in by eating through, laying eggs, and made the big bumps on the tree."

We saw a lot of fur strewn about, and then we saw a dead animal. (I'll spare you THAT picture) It was hard to tell what it was. One fellow hiker thought it was a fox. Georgia pointed out the striped tail and thought it may have been a raccoon.

We also found a bullet casing in the woods. We always bring a bag for trash with us, and pick up anything we find along the way. We were very surprised to find the casing in these protected woods. We plan to inform the county park department tomorrow when we go for a workshop.

Aaaah, what a nice day!