HUNTLEY MEADOWS, SECOND PART

Hopefully we can go back to the park soon.  There should be more birdlife coming through now.  We always love the path through the wood before we get to the walkway across the marshy area. 

I have seen dozens of photographers on our visits, many with very large zooms, and they stay there for hours.  If you look closely you will see that he has two attached to his tripod.  This is the first time I have seen that set-up.

I would have loved to have seen his photos, and wondered if he had a gallery somewhere.  He was on the phone though and I certainly wasn't going to disturb him.

There were lots of families around. Maybe his was walking elsewhere while he took his photos.  We try not to go on a weekend, but when we do it is nice to see families enjoying themselves. 

I could be mistaken but the water seemed lower than on our last visit.  We wondered if the beavers had been working on this old, multi-branched stump sticking out of the water.  Always looking for signs of beaver we saw none today.  They are more active if you are here early morning or later in the afternoon.  More on them at the end of my post.

I enjoyed seeing all the turtles on the logs.  There were dozens sighted.  I believe these are Painted Turtles.  At times we have seen Snapping Turtles, some very large, but not today.

If you go here you can see more photos and information about Huntley Meadows.

Here are more photos of the birds we saw.  The one below is a female Northern Shoveler, mentioned in my previous post...

and her mate.

We also saw a few American Coots.

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard were swimming in and out of the reeds.  Their heads disappeared often.

Always enjoyable to watch but I eventually left them in peace.

We are almost at the end of the walkway.  The mound in my photo below these illustrations (found on line) is a beaver lodge.  

The one we always see right off the walkway has been here for as long as we have been coming to the park, about 30 years.  It is amazing to me that they built so close to where the pathway is well traveled.

There is another interesting website at this link, an illustration and more information about the beaver.

We watched it get even bigger and at one time this seat was almost covered.  It is one where we sit and look at the wildlife.  There is another pond to the left of this photo, and also a beaver dam.  We have seen the pond rise and fall depending on how busy they have been.  The park people let nature take its course more often than not, but I see the seat has been slowly cleared.  The lodge, however, has basically been left alone.

At this link it will tell you more about the beaver.

Eventually it was time to leave and we made our way back through the wood.  If you look up at that tree trunk there are fresh holes made by woodpeckers, getting ready for nesting I'm assuming.  

Gregg also enjoys taking photos and many of these in my two posts are his, like this interesting dried plant.  

I also saw that these tiny flowers called Spring Beauty were growing everywhere.  Good signs of Spring!

That's it for now until our next visit.  If you want to look at other posts I have done on the park, you can find the link underneath this post.

Have a great day and thanks for taking a look.  I hope you have enjoyed Huntley Meadows, and will get a chance to visit the park yourself one of these days.  If not I am very happy to share it virtually.