We have stayed close to home this past week, keeping our walking to the familiar boardwalk and the trails of the Rotary Friendship Park. My husband and I walked every day between the raindrops, dressed for colder spring weather while summer stands waiting around the corner.
The beauty of nature does not escape us as we walk the familiar trails which have plants sprouting, growing and blooming on the forest floor.
Patches of plants such as wild Lily of the Valley
and bunchberry make us stop to look.
Meanwhile, some apple trees are in bloom still
and juniper also known as larch or tamarack, has its needles again and is looking particularly pretty.
The animals are tending their young these days and over the last month we’ve watched a family of foxes with four kits, play in the distance. Now down to three kits, the young foxes venture further from home and play with each other while the parents hunt. This one posed nicely one day, the fuzzy fur showing its youth.
In the salt marsh one day, we watched as the mother fox hunted among the bulrushes, stealthily searching for unsuspecting birds or their eggs. This area is home to a female Black duck who is a great mother to her five ducklings. She is on guard as the ducklings feed.
This momma definitely has her ducks in a row.
This 10 second idea shows the ducklings keeping up with her. Here
Lupins are beginning to bloom now and will do so for the next few weeks. The first we’ve seen this year had a slug feasting on it.
Earlier that same day, we had seen a Song Sparrow with a slug in its beak, probably food for its young.
Meanwhile, the salt marsh is recovering slowly from the damage from sub tropical storm Fiona as bulrushes are growing again after a slow start. The local Great Blue Heron enjoys the setting as much as we enjoy its company.
Belted Kingfishers fish in the stream and along the shoreline, occasionally landing in a place where we can watch their activity.
The circle of life is evident all around us as we walk the trails. We are privileged to be its witnesses.