Nature Walk on Turkey Foot Trail

Anne Miller, Sally Beveridge, Joyce DeHaan, Maggi Funchion and Nita Cox joined me, Donna Thalacker, for a spring nature walk in the refuge.  It is so beautiful in the refuge now that it was difficult to decide on which trail to walk, but we decided on the 3 mile long Turkey Foot Trail, just off Pond 4 Road.  It was a good decision!  Within minutes of getting out of the car, we were faced with the tough decision of looking up at the birds or down at the butterflies!  We saw hundreds of butterflies, including the large and colorful Palamedes Swallowtails, Eastern Tiger Swallowtails and Spicebush Swallowtails, plenty of crescents and satyrs and the odd Common Buckeye.  All of us saw lots but Sally would win the prize for spotting (and thankfully not stepping on) a 4 foot long cottonmouth snake and three Swallowtail Kites.  In addition to the Kites, we saw or heard White-eyed and Red-eyed Vireos, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, a Ruby-crowned kinglet, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a Northern Parula, a Coot, a Blue-winged Teal and a Red-bellied Woodpecker going in and out of it’s nest hole in a snag. What a lovely day for a walk in the woods!

The next walk in the Refuge will be next week and I will be blogging on when and where in the next day or two.  Hope you can join us!

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