Nature Walks for National Trails Day

Saturday was National Trails Day.  To celebrate the event, I led two walks for the Chippewa Watershed Conservancy (CWC).  The morning walk was held at the Sylvan Solace Preserve.  A dedicated group of five nature lovers spent almost 2.5 hours exploring the preserve's trails.  One of the highlights was seeing a White-tailed Deer fawn - unfortunately no one got pictures of it.

In the afternoon, our travels took us to the Audubon Woods Preserve.  The same group of five was joined by three more walkers.  At Audubon Woods we explored a new section trail that I had not walked before.  A highlight of this walk was CWC Executive Director Stan Lilley using an electronic call to lure in a Scarlet Tanager that we could hear calling from the trees - the bird eventually ended up in the tree directly over Stan's head where everyone (but Stan) was able to get a good look at it.

Here a few of my photos from the two walks.

Sylvan Solace Preserve

Common Blackberry flowers

Showy Goat's Beard

Bowl-and-doily web

Butterfly identification

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail

Sunlit Wild Columbine

A narrow connecting trail

Cathy Murray points out the identifying features of a sedge

Eastern Tent Caterpillar

CWC Executive Director Stan Lilley shows how to use a QR code

Audubon Woods Preserve

On the trail

A young Wood Frog

Small bee on Wild Columbine

Caterpillar and Green Shield Lichen

A green Large-flowered Trillium caused by a mycoplasma

Chippewa River floodplain

Adult Wood Frog

Young Spring Peeper

Calling an Acadian Flycatcher

The long slow climb back up the hill