World Book Day Book Swap

 World Book Day is April 23. It is the perfect holiday for me. What makes it even better is free books. When Danielle asked I wanted to meet her at Heckrodt for a book swap for World Book Day, I was figured I could knock out my walk, get some fresh air, and get some new books. Not that I needed any books.

Heckrodt Wetland Preserve honored World Book Day with a Book Swap. They said Take a book, Leave a book. It was simple enough. 

They had several baskets of books set out for you to peruse. I brought 3 books with that I figured my book club would not enjoy. I did find 3 books to bring home with me. The hubby probably won't be happy if he finds out but gotta love free books. 

After swapping my books, I hit the nature trail. I did a 1.5 mile loop through the preserve. The deer were not active but I did see some birds and this grass snake that I nearly stepped on.

This was a great idea. It got people out of the house, books got exchanged, and people were able to enjoy nature. I hope they do it again next year. 

Quarantine Adventures: Morning Nature Walk

 I'm sick of being stuck inside. Yes, I go for daily walks but I need a little more nature in my system. I decided to head out to Heckrodt for a morning walk. Danielle and Gavin met me there. I decided it was best if we went early to avoid people. So we were there before 10.

It was a lovely morning for a walk. Everything was greening up and it felt good to be back in nature even for an hour.

We saw deer

and turtles

and cranes

and a fairy house or two.

I definitely need to make time to get back to Heckredt on a Sunday morning. It's definitely the best time to go.

690. Go birdwatching

I don't even know why go bird-watching is even on the list. I like nature. I like going for hikes but I'm not one to sit and watch for nature. Maybe I thought everyone should go bird-watching at least once. Who knows.

Luckily Heckrodt Wetland Reserve is teeming with wildlife and has a bird club. The even better part is they have bird hikes periodically throughout the year so novice bird enthusiasts can learn the names of the birds and learn how to identify different birds in their yard. Since I figured there is no way, I'm going to do the whole bird-watching thing by myself with a pair of binoculars and a guidebook, I decided to participate in one of these hikes.. even if it was at 8 am on a Saturday.

Dragging Danielle and Gavin along, I joined the bird watching hike and even got my very own pair of binoculars to use. We didn't go more than 10 feet from the Nature Center before we saw our first birds. Okay so it helped there were feeders there. We saw cardinals, blue jays, robins, red-breasted blackbirds, among others. I've seen (and could identify) all of those birds. I swear we spent a good thirty minutes oohing and aahing over the birds at the feeders. Danielle and I hoped we would actually get to walk because so far I wasn't impressed.

After everyone got there fill of cardinals and robins, we headed down the boardwalk. Soon we stopped to find an board owl hanging out in top of a tree. After scanning the whole area, I finally was able to discover the owl. Even with all the pointing, I was having difficulties spotting him with my binoculars. I have to admit he was pretty cool to see and wished I brought the good camera.

There's an owl in those trees somewhere

Then we headed over to the pond. The pond had small ducks. I've seen those around the complex before. However, we also saw white herons and blue herons. The white heron was a bi tricky to pick out since he was hanging out along the edge of the marsh. A seagull was having fun trying to pull something out of the water. Danielle and I were disappointed we saw no turtles. I know I know this is a bird hike but still the turtles would have been cool.

Danielle suggested we head over the bridge. There we found a hawk and some other birds. By this time I was losing interest in the birds and wanted to get on with my day. However, since I borrowed the binoculars I needed to stay with the group.

Eventually we headed back to the nature center and I could head home. I don't mind bird watching per se but I definitely have about an hour attention span and we better be moving a lot. Maybe that's my problem, I can't stay in one place long enough to look for birds.

Will I ever bird watch again? Maybe. The right opportunity will have to present itself. Until then I will just keep wandering through the wetlands hoping to see a woodpecker or owl.

Snowshoeing at Heckrodt

For years, I wanted to snowshoe at Heckrodt but either there was not even snow (needed 6+ inches on the ground) or too cold for me to venture out. I was luck this year. We just got dumped with a foot of snow and the temperatures were going to be in the 30s.

When I got to Heckrodt, I wasn't sure where the trail started or anything. I just knew it wasn't straight ahead since you couldn't snowshoe on the boardwalk. Well, apparently to assist people like me there was a nice sign that said to snowshoe trail head right by the nature center which was a great spot to put on snowshoes. After a few feeble attempts on putting on my snowshoes, I managed to get them nice and snug and headed out on the trail.

The trail is a great beginner trail but I definitely would recommend poles. There are a few tiny hills that the poles would help get down safely. The trail is clearly marked which made it easy (along with the snowshoe prints) to follow. It is a bout .5 miles or so yet it took me over 30 minutes to make one loop mainly because I was having snow shoe problems (which gerry-rigged to work).

It was a beautiful day and many people were out.. just not that many on the snowshoe trail. A group left ahead of me and turned around just a short ways in. I didn't see anyone else.

Next time, I'm going to plan on at least an hour so I can make multiple loops around the trail. Hopefully Mother Nature cooperates and I am able to get out sooner rather than later.

A Perfect Day for A Picnic

Danielle wanted to know if I wanted to go to Heckrodt with her and Gavin. It was the first nice day we had in almost 2 months, of course I wanted to go. She mentioned having a picnic lunch. I was like pack extras.. I like picnics. I told her I had carrots, cheese, and pretzels which we had to cram into Danielle's backpack because I didn't think about how to lug food through Heckrodt.

Before we could actually have a picnic, we had to walk to work up our appetites or something like that. Since I normally go right instead of left when I go to Heckrodt, I was not quite sure where we were going to have our picnic. Turns out it was at the end of the hike (or the beginning of my usual hike).

But we had to get there first. We encountered a few pit stops along the way. First we had came to the play area which I secretly always wanted to play in anyways. They had an obstacle course of sorts where you go to pretend you were animals... You had to scamper like a fox across the log... swing like a monkey on the vine.. climb like a spider up the net.

The log was fairly easy once I found my balance. It's been a while since I had to walk across a balance beam or log.

The vine on the other hand was a bit more challenging. Part of the problem was it was made for kids and I was too tall. I kept wanting to put my feet down. Eventually I was able to make it across the "water" without putting my feet down until I reached the other side. Now mind we are only talking a span of four or five feet. I have to admit as scared as I was (what for not sure since it was like a foot off the ground), it was a blast trying to make it to the other side.

After I attempted to perfect my vine swinging, we continued down the trail looking for wildlife and enjoying nature. We saw a mama goose sitting on her nest.

We also saw turtles and baby turtles. Those we adorable. It's the first time I turtles at Heckrodt.

After our turtle sighting, it was time for our picnic. We crossed the bridge and set up lunch on a brand new picnic table. It was a nice little (healthy) fest in nature. Everything was bite sized and perfect for a picnic. Next time I think though I need to have an adult picnic with adult beverages...

Believe it or not that was only my second picnic I've been on and the first in over a dozen years. I think though Danielle and I have more picnic adventures in our future especially with the Trestle Trail Loop almost done.