Longing for Summer

I was dreaming of summer so I took a picture walk through my photo collection. This picture was shot early one summer morning in '09. This is the same pond where the Spring Peepers video clip was shot in yesterday's post. The building in the background is the Visitor's Center, a great place to get some up close bird watching.  Below is a current picture of a pond on Second Creek Trail. As you can see, gray skies, rain, brown earth and fallen grasses dominate the landscape for yet another week. If it weren't for the melody of the songbirds, and the little bit of green peeking through, I might think it was still January.

Spring Peepers

You can barely tell by this photo that it is spring, but the sights and sounds from this video posted on YouTube tell a different story.

Spring Peepers on You Tube

March Visitors

This feathered couple was enjoying a twilight stroll near the fishing pond. A few hundred yards away was what seemed to be the main flock, on one of the Bluestem Trail ponds.

The temperature today rose into the high 60's, and there were many (human) families on the trails today taking full advantage of the warm air before the cold rains move in to central Illinois tonight. 

I saw one mother pushing a child in a stroller on the Wetland/Prairie Trail, one of the first trails developed at Ballard's. This trail is easy to navigate with strollers or wheelchairs, and is a great way to introduce the youngest ones to nature beyond the backyard. 

Nature's Recycling

I was going to call this post "Winter Damages," but this is just nature's way of "Out with the old and in with the new." The picture above is of a broken sign and some fallen trees across the Woodland Trail. The bottom picture shows a log blocking a path just off the easten edge of the Bluestem Trail. Close inspection shows a surprising variety of natural occurances and one very unnatural item.

Big Bluestem

The big bluestem grass at the end of a tough winter still stands strong. The grass is over head high (about 6 feet or 1.8 meters) These two pictues were taken on my hike the last day of February. I haven't been able to make it back to enjoy the trails since then due to work demands. I miss it!

This lake is hidden to all but the enthusiastic hiker in February. At one point on the Bluestem trail there was no solid footing. (I was up to my ankles in muck) This may be the one and only time I take this trail until we have another hard freeze or it dries up quite a bit!

A Glorious Sight

The clouds blocked the  sun for just a moment as I walked into the woods on the southern edge of the Bluestem trail. Before I took these shots, I was blissfully marching along, enjoying the last day of February and marveling at the beauty of the "bones" of the weathered old trees. But as I turned the corner of the trail, this breathtaking sight almost made me feel like I was witnessing an aged forest bowing to a glorious sight in the heavens.