Here are a few of my favorite photographs from today’s hike, complete with descriptions below each image. As usual, some of the images appear at random, so you can hit your browser’s refresh/reload button to see additional images of the same subjects.

Here’s a pic of Mike E. hiking on the Ganier Ridge connector trail amidst an amazing area filled with purple flowers, which must be seen to be believed! I have not yet identified these purple flowers carpeting the area, so if anyone knows what they are, please comment.

Here’s a good closeup of a young/juvenile five-lined skink on a tree along the Ganier Ridge trail at Radnor Lake, with its brilliant blue tail which loses its color as the skink ages. (There is also another post about the skink on this blog…)

A nice view of Radnor Lake in spring, complete with flowering Redbud tree

A pair of Canada Geese taking it easy on the shore of Radnor Lake

Another pair of Canada Geese, with a couple of Red-eared Sliders (turtles) on a log in the background at Radnor Lake

These brilliant purple flowers are everywhere!

More purple flowers

Large tree with huge vines

A pair of unidentified waterfowl at Radnor Lake

A pair of Wood Ducks at Radnor Lake

The nest of a Red-Tailed Hawk, which could be seen much more clearly a couple of weeks ago, now largely obscured by new leaves

One of the more unusual things that occurred on this hike was the extreme interest of a bumble bee in Mike and I. This bee would not leave us alone for about ten minutes or more; it kept hovering in front of us as we rested on a bench along the South Cove Loop at Radnor Lake, getting bolder and closer with each passing moment. I decided to try to photograph it in flight, which was rather difficult. A couple of them turned out well enough to see the colors of the bee.

Now that the summer heat has set in, hiking early in the morning is an even better idea than usual. I hit the Radnor Lake hiking trails at 7:45am, wondering how I could possibly have forgotten my iPod. Thanks to the iPod, personal growth, idea generation and evolution, and a deepening of insight all occur at an unprecedented rate these days, for during most hikes, I listen to my audiobook collection, the majority of which is nonfiction and intensely interesting to me these days.

Having no iPod today put into play a series of events that made this hike so unique: I would have made different/ less social decisions during my walk, and I would not have been as alert for the amazing wildlife photo ops that seemed to materialize every few yards.

During the hike and immediately following, my intention was to devote a significant portion of my afternoon writing about it all and documenting every wondrous detail, but my attention tends to drift quite a lot. The material is still fresh, thanks in part to the 101 photos and movies I took during this morning’s hike. I am going to split this into several posts; if I do not do so – were I to delay posting this until completion — it would never appear.

Starting in the Granny White parking lot, I walked up Otter Creek and then turned left onto the gravel road to take some pictures from specific locations which I will use later to create some time lapse imagery.

Before I’d even made it to the spillway bridge, I saw a turtle on its way back to the lake; I closely observed, followed, and photographed a family of Canada Geese as they ate duck weed and then groomed themselves; and I relaxed on bench #66 for some journaling.

Crossing the spillway bridge, I admired a cute young turtle sunning itself on the dam, and an adult turtle in the water underneath the bridge, apparently heading downstream. I suppose that is why I see some of these turtles later, crossing the gravel road to get back to the lake; they’ve gone down the spillway dam into the creek and downstream.

Moments later I saw a mother doe and her very young fawn standing in the middle of the trail a few yards ahead. More skittish than usual due to having young, when they saw me, they went in opposite directions: the fawn went right and the doe went left. The three day-old fawn was alone. Rather than venture between them, I watched for a moment as the fawn wobbled back across the trail toward its mother on its long, unsteady legs. I started walking again, slowly, and was a little surprised that the fawn had not found its way back to mother yet, but was still standing near the trail, in thick brush, terrified of me, apparently; this made a couple of fantastically cute photos of the lone fawn.

Next of note was the viewing platform with two benches ( I need to come up with a name for this thing). I approached the bench, your honor, and peered over the railing, looking for the new resident eagles. Although I could not be 100% certain, I saw what I believe to be one of the eagles as it soared into the cove – Eagle Cove, yes? I thought I was going to see it snare a fish with its talons, but not this time.

Waiting for the eagle to fly back to its traditional perching area (for the last month or so, anyway), I met Cyndy, another hiker. Herons were seen but not the unmistakable white feathered head I was hoping for.

A few more yards bore another mother doe, fawning over another virtual newborn – a bit too far off the trail for good pictures, though.

If you are one of the people I met on the trails of Radnor Lake today, I sure hope you will read this post and then take the time to leave a comment below. I really would appreciate that, as I am trying to attract more visitors to this site and need all the comments I can get. May we meet again one day. Happy trails!

(More is being written…please check back.)

Video 1

Video 2

Wow, the next few weeks are going to be fascinating — assuming things go swimmingly for the pair of Canada geese that built their nest on Monday (March 24) afternoon and into the evening. (Scroll down for YouTube video of the mother goose nesting.) What a location: the nest is about 15 or 20 feet downstream from the spillway dam — and it can be viewed perfectly from the bridge.

Let me back up.

Today I pleasured myself with one of those hikes that handily answered my occasional question, “Why do I keep hiking the same trails day in, day out?”

Apart from the most obvious answer (sheer convenience), the de facto retort was this: nature indeed remains chock full of surprises.

Just before the South Cove trailhead I noticed a couple of bluebirds flittering and twittering (that one’s for you, Nashville Geeks) around together — probably courting, mating, or investigating potential nesting sites.

I love bluebirds. (Who am I kidding? I love robins — European starlings, even!) As much as I would like to play professional photographer, I don’t have the equipment. I snapped the best shot I could with my impressive 3x optical zoom. The end result is indeed fuzzy, but the color — fantastic.

Three or four days ago I noticed that much — most, in some places — of the greenery poking up through the leaves along the South Cove trail is a type of white flower; I mean, they are everywhere. And today, the blooms really stood out.

The South Cove trail deposited me on Otter Creek road as I was nearing the end of an unusually enjoyable solo hike. This afternoon’s sweaty trudge was so uniquely gratifying, I did not want it to end; in order to stretch it out a little bit more, I decided to take the scenic route to the Granny White parking lot.

I took a right turn onto the long straight gravel road and strolled toward the spillway. I paused to watch a Carolina (?) wren play hide and seek with me. (It really was.) I ended up getting a decent shot of the hyper little creeping wren.

As I approached the spillway dam, I saw a Canada goose standing on the lip of the spillway, right in the middle. Just standing there. I had never seen a goose occupy the dam like that before. I crept up as stealthily as my ample frame would allow so I could get a nice shot of him before he could paddle away. (Why do I assume it’s a male? I don’t assume. I know it’s a male! You’ll see why very shortly.)

Even as I trod upon the spillway bridge the bird did not paddle away; the man goose held his ground, looking up at me quizzically but keeping his eye on the prize: his woman.

I looked over on the other side of the bridge, and there she was: the goose mate, the avian femme fatale. She was on a small island, busy at something, completely oblivious to me and the flash of my digicam. Very soon I realized she was busy building a nest. Fantastic!

(You are probably wondering where the images of this female goose are: Where’s the nest, where’s la goose, give us proof! Well, unfortunately, the images of the female nest-builder — plus three short videos I filmed — are on my external drive at the home office, so I will have to post them here on the Nashville hiking blog this evening. Rest assured, the images and videos are coming! The video shorts of lady goose working on her nest will be worth your checking back later.)

The male goose was awesome: the very model of male responsibility. He stood right there on the spillway dam the entire time, directly under me, patiently watching his significant other build the nest and, no doubt, looking out for any potential trouble brewing in the form of rambunctious chilluns, cats, or even a fox. The man goose really cracked me up, the way he craned his neck and checked me out, especially when the flash on my camera went off.

If the nesting situation evolves as nature intended, Radnor Lake visitors will soon get live, play-by-play coverage of mother goose keeping her eggs warm and then raising the goslings. It’s going to be great. Hopefully the site will not be disturbed by flood, dashed by tot-hurled stones, or ransacked by curious critters.

I finally put my YouTube account to good use and uploaded my first video. Here’s the link to the video of the mother goose nesting near the Radnor Lake spillway bridge:

Stay tuned!

Related Posts

Nesting Canada Goose – More Video

Radnor Lake Photographs: Tue., April 14, 2010

After reading a few pages of Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth, I looked up and saw trusty Kelly drive into the Granny White parking lot at Radnor Lake, right on time. It had been a few weeks since our last hike, making this outing all the better.

The first thing we noticed was water actually spilling over the spillway. For months, the water had barely been within a foot of the dam. Radnor Lake has finally reached its normal levels for the first time since the drought took it down a few notches.

(NOTE: Progress on the writing of this post would be more notable if tonight’s new episode of the award-winning TNT show The Closer, starring Kyra Sedgwick, were not entertaining me so very thoroughly. This show just keeps getting better and better!)

The first sighting gave us two new proximity records. Kelly pointed out a couple of Canada geese (a.k.a. Canadian geese) standing on a half-submerged log near the edge of the lake. Not that it’s any big deal, but this was the closest we have gotten to Canada geese since this blog — and thus our amateur recordkeeping — began in July of this year. They were about 25 feet away.

As I gazed at the geese, Kelly commented on a third waterfowl that was even closer than the geese. I did not, could not see any other bird. Embarrassingly, almost a minute passed before I was able to see what the kell Helly was pointing at.

To my delight (yep, I’m a nature geek), it was a great blue heron, with its neck so contracted it appeared to be neckless. In this scrunched form, it did not have the traditional heron chic. I noted that in this position, the great blue had the same shape as the green heron, which usually do not have their necks extended when I see them around Radnor Lake. A few seconds later, the great blue heron stood tall and looked like a great blue heron should. We marvelled at it for a few moments, then continued our hike.

Only a few short yards later, I noticed a few turtles sunning themselves on a couple of other nearby half-submerged logs. It had been near freezing last night, and was only 40 at the time, so I thought it interesting that these cold-blooded reptiles were out and about. On second thought, though, it has been rather warm lately, so I guess I should not have been surprised.