All photos in this post were taken at Nashville’s Radnor Lake and edited on Tuesday, June 3, 2008 by Stephen Frasier using an Olympus Stylus 790 SW and Macromedia/Adobe Fireworks MX 2004; author’s email is stephen [at] bestWebNashville [dot] com

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.)

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