The Nature Trail of Time

This is a nature trail guide I wrote in 1991 as the naturalist at Camp Nawakwa. A little pompous and long-winded, but I'll own it.

Click image to access PDF in all its typewritten glory.

47

My birthday was a few days ago. In recent years, I have started the tradition of fishing, or a least thinking seriously of fishing, on the day. Given the effect of January weather on the mountain streams I fish most, the natural choice would be to drive to one of the spring creeks or tailwaters within an hour or so of home, but your home waters on your birthday are the place to be. 

This year was tough. It was the warmest day in over a week, but it still barely cracked 25F. I parked at a horse trailhead and bushwacked over the ridge and through the snow. The woods were quiet until I had gone deep enough into the valley that the ice-encumbered stream grew loud.  It was the only sound except when one winter foraging group of small birds passed through. The scene was almost monochrome until I noticed those few laurels and hemlocks and the occasional snow-free and rose-colored stone. It may go without saying, but no one had walked this way for a while.

Measured by fish caught, the afternoon was a failure. Fortunately I rarely measure an outing that way and never in January. I have hardly any history with this particular reach of stream, but the brook trout no doubt present but inactive in the near-freezing water ignored the fat Brooks Stonefly nymph that I dredged thoru the runs and pools, and I mostly walked the banks and took pictures. Around 4:00 the sky darkened and snow began to fall. I headed out to meet my wife for dinner at the Clay Oven in Frederick,  MD. Try the goat korma!

A fungus face?

Hedwig in the Valley

Even fairly casual followers of birds now know that Snowy Owls have come south this winter in numbers not seen in decades. I have kept my eyes on local fields and followed reports, but until last week there was no report of an owl under about 2 hours' distance. So when one (or two) turned up in Franklin County, PA, 45 minutes away, I was ready. I was there in time for a striking sunrise over frosty cut-over cornfields. After about 15 minutes I found the owl. 150-200 yards away, it looked at best like a small, dirty snow pile, but in binocs you could see the white face turning now and then.

about 30x

a bonus Horned Lark

Christmas Bird Count

Sunrise over Liberty Mountain

As I have since the early 80s I participated in the venerable Audubon Christmas Bird Count this year. My local count (Gettysburg) was postponed until January 4. I was responsible for counting individuals and species in an around Carroll Valley, PA. The weather was cold but not frigid (high 20s) and I traveled about 4 miles on foot and 40 by car. My own count is below; in the whole count circle 79 species were counted, a slightly above average year.

	Canada Goose	350
	Gadwall	4
	American Black Duck	4
	Mallard	40
	Northern Shoveler	1
	Ring-necked Duck	10
	Ruddy Duck	4
	Black Vulture	10
	Turkey Vulture	10
	Red-tailed Hawk	1
	Mourning Dove	13
	Great Horned Owl	CW
	Belted Kingfisher	2
	Red-bellied Woodpecker	9
	Downy Woodpecker	6
	Hairy Woodpecker	1
	Pileated Woodpecker	4
	Blue Jay	5
	American Crow	7
	Common Raven	2
	Carolina Chickadee	15
	Tufted Titmouse	17
	White-breasted Nuthatch	10
	Carolina Wren	10
	Golden-crowned Kinglet	2
	Eastern Bluebird	7
	Northern Mockingbird	2
	European Starling	25
	Yellow-rumped Warbler	2
	Song Sparrow	3
	White-throated Sparrow	35
	Dark-eyed Junco	39
	Northern Cardinal	23
	House Finch	3
	American Goldfinch	5
	Total Species Reported	35
	Total Individuals Counted	681

The Year's End

Shadow in shadow
under the rhododendron
the November trout.

I came up with that while on the way to stream in November, but it applies just as well to my last fishing trip of 2013. (We'll leave the words as the are, since the spirit of a haiku is ephemeral, and besides, "November" sounds better than "December.")  This trip was on the 22nd, a bizarrely warm and misty day that set the local ski resort back. I set out to spend an afternoon on some fairly nearby Michaux streams.

The first was a small, wild trout water. The level was up, the walking good, and the brookies were ready to respond to a partridge and peacock beadhead.

I intended my next stop to be another small stream about a half an hour away. At the end of the gravel road I met a two other fisherman ready to start, something that has never happened to me outside of spring on any area mountain creek. I left the trail to them, and headed to a slightly bigger stream a few miles away. This is one I'd never fished before. I got the brown below after just a few casts, and that probably kept me fishing long after it was productive. As the afternoon drained away, mist came off the creek. A family or two walked by on the trail paralelling the creek, followed by quiet and then darkness appropriate for (almost) the longest night of the year.