Kenridge Farm, 15 May 2007

Laurel reflects on today's outing...

Greeted by tree swallows, the Nature Strollers rolled down the path at Kenridge Farm, part of the Museum of the Hudson Highlands. With a strong, warm breeze at our backs, nine families descend to the chain of ponds that highlight this exquisite site. Our group included a couple of recent transplants who had never visited the site and one six-year local resident who said the same thing. So from the get-go we had success in introducing several young families to a safe, accessible nature trail in their area. Places like Kenridge Farm are invaluable. They allow suburban families access to the natural world and enable them to introduce their children to the world of nature in a way not possible in a manicured backyard.
Today’s trail held some surprises and some old friends. Our avian companions, the red winged blackbirds and tree swallows, remain as active as ever, while newcomers like the yellow warblers, Eastern bluebirds and Baltimore (northern) oriole added some local color! The oriole’s hanging nest is woven from plant fibers that might include (no one climbed the thirty foot tree to make sure) milkweed and grapevine bark. The nest was active and we observed the orange and black female oriole enter and exit several times. Nesting bluebirds were in and out of bluebird boxes. We only got a glimpse of the yellow warbler as it swooped across the water, a bright flash disappearing into the foliage of an island bound tree on the furthest pond. Later, another was spotted low on a branch as we walked back toward our cars. Mockingbirds at the stone labyrinth, barn swallows, a house finch near the feeder, and the flutelike song of the wood thrush in the woods rounded out our birding experience.
A frequent Stroller, Akiko, mentioned the lack of American toads. We had seen and heard so many on our trip in April, but today not a single toad was seen. The toads congregate at ponds to mate only one week a year. She had little to be disappointed about, however, as the products of their efforts were everywhere to see. The black toad tadpoles had hatched in abundance. Hundreds could be seen in the shallows of the pond at the lowest elevation and thousands at the pond in the woods near the sugar shack. Toad tadpoles congregate, unlike most other frog species, and are easily identified by their black color and relatively large body-to-tail ratio. As we watched the wriggling mass of tadpoles, the geese of the woodland pond brought their goslings close to shore for the children to see. The sedges, violets, and grasses at water’s edge held a number of damselflies, their wings transparent as glass. The tan exoskeleton (a shed “shell”) of a dragonfly nymph was affixed to a floating section of cattail. The kids got a close up view of this “water monster” and could see the hole where the adult dragonfly exited its larval shell and the small wing buds that had housed what would become the large, magnificent wings of the adult. Also among the algae and pondweed were substantial male bullfrogs with eardrums larger than their eyes, and a shiny green frog known for its twangy call. These frogs and a number of birds and butterflies were spotted by sharp-eyed moms who were searching the fields, waters and skies for wildlife. The white of bone caught the eye of one mother along the trail, a portion of a deer’s backbone. A still swallow on a limb right above our heads attracted the attention of another. Another success, families practicing nature study on their own!