Friends of Palmer Lake Park Nature Hike

This Saturday, the Friends of Palmer Lake Park held our first ever "Nature Hike." It was a free event, open to the public and guided by the 4 founding members of the FPLP group. In total I think we had somewhere around 17 or 18 people participate and the weather turned out to be just fantastic -a perfect day for a hike around the park. While the 4 core-members of the FPLP are very familiar with the park and it's familiar sights, we were lucky enough to be joined by some residents of the area whom had lived around the park for many many years and watched it changed over time. We had quite a fun time as many of the participants were avid birders and naturalists who share a passion for being outdoors and spotting just about everything there is to see. I myself kept a running "bird count" of all the species spotted on our hike. Our list totaled 26 different bird species which I want to list here just for the sake of record keeping. They are also listed in the order that we saw them: Cooper's Hawk, Crow, Cedar Waxwing, Barn Swallow, Chimney Swift, Robin, Goldfinch, Catbird, Green Heron, Black & White Warbler, Pewee or Flycatcher?, Osprey, Great Egret, Common Yellowthroat, Song Sparrow, Chickadee, Downy Woodpecker, Tree Swallow, Great Blue Heron, Phoebe, Cardinal, Mourning Dove, Mallard, Pileated Woodpecker, Chipping Sparrow and Flicker! In addition to seeing all these birds, a few members of our group were taking an interest in many different plant species found in the park, including but not limited to: Blue Vervain, Elderberries, Spotted Jo-py weed, Nightshade and Jewelweed. We also had a fun impromptu demonstration of Jewelweed's famous exploding seed pods which made a few people jump - ha ha. Paul from the FPLP group was a fantastic guide and was enjoying sharing his knowledge of just about everything nature related, from how Osprey eat, to how to identify Dragonflies and Damselflies. Ron, a friend and respectable photographer and birder captured some fantastic photos of the day including many of the bird species we saw but also some of the small stuff like Japanese Beetles and Dragonflies. But my favorite photo he took that day was of this snail that Paul had found and picked up to show the group. There is just so much detail and real-ness in the photo that I just had to post it here. It had so much fun hanging out with friends and enjoying the nature around us. I hope that our FPLP group can again hold another Nature Hike event next year and I hope we have twice as many people attend!