26 May 2014 Visiting the Tanbark Trail

Before a visit to the Tanbark Trail, we walked our favorite loop at our property to see what spring had brought us.

Whether she's on the trail geocaching or waiting for us to hunt for wildflowers, Gwen knows how to relax. The turkey eggs were gone from the nest. We're hoping that meant a successful hatch.

The spike on our orchid was progressing nicely. Another spike had fallen victim to some woodland animal's appetite.

A nice solitary tiarella

I was hoping to snap an image of the yellow warbler that kept flying around the patio, but was happy to settle for an image of this phoebe busily working on nest building.

We knew we were at least a week late to walk the Tanbark Trail to look for wildflowers. We expected most of the painted trilliums to be gone or past their prime, but hoped to see a few. As it turned out a few was all we got to see. Star flowers and most white trilliums were gone too. The waterfalls were filled with water from a recent rain and quite attractive.