30 October 2022 The Wilderness Center

We were back for more fall  geocaching on the trails at  The Wilderness Center.  Most leaves were down as we walked the trails.

A blue-grey knatcatcher was our birding highlight of a pleasant trail walk.

24 September 2022 Another Visit to The Wilderness Center

 We were happy to make a fall visit to The Wilderness Center with Phineas and Liz.  They were ready for a log walk on the trail.

We expected to see fall wildflowers.  A few left over blue lobelia blossoms in late September.

There were bees still working and collecting as fall moved forward.

We have seen woodland jumping mice in Pennsylvania.  I believe this was the first I have seen in a meadow.

Lizzie was looking happy after her day on the trail.

31 December 2021 Visiting the Wilderness Center

We decided to spend a surprisingly mild New Years Eve at the trails of the Wilderness Center. We left the dogs at home so we could enjoy the trails in the area where dogs are prohibited. It was a peaceful visit and a great way to spend the last day of a trying year.

Every visit to this side we pass by this birding blind. I'm sure over the years we have seen a bird or two from the blind, but it always seems to be a very quiet pond. n Today was no exception with quiet water.

ildern Maybe 2022 will be a better time.

27 November 2020 An Afternoon in The Wilderness Center

It was our non-dog day at The Wilderness Center.  We started off with a loop around the pond.  We were hoping for a couple of ducks, but the water was quiet. 

We were on the far side of the lake when an odd 2020 event happened.  We spotted two other cachers from the Columbus area.  We were all wearing masks and maintained social distancing, but it was wonderful to see other cachers and say a brief hello.

It was a little late for moths, but we spotted a few of these.

I never behave when I find puffballs in the woods.

I don't remember us spotting the rattlesnake plantain orchid on the TWC trails.  It was long past the summer bloom time but a good sighting.

Not all painted rocks are equal.  This one was really well done and placed very near one of the geocaches we found.

31 October 2020 The Wilderness Center

 We make two visits a year to The Wilderness Center.  One visit covers the trails on the "dog" site of the nature preserve.  The other is an afternoon out for us.  Today was a day out for the dogs.  The trees were either bare or nearly bare as fall wears on.

Phineas rates any park he visits a full bay.

Yes, he has more than one tooth.

We were enjoying geocaching and walking the dogs with little birding action.  We were almost at the halfway point of our walk when birding got interesting.  We do not see red-headed woodpeckers often.  Today we saw multiples of them.  They were high in the leafless trees and easy even for me to spot.

For some reason there were downys down lower in shrub-like growth.  This one actually bounced along from branch-to-branch ahead of us on the trail.

26 November 2019 An Afternoon at The Wilderness Center

We made a visit a few weeks back to hike the dog side of The Wilderness Center.  This afternoon, we were visiting without the dogs and planned to hike the dog-free side.  We made a visit to the nearby Amish farm for some favorites from their roadside stand before heading out to walk.  This water area looks like a great spring, vernal-pool candidate.

This wooley bear believed there coming winter would be mild.

A few local farms have domestic ducks.  This duck seems to have escaped the farm to hang out on the big pond.  It was joined this afternoon by a grebe in the background.

When leaving we turned a corner and noticed these curious sheep along the fence line.  There isn't much traffic here so it makes one wonder what trained them to look so expectantly at he fence.

2 November 2019 The Wilderness Center

Half of the trails at The Wilderness Center in Wilmot are open to dogs.  Since I had been traveling for the week, we had the dogs with us to visit the dog-friendly trails.  The center has recently completed trail work on the dog side which opened areas we hadn't been able to hike in years.  It was a perfect place to spend a late fall afternoon.

Lizzie joins the geocache search.

10 March 2018 The Wilderness Center

Winter was over... at least for me. Snow was down to little bits on the ground and my work travel would put me in warmer climates for a bit. We decided to visit The Wildness Center for a long walk with the dogs. Blue skies and leafless trees ruled the day. The trees would soon begin budding.

Phineas has become the beagle equivalent of a greybeard. We make a pair on the trail. He has one up on me with his fashionable Fido Fleece.

28 December 2016 The Wilderness Center

We don't visit The Wilderness Center often because of their restrictions on which trails dogs may walk. To see all of the preserve, we usually leave them at home. Today we planned to just walk the dog-friendly trails. The weather was perfect. We made a couple finds before we came upon the area where the Wilderness Center had recently cut down their ash trees. Emerald ash borer is changing the face of the woods. Many parks and preserves are being aggressive with wholesale removal of ash trees. The damage caused by the emerald ash borer is swift and soon fatal.

Phineas was happy to be out for a walk and managed to get himself wrapped up in my legs

The preserves holly stand was decked out for the season with plenty of berries.

It was sad to see the large numbers of ash trees which had been felled. This was just a small sampling of the felled trees

Amazingly the caches survived the work or someone on the crew knew where they were.

The downed trees gave Lizzie a chance to show he Aussie jumping skills.

The downed limbs also gave her a chance to be silly.