Nature hike...

I found an event in the newspaper that interested me. It was billed to be a hike with a local naturalist, and he would be telling us about the importance of Alewives to the local ecology. Alewives are little fish that come from the ocean in the spring, and work their way up streams until they find the pond they were hatched in. They detect the right pond by the smell of it. Once there they spawn, then return to the sea. Their migration causes an uproar with the gulls, Osprey and Bald Eagles. The place where the walk was held is local, but I have never been there. It was beautiful!



Sadly the event was not really as billed. It was a bird walk, which was very interesting, but I had my sights set on learning about the fish! We saw many warblers, and the woods were alive with bird song. Everything was growing, in bright shades of what I call, "new green." There were a lot of snails, too, feasting on all that growth.

We walked to the head of the tide, where the fresh water and salt or brackish water meet. We saw a Bald Eagle there, perched in a tall pine, surveying the riches of food below. He sailed off before I could get a picture.






It was a lovely walk, and fun to do something outside my normal routine. I need to take more nature hikes.