Have you taken a walk along the Hansville Greenway yet? It is a fairly extensive network of trails around Buck Lake. I wanted to get out of the house last Sunday and take a bit of a walk. I had considered going to Fish Park but I can do that any morning on my way to work. Somehow I had stumbled upon the Greenway's website while noodling through the internet and thought it looked interesting. So I grabbed my binos, spotting scope, field guide & notebook and made the short drive north. I drove to Buck Lake County Park and took the trail from there. You can find it by walking south across the ball field. You'll know you are in the right place if you see the above sign.
A short walk will take you to the Meadow Kiosk which has a nice map of the trails.
I took a quick jog to the west and then started walking south towards Lower Hawk's Pond. According to the website, this was a 2.5 mile roundtrip (plus the short hike to The Quiet Place). The trail through the woods is pretty amazing. You can still hear some noise from nearby roads and homes but it is easy to imagine that you are in a much more remote area. I heard birds all around me but saw few. The trees are pretty thick and I didn't want to go off-trail so it was hard to track down the birds I could hear.
Less then a mile of walking found me at the turn for The Quiet Place. The name alone caused me to turn off and see what it was all about. A few minutes of walking through the woods brings you to the following marker, an observation platform and a nice view over Upper Hawk's Pond.
I spent quite a bit of time at The Quiet Place and ended up getting a long view of a nice looking Song Sparrow through the spotting scope. I also saw a Canada Goose slowly cruise by from north to south. He didn't seem too bothered by me and quietly made his way down the pond.I had thought about heading home at this point but decided that I might as well see what was at the end of the trail since I was already halfway there. I took the trail that brushed along the southern shore of Upper Hawk's Pond before it headed down to the lower pond. The walk was really nice and I finally got some good views of a Winter Wren. I had heard several of them but was never able to get more then a glimpse as they worked their way through the shrubs and trees. I got down to Upper Hawk's Pond and found a raised observation platform there.
I set up my scope and spent about 30 minutes there. There were a lot of birds calling from the cattails and grasses but most of them were staying out of sight. I eventually got the scope on some Mallards, Green-winged Teal and Ring-necked Ducks who were feeding well out in the pond. I also had a few Song Sparrows feeding beneath the platform and quite a few Chestnut-backed Chickadees flying around my head and scolding me from the nearby tree branches.
I then noticed how I had let time slip by and I was going to get home later then I wanted. I collapsed the tripod and tossed it up on my shoulder for the walk back to the car.
I greatly enjoyed my morning on the Greenway trails and know that I'll be back soon and will bring Nancy with me. The one negative to the whole morning was with other users of the trails. I ran into two groups of several people each. From conversations and observation I would say both groups were all, or mostly, locals. The unfortunate side of this is each group had several dogs with them and not a single one was on a leash. Now, I am also a dog lover and I get how it must feel nice to take your dog for an off-leash walk through the woods. The problem is that no one benefits from this other then that person and their dog. Everyone else now has to contend with a strange dog running at them down a trail. Not every dog is friendly and not every person wants to get close to an unfamiliar dog. It is very selfish to think that it is okay to let your dog run free in a place like the Greenway. It is also very harmful to the resident animals and plants.
The following is from the Greenway's website.
Loose dogs scare and
kill small mammals, amphibians and birds. As dogs are recognized as
predators by wildlife, their presence may stress wildlife and reduce
breeding success. Birds chased off nests can lose eggs or young to other
predators, such as crows, ravens and jays that are alerted to the nest
location when the parent is flushed. Ground-nesting birds in meadows and
along the shorelines of lakes and ponds are especially vulnerable, as are
those species that nest in the low vegetation of marshes. During the spring
deer fawns also are particularly vulnerable.
Even when dogs are
unsuccessful in catching the object of the chase, the potential prey has had
to expend significant energy in order to save themselves. Since in many
cases animals are just barely surviving, expenditure of extra energy may
push them over the edge to malnutrition and allow other predators to kill
them. In particular, pregnant wildlife and newborn animals do not have the
reserves to expend in avoiding dogs. Breeding success can also be reduced
when dogs chase or their presence scares wildlife that could otherwise spend
their time foraging to feed their young and themselves.
During the winter, once
food supplies are greatly diminished and daylight foraging time is more
limited, stress caused by the presence or being chased by a dog can affect
wildlife survival. Wildlife that are chased and harassed by dogs cannot feed
and their survival is threatened.
Playing in steams,
lakes and ponds, a favorite activity of some dog visitors, harms fish
habitat; exposes bare soil on banks causing erosion and sedimentation; stirs
existing sediment; and kills eggs of fish and amphibians. What is
interesting about most accounts of dog impacts in shallow water areas is
that there is seldom mention of the devastation that a single dog can have
in a brief period on an entire annual population of amphibians as the animal
romps through breeding areas at critical times of the year and dislodge the
egg masses. Those egg masses then float to the surface and are often
destroyed by solar radiation and/or are susceptible to desiccation. This is
of particular concern in seasonal wetland/ponded areas where many of our
native amphibians breed.
Likewise, dogs can be
devastating on the tadpoles and nearly morphed juvenile amphibians which can
be crushed underfoot, splashed out of the water, and/or impacted by the
resulting turbidity. Dogs-on-leash rules do not work effectively at
protecting sensitive species such as amphibians because it only takes one
dog a short period during amphibian breeding and rearing season to have a
significant effect.
Visiting dogs (leashed
or unleashed) can transmit diseases to wild populations or pick up a disease
carried by wildlife. Dogs can apparently transmit a number of pathogens to
wildlife through the abundant feces that dogs leave on and off the trails.
This has become such a huge problem that many land managers are choosing to completely prohibit dogs from wildlife areas. So please, do us all a favor and keep your dogs on a leash.
Now that my rant is over I'll give you the short list of birds of birds sighted...
Northern Flicker American Robin Steller's Jay Black-capped Chickadee Chestnut-backed Chickadee Red-winged Blackbird Common Raven Canada Goose Song Sparrow Winter Wren Mallard Green-winged Teal Ring-necked Duck And several Douglas Squirrels
