WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY

I have already written two posts (on July 17th and 20th) in conjunction with this particular morning spent getting in my steps and checking out the usual haunts at lovely Heritage Park.

I have stopped to check out the Community Gardens at Heritage Park twice this year. The first was when I participated in the 5K walk back on May 9th. Due to the pandemic, the gates were locked and signs advised that a directive was forthcoming when gardening would begin again.

The Community Gardens are located on the Heritage Park grounds, halfway between the historical village and the Conservatory and Botanical Gardens. The Community Gardens consist of personal plots of land where folks can garden ’til their heart’s content for an annual fee. Also found in this area is the Good Will Garden.

The purpose of the Good Will Garden is two-fold. In 2002, through a program developed by Judge Geno Salomone of the 23rd District Court in Taylor, Michigan, community service workers have tended large garden plots and all produce is donated to the Downriver Fish & Loaves Community Pantry. Planting begins in May and the last harvest is in October. The community service workers maintain the gardens throughout the growing season. It is a win-win venture to give back to the local community.

The Community Gardens got off to a slow start …

I am sure many wondered if and when plants and/or seeds could be planted – what would happen to everyone’s crops in 2020? Well, when I bopped by to check out the personal plots and community service plots over Fourth of July weekend, was I in for a surprise! After the lifting of various restrictions imposed by the Governor during the pandemic, the growing season had begun in earnest. Between bouts of torrential rain, the sunniest June on record and a horribly hot start to July, the veggie gardens were already producing. Here have a look.

These are the work force detail gardens.

These are the personal plot gardens.

I love the ambiance here – for example, this quaint wooden chair with the flowers planted where the seat would be and a cheery-looking birdbath.

There are garden doodads and other homey touches in most of the personal gardens, an extension of the owners’ personalities it seems. The nature lovers often put out bird feeders, houses and baths to cater to their feathered friends. Others have brought along Adirondack chairs to take a load off their feet. You may recall last year I chatted it up with Mike who was watering a double plot on an equally hot and humid Sunday morning. You can read about my visit with Mike and see some of the garden photos if you click here. Mike told me one of their plots was dedicated to flowers and tended to by his wife. Mike was in charge of the veggie plot. He enlightened me on the whole process, as I had no clue that regular folks could own these plots. I thought the produce was grown strictly for donation to the food pantry. Mike explained that 20-by-17-foot plots cost $50.00 apiece to lease from May through October each year.

As I walked along the fence, I decided the gardeners must have slept in, likely the result of neighborhood fireworks going off in and around the Downriver area until all hours of the night. I was the only one walking around the garden area and boy were the mosquitoes making a meal of me due to the heat and humidity. I wondered if the gardeners here don’t mind tending to their gardens in the heat of the day?

Of course a few lucky gardeners have raised beds for their gardens, so no stooping or bending is required to tend to their crops or flowers. This is the way to go and easy on the knees too!

I did concede, as I ambled along, that someone had been by to water the raised gardens before I arrived, as all the greens had a fresh and dewy look. Here’s a close-up of those raised gardens nearest the fence – it’s like stepping up to the salad bar.

Was the corn knee-high by the Fourth of July as that expression goes? From my vantage point, I eyeballed those rows of corn, while trying to figure the height on the morning of the 5th of July. What do you think? I know fellow blogger and Michigander Ruth, or Diane with her huge garden in Ohio will know the answer.

It’s not all about the veggies – one plot had nearly ripe berries peeking over the fence.

And this one lone Coneflower had grown mightily in the few short weeks since the garden had commenced. Perhaps this gardener has a perpetual plot filled with perennials?

There are farm implements that were used long ago and now serve to enhance the garden area. I’m pretty sure these gardens will never need the likes of large implements like these. The bales of straw are spread over the soil by the community workers to keep the soil moist between waterings.

I wrapped up my long morning by heading back to the parking lot and sitting in the air-conditioned car a good ten minutes before taking off – whew! I’m no fan of the intense heat and humidity, but it is sure to help your garden to grow. I’ll leave you with this quote: “Garden as though you will live forever.” ~ Thomas Moore

What can I say? I keep returning to Heritage Park for weekend jaunts, as it is a quick-and-easy drive, plus there are always images to pique my interest and to be captured by the camera lens. And this trek was no different. In fact, in my three hours spent relaxing at Coan Lake, meandering through the historical portion of Heritage Park, getting my steps on the walking path and visiting the massive garden areas afterward, I amassed a ton of photos. Later I divvied them up and will do separate posts in the coming weeks on the Botanical Gardens, Community Gardens and a mess ‘o Mallards and Canada geese found in and around Coan Lake. Right now I am stacked up with photos from various weekend jaunts at larger woodsy parks and water venues.

In the meantime, here is what I saw in the early morn at Taylor, Michigan’s Heritage Park, often referred to as the “Jewel of the City” and understandably so.

This was my first visit to Heritage Park since I participated in my virtual 5K walk for the local food pantry known as Fish & Loaves on Saturday, May 9th. You can read about that 5K walk here if you missed it. I was even wearing my new 5K swag … and yes, I left the finishing medal at home. 🙂

When you have your ducks in a row …

… you always arrive early at Heritage Park, because the Mallards are waking up and beginning their morning ritual, not unlike that of humans. You stretch and contemplate your day ahead; the Mallards lift up one wing where their head was tucked while sleeping, then raise one eyelid, stretch those short orange legs and wide-webbed feet, then it’s time to eat. (BTW – there is no snooze button that I know of and yes they have a little “bed head” just like you, or most of us.) The Mallards waddle to the edge of Coan Lake …

… and then plop into the water, where they will often dive deep, feathery butts in the air, to nibble on aquatic plants or catch a fish.

This big pond is stocked with fish for catch-and-release fishing and for the waterfowls’ benefit as well. Unlike the geese, who have been strutting around grazing on grass, long before their waterfowl friends woke up, ducks don’t usually eat grass, unless some kindly soul has scattered corn onto it and stray grass ends up in their beak while they are hurriedly scarfing up the corn. There is a gentleman who visits Coan Lake with a huge bag of cracked corn every morning . Just like at other parks, the ducks recognize their benefactor (or perhaps that large bag of corn), then scramble out of the water as soon as they see the whites of his eyes.

Now that eating is dispensed with, it’s time for morning ablutions, the equivalent of you or me hopping into the shower.

Watching the waterfowl here always starts my day off right.

It is molting time right now, and the waterfowl at this park spend an inordinate amount of time preening and picking their feathers. There were feathers all over the grounds, large ones and fluffy down too. The ducks are busy pulling out old feathers and then the new feathers that are growing in make them feel itchy and fidgety. I have had pet birds and know about the molting process. It was very hard on my budgies and canaries – they were listless and lethargic, not talking or singing, for about six to eight weeks, as they lost all their feathers in succession from head to tail. They’d jump from perch to perch and a flurry of feathers would drift from their bodies and land onto food or water dishes – at the height of molting it was like watching a mini pillow fight going on in the cage as the feathers flew furiously.

Check out these Mallards, especially the drake (male), whose usually vibrant plumage is mottled due to the molting process and this guy is missing his tail feathers as well – poor boy. All body feathers eventually will be replaced and soon he and other drakes will enter “eclipse phase” when all their plumage will resemble their mates. In fact, at a glance you can’t tell them apart, except for the beak color (bright yellow versus brown).

There is no set hatch date for ducklings and goslings. In 2019, at Council Point Park we had four families of geese, each with goslings, that arrived about a week apart. So there were lots of cute-and-fuzzy babies stomping around the Park grounds in the month of May and June. It was no different here at Heritage Park. Proud parents with their offspring close by were all over Coan Lake.

I mused that after beating a path to various water venues in search of ducklings every Spring, that this year, I have been inundated with glimpses of ducklings. At least something good has come out of the year 2020!

Here are a few ducklings to ooh and aah over.

The fountains on either side of Coan Lake were not turned on and this female Mallard relaxed, like Queen of the Hill, on this perch while preening and enjoying the morning sun.

Woe would be this little lady when the sprinkler system was turned on and water gushed up! Not only would it likely be chilly, but I wondered if the force of the spray would knock her from that perch? It gushes mightily as you see below when it was turned on later.

Taking a gander at the geese.

Heritage Park is large, but all the waterfowl congregate around Coan Lake. There are not that many families of geese and I looked for the parents who sadly had just two offspring, (as opposed to the usual six or seven or more), that I featured in an earlier post this year. I didn’t find them, but there were these proud parents and their trio of youngsters.

After spending a peaceful hour at the waterfront, it was time to cross the covered bridge over Coan Lake and into the historic village.

I was the only person on that bridge, so as I ambled across I paused halfway to gaze up at the fairly high rafters and scope out any Barn Swallows or nests filled with babies. Here is a close-up of the underside of the covered bridge.

In the past I’ve been fortunate to see the nests brimming with youngsters. The nests are fashioned out of mud and puttied onto the bridge rafters by that same mud. The former pictures weren’t that close up though. Well, it was my lucky day! Swallows are always buzzing around the bridge, capturing and eating insects as they swoop and dive. They rarely pause but a few minutes to rest on the seawall or the big boulders near the bridge, but this time of year, you’ll see them detouring to the rafters and that’s to take food to their young. Have a look at the hungry baby Barn Swallows awaiting their morning meal. (Talk about expectant faces and no, I didn’t bring you any bugs – sorry guys!)

It was a lucrative trip across the covered bridge … photo-wise that is. I saw these two grumpy-looking turtles basking in the morning sun. One must’ve had a dirt bath and the other was spanking clean.

I crossed into the historical village area and took a few photos which regular readers will recognize as the Little Red Schoolhouse, Fitz Caboose and boxcar in the background, old Water Mill and the Gazebo.

I was not ready to go home yet and spent another few hours checking out the Taylor Conservatory and Botanical Gardens and Goodwill Gardens. The former was ablaze in color with perennials and annuals and the latter, despite getting a slow start due to COVID-19 and the garden area being closed down, was brimming with goodness to be donated at local food banks, as well as gardeners who lease private plots to tend to flowers and veggies for their own personal use. I will spotlight these two portions of my Heritage Park trek in upcoming posts.

I know you’ve been clamoring for a post about Council Point Park, so here it is. Truth be told, it has been a little boring there. Sigh. Yes, I never thought I’d say that, but it’s true. Since the Park opened back up following the month-long lockdown, my favorite nature nook is not the same.

The City grass cutters are behind in mowing and weed whacking at all the parks following the gargantuan task of taming overgrown grass and weeds when all 22 parks reopened on June 2nd. So, even donning my rose-colored glasses, I must say that right now the Park looks a little raggedy as well.

Do you think the peanut pals missed the human presence?

Perhaps all the feathered and furry critters got acclimated to a refuge sans humans? They likely enjoyed having the grounds to roam about freely without the need to dodge dogs (even though dog walking is discouraged via several signs that cite a City ordinance forbidding dogs on the premises). I wonder if the critters truly enjoyed that month devoid of bicyclists, joggers or stroller-pushin’ moms that usually waylay a quick trip across the walking loop for a bite of grass, a nibble of pinecone, or a quick paddle in the Creek?

But alas, even though the critters may view us humans as intruders, I am sure my feathered and furry buddies bemoaned the lack of peanuts.

There’s more. Fireworks had been going off nightly since before Memorial Day in our City. The fireworks extravaganza was just residents setting them off, not a public display and there were lots of spent fireworks and black powder from misfires in the Park’s parking lot nearly every morning, especially on the morning of the 5th of July. I feel badly as I am sure the noise terrified the critters who have their nests in the trees that line the path, just a stone’s throw from the parking lot.

Also factoring into less Park critter activity has been this horrible heat wave we have endured for nearly two weeks.

I’ve not been straying too far from home on weekends due to the intense heat, so I have spent more mornings than usual at Council Point Park. Michigan meteorologists recorded June as one of the sunniest in history and July boasts statistics of its own, as one of the hottest recorded, as a result of this continued heat wave. We had nine consecutive days of 90F (32C) or above. It was the second longest heat wave streak in history (the record was eleven in 1953). Whew! On the horizon is another streak of 90F (32C) plus days or higher.

So, I’ve collected these photos over the course of the last six weeks. Hopefully, the recent spikes of COVID-19 cases/deaths here in Michigan will not spell doom and gloom and a resulting shutdown of our City’s parks again, specifically this one, as I derive much joy in my daily jaunt there.

The bird is the word here in Michigan.

I heard a factoid recently that amazed me: there are over 450 bird species in Michigan. Clearly I am not venturing far enough from home on my nature treks, as I’m lucky to have seen 50 species of birds max since living here and these are the common backyard birds and waterfowl. That is why I said “Egad!” when I came upon that Great Egret recently.

The Cardinals remain elusive on the perimeter path and that makes me sad. Gone are those ambitious red birds scamming peanuts from the squirrels, or bopping along behind me hoping to get my attention. I was lucky to see a Jay and its young feasting on peanuts I left on the perimeter path. I watched them, capturing the image through my eyes only since the camera was tucked in its pouch as I was ready to leave and pulling it out might have startled them.

The male Red-Winged Blackbirds (like the one pictured above) are always quick to scam a peanut from the squirrels, or will hop from tree to tree to follow along my route. They are still pretty vocal, sometimes calling out as I pass by the marshy area or their favorite tree. Red-Winged Blackbirds tend to be the bullies at this venue.

The thistles are not ready for Goldfinch, nor Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies to visit – hopefully soon?!

Are my furry peanuts pals gettin’ squirrelly on me?

Even my squirrels have not been as ambitious or friendly at ground level – so, are you telling me that absence does NOT make the heart grow fonder? Well say it isn’t so! I expected them to come running over to greet me like we were long-lost friends, kind of like this.

Oh a few gave me a second glance, like Parker and Penelope …

But, for the most part, these looks they gave me during the first week or two made me wonder if they were angry at my absence on the walking loop, or they just plain forgot who I was. Take a look at this collection of perturbed furry faces.

As to this squirrelly group, unbelievably, they are already socking away peanuts. In 2019 we had an uncharacteristically chilly week in August. Suddenly, it was as if the brain gears clicked in those cute-and-furry heads and the squirrels divvied up their peanut pile, saving a few peanuts to enjoy now, yet they began digging holes and burying the rest all over the Park. I noted that unusual behavior in several blog posts that said “okay, I get that confusion when the weather has a Fallish feel but really?” Last year our meteorologists predicted a brutal Winter – it was quite the opposite, so go figure.

But here we go again. Both before and after our 4th of July weekend, as steamy and sultry as it has been, once again, the squirrels studied their pile of peanuts, then buried most of them and when that task was finished, only then would they enjoy the few peanuts they had set aside. I find that interesting. Are they rationing in case the humans who feed them daily go MIA once again, or, do they know something about the upcoming Winter that the learned climatologists and local weather folks have not yet divulged?

Here’s a couple of the peanut-hiding squirrels …

… and one who crammed two peanuts into his mouth to hurry along the nut-gathering process. 🙂

As mentioned (and whined about), we have had wicked hot weather recently. Now, one could say I am fickle as I’m no fan of Winter, but this relentless heat is not my cup of tea, and the squirrels neither judging from their lethargic looks you see here.

Bunnies always make me smile.

I enjoy seeing the bunnies in the ‘hood or the Park. The fact that I don’t have any munchable plants means not many bunnies are congregating in my backyard, but they do like nibbling the clover out front. Back in the day, the bunnies demolished my Bleeding Heart plants two years in a row, but thankfully the cute critters have yet to tackle the Twist-and-Shout Hydrangeas and the rose bushes are deemed “unmunchable” since the prickly thorns keep them at bay. The heat did not deter the bunnies from making the rounds on the Park grounds to enjoy white and purple clover. I’ll bet they are hot in their fur coats.

If the bunnies are deep into a patch of clover, they barely budge, although they are on guard for a sudden move on my part. I talk softly or click my tongue to assure them the big human looming over them means no harm. Are they scared of me? I have nothing to offer, and I’ve taken baby carrots or some leftover salad treats for them in the past, but they left it there and nibbled on grass instead, so I stopped toting it along.

I can’t resist a smile as a tiny bunny believes he/she is hiding from me, but unbeknownst to this furry creature, those pretty pink ears rising high above the grass and shot with the sun’s rays are like a beacon, giving it away.

The waterfowl are MIA.

Harry the Heron has been missing from my morning trek since May 1st, the last day I walked at the Park before it went into lockdown. Where did Harry go? Occasionally, I hear a Great Blue Heron flying down the narrow passage, shrieking in that shrill noise herons make, but he never alights on the cement landing, nor does he perch in a tree across the Creek.

I know the ducks and geese are gone due to the annual molting process wherein they lose their flight feathers and must remain on the ground until they grow back. For now, they are in a larger venue, a safe haven where they may still access the water and land for food, but can easily escape to water on foot if a land predator is nearby. The waterfowl cannot do that at Council Point Park as the Ecorse Creek won’t accommodate all of them, especially now that they have offspring. Besides, the Park sprays with a grape concentrate which the geese find distasteful and that prompts them to move along to other venues. Despite the goose poop that litters the walkway, in my opinion the geese and ducks help create the ambiance here.

Feelin’ hot, hot, hot!

I’ve seen the turtles basking in the sun on a fallen tree many mornings. They line up in a neat row by seniority, i.e. the biggest turtles at the front of the queue and the smaller, younger ones in the very back. The big log where they sunbathe is behind some bushes so I can’t get a good photo of them, but they also sit on the cement landing and that’s where I got these two photos and I wanted to say: “just askin’ … did you pack a good sunscreen for Ol’ Sol’s rays? Oops – it looks like you’re already lookin’ a little leathery.”

Here is one turtle sunbathing and its buddy freaked out when it saw me and plopped right into the water – if you look closely, you can see it in the murky water. (Fraidy cat – I wasn’t going to nab you to make turtle soup for goodness sake!)

The sparrows perch at the Pavilion hoping for handouts … they wait a long time unfortunately because if you offer up a few seeds, the squirrels glom onto them (just like at your birdfeeder at home) and the sparrows are left watching the squirrels doing what they do best (after acting cute) … scamming birdseed. This sparrow wished this water fountain was a birdbath – even if it could turn the fountain handle, it would not help much as the fountain has not been turned on for years.

The wildflowers are scarce yet.

I saw this Tiger Lily growing out in the middle of the Creek bank.

The thistles are not too tall yet and have not been visited by any Goldfinch while I’ve been on the path, but I hope to get some shots soon.

The Milkweed is similarly “gettin’ there” and a woman occasionally comes to pluck leaves for her Monarch caterpillars. It is their only source of food. They feed themselves silly on it, until they are big and fat and form a cocoon (pupa) and emerge as beautiful Monarch butterflies. That’s not happening for a little while yet.

The bees are buzzing about enjoying the nectar on these beautiful blooms.

So now you’re caught up on the doin’s at the Park, from soup to nuts …