Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Lebanon Hills Spring Inventory

Amazingly, I ran today. More specifically, due to the crappy weather, I ran through Lebanon Hills to avoid the wind. On the run, I took a spring inventory of the park. What I saw;

1) One tent in a non-tenting area with approximately 24 cans of beer strewn about. The nice park officer I later saw mumbled something about "damn spring break".
2) Four Wood Ducks. This is a relatively new thing for me at Lebanon Hills, and I am glad to see them. Yesterday, I saw four in different part of the park. That makes 8, which is 8 more than I've ever seen at Lebanon.
3) Roughly 20 Coots--or some other similar bird.
4) 6 pairs (at least) of mated Mallards
5) 2 Beavers (one swimming and one slapping)
6) One Red Bellied Woodpecker (I think, he/she was moving fast)
7) Quite a few deer tracks, but no deer.
8) A very large number of small birds, largely chickadees, nuthatches, finches, and other small woodland birds. They kept me company on the run.
9) The furry remains of one very dead rabbit. All that was left was the tail and what looked to be a wishbone. The tail must not be very tasty.
10) Most impressively, 2 Trumpeter Swans. This is decidedly a first for me. Never before have a I seen these beauties and definitely never at Lebanon Hills. Freakin' Awesome!

So, in roughly 12 miles of running, I saw a lot of wildlife. I feel very lucky to live within 5 minutes of such a great park.

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