Crow’s Nest: Photo roundup

By Daniel Barringer, Preserve Manager.

Spring has gone by so quickly I haven’t had time to organize, much less look at, photos I’ve been taking. Here’s one that obviously isn’t too recent: the steers in a patch of late afternoon sunlight in January.

After unrelenting rain earlier in spring, the last couple weeks have been filled with days like this (above): crystal clear light and “big skies.” What a wonderful time of year.

We’ve been doing a lot of mowing, cleaning up from the last round of hazard tree removals, planting trees and shrubs, hosting lots of enjoyable events, cutting invasive plants, limbing up low-hanging branches along the roads and farm field edges, identifying more hazard trees to remove, spreading gravel and wood chips on trails, updating preserve signage, and gardening around the visitor center barn. Here are a few more random photos of the season.

Here’s one of my favorite small trees, red buckeye (Aesculus pavia). I planted it years ago in anticipation of a landscape it would need to grow into; it’s just now starting to peek over the wall of the barn wing so that it is visible at street level.

Here’s the balance beam Erin Smith and Luke DiBerardinis built last year at the kids’ play area.

While weeding the perennial bed at our house I surprised this garter snake.

We receive so many nice comments about the native gardens around the visitor center at the preserve, designed and installed and maintained by Aubrey Smith. I take photos in many different lights at various times of day. I hope you’ll come by and see for yourself how wonderful this time of year can be at the preserve.