Crow's Nest: Flowers & Fire

The kids at WebWalkers and Spiderlings last week picked out individual plants and pinpointed locations—the survey flags you can see in the parking lot meadows—to study the effects of the prescribed fire on the meadow and the unburned half of the field. Each week they will return to see the changes as the fields green up.

It was also good just to get out to stretch our legs. The red maples are blooming, as are the male catkins on alder, and the quaking aspen is also started. Walking along the creek trail you can hear spring peepers in the cattail marsh on your right. Further down the trail you usually can hear wood frogs making their quacking call, but so far I haven't heard them yet this year. It has still been cold, though. Yesterday we also saw wood ducks repeatedly along the creek.