Do you know your baby ducks?

I found out I don't, if Mom's not right there.  I was out taking photos and not purposely birding this past Friday, when I happened to hear some flustered high-pitched cheeping.  It was coming from these guys:

It took a bit of searching and some help from Facebook for me to figure out that these are Hooded Merganser ducklings.  So there's your dose of cute for the day :)

The Day Before and the Week Before

The day before we did the big hike on the Rail Trail, I was working on a Saturday.  Fortunately, the "job" was helping out with study sessions for the County's Envirothon.  Technically it's work, but it was a lot of fun, too.  I was reviewing how streams and rivers work with enthusiastic 3rd and 4th graders.

These sessions take place in Nixon County Park, which has a large Nature Center.  Here are some shots from this last Saturday.

Frogs were abundant, multiple types.  This was the only one I found who wasn't actively working at making new baby frogs :)  Like these:

Some other early signs of spring were showing.  I believe these are blooms of the small shrub called Witch Hazel.  I forgot to break a stem and check the smell - Witch Hazel smells like the stuff you can buy in drug stores.

Now what I didn't tell you is that two Saturdays ago, Justin and I worked the afternoon study sessions together and walked around nearby Lake Williams beforehand.  This gave us something over 5 miles of hiking through pretty gentle terrain.  Lake Williams and Lake Redman are local water reservoirs and are each the center of a County Park.

Here's the tail end of Lake Williams.  The dam for Lake Redman is just across the road.  It was on this hike that I saw my first true wildflowers of this year, some lovely Coltsfoot.  I was fortunate to catch a bee at just the right moment.

There were a lot of Double-Crested Cormorants in the area.  I assume some were migrating through and some are here to stay.  I think I counted well over 30.  One of the funny things about Double-Crested Cormorants is that a lot of times you have to catch them at just the right angle to see their crests.  But not so with this guy, he (or she) is really rocking the hairdo.

Excuse the awkward view through trees, I thought the hair was worth it :)

Dusting Off the Winter

I find it a little hard to believe myself, but from last Sunday to this past Sunday, I have hiked/walked right around 28-29 miles.  We have been making a point of getting out and about to pull ourselves back into some semblance of shape for an upcoming vacation which is going to involve a TON of walking.

The first big foray we did was about 9.5 miles on the York County Heritage Rail Trail.  We wanted somewhere relatively flat with a lot of mileage we could just churn out.  Last Sunday we started at the Hanover Junction trailhead and walked to the town of Glen Rock and back.  Not a lot of wildflowers were out, but there were several big patches of Bloodroot in bloom.

This is the town of Glen Rock.  Bluegrass music fans might recognize this as the town where Del McCoury grew up.  The Rail Trail actually continues south of Glen Rock into Maryland, but this was far enough for us in one day.

The Rail Trail, at least this part of it, runs along the south branch of the Codorus Creek, and the landscape is a mix of farms and forest.  

Most rail trails follow the right-of-way of an old rail line. That is, the rail line has literally become a trail.  This one in  York is a little different, because the tracks are still in place.  They were disused for quite a while.  But now, Steam Into History, a steam-powered locomotive that pulls excursion trains, uses the tracks.  So those on the trail sometimes come face to face with those on the rail!

Here's a short video I took of Steam Into History's gorgeous locomotive when it first arrived in the area back in the summer of 2013.  One of those things I just happened to luck into.

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