Wilkinson Nature Reserve

I should title the image below: Portrait in Black and White. It's good that both subjects heeded the suggested dress code memo this morning. 🥴

The Wilkinson Nature Reserve is one of the earliest acquisitions of the Northumberland Land Trust. In 2004, George and Pat Wilkinson donated 46 acres consisting of two forested areas separated by a wetland. What better way to start a walk there than to visit the little sugar shack. Sadly, this year bears wrecked the plastic sap buckets. In former years, a NLT volunteer, Helmut Enns, made maple syrup there for a NLT fundraiser. I hope that won't deter Helmut from trying again. Co-existing with the natural world is never easy.

You are going to notice a theme today. Fungi!

There are white-tailed deer living on this reserve. This morning, non-hunters like me learned about white-tail deer scrapes. Patches of earth have been scraped away by rutting bucks hoping to attract a doe. We saw quite a few scrapes on our short hike.

Part way through the walk in the woods, the sun came out. Nice. I like shadows.

Our leader, Leslie, spotted a blue beech tree. It is also called a muscle tree because the trunk looks like it has muscles. Quite a few of us felt the need to feel the muscles this morning.

You never know what you'll experience when you venture out into the woods. Bonnie got a dragonfly hug....

... and Dalila discovered that there was too much water in the marsh to walk to the other woods.

Flocks of migrating robins and other birds were spotted....

... and when we looked down, we found some beautiful fungi gems.

What a lovely mushroom.

Today's walk was a fungus-lover's heaven.

Pogue Road runs on the east side of the Wilkinson Nature Reserve. North of the reserve, It quickly becomes unnavigable for vehicles and switches to functioning as multiple mirrors for passing hikers.

Nice.

Tamaracks were still showing colour at the edge of the marsh....

..... and red osier dogwood did its best to brighten up the foreground.

The sun was still shining as we and our shadows made our way back to our vehicles.

I'll end with a Mary Oliver poem that seems appropriate to pair with today's walk:

“You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.”

The last outing of the year will be: November 29: Laurie Lawson Outdoor Education Centre project information walk with Amanda Newell