Near the main entrance, I found a little pond that was full of frogs and buzzing with dragonflies. Here's one of the green guys.

I went looking for a path to trod along and came upon a couple of fields with big picnic shelters and barbequing facilities. There was a parks worker tidying up one of the shelters, and I found a couple of rabbits in the fields. Here's one I found out in the middle of the grass (rather than along the edges, where cautious bunnies tend to stay).

He bolted right after this photo, and I got one shot of him running.

I followed a path into the woods, but then it started getting narrow so I wasn't sure if it was one of the main park trails. I backtracked and went to the other side of the parking lot, where I found Shaggy Mane trail, which is used by the local equestrians (there's an equestrian center in the park somewhere). Just after getting to this trail, I happened upon a tree with a couple of Common Yellowthroats flitting around in it. I got a number of shots, and I was pretty sure I had some good ones. Here are two of them.

That was neat, because those are the best shots I've ever gotten of those cute li'l fellers.

I proceeded along the Shaggy Mane trail, and it entered the woods and pretty much stayed in the woods. From time to time, someone (more often than not, an attractive woman) would ride past on a horse. I would occasionally hear the call of an American Robin or Spotted Thrush, and even more occasionally hear the tap-tap-tap of a woodpecker. The woodpeckers didn't show themselves, though.

Well, I continued walking for about 45 minutes to an hour, and then decided to give up because I really wasn't seeing much of anything. So I turned around and started heading back. Maybe two minutes later, I hear a woodpecker, close by. Turns out he was on a tree that was right next to the path, and the tree was in one of the spots where sunlight made it through the canopy. He was a Downy Woodpecker, one of the small guys.

He seemed to be pecking at the fungus, not the tree itself.

Well, that was a neat find, but it was to be my last of the day. I went back without encountering anything else of note (despite some trips off the beaten path to try to find the source of other woodpecker noises).

I had a look at the park map before I left, and it seems as though I could have continued down the narrow forest path I first found to get to other major trails through the park. Hopefully those trails are not as deep-woods as the Shaggy Mane. It will certainly be worth another visit to find out.

Being shorter than usual,
your roaming friend,
Tom