A Day Early

I got to go on a very special adventure today to celebrate Earth Day.  Even though Earth Day isn't until tomorrow, Momma said the weather is going to be icky tomorrow which I think means it's going to be yucky.  Here's tomorrow's forecast:

Occasional rain with thundery downpours possible, blustery, chilly damp and raw. East/SE winds 13 to26 and gusty. Highs in the low 50s.

Momma told me that every year she celebrates Earth Day and that last Earth Day was very special because it was Stubby's last.  He got to visit a very magical place where he talked to Mother Earth.  He talked to all the animals of the forest and all the plants, sharing what he knew about the world with them and learning from them as well.

Momma already took me to Stubby's magical place when I first arrived at my new home so she thought I should have a magical place to call my own.  She knew my place had to have lots of open space since I can't see very well, and that it had to be big because I like to explore.  So after lunch, she slipped my harness on me, put me in the car, and drove us to Rollins Savanna Forest Preserve.

Rollins Savanna covers over 1,200 acres of mostly former farmland.  Extensive restoration projects since the mid 1990s have turned this preserve into an Important Bird Area by the National Audubon Society.   After today, I am designating it an important pug area, too!

We came across this sign as soon as we got on the trail.  Momma said we were lucky that the trail was open at the creek because we've had so much rain lately.  She even mentioned that she's had to slosh through the trail when it was flooded before.  What?  Yuk!  There was no way I was doing any sloshing today.

One of these days I'm going to get Momma to bring a regular camera when we go out.  She only ever carries her phone so the pictures aren't very good.  A zoom lens would have been helpful here because you can't see what Momma could.  I couldn't see it either but I could hear it, I mean them.  There were lots of tree swallows flying overhead and hanging out in the birdhouses scattered throughout the preserve.  I could hear the birds zooming by and could tell they were very quick. 

This is a close-up of a tree swallow.  Momma says their feathers are iridescent. 

As the tree swallows were zooming overhead we came upon a bird kill.  Momma saw it and I smelled it.  You may have to biggify the picture to see the feathers.  Momma thinks they belonged to a robin.

Momma mostly had her eyes peeled to the sky looking for birds (which she saw) and to the trail looking for snakes (which she didn't see).  Me?  I had my nose to ground checking for pee mail.  Lots of dogs had visited the preserve today so there was lots of mail to pick up.

Momma also spent lots of time looking at the dead plants.  Don't ask me why.  I don't get it but that's my momma!  She loves milkweed and she found this milkweek pod that was open on the grass next to the trail.  She turned it over, touched its seeds, marveled at its beauty, and did everything except put it in her pocket.  She takes only memories and told me that I must do the same.

I wish I could take credit for finding this cool mushroom but I can't.  My sniffer is highly sophisticated but it's no match for Momma's eyes.  These shelf mushrooms didn't smell very good but that didn't stop me from checking them out.  Momma liked the way they looked on the fallen tree.  She wanted to sit so she could get a better look, but I had other plans.

An important bird area needs an observation deck, right?   Momma says this desk was built a couple of years ago so that people could get a better view of the waterfowl and other wading birds.  I couldn't care less what the purpose was.  It was there and it needed to be checked out.

Momma tried to look through the viewing scopes but I wasn't cooperating.  I had to finish checking things out and had no time to look for birds I couldn't see.

Momma decided we should walk on the boardwalk by some ponds but I freaked out as soon as my paws hit the wooden boards.  I walked very tentatively for a few feet until a man approached us.  The sound of his footsteps hurt my ears so I froze in place.  Momma tried to get me to move but I backed up and almost fell into the water.  The man stopped walking when Momma bent to pick me up.  She carried me on this boardwalk but then I walked on the next two.  I'm not afraid of the them anymore as long as there's no one else on them.

I really tried to obey the rules of the preserve but all the good stuff was off trail.  Who knew? 

Too soon our walk was over.  I made one last stop at the trail map to make sure I hadn't missed any mail before I jumped back in the car.  We walked the big loop on the map and covered 3 1/2 miles.  Momma was really impressed that I walked that far.  I was really impressed that she walked that far. 

I told Momma I would like to visit my magical place once a week.  I think that's reasonable, don't you?