A little forest walk A Little Forest Walk Above the craggy mountain that I live against is a small community forest composed of 600-plus acres with some astonishing views and excellent birding, as I discovered this morning. To my great delight, I heard the first Indigo bunting of the year and many warblers dear to my heart. Wandering off by myself, I heard the hermit thrush’s poignant musical trill, a song that sometimes wakens me at dawn.
I was pleased to note that since the last time I was here just after the forest had been brutally logged, some lush greenery including burnished young oaks seemed to be thriving. I noted that the young hemlocks were free of the woolly adelgid. Hemlocks are foundational trees meaning that they mediate flooding, lower forest temperatures in summer, and provide shelter for birds and animals in the winter.
They continue to be indicators of general forest health. Discovering a hidden cluster of about 30 lady slippers enchanted me. The forest is in recovery .
.. When I decided to attend this bird walk because James, the leader is my friend and the person who taught me how to listen to birds (I had learned as a toddler to identify birds by sight), I was ambivalent – wary – hoping that new greenery would disguise recent tree slaughter.
It did. What I didn’t expect was to see so much beauty. Of course, the Greening of the Earth steals my heart every single year.
It makes it impossible for me to leave my blooming fruit trees and carpeted wildf.