Nature Walk Observations #3

I just got back from a lovely signs of Spring woods march with the hound.  We walked along the length of the lake, and then took a shorcut a through a closed down golf course, where we trudged along what is usually a paved road in the summer, but is left to nature over winter.  That was the first time I had walked through at that time of year, and there weren't many tracks as we walked the road, but the few that were, were of critter and deer variety.  I suppose they stayed in their wooded trails even in the winter, afar from the open road. and that was the reason for the trail being unmarked for the most part.

As we walked down a long section of snow filled road that opened up into the valley below, something caught my eye through the woods and off to the right, and I thought it was a maintenence guy about to bust us for trespassing, but it was a lone whitetail deer, and it bounded across the open valley smoothly and silently, before following the road for a short distance, then turning up a steep hill into a forest of sumac, buckthorn, and oak trees beyond.  We lightly jogged across the thick, wet snow, and towards the area where the deer went in and followed his thin trail, ducking under and around the dreaded, invasive buckthorn (fun fact, er actually sad fact..buckthorn was sold in garden nurseries until the 1930's in Minnesota, and people actually paid for that scrub tree...if only they knew what a pest it has become-it's the Asian Carp of trees to give an idea.)

Anywho, after reaching the peak of that hill and turning around, and overlooking the valley we had come out of, I realized this spot in the trail afforded the best view of the surrounding area, as far as the eye could see.  That was to be expected, but when I walked a little further I realized that the entire walking trail exactly hugged the perimeter of the tennis courts, but with a thick buffer of sumac.  For a moment I imagined this trail I was following to be a human observatory of sorts for the animals..a way to watch humans and their strange going ons in the park, much as we watch animals with curiousity at the zoo or with binoculars or the camera.

Probably not, but fun to think about.