Gay City State Park: Hebron, CT (4/12)

[Well, I'm a month behind again so a lot of this information will be really old now. But I have been having a lot of good adventures lately so I'll try to get them all posted soon.]

Back in the middle of April I got up early on a Saturday morning and headed over to Gay City State Park in Hebron. From the parking lot I walked down the main access road before deciding on the red trail. Per the map, this is about a three mile loop and it took me longer than I expected.

It was an overcast misty morning but I could tell that spring was coming. All around the plants were starting to poke out. There was skunk cabbage everywhere and I stopped for some time to try and get a few nice closeup shots of it in the low light. There were also lots of princess pines sprouting all over the forest floor. They really are an interesting plant when the grow to be large patches.

The forest was pretty quiet though. There were the year long residents like Tufted Titmouse and Chickadee but not too much else. I did find my first warbler of the year though; a Pine Warbler. And I actually got a decent look at the bird since the trees were still mostly bare.

Eventually I made it back to the blue trail. Just before the two trails met I passed a really beautiful cascading brook which just begged to be photographed. I know that I have a lot of pictures of waterfalls but I can't pass them by.

As I made my way back to the parking lot I passed by the pond and was surprised to see it still had some waterfowl. Besides the Canada Geese and Wood Ducks, I actually spotted what I believe were female Hood Mergansers. It was a long sweaty walk in a really nice park.