Weymouth Woods

Last weekend, my family and I went for a walk at Weymouth Woods. You can often find us there early on a Saturday morning. I wanted to share with you all that we experienced on our one-hour walk.
1. We watched some woodpeckers, that we later identified as Red Cockaded Woodpeckers.
2. We admired humming birds flitting about in the upper branches of the pine trees.
3. We found squirrel midden, which are the remains of eaten pine cones. You find midden under the trees where squirrels nest.
4. We spotted two snakes coiled up on a little island of grass in the swamp. We spoke with the ranger and learned they were Cottonmouths.
5. We saw a centipede/millepede (didn't have time to count the legs) and that led to a conversation about survival skills: don't eat anything with more than 6 legs. Could thing to know, don't you think?
6. We watched a pecular looking spider spinning its web and wondered how they spin the threads at spans of 8 feet. We later identified the spider as a Kite Spider.
7. We especially enjoy finding different fungi--they are so colorful.
8. We always look for animal tracks and scat--we did find some deer tracks and a mystery track that might have been from a dog, but we couldn't make out the tip of the claw.
9. We saw a black bird which led to a discussion about the difference between a crow, raven, blackbird, jackdaw and rook. We researched the birds, their range and bird calls.
10. The snake spotting led to a story about a green mamba my husband saw in Africa.
11. The squirrel midden led to another survival tip: how to trap a squirrel.
12. The snakes also led to a survival tip about how to kill and prepare a snake for dinner.

Of course, we were also spending time together as a family, interacting with one another, wondering about the world around us and getting exercise.

Weymouth Woods if free and they offer free nature talks on Sunday afternoons. I've included dates and topics on my blog.

Hope to see you there.