SENIORS TAKE A WALK--
At the Gorman Nature Center

Naturalist Jan Ferrell (top right) and Sue Brooks share a sunny, Fall afternoon with countless frogs and turtles who were sunning themselves at the nature center's pond during the recent string of terrific weather days.

Below the boardwalk picture they are busy netting an array of aquatic critters at pond's edge.  Tadpoles, snails, diving beetles, bluegills, dragon fly larva, back-swimmers and clams were a few of the near countless creatures in attendance.

All the captives were released, of course, after a brief stay in their enameled, dishpan jail where they could be observed.

In fact, the critters actually won this temporary skirmish when a crawdad awarded a very noticeable pinch to yours truly while the lower photo was being arranged.

That led to some mirthful comments about Sue's fondness for seafood.

The green frog in the bottom photo has a body about three inches long.  He (or she) was very busy doing nothing on this Lilly pad; itself containing a nifty private pond of its own for this froggy visitor's enjoyment.

We paused on our leisurely circuit to munch on the leaf stems of some Sassafras trees along the edge of the center's meadow trails.

What a delightful way to spend an hour or so in salute of nature's seasonal blessings!
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Jan Ferrell has appeared on the blog previously in stories dealing with the local bald eagle population, a few blogs on spiders and another nature walk or two.  There is a search box upper left.  Type Jan's name in there and click on the search icon to find all those stories at once.