By Kim Sayers
We met at 6:30 on a chilly but clear May evening for a wild flower walk through the south east trails of Kinghurst Tract of the Krug Forests. We saw many spring flowers but some were closed up because of the cold snap. The trees did not have leaves yet. We did see some Red and white trilliums (whites still in bud), Bloodroot, Common and Divided leaved Toothwort (Common in bud), Blue Phlox (in bud), Dutchmen’s Britches (nicknamed bachelors britches), Large Flowered Bellwort, Trout Lily, Sharp Lobed Hepatica (white, pink AND mauve flowers), Spring Beauty, Wild Ginger, dog Violet, Marsh Blue Violet,
As we walked we identified any birds we heard or saw. Saw and heard a ruffed grouse drumming, a black throated blue warbler, robin, a wood thrush, chorus frogs. Heard and saw a sapsucker, a Canada goose, a kingfisher, heard a great horned owl after dark.
Other exciting wild finds include a beaver swimming through the second marshy area (signs of where it had eaten a water-lily root were on shore), a muskrat, a young porcupine gave us a nice smile, a beautiful long coyote chorus just after sunset, chorus frogs and spring peepers were calling when ever we went past a marshy area.
All in all it was a “fantastic evening.”
