This Ramble Report was written by Don Hunter with a few additions by Dale Hoyt. The photos are by Don and Hugh Nourse.

On Wednesday, February 5, 2014, fourteen Ramblers gathered
at the Sandy Creek Nature Center to walk the trails, just as the overnight
rains were moving out of the area.  The emphasis
for the ramble was winter tree identification, with a dash of Marbled
Salamander.  We left the Education and
Visitor Center and walked north to the Kestrel Trail, right onto the Screech
Owl Trial, briefly on Cook’s Trail, then right on to the Hooded Warbler Trail,
then right on to the Pine Ridge Trail back to the Visitor Center.

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This post was written by Don Hunter. I selected a few of his photographs from his Flickr sets to accompany his narrative; you can find them here.

Twenty Ramblers, including several very welcome new folks,
gathered at the Visitor Center parking lot on the afternoon of January 16 for a
Ramble on what turned out to be a beautiful and surprisingly comfortable
afternoon.  Both the Sun and everyone’s
spirits

Cold? No — just a little chilly

were high and bright as the group headed off from the parking lot for
today’s Ramble, organized by Don, Dale and Emily.  The main areas of concentration today were
lichens, fungi and liverworts.  We left
the parking lot and headed down the path towards the International Bridge, then
on to the Purple Trail.  At the river, we
headed left on the Orange Trail and followed it around the Beaver Pond to the
foot bridge across the creek, where, after a short walk past the bridge, we
viewed liverworts in the stream and a budding Round Lobed Hepatica.  We then returned to the bridge and headed up
the trail to the Flower Garden and on back to the Visitor Center.  The following narrative is a detailed
description of the various interesting things viewed on the Ramble.  Also included are several things not viewed on
the Ramble but were observed earlier on the same route in preparation for the
Ramble and are worth sharing.

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