I walk the woods behind Bergman Park at least once a week.  It is amazing to see how much changes in a day or two at this time of year.  It will be a while before leaves appear on the trees.  But on the forest floor, things are happening.

If you take a step off the trail in this damp, rich woods, you are hard-pressed not to step on leeks.  Someone has been timbering in here and there are places where I have to leave what used to be the trail and climb over branches to get to where the trail picks up again.  Today when I did that, a fresh oniony smell drifted up to my nose.  It’s too early to dig them up for soup, though.

Usually, I hear the pileated woodpeckers that live here, but I rarely see them.  Today, they were silent, but the put on a little flying demonstration for me.  Lolli and I were down by the creek and they were investigating the lower trunks of the trees up on the ridge above us.  I nearly caught a shot of one of them, but Lolli chased him off.  Just as well.  I still don’t have a long enough lens to have done the photo justice, and I would have been disappointed.

To round out the woodpecker experience, a downy found its way to the upper branches of the same tree, and a red-bellied reminded me of it presence with a song.  I also heard crows, chickadees, kinglets, and (my favorite) a barred owl.  It reminded me of a walk at Rheinstrom Hill Audubon Center when the barred owls were calling at noon!

I learned a new flower yesterday:  Pennsylvania Bittercress.  It’s growing in a couple of patches near the Nature Center building.  Finally saw Colt’s Foot today, too, and some Narcissus.  Spring is here!  Let the march of wildflowers begin!