A walk around Wildwood Lake reveals a wetland full of benefits for the ecosystem, natural beauty galore, and an abundance of habitat for a variety of life. Currently, it also serves as habitat for an exhibit “Art in the Wild.” A lap around the lake includes a number of creations influenced by nature. My favorites are skillfully crafted “Man in the Mirror” and cleverly named “WildWood.” These spark thoughts for my own artistic creations. At the northwest corner there is a bat house where I envision a signal from Commissioner Gordon hanging nearby. Of course, I would call it “Batcave.” The west side of the lake is bordered by the towpath that follows what is left of the Pennsylvania canal. At one point, a fallen log rises from the canal. The end that protrudes from the water is split in a way that suggests the open mouth of a crocodile. I call it “Hook’s Nightmare.”
Keep your eyes open for a small but healthy deer herd at the lake. On some occasions I have found myself unusually close. Expect rabbits and chipmunks running across the trail in front of you. On three separate occasions I have discovered climbing groundhogs. One was halfway up a tree, another had climbed a chain link fence, and yet another was lounging on a limb overhanging the water. One evening, I turned to find a Red Fox following me on the path.
If the sun is shining and the weather is warm, expect turtles, frogs, and snakes to be sunning themselves. The canal along the towpath is the best place to find them. Last week, I watched tiny snapping turtles making their way to the water. There is almost always action at the upper end of the canal, where silver maples and other trees that like wet feet shade the water so that it covers almost entirely with surface algae. Here turtles and frogs become more difficult to find. They emerge from the water covered in algae like a team of Special Forces in camouflage that perfectly matches the surrounding environment. To find them here do not look for turtles or frogs. Instead look for shapes that are different from surrounding shapes. Look for something sticking above the surface. Look for an oval balancing on a log. Those two side by side circles looking straight at you just might be the eyes of a bullfrog. Chances are you will be seen first.
At the bridge that crosses Paxton Creek, look for large carp or a school of bass in the water below. Look for the dorsal fins of larger fish moving in the shallows at the south end of the lake. Look for red-winged blackbirds in the cattails. You may see a Belted Kingfisher dive for food. Wood ducks and mallards and Canada Geese and other waterfowl are spotted easily. But it is the wading birds that may be the signature representatives for Wildwood. Great Blue Herons and Great Egrets can be found all over the lake. There is a good chance you will find a Green Heron and a White Ibis was spotted here earlier this summer.
Listen as cicadas and crickets and thrushes and bullfrogs sing the songs of Wildwood. Taste the mulberries and raspberries that grow along the trail. Wildwood Lake both sounds good and tastes good. And it looks good too, photographers love it. So do walkers and runners and bikers. There are a lot of reasons to love it. I suspect that Macbeth’s witches would even love it. After all, it is a good place to find the type of things they might be looking for; eye of frog, tail of turtle, feather of heron, buck velvet, tooth of fox, wing of bat, skin of snake. Yeah, I think they would like it. I suspect that you would like it too.
scattered thoughts 