Cummings Nature Center

On Saturday, a friend and I went to Cummings Nature Center.  This is a lovely place, South of Rochester.  It's associated with the Rochester Museum and Science Center.  It was my first time there, and I really enjoyed myself.
We decided to hike to the Beaver Pond.  The day was warm, and the sun was shining.  On the way to the trail, we walked through the grounds.  It's a perfect place for kids.
They have a leapfrog pond, showing the progression from tadpole to frog that kids can play on.

And, the trees have critters sculpted around them.

From there, we passed to the trails, themselves.  They are wide, and well kept.  The avenue of pines at the beginning is breathtaking.

Once beyond the pines, you enter deciduous woods.  It's not old growth, this whole area was farmland, around the turn of the 20th century.  But, it's full of lovely open spots, mossy knolls and little streams.

 This little stream had fresh critter prints, probably raccoon, beside it.

Ferns were everywhere, and of many different kinds, including
Common, or Rock Polypody

And, Maidenhair Fern

This tree started its life growing on a stump.  Over time, the stump rotted, leaving the tree looking like it was growing on stilts, or walking along the forest floor.

It was a lovely walk to the beaver pond, and a nice reward when we got there.  There is a little shelter there, where we sat and ate our lunch.  There are no beaver in the pond any more.  They left in 1996, after eating all of the young alder trees that grew there.  The sign said that they moved further up the creek.  But, the pond remains, filling in around the edges.

And, occupied by the requisite muskrat house.

The white water lilies were blooming.  This one had a bee visiting it.

And, there were sedges everywhere, heavy with ripening seed pods. 

We saw kingfishers, and hawks, but the only critter I managed to photograph was this little leopard frog, sitting among the sedge.

And, everywhere, there were the flowers of late summer.
Joe Pye Weed(one of my favorites)

Boneset

Jewelweed

Turtlehead

White Snakeroot

And, these two, that I had to struggle to identify.  I am pretty sure that this is Indian Tobacco, a member of the Lobelia family.

And, this, I think, is Great Blue Lobelia.  I was standing on a bridge, and it was quite far away.  I was going back and forth between Great Blue Lobelia and Spiked Lobelia, but I decided to go with Great Blue because Newcomb's says that grows in wet areas, while the Spiked grows in meadows, and I was definitely looking at a wet area here.

This is a lovely resource for Western New York and we were very much surprised at how few people were there.  When we got there, there was only one other car, and we met only one family on our walk in.  There were a few others by the time we left, but I would think that with a place this beautiful, and a gorgeous day, there would have been many more people there.  After all, who can resist sights like this.

After we left there, we went to a place just down the road called the Wesley Hill Reserve.  However, this is getting long, so I'll save that story for tomorrow.