Weekend Nature Walk

We decided to check out a Nature Preserve in the community North of us. Oshkosh has several little Nature Centers and some nice nature walks along the river and lakes, but we don't have one big designated wildlife spot. I've written about Heckrodt Wetlands numerous times, it's in the town about 10 miles North of us. But we've never been to Gordon Bubolz, which is about 18 miles North of us. 

Ben actually said he preferred it and couldn't believe we'd never been here. I'd heard about it years ago, but just always felt satisfied with the places we'd already explored. Anyway, it has a good balance of forest, prairie and wetland. We took a forest/prairie hike, checked out the visitor building, and then fed turtles at the main pond. Here's some photos of the outing.

When we stopped for a snack break Reid built this cool little creation. He spent the rest of our hike imagining what animal might come discover/play with it. He was pretty proud. You can't really tell in the picture, but the stick is actually at an angle above the ground, being held up by other sticks. He would have kept building it up forever had we let him. 

Nell of course needed to be carried for a bit every now and again. Daddy sure loves lugging around his girls. At the end of the trail we heard some sort of wildlife in the pushes just off the path, so Ben went to figure out what it was. Suddenly he got all excited and reached down to catch it. I wish I had recorded the kids reaction when he pulled a garter snake eating a frog out of the bushes. They screamed so loud and took off running for a good 50 ft. They were going full speed and had no intentions of ever stopping. A couple other hikers were approaching in the opposite direction and they didn't know if they should laugh or run for cover. When I finally caught up to both kids at a bench near the trail entrance they were both covered in tears. I finally calmed Reid down enough to go back and check it out. He's been so into snakes lately, I was really surprised it scared him so much. I told Ben he'll have to narrate his actions next time, a little "okay, I'm going to pull out a snake eating a frog" might have gone a long way. 

(pictures from Ben's phone)

(turltes)

The turtle pond was appropriately named, as I've never seen so many turtles in one place in all my life. The kids were in heaven watching them all fight off small catfish for the fish food we threw in. The lady running the nature center building gave us a free bag, which was very nice of her. Ben's already planning to go back and we'll be sure to take some cash donations next time. 

We love supporting local wild areas!