A Walk at Vaughn's Gap

For the past two mornings the hounds and I have walked at Vaughn's Gap in Percy Warner Park. The Main Drive and trails there are in the forest, and safely out of the sun, which makes even 10 am hard to bear.

Most of the spring's ephemeral flowers of the forest floor are gone by now, but I found a solitary Butterwort-



And a clump of pale blue Waterleaf, that the photo does not do justice to.




This beautiful orange and green flower chalice is from the Tulip tree, and it fell far to land on the road, for Tulip trees can grow to 200 feet. The woods at Vaughn's Gap have much second growth, but many of the trees are old and venerable, and though they are not the oaks Keats described in "Hyperion"- "Those green-robed senators of mighty woods", they too are"branch-charmed by the earnest stars-".



These woods were full of wind and birdsong this mid-morning. The Swainson's thrushes were singing. I heard Acadian Flycatchers, Tennessee Warblers, Red-eyed vireos, Parula warblers, and a Scarlet Tanager.

The only disturbers of the peace were the cars on the main drive. Edwin Warner Park banned cars on its drives years ago, and it is the better for it. I think Percy Warner should follow suit, for too many of the drivers care not that there are toddlers in strollers up behind the next curve-