March 12,2012 Walk at the Marsh

     This will be my first attempt ever at creating a BLOG the command of the English language in writing is not one of my fortes as my high school English teacher Mr. Craft could attest to, and artistic skills for graphics well we will see if I have any hidden talent. What would I have to offer or write about, Certainly a man close to 58 years old must have something to say and as I looked around the area where I reside, I said WHY NOT WRIGHT ABOUT MY ENVIRONMENT!!! yeah that's what I will do so please look at what write in blog. for its content not its grammar I'll never be a great writer nor do I want to be, so here goes nothing.

When I walk out my front door the first thing I see every morning is the Hamilton Marsh and directly to my front over the steep bank and about 100 yards as the crow flies is Spring Lake. The old timers here call it The White City Lake which I will explain more later.  So with camera in hand on a sunny 59degree spring day and the clocks all pushed forward an hour and the wife (Pattie) doing spring cleaning I'm off for a walk care to join me lets go!

     at the end of our street we will head down over the bank on one of many trails/paths that the county and friends of the marsh have put in and upgraded over the years. Quiet and we can hear all the small chickadees as we walk the path to the lake and we can hear the honking of Canadian Geese and ducks not far away.

as we near the waters edge we can see ducks floating on the small waves created from the breeze blowing in from the west to our west is Pennsylvania on the west side of the Delaware River if it was dark out we would see the lights from Pa.

On my camera I did attach my 200mm zoom lens and we are ready with the shutter speed set to fas sport action in case we see anything pop up and moving fast I will try to get shots at 3 frames per second. and as we look to the far side of lake we can seek two gorgeous, sleek and beautiful white swans. and theres people at the park entrance where you can drive in from the Trenton side of Lake  A great day for fishing.

Well lets continue walking down the trail and see if we can get closer to the swans and I can see the geese on the shoreline by the people.

On the trail we see this Handsom looking Red Cardinal just have to take his picture.

What gives ? did we run upon some ancient roman

ruins could, this be part of the Colloseum ?No not that old, remember at the beginning of our walk I said the old timers call the lake The white City Lake well during the 19th century a dike was built tro create White city lake (now known as Spring Lake) as part of the White City Amusement Park. This park attraccted people from throughout the region to the marsh. The remains of the ornate steps that linked the dance pavilion at the top of the bluff to the lake below are all that remain. At a later time I would like to research this more when my children were small I remember helping them find information at the library before we had a computer and the old photos were amazing where my house is now a trolly car ran a line through to bring tourist from the train depot in Trenton. a few years back when building an addition on my home I dug up some old Belgium Block that was part of Trolly entrance foot path to park, the brick arwe now a border around my flower bed. Well lets continue the walk, shall we.

Yes I do hear the geese let's go check it out ,maybe its a gagle

Guess he will take a gander at us he/she is so beautiful you just want to put your arms around them and hug them.

Time to fluff the down

                    MAYBE A SNACK

Does anyone feel like singing a swan song?

Our friend on the left just spotted some other geese land in the lake and he took to the air and chased them away I'll try to catch some photos of the chase.

AND THE CHASE IS ONThe victor returns and is coming in for his final approach.

There is a large sign in the park I took pictures and cropped into segments it briefly describs the area and what it offers.

19th century White City Amusement Park

Ok enough of reading signs lets continue the walk

We can walk down this trail on west side of lake

when my two dayghters were small we came down here on

a Saturday and helped plant flowers on right side of this

path looks like mother nature has taken over a little on the

wildside now

       This is the power plant south side of the marsh route 29 is between plant and marsh

I saw four beaver huts to day not much activity did see one small beaver could not get a picture

just not quick enough and he blended in with his surroundings

Big tree came down I'm assuming Huricane Irene had something to do with it

Clever idea made some nice stumps to rest on lets try it out

Managed to capture a picture of the Great Blue Herring

hope I got the spelling right. On way home on trail ran

into a audoubon bird watching group of about 30 people

talked with some showed them the above picture and they were

excited that one was out there and I saw it and got a picture I  think

they were more excited than I was.

Well alot more to show you however it is 10:10 pm and 5am comes early and with clock set forward it will be a little harder getting up in morning. This is my very first attempt it took a long time figuring out how to post and editing pictures I took 318 shots today thank GOD for digital cameras, and down loads to a computer and I'm not realy savvy with computers. I would like to expand and improve on.