Mallards & Buffleheads & Goldeneyes

The lake trail (with some other guy and his sweatered bulldog up ahead)

Good Morning, Readers. Fred and Gladys and I have been walking in the Hamilton-Trenton Marsh lately, not as a formal New Year's exercise resolution, but just 'because'. One of these days I will remember to set the pedometer app to measure the walk, but I estimate that it is about two miles: from the house, around the corner, down the hill, around the lake, up the hill, and back home. This post is more pictorial than literary, and I hope you will have the sensation that you came along with us but without the ever-so-slight ache in your calves. BTW, this area is also known as John Roebling Park, Spring Lake, and most recently, Abbott Marshlands.

Beaver architecture, ca. 2016

This is Spring Lake

Action shot: Gladys loves the Marsh!

Tree down! This tree always dreamed of being a dock.

Water Snakes: usually I don't see these.

ROOTS...

AND BERRIES...

and BIRDS:

Look between the Phragmites to see the Mallard

Goldeneyes? Buffleheads? I think I saw some of each, but I walked away without good evidence.

The soundtrack of our walk was provided by these noisy Canada Geese.

As you can see by our walk, there's plenty of life being lived in the winter marsh. I'm not 100% sure that my bird identifications are 100% correct, but I did my best post-walk research with my Peterson and Kaufman bird guides. It is a truth universally acknowledged by birders that birds in the wild do not stand still to pose for photographers or amateur birders. What fun would it be if they did?

The Hamilton-Trenton-Bordentown Marsh

I write a lot about Cape May, so much so that many readers probably assume that I live there. No, it was my parents' home, I was born there, and my sister and I maintain our family home there. I planted myself in Hamilton, NJ, because I'm near highways, trains and airports that lead me to all the places I like to visit. (Was that a long story not made short enough?)

My house sits on a bluff overlooking the Hamilton (-Trenton-Bordentown) Marsh, now a county park, but hundreds of years ago it was Lenni Lenape territory. Hunters would wait in what is my backyard for game to appear in the marsh below. Location, location, location.

At the turn of the last century and after, there was an amusement park in the marsh centered around Spring Lake. It was built by a trolley company so that people in Trenton would have a reason to ride the trolley on weekends. This stairway is leftover from that time. Visitors would walk down these steps to get to the amusements after riding the trolley through my current neighborhood's backyards. The houses on my street were built in the 1950s, but this neighborhood is a hodgepodge of single homes, duplexes, and rowhomes of all ages. There is even a mansion once owned by Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's older brother. I don't think he lived there, but his mistress did, and he lived on the other side of the marsh in Bordentown. Location, location, location.

Today the marsh is a great place to go to photograph nature in all seasons. In spring, the water lilies begin to bloom in Spring Lake.
And the Old Man Tree is surrounded by new growth.

In summer, wildflowers abound and avian residents hang near the lake to stay cool. This photo, "Single Cattail," actually sold at a marsh photography show a few years ago.

In fall, the leaves turn and start to drop revealing less obstructed views like this one of beaver lodges.

In winter, it's a treat to stand in my backyard and see the marsh covered with snow. Location, location, location.