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The first 9.5 minutes of this video are interviews with Tim Davis (shared use path project manager, below right)) and Kelly Russell (City alderman).  Tim is being interviewed at the tunnel entrance. Kelly is being interviewed while sitting on the bench at the turtle area.The person who made the video, as I understand it, goes around the country making videos related to pedestrian safety. FWP, FOBP and the parks get very positive comments. Thanks to Tim and Kelly for those. Long live the turtle!! – Ginny

Turkeys are seen almost every day, north part of park along Carroll Creek where the undergrowth is dense. Bluebirds have fledged. I caught this tree swallow (light kept the great swallow blue coloring from showing) feeding her baby that has been sitting for a couple of days at the entry hole waiting for bugs. Those swallows come about every thirty seconds with a new morsel. Bet they will be glad when the kids can fly on their own! – Ginny

Wow!!  The Kennys walk to the new bridge every morning and see lots of critters. Luckily Anne takes pictures. We have bluebirds and swallows, now a pair of turkeys. One of our members sent me a picture of one turkey a week ago and I was thinking he was looking for a mate. But a pair is wonderful. Hope raccoons do not eat their eggs. We will see! If anyone spots young turkeys in a month or two, please let me know.  – Ginny

Pictured below, FWP Board members Ginny Brace and Dan Yates (arborist with Bartlett Tree Experts) recently participated with booths at Culler Lake during the Green Neighbor Festival May 20 & 21, 2017. FWP board members Alice Meiners, Rachel Zigler, Karen Morton and Kathy Soria also manned the FWP booth during the two-day event.

Migrating birds starting to appear – this red-breasted grosbeak  was at my feeders today. Two males were feeding at the same time later in the day.

Also moving to land to find a spot to lay eggs is this good-sized snapping turtle. Neighbors could possibly find it is a garden bed, and walkers might come across her. Do be alert. She will return to the water as soon as the eggs are laid.  Ummm, all these years we have waded the stream to pick up trash with no body armor! We may need to be careful in deeper parts of the creek. Snapper was photographed last year as well.

Also,  the fringetrees are in bloom and the yellowwoods will be out soon. Both the coral and yellow native honeysuckles are in full bloom. Has anyone seen a hummer yet? I have not. The viburnums are out – some large cranberry viburnum with white blooms along the path.

And maybe more rain coming – it’s a good thing! – Ginny

Below is one of Anne Kenny’s photos of a black-crowned night heron, the ones that breed in the pines at Culler Lake. I guess our fishing is good over here, too. This one was by the bridge near Baughmans Lane.

Also it is time for election of directors. Alice Meiners has regretfully told us that she cannot continue her treasurer duties. She is processing the renewals, but after that, we need a new person to take over. Our board meets 6 times a year, usually for an hour and a half. We do communicate by email for some purchases, etc. The treasurer needs to keep our ledger, not a huge task because most of our work is physical labor, not buying things. I am happy to show anyone interested our books so you can see how we operate. Actually any member can see them anytime. Alice keeps our records in Quickbooks, but it can easily go to a different accounting software. Please let me know if you are interested. We need someone to step up and fill the need.

FYI, tadpoles are in the vernal pools along the old sewer line, but someone did wheelies with what looks like a four-wheeler, and they went right through one of the pools with tadpoles. I am going to put a few stakes and tape around the pool with the most tadpoles. Whether frogs or toads, we want them! –  Ginny

Click here to read the 2017 Membership Renewal letter from Ginny,

We did it!! There is now a mulched path through the middle of the meadow, something FWP folks had asked for. It took two days of terrific volunteer help – Saturday eight teenagers with KidsTheseDays and Sunday five Hood students with the HoodEnvironental Team.

Many FWP worker bees were on site as well: Lesley Cristol, Joe Ganley, Sala Malec, Kathy Gelles-Baxter, Fran Hostetler, Kevin Jaramillo and Margaret Pierre-Nanan.

Both groups spent about half their time mulching trees in addition to the path work. Special thanks to Fran for getting us the additional cardboard we needed for the base for the path. 

Joanne Leathery’s brownies as always are the hit of the events!

Ready for this? I have recorded 191 hours of volunteer time in the park in 2017! Just check out the woods that is almost clear of honeysuckle. If Lesley has her way, it will also be clear of wineberry in the next weeks! Go, Lesley!!

Below are some photos, – Ginny

Below Leslie Williamson (center) and four teens (Dana, Hamani, Cristian, Joseph (wielding a weed wrench)) from Kids These Days joined Ginny Joe, Kevin and Sara to pull wineberry and honeysuckle. Fine weather, fine outing. We started behind the green benches and worked our way toward the old sewer line.

Below is a group picture of all the workers, less Leslie who is taking the picture:

This winter has offered the best weather in several years for attacking invasive plants. We have put in over 75 park hours so far in 2017.

-Ginny

Our turtle was under the snow (below) last week, but then the weather warmed and the worker bees took advantage. The other photo below is Joe Ganley using one of the weed wrenches to take out a large honeysuckle . We have used those tools since 2007; they were funded by federal invasive species grant funds obtained for us by the MD Dept. of Natural Resources. Wonderful tools.

Five worker bees Thursday and again Friday worked on an overgrown area on the hill near the shed. Honeysuckle, wineberry and oriental bittersweet are easy to spot, and when the ground is not frozen, relatively easy to pull. We also put the five bluebird houses back in their spots at the meadow edges. If we can keep the European sparrows from nesting, we may get bluebirds. If no bluebirds, the swallows will probably take over late spring. We’ll see what happens.

We had new workers, Don Massey and Kathy Gelles-Baxter, joining Joe, Susan Stokes, Lesley Cristol and Fran Hostetler. Nice to be out there with folks who like to get some  winter exercise. End of next week looks promising again. Maybe we will get the entire hill area cleaned up. Spring treatment by Frederick Co. Noxious Weed Control folks will be needed, but the work we do makes it possible for them to maneuver in the area and get rid of regrowth.

Hope you are staying warm and healthy. – Ginny