A field walk

Last week, on the 17th, I joined the Naturalists' Training Course for the afternoon. We spent a couple of hours in the classroom, learning about asexual or vegetative reproduction in plants, but the day was sunny-- a rare occurrence these past months-- and we were all anxious to get outside. We walked in the woods on the east side of Dufferin, on the lookout for whatever we might see. Because the spring has been so slow we weren't expecting flowers, but green had started to appear in the duff. 

The woods are full of light still, with the trees empty of leaves and the forest floor pale with a carpet of last year's dried leaves. Here's the group just starting along the trail. 

It didn't take long for people to fan out in all directions, and with so many pairs of eyes looking discoveries were made: fungi of various sorts, including one that looked to me like a face, 

an Equisetum, dwarf scouring rush, looking, as Robin noted, like grass having a bad hair day, 

a couple of club mosses (Lycopodium), 

and even a flower: the hepatica were poking their way through the leaf duff in the old sugar bush.

While the naturalists were on the hunt for whatever they might discover, Rufus the dog was having a wonderful time racing about.

That walk was such a pleasure I went out again on my own after supper. Walking to the pond beside the driveway, I discovered the spring peepers were beginning to call. After listening to them for awhile I went on past the grey barn, heading towards the other ponds to see if there were peepers there too. The twilight was deepening and I wasn't paying much attention when I realized the shape on the grass behind the grey barn was a deer. I stopped to reach for my camera and it took off into the woods, its white tail up and shining.  

A little later when I made my way back to the house the moon was shining too.