Welcome to Washington Valley Park, Newman’s Lane trailhead in Bridgewater, NJ. On this particular weekend (March 27th), the weather had turned cloudy and the temperature had dropped down to 40-45 degrees. While I was hoping to spend most of the weekend outdoors, Aengus and I had to cut our walk short as it was just too cold to enjoy the woodland. I snapped just a few shots as we ambled down to the water and then quickly returned to the parking area. This is the same trail I visited in a previous post, back in January.
This part of the park is littered with boulders that border the Washington Valley Reservoir.
On my favorite outcrop, the view west and east.
And due north.
I often come to the Newman’s Lane trailhead when it rains – I like the different colors of the water as it reflects the sky.
The highlight of our 30 minute walk were some Merganser waterfowl (Mergus merganser) which we spotted cruising near the far shore. My thanks to Whatbird.com for assisting with this species identification - While I usually make use of my field guides or just memories from field biology labs back in college to identify species, I was definitely stumped until I zoomed in on my original photo and hit the web for these guys (the green head is male, the brown female).
It is no mystery why waterfowl like to hang out here.
With the temperature back in the 70's, I am hoping to get in a hike each day of the holiday weekend. I hope the good weather lasts! See you on the trail!
