Andrew Hayden Park visit

Ducks, Geese and seagulls; that's about all the wildlife you'll see living in and around the large pond at Andrew Hayden Park. I took a walk today around a section along the banks of the pond, and the only animal life I saw, at first, were a few very tiny fish. Not seeing more life other than plants, I kept walking. I visited the waterfall which runs into the pond. The water made a soothing sound and drowned out the noise of vehicle traffic from the road, a short distance away. As I walked further along and looked into the water near the shore, I spotted a dead crayfish close to the bank. I poked it with a stick, thinking it might be alive, but unfortunately it had died. A dead snail shell floated on the surface, nearby.

Messy bird droppings littered the grassy banks and rocks in several areas around the pond, and made walking a delicate and difficult task. Seeing all of that mess made me wonder what the water quality was like.

I didn't spot any large fish anywhere in the pond, but near the end of my walk, I spotted a large Grey Heron walking stealthily on the opposite bank. I wondered if it was not very smart, because there didn't appear to be anything close to meal size in the pond.

Afterward, I sat on a bench (Envirobench on the label) when I noticed a mother and young daughter crouching near the water edge and looking at something in the water. The mom took out her cell phone and took a picture of something near the shore, but I couldn't see what it was from my vantage point. A few minutes after they left, I walked over out of curiosity. I was expecting to see nothing out of the ordinary. I crouched down and looked in the same area that the mother and daughter had been, but didn't see anything. As I stood up to leave, my eye caught something on a rock right next to the bank. It was a small turtle laying motionless in the sun. I crouched down again to get a better look. It was about eight inches long and five or six inches wide with a greenish-gray shell. Dried seaweed was stuck on top of it. The turtle didn't move at all, and I thought it might have been dead for awhile. Then as I looked closer it shifted its neck and the eyes appeared to look at me. Then it pulled its head and front legs into its shell a little further. It was only about four feet away from me, but didn't appear alarmed or frightened. At that same time I noticed a small frog floating among the weeds on the water surface. It was also remaining motionless.

I noticed a man and his young son near the water's edge, a little further up from where I had been sitting on the bench. I walked over closer as he was taking pictures of the heron. He was using a camera with an extremely long zoom lens, although he was only a few meters away from the bird. I mentioned the turtle I had seen on the rock as I thought he and his son might be interested. His son came over in my direction, so I pointed out the rock where the turtle was still sitting. The young boy had a pair of binoculars and was looking through them as he walked a little closer to the rock. The boy's father thanked me as he went past, and walked over to where his son was. They both sat down and the father took pictures of the turtle as it rested motionless on the rock.