A love letter to Fair Hill

Fair Hill really is a jewel of a park.  I love it and the fact that we can just wander there whenever we damn well please.  Well, as long as we're out before it's dark.

Even though we just stay in one little corner of it right now, there's just so much to do and see.  Open fields, wooded trails, streams, bridges, ruins, and lots of wildlife.  Last night I surprised a Great Horned Owl that was chilling on a branch over one of the streams.  Peanut and I came out from around a corner, the owl looked at us (it was about at eye level across the water), then flew away on silent wings.

In one rolling stretch of field bordered by forest, I let Peanut graze while I watched Canada Geese flying south.  Several haphazard Vs were flying at once, with some geese leaving one to join the other (accompanied by more honking than usual) and some Vs changing their heading entirely to join the largest.  By the time they started to disappear from view, they had formed into one large flock that was trying to decide who was going to lead.  It looked rather like an undulating M by the time I turned to keep walking.

As the sun starts to go down, it seems that there are deer just about everywhere you look.  Sometimes you see nothing more than distant ears and antlers poking above a hilltop and mirroring your movements, sometimes you startle a deer that you didn't realize was standing just a couple of feet away from you in the woods.  Last night, we came out into a field to find over a dozen lined up on top of a hill.  Peanut and the deer promptly had a staring contest, then Peanut started striding at them with purpose.  I felt that he would have run if not for the biped that he was dragging along on the end of a rope.  As soon as they spooked and the last of their white tails disappeared from view, he started grazing as if nothing happened.

When I came back from California, the greenery that met me really struck me.  I love the Mid-Atlantic.  It's undoubtedly because I grew up here, but even though the West Coast was fascinating to hike, it wasn't the same as a thick, deciduous forest full of woodsy smells.  :)