Pat’s Wildways: around and around

I confess that I’ve been less active these days than I was in years past. Back in the day, I routinely took five-mile walks around our area and led Newcomer’s Club friends on once-a-month five-mile hikes too. But that seems so long ago. In the interim, I’ve injured my hip and slowly recovered with the help of a physical therapist. Most often, I seek benches to rest my hip before continuing on, and that is not always possible. Long walks got more and more difficult, until, sadly, I nearly ceased recreational walking at all.

But I’ve got a new start on getting my walking mojo back and it’s virtually right in my own backyard, or close enough. Simmons Park, with its 1/4-mile loop trail beneath a canopy of shade trees and with lots of benches, is my new go-to place when I want a bit of exercise but don’t have time for a full-fledged hike. And I’ve figured out a few ways to keep my mind occupied when I go round and round and round again. I put on headphones to listen to my favorite podcasts and get to it. When I round the first lap, I put a stone on a bench. Then each round I add another until I meet my goal of the requisite stones I aim for each session. At the end, when eight or ten stones are lined up, I sweep them off the bench with a flourish and I’m done! I exercised! Hurray for me!

Of course I am always on the lookout for the natural sights I see along the way. Like squirrels, for instance. These days, a handful of fluffy fat squirrels share the park with me, and I look for these friends each time I pass them by. Lately, most have been scurrying around with hickory nuts in their mouth, and they try to hide behind trees when I pass, but I always spot them. It gives me something to think about each lap, “Where is that squirrel now?” On another day, I found a hispid cotton rat, a cute native rodent, at the edge of the path, the first I’ve seen on Amelia Island.

And then there are the lizards. Small green or Cuban anoles stir up the leaves when I pass, sometimes without me even finding them. And, if I am lucky a relative of theirs, a broad-headed skink, sometimes sunbathes on the path and lets me get close enough to photograph it while it is busy soaking up the rays. When young, these skinks look a lot like our more common blue-tailed skink, but as they mature they get larger than these and develop a bright red head when in breeding condition. Pondering skinks gets me another lap round the track.

And of course there are the people I encounter. Most often there are dog walkers, sometimes with a kid in tow too. I always courteously take off my headphones and greet them when I pass, usually asking too if I can pet their dog. My dog-owning days are long gone, but a few pets and tail wags here and there make me smile. One gal with her two dogs had her own version of my stones-on-bench routine. One of her dogs, apparently, is not interested in walking, so she entices it with treats whenever they reach a blue decorated bench with the nature graphics next to it. Clever.

Along with the blue benches there are other aesthetically pleasing man-made objects to admire. Someone has installed a few cute bird houses in the trees. Others have installed a “little library” near the front entrance to the path. On a recent walk I spotted a father sitting on a nearby bench reading a children’s book from this library to his rapt kids. How sweet!

It turns out I’m not the only one who uses natural objects to mark my passage. It is easier for me to forget counting and just add a stone to my bench every time around. And another walking woman I met has developed her own routine. It turns out she picks up a number of leaves and carries these as she walks, dropping them one by one on each round until her handful is gone. Great!

After I finished this column (I thought) I learned that a new interactive sign had just been installed at the entrance to Simmons Park, so I went over immediately to check it out. I found the sign, and its map of the park where “challenges” are hidden and a tiny QR code to play the “Nature Mission” game but my aged brain cells and old folks computer skills couldn’t get me in the loop and, although I downloaded the Agents of Discovery app, I couldn’t make anything happen no matter where I clicked on my cell phone. 

Enter Samantha Golden, the youth programming specialist in the Fernandina Beach Recreation Department. She walked me through the site and it turns out that question marks on the screen turn into a different icon when you are close to a “challenge” and then it gives you questions to answer. It’s easy when you know how (like I now do) and fun, especially if it changes often enough to remain interesting. Samantha heard my concerns and is now working to make it more user-friendly to all of us.  Thank you, Samantha!

When you get a chance, check out Simmons Park.  It’s a world of its own.  And it gets some of us off our chairs and in the woods — a great benefit for all!

Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D., is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. patandbucko@yahoo.com