Trail Tales
by Noah Lawrence
Some of my favorite moments on our trails are those full of sound. Walking through the Marsh on a spring or summer night I experience my favorite concert: the symphony of clacking marbles, squeaking balloons, and honking that are indicative of a band composed of the cricket frog, leopard frog, and green treefrog respectively. For a more specific sound related trail encounter I turn to this summer when I was showing my brother around the trails early on a Sunday morning when we were lucky enough to see one of our Barred Owls in a branch he frequents in one of our Bald Cypress trees.
After telling some basic barred owl facts to my brother, I concluded that no Barred Owl synopsis would be complete without discussing their call. I quietly demonstrated one line of their iconic “Who cooks for you” calls to my brother and was continuing to talk when I looked up to see a flash of movement. The owl had overheard our conversation, flew to a tree right above our heads, stared right at me, and gave a singular resounding “WHOO!” Whether I had accidentally woken him up, or something had been lost in translation, he was clearly unimpressed and had taken it upon himself to express his displeasure to me verbally. Lacking the owl vocabulary to tell him how sorry I was for accidentally disturbing him and that no offense was intended, I opted for a polite nod as my brother and I continued our journey down the creek so as not to disturb him further. I remain stuck between joy at having an owl talk to me and embarrassment that it couldn’t have been under friendlier circumstances.
From the mouths of children there is much wisdom and at times hilarity, so I wanted to recall several of my favorite trail moments thanks to our campers. Unless you have a dog, who has had an unfortunate encounter, you may be unaware that we have porcupines in this part of Texas whose nocturnal and arboreal habits make them very difficult to spot. I in fact spotted my first Cibolo porcupine years ago. While teaching campers how to bird, a camper pointed out that what I had previously dismissed as a ball of moss moved. Another time, I had a camp group ask if they could change their schedule to observe a cicada complete its molting process, to which I excitedly replied “of course!” Those campers were lucky enough to witness magic we are probably all familiar with due to the shells they leave behind, but that far fewer of us have seen. I was saddened I couldn’twatch it all but overjoyed with the Polaroids a camper had taken showing the entire process.
Our campers also play a role in protecting the trails. Last year we focused on the harm of not picking up after your dog to which a camper responded by telling every dog owner we encountered to “pick up your dog poop” in case they were not aware. I have been lucky enough to have seen many a rollie pollie, beetle, or other bug because a camper was so overjoyed to share that I otherwise would have missed.
For you, dear reader, don’t just read about the trails but give them a hike. We have a wonderful app you can download at cibolo.org/app to make it that much easier and more educational. And if you feel so inspired, Wednesday Walks with Noah will return in September where I hope to answer more questions and tell more stories about the magical place we call The Cibolo!