An easy saunter up the C&O Canal from Carderock with Nature Forward’s Stephanie Mason, Genevieve Wall riding shotgun, and some familiar bird and plant people. We got stuck on “High Hopes,” most of us wrinklies remembering this novelty song from an animation seen on Captain Kangaroo, after watching two ants dragging a dead spider twice their size across the towpath.
Genevieve spotted a Silver-haired Bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) roosting. Stephanie pointed out Smooth Rockcress (Borodinia laevigata (= Boechera laevigata)), a new plant for me. We all heard Louisiana Waterthrush singing very clearly, but nobody got eyes on it. Another critter with high hopes: an American Beaver (Castor canadensis) swimming upstream in an arm of the Potomac.
Genevieve and I collaborated to reconstruct the chorus of New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle” (not “strange,” as I think I told the group) to serenade a trio of Wood Ducks, two drakes and a hen.