My parents were visiting this weekend for the first time in forever! Yesterday dawned sunny, windy and cold, but fresh air was needed. My folks love to go hiking and birding, so we dropped Stormy off at school, and then we headed to the Piney Orchard Nature Preserve.
I had been here two other times this year with the kiddos, but both of those time, we entered the Preserve from the WB&A Trail. This meant the Preserve was a bit of a walk from the car parked in the lot on Patuxent Road. Due to little legs, we’d only hiked around Duck Cove Pond before heading back to the car. Yesterday, we skipped the WB&A, and parked in the small lot on Sandy Walk Way. It is easy to find as it is pretty much the first right turn after you turn onto Sandy Walk Way from Patuxent Road. Across the street from the lot is the start of the Preserve’s one paved trail, Lone Wolf Trail.
Pebble quickly found a giant stick to drag behind her, and Rainbow ran ahead yelling back to us whenever she found a birdhouse. Birding with littles, lol!
Just a short walk from the parking lot, we came to a boardwalk leading off the trail, and down into Red Maple Swamp. It was beautiful, and I bet we would have seen plenty of turtles, frogs, etc. if it were just a little warmer.
After we left the swamp behind, we made a right turn onto a dirt path, which took us to Duck Cove Pond. I went ahead with the girls, so my parents could fall back and try to identify the birds they saw flitting through the thickets on either side of the trail. While we waited for my parents to catch up, the girls tossed rocks in the water and watched the geese swimming.
As we slowly circled Duck Cove Pond, we spotted a Great Blue Heron wading in the water near the island. Both Stormy and Pebble tiptoed up the trail so they could get a better look at the bird. My dad got some nice shots of the heron and my mom tried to teach Rainbow how to use binoculars.
Leaving the heron behind, we followed the trail past the pond, stopping briefly to see a beaver lodge, before turning left onto Wood Duck Way.
We meandered down the trail, my parents watching birds and the girls collecting “nature.” Rainbow had both pockets of her jacket stuffed with pine cones and interesting rocks. Pebble lived up to her name, and had a lot of pebbles and stones in hers. There was another gorgeous swamp to see before we came to another pond.
At the end of Wood Duck Way, we turned onto Heron Way, and circled around to the Piney Path. From the Piney Path, we made a left onto Fox Den Loop, a right on Wood Duck Way, and then made our way back to the car. Little legs were tiring!
As we ambled past Duck Cove Pond one last time, we noticed the rising temps had brought out the turtles. They were resting on logs everywhere! We also startled another heron.
It was a wonderful morning outside! We had a great time here! Just as a heads up… There are no facilities, so pack a portable potty for the kids. In the warmer months, I suspect there will be a lot of mosquitoes due to the sheer amount of water and swampy areas. Be prepared for mud if you go, especially after a day of rain. It rained Sunday, and a number of the trails had big mud bogs we had to pick our way around. Pebble loved when we airlifted here over the worst of it. Lastly, there is a shooting range nearby, and we could hear gunshots the entire time we were hiking. It got fainter the further in we went, but we could still hear it.
Despite the mud and gunshots, I highly recommend visiting, especially if you have littles who love tossing rocks in water! We plan to go back another time to do the full Fox Den loop, and let Stormy see the trails she’d missed out on. My parents wrote down what they’d seen that morning, and, even with kiddos in tow, they’d spotted 15 different species of birds! One of the best sightings was of a hermit thrush. I had never seen one before, and we were lucky enough to spot it hopping along the forest floor. Happy trails!