On my return, crossing one of these streams again near its mouth above a river cove, I noticed a DEC sign explaining “Trees for Tribs,” a program that recruits volunteers to plant tree and shrub seedlings along stream banks to reduce soil erosion. I spotted several orange flags where seedlings had been planted. A young dogwood’s slender, bright red stem seemed a hopeful emblem of our ongoing conservation movement, the natural successor to the Romantic movement, moving from appreciation to stewardship of wild nature for its own sake, as well as for ours. I was also pleased to see, heading back along the lane, that quite a few bluebird nest boxes had been placed in the fields. Along with the yearly mowing that Scenic Hudson does to maintain grassland habitat for bluebirds, bobolinks and other species, these nest boxes are helping to restore bluebird populations, replacing the natural cavities often missing from fields without wooden fence posts or taken over by more aggressive, invasive birds like starlings and house sparrows.
I had hoped to sight a bald eagle on the river, or at least a red-tailed hawk wheeling above the fields, or hunting from a perch. I saw no raptors that day, but did glimpse the sky-blue wings of some overwintering bluebirds passing along the woods’ edge in their fluttering flight. Glancing at the ground, I noticed a labyrinthine pattern, like a miniature subway system, of runways among the brown, matted grasses. These were the tunnels of voles, sometimes called “field mice,” which had been exposed by the melting of the snow above them. These little creatures spend much of their short lives inside these runways, where they are relatively (but not absolutely!) safe from predators such as hawks, owls, foxes and coyotes. It was nice to see these other, outdoor “rooms” that usually go unnoticed by passersby en route to sweeping river vistas, and whose presence we may suppose the landscape designers of the Gilded Age did not take into account.
To get to Poets’ Walk: After crossing the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, take the first left onto River Road. Poets’ Walk is 0.6 miles on the left.
