Today, I made my first foray to the Schafer Farm on Central Tract of the Refuge. There was snow on the ground and the soil underneath the snow was mushy. So things were rather messy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I parked my jeep on the edge of a field and walked in to Schafer Lake. It looked much like the borrow pits seen out behind the Secret Service shooting range on North Tract.

 

 

 

 

Obviously this is a large area to explore, and because of the messy conditions, I decided to wait until later when conditions are better to make a deeper foray.

 

 

 

 

 

It has been so cold this winter that I did not expect to see anything blooming. However, I spotted some skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) in a mucky area next to the trail. I pressed a specimen of this guy back in the contact station. At first it did not smell very much, but in order to get it to lay flat in the press, I had to open up the inflorescence. Of course, this released some of the foetid smell for which this species is named.

 

 

 

 

Finally, I spotted some turkey track in the snow and snapped this photo just for fun.