Spring Arrives At Community Park In Hazle Township

I finally returned to the local Community Park near my home in Hazle Township Luzerne County. I wasn’t there all Winter. ( I have been walking on the streets   near my home  during the week days all Winter.) It is hard to believe it was almost five month ago. The seasons, especially Spring, seem to pass  so much quicker for me now that I’m in my older years. I returned to the park  two weeks ago,  on a beautiful sunny and mild Wednesday afternoon

The  lake and sunshine  reminded me of my  first visits to the park many years ago. I remember driving on the then wooded access road. I believe it may have been the first Spring after the park opened  opened . I was a young and curious five year old child . My dad loved nature and took me and my brother John to visit the park and lake. Good memories they were tossing rocks in the lake , walking in the woods and , especially, using the old hand water pump.  I returned with my dad, brother  and new siblings ( a sister and two more brothers) many times.

Well it  is a lot different now.  The woods along the access road are gone, the road is  now lined with homes, the hand pump is gone and there is now a playground with a  WWII tank and old railroad car, at the entrance to the park .

But Lake Irena  looks the same as I first remembered it so many years ago. And I love to hike around the lake and trails and share the beauty I found on my blog.   When I arrived on that  sunny Wednesday afternoon  the first green leaves were appearing on the trees  around the lake and in the  park. These are  gray birch tree leaves. My dad called would call them brezezina trees. We learned  how to identify and pick the  “red top”( birch saber bolete)   mushrooms that grew  under them in the Fall.

I crossed  over the bridge above the outflow creek which was overflowing from the recent heavy rains,

and walked along the eastern side of the 26 acre lake.  There were a lot of  fishermen along the shores of the lake.

The young pickerel weed flowers, another sign if Spring,  were shooting up from the blue waters of the lake.  In a few months these aquatic plants will bloom and their purple flowers will attract many insects, including dragonflies, bees, wasps butterflies and moths.

I walked to the large  boulders along the shorter of the  lake,

Near the rocks I saw a lot of turtles enjoying the strong May sunshine. I believe these are red slider turtles, invasive in Pennsylvania.

I continued on the trail through a mostly pine and oak woodland.  Here I saw fiddler head or cinnamon ferns,

and a few skunk cabbages along the muddy trail.

I  soon saw another sign of Spring, a flock of pine warblers feeding on the  cones of the pitch pines along the trail. These migratory song birds travel south in the Winter and I often see them  on my trips to Florida in the Winter,

I also saw an  eastern towhee,

and a tufted titmouse.

I crossed the bridge over the in flowing stream that creates the lake,

enjoying another view of  the scenic lake.

A spotted sandpiper was wading in the shallow waters along the shore, constantly bobbing it’s head and it moved.

There was also a small flock of Canada geese along the shore, and it looked like one of the geese,

was  giving another goose  a piece of it’s mind. 

A double crested cormorant was on the  stump in the lake.

I walked around the lake and took a trail  through the surrounding woodlands,

that first took me to the baseball fields.

I  then  walked on the now abandoned access roads to the fields. A half century ago my dad would drive me on this road to watch my brother John play Babe Ruth baseball here. Seems like yesterday. It has now become  nice hiking trail. 

Welcome signs of Spring, dwarf cinquefoil and

wild strawberries bloomed along the trail. 

Hay scented,

and sensitive ferns were  were sprouting in the  soil  now warmed by the  strong May sun.

I heard a lot of oven birds singing in the woodlands along the trail,

and, as I approached the baseball fields on my walk back I saw this common grackle on the grass,

This groundhog, who, seeing me, quickly scurried off.

I hiked  back to the lake  and  walked around it  one more time,

and as I was finishing my  3 mile hike  I heard, and  then saw this colorful Baltimore oriole.

It is another beautiful bird that returns from it Winter home  to our area in the Spring.

It was a beautiful May  afternoon and it was nice seeing Lake Irena again,  enjoying nature, and  recalling the many wonderful memories I had here,

I returned to Community Park two weeks later, after visiting Cape May in search of the migrating song birds. It was cloudy this time, but mild. Lake Irena looked a lot different then on the sunny afternoon two weeks earlier.  All  of the trees were now covered in leaves. The lush green colors of the new leaves contrasted the dark gray skies.

I walked around the lake and only saw a few birds, this tree swallow that I believe has a nest in this dead tree it was perched on, and

a few American robins,

and this female eastern towhee.

Pink azaleas were now blooming along the lake. My dad called them honeysuckle and would take us into the woods every Spring to pick some of these delicate flowers and the lady slipper orchids he called “duck flowers”

After walking round the lake I  again took the trails to the baseball fields,

and here I  saw this beautiful scarlet tanager,

singing in the tree tops.

I returned to the lake and saw  this large bullfrog along the shore of the lake,

and my first dragonfly of the year.

As I was finishing my usual 3 mile walk I saw this common yellow throat in the woods along the trail, Here is a link to a gallery on my blog web page with some more photos of the birds from my hikes. Community Park birds May 7 and 15 2025.

I enjoyed my return to this little Community Park.   I have been visiting this park for over 60 years. Yep I am that old.  I hope to get a few more years, or maybe, God willing, a decade or two enjoying, and sharing, the beauty of this wonderful Community Park. Here is a link to a gallery on my blog web page with some more photos  from my hikes. Community Park  May 7 and 15 2025.

“Woods were ringed with a colour so soft, so subtle that it could scarcely be said to be a colour at all. It was more the idea of a colour – as if the trees were dreaming green dreams or thinking green thoughts.”
― Susanna Clarke