
SONSI Annual General Meeting 2014; photo by Emily Damstra
After SONSI’s recent Annual General Meeting, members headed to Hilton Falls Conservation Area to walk off the practicalities and make the most of a sunny day. The trees were still bare and hopes were not high for many of Spring’s fleeting species due to the sluggish progression of the season. So everyone was pleasantly surprised to find so many budding and flowering spring ephemerals, including bloodroot, hepatica, bellwort, wild ginger, red trillium, white trillium, and blue cohosh.

Spring ephemerals; photo by Elizabeth Pratt
The group hiked towards Hilton Falls and were not disappointed; with a wonderful roar and the smell of a nearby campfire, the cascading falls were a spectacle. Other sights were of the splendid reservoir, a dead shrew, a mourning cloak, and rather close experiences with an adult and juvenile Northern Watersnake.
– Elizabeth P.
See more photos of this event.