From Beaches to Peaches!

9-2-17 walk into Mill Creek Nature Center and Ivy Creek Greenway:

For over a year now I've been referring to all my walks through the preserve adjacent to our apartment complex as walks on the Ivy Creek Greenway. Today I actually realized that the area off the Greenway, where the Boyscouts have made trails, boardwalks, and bridges, and some viewing platforms, is actually Mill Creek Nature Center. I haven't often gone into the Nature Center since it is about a 2 mile walk just to get there, but I have discovered it is pretty nice in there. I was going to group my walks in the Greenway pretty much by month now, but I took my Olympus TG-4 with me today and took a bunch more pictures then I usually do, so am making this a post by itself.
This guys was actually still in the apartment complex grounds as I was walking to the greenway. I had to watch him awhile to make sure he really wasn't just a leaf.

When I got to the Greenway, I headed East. This Gulf Fritillary posed for me.

Going this direction I get to check out the old mill---and the benches for sitting there to enjoy the mill. Lighting wasn't too good on the mill at this time, so I didn't post any from now.

Back on the path, there are still a bunch of pretty wildflowers to enjoy.

This little guy scurried away from me, but he at least stuck his head out for a second.

cute little guy.

back to wild flowers, at least they don't run away.

The lone Cardinal flower still blooming.

These guys always make me think of Dr. Seuss.

Looks like these pretty little yellow wildflowers are past their peak season.

love the shadows on the newly replaced boardwalk.

Right now there are a ton of these tiny white wildflowers along the walkway.

Still a few of these guys left, but they seem to be past peak, too.

getting near the end of the paved walkway.

I believe this is a Silvery Checkerspot.

This is highly enlarged, but there are a lot of these stalks around now covered with really tiny white and purple flowers.

These guys seemed to be past peak, too.

STill a lot of these tiny purple daisy-like wildflowers.

a lot of the plants are forming their winter berries now.

Loved the lighting on the layers of leaves. Won't be long and they'll all be gone.

a typical view of the dirt part of the Ivy Creek Greenway past the paved section to the East.

Don't remember seeing so many mushrooms growing on the trees before.

This is where I left the Greenway and entered the Mill creek Nature Center. Not a "center" like you would expect---just a bunch more trails. Here I'm on a boardwalk over the "wetlands". Not much water in it right now.

But more then there was before the rains we got this week.

Lots of dragonflies around the wetlands, but they didn't want to be photographed.

another view of the wetlands.

looking back on the boardwalk over the wetlands.

tree beans!---or whatever

This guy was having lunch. The blue of his wings didn't photograph as well as I'd hoped.

hard to tell from this photo, but Ivy Creek was really clear here---the creek bed is the brownish color.

just more interesting flora

This time I took the path that said "confluence" on it. I hadn't been this way before.

If I remember correctly, this is "Little Ivy Creek". Ivy Creek was to the right.

Doesn't look like too many people have traveled this trail lately.

At the end of the trail was an wooden boardwalk overlook---but not much of a view (thus no picture). Didn't hang around there long before starting to head back. Sat on this bench and uploaded a picture onto Instagram and Facebook.

looking back as I continued on.

more tiny colorful wildflowers.

Love all the tiny white flowers blooming right now.

I've noticed there are a lot of bird houses in the nature center and the greenway, but I've never seen a bird at any of them.

more of the deceptively clear creek.

more boardwalks in the nature center.

close as I could get to a dragonfly.

More mushrooms growing on a tree.

This is when I realized that the area off the Greenway is a "nature center". Don't get the name Mill Creek, though, since the creeks are Ivy Creek and Little Ivy Creek!

only wild animals I saw in the wetlands this time.

back to looking for colorful wildflowers.

and berries on trees.

don't know what's munching on the leaves, but it does make for an interesting design.

back on the paved walkway and going under one of the many overpasses.

This guy was hanging out next to the walkway. He was huge!!! Probably about 2" long including his legs.

I believe this guy is a Red Spotted Purple from the Admiral line of butterflies. Don't recall seeing one of them before---or if I did I assumed it was one of the common blue swallowtails. Didn't realize until I looked at the picture that it wasn't a swallowtail!

back at the Mill, the lighting was much better.

So I walked down to the base and took a few pictures. This is the ruin of the old water wheel.

A couple days ago when I was by here there was no water coming over the wall. The 3/4" rain we got the past couple days made a difference.

one more view of the old wheel---usually the lighting is really bad when I'm by here, so I went a little overboard with the photos today.

heading back up the trail to the greenway.

Only group of these really pretty wild flowers that I saw.

These have been pretty plentiful all summer.

some more berries that have just started to develop.

And that's some of the things you might see this time of year on the East side of the Ivy Creek Greenway and Mill Creek Nature Center.
We happened to be out for dinner later then usual tonight---Panera Bread (not the best of experiences, but my salad and half sandwich were good. Cashier service was pretty poor---and it was a lot more expensive then I remembered!) Anyway---it was nearing sunset when we were done and heading back, so I suggested we stop up by Costco and watch the sunset. Didn't take too long for the sun to set.