Interesting things in the woods

There are three main tracks around the Citadel that are paved. Well one of them is a crushed gravel track but it's essentially paved. There are also myriad trails through the woods that intersect the main routes and each other. They often bring about happy surprises.

This is a very creative use of fallen logs. It's shaped like a giant turtle with some big logs carved to look like the head and legs, and a large mound of forest debris forming the shell. This has been around for a while and the "shell" is actually beginning to cave in from the decay of the material used to form it.

This is a better view of the head especially.

The outermost path runs along the canal, which is still fairly active. 

I see canal boats on it most days.

This is a massive Cooper Beech tree.

They have constructed a circle of large logs around it.

There are a lot of mushrooms of some sort sprouting out from the roots all around the tree.

More mushrooms on a dead but still standing tree.

This is another whimsical use of a downed tree and decaying wood, this one shaped like a crocodile. 

There's a large open area that apparently was used as an informal and impromptu party place at one time. There are apple trees planted on part of it now and I saw probably a dozen of these pretty green birds.

They appear to be tropical birds, some sort of parrots, that escaped and have established a colony.

We saw them in London also and I've heard that there are many in Paris as well.

This is in the dog park but I see these throughout the woods in other parts of the Citadel as well. Two upright posts with smaller branches laid horizontally between them. They some a sort of fence or wall that decays and naturalizes over time.

This is the pile of stones that Bailey is standing on in the first picture at the top of this post. If you look at the flared bottom of the stone in front you can tell they are slices of columns from some old structure. They are great for Bailey's "ups."

A mallard above, a coot below.

There are lots of exercise or workout stations along the trails. These are great jumps for Bailey.

Some storks at the Citadel zoo. I haven't visited it yet, but some of it is visible from the trails.

A Great Blue Heron on the canal. They have built floating surfaces in some places for wildlife to use.

Here's another one of those fence/wall structures. I think there's a name for these but I don't know it.

Heron in the top of a tree along the canal.

There's a lot of large logs that Bailey will jump up on and walk along. There is also a lot of water, fragments of old canals. Some of them are open for dogs to swim in, but Bailey is not a water dog.

Loose strife and cattails are a very pretty combination.