A Walk in the Park

My daughters and I recently visited Davidson’s Mill Pond Park in South Brunswick. Tucked just off Route 130, the park is a beautiful and unexpected oasis from the busy roads and shopping centers of Central New Jersey. During our trip, my daughters and I were pleasantly surprised at how much the park has to offer.

We first stopped at the , which is open every Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. until noon. The house had a few butterflies in it that my daughters could observe, and then, using nets provided by the butterfly house, they got to catch additional butterflies for the house in the surrounding park with its vegetable and flower gardens. We were told that while there are only a few butterflies in the house now, there should be more, including Monarch butterflies, to view later in the summer.

We later stopped in the vegetable garden, where I talked with a very knowledgeable and friendly staff member who gave me tips on everything on how to attract more birds to my backyard to how to cultivate the rose bushes that I recently purchased.

After that, my daughters and I hit a half-mile trail that meanders through the woods and along a beautiful pond, where we watched some fishermen in their boat. Many of the trees are marked along the trail, so my daughters enjoyed learning about the different types of trees that lined the trail. When we hit the trail’s end, we doubled back to our starting point, to complete a full mile walk. At the end of our walk was a huge flock of geese — which my kids enjoyed viewing, until the whole flock starting to run toward us, thinking that we had food with us. (But luckily, the geese gave up the chase after only a few feet.)

On the way to our car, we picked up some trail maps for our next visit and perused the lengthy list of birds that’s posted at the park — the list notes the many varieties of birds that have been there. One of my daughters is a big bird buff, and she was glad to see that the red-winged blackbird is on the list, as she had seen one in the park earlier that day.

We were tired and thirsty after that, so headed out of the park to get some cold drinks, but had we stayed, and if we had our bicycles with us, we could have taken a leisurely ride along the long, practically traffic free drive that runs through the park.

All in all, it was a great day, and we hope to return to the park next weekend, if not sooner.