By Larry Irick, FLAT Board Member

Are you blessed/cursed to be an early riser? Do you sometimes head outside early in the morning for a walk or to catch a sunrise? Do you have the occasional early commitment that leaves you with a little extra time to fill before the rest of the day attacks you?

Any one of those descriptions could sometimes apply to me. When it works, I make a visit early in the morning to the Baker Wetlands (just South of the Loop trail between Haskell and Michigan/E1350 road).  I try to arrive just before or after sunrise and usually park in the main parking lot next to the conference center (but there are others). I usually stay no more than 15-30 minutes, but even in that short time, I find without leaving town, I can be immersed in nature and refreshed for the day ahead.

What’s the attraction of these visits? Top of my list—sunrises, birds and spider webs!  The sunrises are gorgeous with all shades of pink and red filling the Eastern sky.  A 10-minute walk to the end of the boardwalk, which raises you a few feet above the paths and the marshes, is a perfect place to watch the sunrise (or the birds).

The number and variety of birds is astounding. There’s hardly a sound and then all of them wake up and start chattering until bird noises fill the air.  Not much later birds of all sizes start filling the sky, taking off as individuals or in flocks that number in the dozens up to the hundreds. After they leave their roosts, it’s clear that breakfast is the priority. If you pause and look out over the marshes, you’ll see herons and other water feeders standing motionless waiting for prey to come by.

And for sheer beauty, it’s hard to top the zillions of spider webs filling the vegetation along the walking trails.  The work done overnight is hard to comprehend.  For just a short time, covered in the early morning dew and caught just right in the early morning sun, they sparkle and dazzle in a matchless show.

Apart from a few other early morning walkers and runners, you’ll have this experience all to yourself.