THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 20, 1994 TAG: 9406200024
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Guy Friddell
DATELINE: 940620 LENGTH: Medium
Mike, a colleague here, says a visit to the garden offers sights of more than flowers.
{REST} ``It was so exciting I couldn't believe it,'' Barbara said.
Exciting? I'd have jumped and yelled: ``RUN!'' A saying, long ago, was that if a turtle took hold of your toe it wouldn't let go until it thundered. Nobody believed it, but nobody was inclined to test it.
The turtle in the arden, dark greenish, 6 inches long, backed up to a hole in the ground big as a half dollar, and, Mike said, released four or so eggs, one by one, neat drop shots into the hole.
The milky white eggs were a little larger than a marble. Mike and Barbara moved along to avoid subjecting the turtle to stress.
Which was sensible. They also saw a great blue heron, a red-bellied woodpecker, and a furry brown orange-fanged nutria.
To see wild creatures is just a matter of acclimating yourself to the woods, Barbara noted Sunday.
Debbie Craddock, communications director, urges us to respect the animals' space, and not try to pet them or feed their young. When let alone, wild things approach.
A mallard duck nests beneath an arbor at the visitors center. Coming in fast like a carrier pilot to reach her nest in the corner, she cuts in the faces of visitors moseying along, like the duck that dropped out of the air when somebody said the magic word on the old TV show with Groucho Marx.
Raccoons are plentiful, Craddock said.
At dusk, two red foxes prowl the picnic area or frolic on the shore. They're burgundy red, she said, big as a large house cat.
Gray foxes inhabit forests in Virginia. The red fox, which prefers fields and edges of woods, is relatively rare east of Williamsburg, says biology professor Robert Rose of Old Dominion University.
An elegant, delicate wraith, it weighs less than 10 pounds, seeming to be all hair, he said.
On field trips to the Garden, his students see waterfowl, hawks, owls and, in pines, crow-sized pileated woodpeckers with red crests.
Such sights will be explained in the Baker Hall Visitors Center for which ground was broken on May 17, development director Peter Lawrence said Sunday.
A special-gifts campaign produced $3.4 million toward the goal of $5 million to expand the garden. The chance to contribute has been opened to the public.
``These 155 acres, sometimes taken for granted, form a wonderful green oasis, full of secrets easily accessible,'' Lawrence said.
{KEYWORDS} NORFOLK BOTANICAL GARDEN
by CNB