If we lived in Elmira or Big Flats, or even Corning, we’d go there more often. But even from Bath we make the pilgrimage now and then, as we did twice in the past month, to Tanglewood Nature Center and Museum.
These last two trips were “on task” behavior, as our son Joshua in Houston asked us to deliver two framed photos for Tanglewood’s nature photography contest. We dropped them off, and we dropped in for the announcement of winners — he got second place in a field of twenty, for his “Stone Walls and Wooden Bridges” photo of Stony Brook Park!
His other picture, “Thunder in the Air,” was a vertical image of Taughannock Falls. First-place winner was a fine color close-up of a red-tailed hawk eating a dead snake. The fact that I can write about this at once enthusiastically and off-handedly proves that I am indeed a nature enthusiast. To me, and I’m sure to the good folks at Tanglewood, this makes an ideal subject for a photo. Third place was Edward Cordes’ hummingbird darting among yellow blossoms — an image which also made the cover of the annual report.
Some of the images are still on exhibit at the museum, so if you stop by you might get to see one of our favorites, “Gathering in the Swamp.” With stunningly-lighted vegetation, this photographer captured a dozen or more Canada geese, with a great blue heron flapping past in the background. I liked Steve Brinthaupt’s large picture “Life Along the River,” showing a blue damselfly on a green leaf… it brought me back to my waterside childhood in Rhode Island. “Food Fight” by Matt Burroughs shows the colorful blur of a blue jay and a cardinal lacing into each other. Joyce was especially tickled by “The Trio,” with three white-tail deer displaying their black outer tails.
The museum also features two bird-watching stations (one overlooking a pond), plus small live mammals, birds, and reptiles. You can walk through a life-sized diorama showing the various habitats and wildlife found in the Chemung Valley area. Here the taxidermist’s art has been put to good use, so that you walk within reach of a white-tailed deer, gray squirrel, piletaed woodpecker, and more. Near a little hands-on area are mounted beavers and one of our relatively new neighbors, a coyote.
Outside there are over nine miles of trails, some on neighboring land in the hands of the Nature Conservancy. Hiking here one spring day I was delighted to come upon a hawthorn bush, with its elegant terrifying spikes. Down near the old Boyd’s Farm visitors’ center I used to find little piles of husks where squirrels or chipmunks had made themselves comfortable to tear through a pile of nuts or seeds.
Just a few minutes from Elmira, or the airport, or the mall, you can be wandering quiet farm-and-forest land atop Harris Hill. Tanglewood has been emphasizing the PACE of nature — Preservation, Awareness, Caring, and Education — for children and adults alike. “Naturally” they welcome donations and memberships. Tuesdays through Saturdays, except major holidays, they welcome visitors as well. Tanglewood Nature Center and Museum is one of our region’s hidden treasures.