NOVA NATURE TRAIL

      Just east of my town is one of the world's largest chemical manufacturing plants ...Nova Chemicals. It produces ethylene and polyethylene which are products used to make any number of  specific productsused in manufacturing. The first section of the plant was built in the 1970's and it's been added to 4 times since the original plant was built. The actual plant covers about 900 acres and then there is a huge rail yard where rail cars are loaded with the product. They still have much more land for future expansion.Oh yes,the product comes in the form of little balls. Ethylene and polyethylene are produced from ethane and natural gas.

      It's a large employer and taxpayer in this area which contributes to the area's prosperity.

      Now that I've got all that out of the way I can say what a wanted to say.

     Saturday morning I took my birding group to the Nova Nature Trail. This is a 280 acre area on the north side of the plant. Jones Creek runs through the middle of the property so there are some excellent wetlands helped out by some major beaver dams. The property is made up of riparian plants, brush, grassland and small trees. At one time it was used as pasture land. This area was opened 2 years ago. This area will be excellent bird and animal habitat. The brush, grass and trees make excellent habitat for nesting. There are many excellent boardwalks over the wetlands which provide great viewing.

     On Sat. we saw 19 bird species and a couple that we couldn't identify. 

     Now on Sat. decided to take photos instead of use my field glasses for close observation of birds. It was a very bright fall day and was diappointing for photographs. get some shots of the plant and the trail area to show a bit of what it looks like. The plant is more than a mile away in these photos.