Yesterday was March 2, 2020, and it was the first day in many that actually felt almost like Spring has to be close at hand. So, I just had to take a drive and a short hike around Hollyhock Hollow Sanctuary in the Town of Bethlehem, NY.

We live only 3 miles from Hollyhock Hollow and for 26 years, I worked out of an office in the midst of the sanctuary. Since my retirement, I have continued to visit the trails of the sanctuary on a regular basis and yesterday, the warm sunshine called my name.

Even though I know that flower called Snowdrops is not native to America, I was very pleased to once again see the showy white blossoms had managed to push their way through the cool soil and leaf litter and survived another winter of upstate New York. Snowdrops are native to Europe and the Middle East, from the Spanish and French Pyrenees in the west through to the Caucasus and Iran in the east, and south to Sicily, the Peloponnese, the Aegean, Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria. The flower has been widely introduced and cultivated throughout Europe and has become widely naturalized in Europe, North America, and other regions and are often found in long-abandoned home sites, which is exactly the case with the patch at Hollyhock Hollow.

Although I did a bit of slipping and sliding down the path to the wildlife pond, I found over 50 American Robins were feasting on the remaining berries of several Sumac bushes. I also note that the pond is still covered in a sheet of ice. But, occasional calls of a Tufted Titmouse and a few Black-capped chickadees I remain convinced that Spring has nearly returned.

Hollyhock Hollow is as geologically interesting as it is biologically. The 140-acre property is underlain with what is called Karst, which means acres of limestone outcroppings on the surface and caves and fissures underground. A main feature of the sanctuary is the Onesquethaw Creek.

The Onesquethaw Creek is a 14.5 mile-long creek in Albany County, New York. It is a tributary of the Hudson River. It rises in the town of New Scotland, to the west of the hamlet of New Salem, in the Helderberg Mountains, and flows to Coeymans Creek in the town of Bethlehem, southwest of Delmar, NY.

O-nis’-kwe-thau Creek is also called Coeymans Creek, which is the name given to the Onesquethaw Creek’s outlet stream at the Hudson is a beautiful little stream. There is a hamlet also called Onesquethaw, (sometimes called Tarrytown) in New Scotland, as well as Oniskethau flats and mountain which is now named Bennet Hill. Onesquethaw is said to have been an early Native American name meaning cornfields, but this attribution was mistakenly based on William Martin Beauchamp’s lack of personal knowledge of the Ma-quaes [Mohawks] language because it seemed similar to the Mahican word for maze. The Mahican’s originally owned the land before it was lost to the Ma-quaes [Mohawks] during the Beaver Wars of 1628. The land was deeded to Teunis Slingerland and Johannes Apple by representatives of the three races (clans of the Ma-quaes [Mohawks] (Wolf, Bear, and Turtle), owners of the land called “O-nits-quat-haa.” as indicated on the original Slingerlands Land Patent Agreement. The name when translated from the Ma-quaes [Mohawk] language simply means: “Sinking-Stream.” This name is much more in keeping with the actual topography of the land and the Karst that I previously mentioned. During the summer months, it is often interesting to find that the creek has gone completely dry for long sections and then all of a sudden come upon a section where the water is flowing up out of the ground and once again filling the stream as the water makes its way to the Hudson River.

The Onesquethaw Creek is the main drainage through what is now known as the Onesquethaw Valley Historic District, which is a national historic district principally located in the town of New Scotland in Albany County, New York. The Historic District includes 25 buildings and three archaeological sites. It encompasses farmsteads and sites in part of the valley of Onesquethaw Creek. Most notable are eight 18th-century stone houses. The archaeological sites are a grist mill site, sawmill site, and a prehistoric Indian site.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

I spent about an hour poking around the sanctuary, pond, and creek and came away with a renewed sense that nature will soon be blossoming and the woods will once again be full of bird songs.