When last we left our heroes, they were trying to find a place to hike.  When they were thwarted by Hogback Ridge being closed, they headed for Deer Haven Preservation Park in Delaware.  Would it be open?  When we first pulled into the parking lot we weren’t sure.  It looked like a bunch of soccer fields.  Turns out that we were in Havener Park, a Liberty Township park, instead of in Deer Haven.  We continued down the road into the Preservation Park.  Would it be open?

Yes!  Success!  Not only was the park open, the Visitors Center was also open!  Very few of the Delaware County Preservation Parks have a Visitors Center so it was nice to check it out.  Each of the parks has a big map by the parking lot that shows all of the trails.  We could not find two of the trails we were supposed to hike on the map, so we went inside the Visitors Center to ask.

A very nice volunteer greeted us when we entered, but he didn’t know anything about the two missing trails.  Fortunately one of the park employees heard us asking and came out with a map to show us the two new trails.  She apologized for the map outside but they had not had time to update it yet.  No problem.  We were glad for the brochure map we could carry with us.

Deer Haven Preservation Park is 122 acres of meadow, prairie, wetland and hardwood forest.  There are four trails totaling 2.5 miles.  The Deer Haven property was donated to Preservation Parks in 2006 by Phyllis A. Havener and her family.  That same year, John W. Bader Jr. donated funds to the Park District to develop the Bird Sanctuary in his wife’s honor.  This is the only bird sanctuary and aviary in the Preservation Parks system.  The park was opened to the public in 2008, and The Visitor Center opened in 2009.  The Visitors Center has a classroom for field trips and places for many types of animals found in the park.

We watched the buzzards, owl, and kestrel in the aviary for a few minutes before heading out on the trails.  We started with the primitive trail around the Amy Clark-Bader Bird Sanctuary.  Then we walked along the Bent Tree Ridge trail.  We did the Tree Swallow loop, and finished with the Grass Connector trail which will eventually lead to a new prairie trail.

The trails were all very well marked and there weren’t a lot of people out on a weekday afternoon.  The walk was very nice with lovely fall wildflowers in the meadows.

Two parks down.  4.2 miles down.  Our heroes’ quest continues.