Merrill Park - View of Suckers Creek

Merrill Park - View of Suckers Creek
Originally uploaded by Love, Iselin NJ

Another few rainy days in the forecast, and the brook is likely to flood again.
I keep referring to "the brook." Do you call it the brook? In my family, we always called it "the brook". I've heard other people call it the creek, and I heard somewhere that it's official name was Sucker's Creek. On the Google map pages, it's referred to as the South Branch of the Rahway River. (Not very exciting name, is it? Sucker's Creek is more interesting.)

I was talking to a friend yesterday, and he said to me, "The brook is still flooding, after all of these years?  Wow, when are they going to fix that?"

 My answer is ...I don't think it's really broken, is it?

I mean think about it.  All of this water has to go somewhere, doesn't it?  And the flood zone allows Iselin to have a nice little green centerpiece right down the middle.  If it stopped flooding, it probably wouldn't take too long before a bunch of people started trying to build more houses there.  I like the little wilderness area that it gives us... even if it's not too wild!

There are a lot of animals that call that little strip (and the rest of Iselin) home.  I've seen plenty of squirrels and rabbits, of course.  Less often, but still making their presence known, are racoons, skunks, and oppossums.  I had a ground hog in my yard once -- I don't know how many we have, but at least a few, I guess.

And it's a nice spot for birds.  I heard a woodpecker as I walked along Chain O'Hills Road yesterday, and I saw a pair of mallard ducks.  I've seen lots of the usual birds, especially robins, and occasionally cardinals.  Once I saw a snowy egret (I think that's what it is!)

I was surprised yesterday as I walked along the brook to see a school of about 4" striped fish.  Now, I have no idea what kind of fish they were, because I don't know one fish from another.  But they were bigger than I've ever seen, in our own little brook!  Of course with all the rain, maybe today they've washed away.


Well, take a walk along the brook one day, and see what there is to see.  It's a great part of Iselin!