I did some sleuthing about the pond I discovered in Bedford a couple of weeks ago, and it turns out that it is called Fawn Lake. It is a two hundred year old hand-dug pond, fed by three medicinal mineral springs. Throughout the 19th century the lake was acclaimed for its water's restorative properties. In the 1850s a health resort was established called The Spring House, which was later re-named The Sweetwater Hotel, where city dwellers seeking to relieve stress and ease their ailments would come and "take the waters". In 1880 Dr. William Richardson Hayden, the owner of the New York Pharmaceutical Co. built a laboratory that served as a bottling plant for some 350 concoctions that utilized the lake's spring water.

Today, the lake is part of the forty acre Fawn Lake free conservation area. My girls and I went for a walk there this morning and had a lovely time. It is a fabulous spot for birdwatching--I had one of my best birding days ever! We saw: a northern oriole, an eastern bluebird, a common yellowthroat, an American redstart, a blackburnian warbler, a chestnut-sided warbler, a yellow-rumped warbler, a black and white warbler, a rare yellow-throated warbler, an interesting sparrow with quite a lot of yellow on it's head and neck (possibly a female dickcissel or Nelson's sparrow), Canada geese, and a Swainson's thrush. I tried to take pictures of the bluebird and the thrush, but unfortunately both shots are out of focus:

 

What a beautiful spring morning it was! Fawn Lake is fast becoming one of my favorite local nature spots.