A welcome sight greeted friends and me earlier this week while we hiked along a sun-dappled pond in Rhode Island: A trio of osprey circling lazily against a bright blue sky.

“First of the season,” I remarked.

“Right on schedule,” Maggie Jones noted.

Maggie, Phil Plouffe and I drove only about 30 miles from southeastern Connecticut.

The osprey had to fly more than 3,000 miles from Central and South America, where they had spent the winter.

Their return heralds the launch of nature’s most vibrant season at the Great Swamp Management Area in West Kingston, brimming with clusters of red maple buds about to burst, skunk cabbage shoots poking above muddy soil, eastern painted turtles sunning on rocks, and cloudy masses of salamander eggs suspended in shallow pools.

The 3,598-acre parcel also contains impressive stands of Atlantic white cedar that thrive along the border of New England’s largest swamp, as well an abundance of American holly. These evergreens stand out amid still-barren oaks, maples, birch, beech, willows and other deciduous trees.

The understory includes pepperbush, inkberry, high-bush blueberries, princess pine and fetterbush, and an evergreen shrub that resembles mountain laurel, only with smaller, shinier leaves. This varied habitat supports a number of species rarely seen elsewhere in New England, including the only nesting areas for neon yellow and gray Prothonotary warblers.

Amid such splendor, it’s hard to imagine that this area had been the site of a brutal raid on a Narragansett tribe by an alliance of colonists and rival tribes on Dec. 19, 1675. Several hundred Narragansetts perished, along with fewer than 100 attackers, in what became known as the Great Swamp Fight, also called the Great Swamp Massacre. The raid was a pivotal point in King Philip’s War between European settlers and indigenous people, now termed the bloodiest conflict, per capita, in U.S. history.

Today, a monument at the edge of Great Swamp marks the approximate location of the massacre — the precise spot, and exact number of casualties, remain unknown.

En route to a trailhead at the end of unpaved Great Neck Road, we passed management area headquarters, and a shooting range that is open to the public. The state, which acquired Great Swamp in 1950, permits hunting for deer, waterfowl and a number of game animals at various times of year.

Turkey season is later this month, so if you’re planning a hike you may want to do it soon. During hunting seasons, all visitors, hikers and hunters alike must wear a hat or vest with a minimum of 200 square inches of solid fluorescent orange.

The trail we followed is more of an unpaved forest road — though motor vehicles, and even ebikes, are permitted.

“It’s nice not tripping over rocks and roots,” Phil said, as we strolled over smooth, packed gravel.

In a third of a mile, we followed a left fork in the road, passed beneath power lines, stayed left at another fork, and reached a short path leading to the northwest shore of 1,000-acre Worden Pond. Just south of this point lies the entrance to the Pawcatuck River, which in 38 miles empties into Little Narragansett Bay between Stonington and Westerly.

We continued hiking in a clockwise direction, following the forest road as it passed two cleared meadows, and approached the bank of a 130-acre, L-shaped pond created by an impoundment to expand waterfowl habitat.

The route extends for more than a mile along this pond, where we saw osprey, ducks, salamander eggs, turtles and evidence of beaver activity. About four miles into our sojourn, we followed the path as it passed beneath power lines and then bent left, reaching the parking lot in another mile to the parking lot.

All in all, it was a wonderful outing, and I hope to return impoundment but probably not during hunting season.