November 2021: Describe your walk by adding a comment below
Each time you go out and make observations for this project, describe your walk by adding a comment to this post. Include the date, distance walked, and categories that you used for this walk.
Suggested format:
Date. Place. Distance walked today. Total distance for this project.
Categories.
Brief description of the area, what you saw, what you learned, who was with you, or any other details you care to share.
Comentarios
11-1-21. Watchung Reservation, Scotch Plains, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 1134.75 miles total
Category: In a sunbeam
Today was beautifully sunny (with a few clouds) and I was walking through woods, so I decided to look for things the sun was shining on. It was interesting because I'd see something I wanted to photograph and had to look around for a spot where it was growing in the sunlight. Also interesting as I was on an out-and-back trail, but the sun was shining on slightly different things on the way back.
Interesting things I photographed included: bitternut nuts, tulip poplar fruit, witchhazel fruit, shagbark hickory bark, crowded parchment, waterpepper flowers, snakeroot fruit, linden viburnum leaves, falsenettle fruit, white vervain fruit, yellowjackets of some kind on hickory leaves, and luminous Panellus, plus lots of pretty fall leaves.
Spot lighting! Great idea!
11/1/21. Peacham Bog, Groton, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1.6 miles today, 3630.6 miles total.
Categories: bog plants, leafminers, buds, and arthropods
This afternoon my husband and I went up to Groton for more adventures. I dropped him off at Fiddlehead Pond with his unicycle, then continued on, intending to park by the gate I had seen last week near the Peacham Bog part of the Peacham Bog trail loop. I checked the map when I went out to plan my route, but of course the "road" on the map was just a trail. I knew I was in trouble when the leaves on the trail where undisturbed and revealed frequent rocks poking through. I turned around and tried another road, and another, having to back track each time. I ended up having to drive all the way to downtown Groton and then up the main road almost to downtown Peacham. After an hour and a half of driving around, I was just about ready to turn around and give up when I spotted the trailer that I had seen last week on the other side of the gate. By then I only had 40 minutes left to find the bog and explore. Fortunately, it was only a 10 minute walk from the gate to the bog. The bog was quite impressive, 125 acres with a boardwalk along the edge and a small viewing platform. At the bog I found pitcher plants, Labrador tea, bog rosemary, cranberries, creeping snowberry, cottongrass, sheep laurel, lowbush blueberries, wild raisin, and Aronia. This selection of plants made me realize how lucky I am to have Chickering Bog at the end of my street--I can see all these any day of the week right in my own neighborhood. I'm sure there must be some more bog plants in Peacham that I missed, but I had to scurry back. I managed to find leafminers on blueberry and bunchberry and I shot buds of blueberry, Aronia, and wild raisin. Then I drove to Ricker Pond to pick up my husband (straight through, no turning around took only 20 minutes), where I shot buds of buttonbush and mountain holly.
In the evening at the lights I had a Diamesa fly and an Erioptera fly.
How frustrating when the map doesn't know a trail from a road! You are lucky with all the bog plants so close; I have to go quite a ways to see most of those (and I've only seen cottongrass up in NH). Bunchberry and mountain holly are two more I never see down here.
11/2/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.5 miles today, 3631.1 miles total.
Categories: arthropods and unexpected plants
The day didn't quite go as planned, but I managed a quick walk up and down the driveway in the afternoon. The weather was cloudy and not quite 50F, but I still managed to find some arthropods. I found a few fruit flies in the compost for Eve's compost creatures project, a Bibio fly, a leafhopper, and a large brown caterpillar (no fuzz). I also noted a few unexpected plants along the driveway, including some maidenhair ferns, some helleborines, and a patch of lemon balm.
I checked the lights in the evening but there were no signs of life.
11-2-21. Raritan River Parkway, Somerville, NJ. 1,25 miles today, 1136 miles total
Categories: flowers
I walked along the Raritan River today. Even two months later the devastation from the flooding is still evident on the riverbanks, with much less vegetation still whole and growing. This spot is interesting as instead of Japanese knotweed, it's infested with giant knotweed; some of the leaves are larger than my head.
We hadn't (until tonight) had a frost yet, so there were still several flowers out. I found low, dotted, Asian, and Pennsylvania smartweeds; peppergrass; frost aster; a goldenrod with still a bit of yellow and buds; chicory, and white snakeroot, all in bloom.
It's great that you are walking and observing after the flooding. With all the time you have spent there, you can really see the effects of before and after. You may also be able to document the spread of the knotweed. Yikes!
11/3/21. Ainsworth Cemetery, Jack Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 0.4 miles today, 3631.5 miles total.
Categories: leafminers and blooms
This afternoon after the snow showers I took a quick walk through Ainsworth Cemetery hoping I might find a few arthropods on the gravestones. No luck there but I managed to find some leafminers on goldenrod and blackberry and a single dandelion open. The cemetery is quite old for the area, with the oldest stone dating back to 1799, and most before 1880. There was a single set of 3 recent stones, one to 2018. That was the only that had any remnants of plantings or flowers. In general, it seems like none of the folks here still have visitors other than the 3 recent arrivals. I think perhaps the reason why I had such luck with bugs in the Dodge Rd cemetery (other than the warmer temperatures) was all the plantings and fresh bouquets. This cemetery is on a steep slope with southwest exposure, so if it had been just a little warmer or a few more plantings, there might have been something.
Interesting about the lack of cemetery plantings. I've looked at gravestones for lichen, but never thought to look for insects among the flowers.
11-3-21 Duke River Park, Manville, and Mountain Park, Liberty Corner, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 1137.5 miles total
Categories: flowering, birds
We had our first frost, but there were still a few things blooming today. I saw wingstem, 3 kinds of smartweed, prostrate knotweed, frost aster, white snakeroot, and dayflower in Manville. Birds were geese, mergansers, a kingfisher, and a song sparrow. I also found a European hornet and a very orange coral-style fungus.
In the afternoon I walked with Molly who was practicing fall plants. I taught her arrowwood, ironweed, blackhaw, gray dogwood, virgin's bower, and mountain mint. Blooming were goldenrod, frost aster, white clover and chicory.
That's wonderful that Molly is working on fall plants! And it's great to hear that you still have kingfishers around
11/4/21. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, VT. 0.8 miles today, 3632.3 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
This afternoon I met up with Ed for a bug walk at the North Branch Nature Center. We started at the large witch hazel at the corner of the parking lot. The witch hazel is in full bloom, so we had hopes for pollinators. After examining it very closely we managed to find a few small flies. Then we walked down to the community gardens. Most of the plots are gone by, but we found a few flowers in bloom (Johnny jump-ups and a few others), some rotting squashes, and some rotting rhubarb leaves that had some flies, plus some other insects tucked into vegetation trying to warm up. In addition to flies (lots), we found a few grasshoppers, a caddisfly, a spotted cucumber beetle, some tiny wasps, a native bee, an ant, a sulphur butterfly, some leafhoppers, and a very small brown bug.
11-4-21. Mill Creek Preserve, Secaucus, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 1139 miles total
Categories: birds, fruiting
Molly, Katie and I went on "an adventure" today, and, among other things, explored this trail through the meadowlands (that is adjacent to a huge shopping center). The highlight of the walk for me was encountering three folks with binoculars looking in the near shrubbery. They were all there especially to see a juvenile purple gallinule (as were 4 other people we encountered while walking around) and we got to see it, too. Way, way out of range.
Other birds were yellow-rumped warblers, some sparrow that might have just been a song, green-winged teals, mallard, ring-billed gulls, mourning dove, and black duck. Fruiting I found ragweed, a sedge, sweetgum, mile a minute, nightshade, honeysuckle, burdock, orache, cocklebur, goldenrod, dogbane, hempvine, Phragmites, red cedar, porcelainberry, poke, lettuce, and groundsel tree. And there were a few flowers, too: goldenrod, smartweed, and evening primrose.
I'm impressed with the number of insects you are still able to find up there! Though it's been a very "buggy" fall here as well.
It sounds like a great adventure with the girls--a purple gallinule! Very cool!
11/5/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3632.4 miles total.
Categories: vertebrates
I was recovering from my booster shot today so I didn't get far from the house. I walked around the yard and shot a red squirrel, a chickadee, and a downy woodpecker.
Good for you getting the booster! I hope recovery is speedy.
11/6/21. Chickering Bog, Calais, VT & Groton State Park, Groton, VT. 3.4 miles today, 3635.8 miles total.
Categories: hoarfrost, 100-step species challenge
This morning I met up with my 4 friends at Chickering Bog for our weekly walk. We had a hard frost overnight with humid weather yesterday, so we had a delightful display of hoarfrost, especially at the bog. I photographed frosty white cedar, leatherleaf, and blueberries.
After the walk, my husband and I drove up to Groton. I dropped him off at Fiddlehead Pond with his unicycle, then continued on to Boulder Beach Rd and parked at the nature center. I took the loop trail to the beaver pond for lunch. There was a log there in the sun at the end of the trail, just above the beaver dam, that made a perfect lunch spot. After lunch, instead of continuing on up the trail to Osmore Pond, I decided to hang out by the edge of the beaver pond in the sun and see if I could find 100 species within 100 steps. I had great fun, but only managed to find 75 species, although I didn't quite walk 100 steps, more like 50. I found white pines, white birches, fir, red spruce, tamarack, red maple, black cherry, and beech for trees. Shrubs were lowbush blueberry, meadowsweet, steeplebush, speckled alder, and wild raisin. Ferns were royal fern, intermediate wood fern, marsh fern, and bristly clubmoss. Herbs were goldthread, Canada mayflower, hawkweed, and goldenrod. I found 2 kinds of sphagnum, some Thuidium, some Pleurozeum, some Polytrichum, and several kinds of Dicranum, plus Porella and Nowellia liverworts. I also found a tiny gilled mushroom and some Dacromyces. For arthropods I had an autumn meadowhawk, a grasshopper, lots of flies on the wet sap of the alders freshly cut by the beavers, a caddisfly, a moth, a money spider, a wolf spider, and a Tetragnatha, plus a large springtail.
I used to have to wait for my daughter who was taking singing lessons, it was an hour and a half lesson, so I had just about an hour at a nearby park, and I would challenge myself to find 100 species in that timeframe, but I never tried it within 100 steps. Very neat idea. Funny that your trees are radically different than mine, and I certainly don't have goldthread, but much of the rest of what you found I at least see sometimes down here (if you exchange blackhaw for wild raisin, at any rate).
11/7/21. Osmore Pond, Groton, VT. 2.2 miles today, 3638.0 miles total.
Categories: woody plants, arthropods
This afternoon my husband and I returned to Groton since it was sunny (but rather cool, barely 50F). I dropped him off at Fiddlehead pond for his ride down to Ricker on his unicycle, then continued on up to Osmore Pond. I began with a picnic lunch at the prime picnic spot on Osmore Pond, a picnic table and stone fireplace right at the pond's edge, with views up the entire pond. I figured I would have it to myself, but a group of 3 hikers came through while I was eating, just to see what the spot looked like. Lunch was rather chilly, with a slight breeze coming off the pond, and shade from the hill blocking the sun. After lunch, I walked the trail to Little Deer "mountain", which begins along the pond edge and then heads up through hardwood forest over the hill. I paused along the way to watch a family of river otter in the water, and to shoot fungus gnats, black flies, and fruit flies dining at some striped maple stumps that were freshly cut by beaver. Little Deer has some lovely views over Lake Groton from granite outcrops, and I had the place to entirely to myself. On the top, I found red spruce, white birch, red maple, Amelanchier, and lowbush blueberries for woody plants, and not much flying, at least for insects. I did see a flock of chickadees come by. On the road down to Ricker there was an overturned vehicle with several fire engines. The firemen and police looked quite shaken, so it looked like a very bad accident. We took the back road on our return to Marshfield to stay out of their way.
Sorry to hear about the car accident; these days with all the safety equipment either everyone is essentially okay or it's really bad.
I have never seen a river otter; not to mention a whole family playing, how neat!
11-6-21. Jockey Hollow, Harding Twp., NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1139.25 miles total
Today my friend Laura and I took a course on habitat assessment of high gradient streams, with an eye to being assigned our own section of the Passaic River to monitor. It was 2 hours in the classroom plus an hour of practice on a tiny little brook in Jockey Hollow. The brook is nearly optimal (we have too many deer, so too little vegetation to really make any stream in the area optimal. They said the latest count in this park was way down (from nearly 100!) to only 50 deer per sq. mi. (it should be about 4 for healthy forest)).
While we were gathering, walking in, and assessing I snapped some photos of the plants. There's a remarkable amount of christmasberry here, one of the farthest north spots I've found it. It's highly invasive, but so far I've not found it in my Watchung Mtns. But in the parking lot there was a little yellow flower wedged up against a concrete "stopper". It turned out to be miniature moneywort, Lysimachia japonica, the first NJ record and only the 6th in the US on iNat. Very easy to overlook, though, so it may be much more common. It was like a woodsorrel flower with self-heal leaves.
11-7-21. Warren; Tatum Park, Middletown; Riverview, Perth Amboy; Middlesex Greenway, Metuchen, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 1141 miles total.
Category: first 50 species
In the morning, Molly, Katie, and I went out and practiced assessing the little brook behind our house. I didn't take many photos as I was juggling clipboard, thermometer, yardstick, measuring tape, stopwatch, and a weighted balloon (as somehow we couldn't find a rubber ducky, the official tool). The stream was only a little less optimal than the one we'd practiced on, with some more bank erosion than in Jockey Hollow.
In the afternoon I drove off on my own and checked out three different spots: Tatum is an upland woods on the coastal plain, Riverview is the bank of the mouth of the Raritan River estuary, and Middlesex is a pretty urban edge by railroad tracks, mowed park, and lots of development. I was looking to see how far I had to go to get to 50 species, and in each case it was about 1/3 of a mile. I did not explore thoroughly for insects, though.
The first five trees I found at each spot were Tatum: black walnut, red oak, tulip poplar, beech, a hickory; Riverview: pine, white mulberry, cottonwood, pear, and American elm; Middlesex: American elm, black walnut, an ash, Norway maple, hackberry.
The first five shrubs were Tatum: spicebush, Siebold's viburnum (unusual for me), blackhaw, holly, burning bush. Riverview: false indigobush, groundsel tree, common juniper, winged sumac, smooth sumac; Middlesex: only Amur honeysuckle, fragrant sumac, and honeysuckle.
The first five vines/canes were Tatum: multiflora, bittersweet, wineberry, honeysuckle, English ivy. Riverview: poison ivy, Virginia creeper, rose, porcelainberry, honesuckle; Middlesex: bittersweet, honeysuckle, black raspberry, poison ivy, wineberry.
The first 5 forbs and grasses were Tatum: mock strawberry, low smartweed, white snakeroot, a baneberry, and bittercress. Riverview: English plantain, common plantain, dandelion, mugwort, Queen Anne's lace: Middlesex: goose grass, English plantain, white clover, hawkweed, mugwort.
The first five lower plants were Tatum: only sensitive fern and an Atrichum, Riverview: only gutweed, sea lettuce, knotted wrack, and slivery bryum; Middlesex: none.
The first 5 fungi I found were Tatum: none. Riverview: only a powdery mildew on Melilotus, candleflame lichen, and rosette lichen; Middlesex: only Stereum ostryum, star rosette lichen, common greenshield, common rosette lichen.
The first five vertebrates were Tatum: none. Riverveiw: herring gull, mallard, ring billed gull, menhadden or a related fish (in the mouth of a gull), cormorant; Middlesex: only deer and gray squirrel.
The first five invertebrates were Tatum: only leafmines in white snakeroot and Rubus plus hackberry nipple galls. Riverview: a leafmine on Melilotus, oyster, ribbed mussel, quohog, acorn barnacle; Middlesex: only spotted lanternfly, a hoverfly, and honeysuckle aphids.
Great find on the Lysimachia japonica--so cool to find something new!
The first 5 categories are quite interesting. Is that part of the assessment methodology? It reminds me of what I was doing in 2015 when I walked all our roads in town. I tried to walk at an even pace, but set a timer for every 5 minutes. When the timer went off, I shot the nearest 3 trees to where I happened to be.
Nope, I was just curious what I'd find, and how it would differ in the different parks.
11/8/21. Templeton Rd trails north, East Montpelier, VT. 3.2 miles today, 3641.2 miles total.
Categories: bark, galls, arthropods
This afternoon I drove up to the East Montpelier road maintenance area and walked the trail system from there to Esther's Rock. For some reason, our Saturday morning hike group hasn't walked this trail in years--I think the last time was in 2013 when we discovered a huge pile of smelly grouse scat under a tree. I don't know why we haven't been back since it is a scenic walk. The first part of the woods here are mixed hardwood with some logging trails. Esther's Rock is a ledge outcropping in an industrial cornfield, a memorial to Esther Salmi who was killed while volunteering at a bike race in the 1990s. Around the top of the cornfield, the trail heads into boreal forest softwoods. I lost the trail at one point and followed a bear trail (full of large droppings of corn) to the edge of the field. There I saw a strange bird hopping around the top of the field, a lifer for me--like a mourning dove, but smaller, light colored with some chestnut around the neck. A Lapland larkspur? From Esther's Rock, I decided to take a "short cut" (it was longer!) around the bottom of the field back to the Templeton Rd trail. I didn't want to walk on the field itself because it had been recently sprayed with liquid gold, so to speak. I followed the East Montpelier trail at the edge of the field down into the East Montpelier town forest trail system, hung a right around the field, then took off on a logging road that disappeared into a swamp. I crossed the many stream of the swamp and started uphill towards the Templeton Rd trail again and noticed a cut off ladder and a small pile of boards. On top of the boards were lots of piles of coyote scat, including some very fresh pieces. At that I began singing loudly, just in case, and sang until I found my way up to the proper trail again.
Bark today was beech, red maple (some with target cankers), fir, hemlock, white pine, red spruce, black cherry, red elder, honeysuckle, and hawthorn. I also found galls on hawthorn and goldenrod. Arthropods today were few, but I found some Trichocera and fungus gnats. And then I saw not 1 but 3 winter moths fluttering near a branch. I looked closer and found a wingless female, and then one of the fluttering moths came in and mated with her. Cool! Not so cool was finding a deer ked in my hair later in the evening. Apparently their bites are painless, but can result in allergic reactions about 24 hours later that may last up to a year. And they carry Lyme as well, although transmission isn't documented.
11-8-21. East County Reserve, Warren, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1141.75 miles total
category: first five things
I did the first five things more thoroughly today. I was kind of adjusting categories as I went along, but it was interesting to me which ones filled quickly and which were harder to find. This is an old farm with ponds, lawns and a wooded section. Dicots was the easiest: plantain, buttercup, clover, mugwort, and goldenrod were all visible from my car. Then vines and canes: honeysuckle, rose, blackberry, raspberry, ivy. Next trees: tulp poplar, sassafras, sugar maple, hackberry, walnut. Next fleshy fruit: rose, barberry, hackberry, bittercress, honeysuckle. Simple plants: Frullania, Pseudanomodon, Thuidium, Atrichum, and one more moss. Fungi: 4 lichens and a false turkeytail, And Invertebrates: oak shothole mines, aster mines, Acaulitis on beech, Smilax leaf galls, and a muscoid fly. All my other categories I didn't find five things to fill them: shrubs (only because I lost count) (privet, barberry, honeysuckle, dogwood); Monocots (also lost count) (cattail, foxtail, bullreed, greenbriar). But truly not found were vertebrates (only mallard and vulture), flowering (only witchhazel and dandelion).
I have never seen a moth mating (butterflies, yes, but not moths) how neat! I did not know about deer keds; sound very unpleasant. If I am singing in the woods it's always either because I know my kids are headed my way and not sure of where I am, or (more often) because I've reason to think something scary is out there. The girls' camp teaches them to "sing a loud song" if they see a bear (maybe they should add in coyotes).
11/9/21. Moose Track Trail, Groton State Park, Groton, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2.6 miles today, 3643.8 miles total.
Categories: bark, galls, arthropods
This afternoon my husband and I went out to Groton for perhaps our last trip of the season. Next week hunting season will be on with the big guns and yahoos. I had a lovely cut chilly picnic lunch on the shore of Noyes Pond, then drove up to the start of Moose Track trail (I did indeed find a moose track). The trail is very flat and straight (old railroad bed?) through young hardwoods. When the main trail turned and headed downhill towards Chute, I stayed straight on Beaver Pond Loop. This part of the trail was untravelled and overgrown, more so as I approached the beaver pond, where I became dependent on the old VAST trail markings in the trees since there was no evidence of trail on the ground. Except for the moose, deer, and beaver tracks. I think perhaps the VAST trail people and the beavers had a disagreement over where the trail should and the beavers prevailed. The beaver meadow was quite scenic and very quiet.
I collected bark photos of yellow birch, white birch, beech, white ash, sugar maple, red maple, red spruce, eastern hemlock, balsam fir, and trembling aspen. I found galls on goldenrod and white ash, and leafminers on Rubus and Joe Pye weed. I chased a few flies with my macro camera but never caught any. I managed to catch a few Acleris moths with my telephoto lens.
In the evening the temperature was 50F and humid. I turned on my lights and found a pug moth, some bruce spanworms, some Coleophora moths, some caddisflies, Nematoceran flies, some chunky reddish flies, and a spider.
11/10/21. Robinson Cemetery, Calais, VT. 1 miles today, 3644.8 miles total.
Categories: bark, arthropods
This afternoon I took advantage of the bright sunny weather and went up to Robinson's Cemetery in search of bugs. The cemetery is the largest one in town, with a few stones going back to 1850, but some quite recent. There are lots of well known town names there, and even a few stones for people that I knew personally. Some of the stones had plantings, but only a few mums showed any signs of life. I didn't find any pollinators, just some calyptrate flies on the south-facing surfaces of the stones and some fuzzy caterpillars (red ones and black ones). I also found a large orbweaver on my car. I collected bark photos from the trees around the cemetery, including hemlock, sugar maple, gray birch, trembling aspen, and fir.
I the evening I turned on the lights on the porch but had no visitors.
11-9-21. Finderne Wetlands, Finderne, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 1143.5
Molly and I walked in this wet meadow on a flood plain near my son, Carl's, company depot. This area was flooded, well above head high, two months ago and I'd not been back. It knocked down much of the tall grass, which made walking easier. I was half-heartedly looking for a yellowlegs that people have seen here recently, but with no success. We were about half way around the loop when my husband called: his dad was at our house, ready to take Molly out to lunch; she'd completely forgotten! So Chuck gave him directions down to us and we hurried the rest of the way back to the car; the last bit of which was over foot-high lumps of knocked over grass on uneven footing while going uphill. I wasn't sure I was even going to make it at all! But in the end we got there before him, they had lunch, and all was well.
There was no yellowlegs, but we saw and photographed a crow, a lot of mallards, a turkey vulture, a great blue heron, a mourning dove, and a red tailed hawk; very successful birding for me. Molly nearly stepped on a garter snake, who then decided to make a stand in the center of the dirt road rather than slithering away, so I was able to get a nice photo of the whole snake (usually I just get their back ends). We also found a whole bunch of snails 5 feet up in a honey locust tree. Very odd. And there were two blooming violets, of all things. I didn't realize they rebloomed.
11-10-21. Midland and Ocean Breeze Parks, Staten Island, NY. 1.0 mile today, 1144.5 miles total.
Molly and I drove out to Staten Island to see if we could spot the king eider male that has been hanging around the pier at Midland. No luck. But we had fun on the beach nonetheless, seeing herring, ringbilled, and great black backed gulls, plus pigeons, house sparrows, mourning doves, and the highlight for me: sanderlings.
We found tons of channeled whelk shells, and lots of big shark eyes, too, plus the usual blue mussels, oysters, surf and softshell clams, quahogs, jingles, slippershells. There were red sponges, at least three kinds of crab shells (plus horseshoe crabs) and someone caught a bluefish while we were there and let me photograph it. Plants were somewhat interesting, too, with Japanese sedge, camphorweed, sandburs (on my shoelaces, but not my socks, yay!) and alfalfa. Oh and a buckeye butterfly.
11-11-21. Buck Gardens, Natirar, and Little Brook Sanctuary, Far Hills and Bernardsville, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 1146 miles total.
Category: pretty
Someone told me about a photo contest in the local county parks, and the weather was stunning today, so I went out to three of them and took photos. Buck's is intensely planted, mostly rock gardens and ponds. Lovely, and I hadn't been in over a year, never at just this time. They have dawn redwood and bald cypress, Japanese maples, Stewartia, and some Asian witchhazel (red), all of which were absolutely at peak right now, as well as some of the beeches and hostas. It was very easy to find pretty views and pretty close ups as well.
Next I went to Natirar, an old estate (named for the Raritan River it's located along, spelled backward). Most of it is mown lawn but I walked up through a patch of woods. The blackhaw, burning bush, barberry and beech plus Norway maple (clearly it needs a "B" name) were all in full color. Very pretty.
Finally I stopped at Little Brook Sanctuary. The only other time I'd been here was gray and rainy, but in the bright sunlight this heavily wooded valley was rather pretty. Particularly the burning bush and beech. And the drive home through thick beechwoods was right out of a Robert Frost poem. Lovely.
It sounds like you had a fun hunt for yellowlegs, even if they didn't appear. Glad you got to find some sanderlings, though! The alfalfa on the beach was odd. I sometimes find it near farm fields. But there is one patch of it that seems to regenerate on the edge of the parking lot behind the State House. And you had a great day at the beech!
11/11/21. Cutler Cemetery, Montpelier, VT. 1 miles today, 3645.8 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
This afternoon I met up with Eve and Ed at the Cutler Cemetery on Main St. The cemetery is on a west facing slope, so we hoped to find some bugs sunning on the stones. When we got there, there were chains across the two entrances, leaving just enough room for 1 car each, barely. Ed was in one entrance, I was in another, and I wondered where Eve could park since there is absolutely no parking along this busy road. So I decided to pull just to the side of the entrance, but then found that the ground was thoroughly sodden and slushy mud, and I was stuck. I called for a tow before we started bug hunting. The hunting was decent for November, certainly better than yesterday. We found at least 4 species of spiders on the stones, and 3-4 species of leafhoppers. Also, a tiny gray nymph of something, perhaps a bug or an aphid, and a green caterpillar on a stone. There were lots of autumnal moths and bruce spanworms fluttering about. The sun hid behind the clouds after an hour and a half, and Eve and Ed eventually left, while I continued to wait for the tow truck. The cemetery director and 2 police cars had stopped by earlier and left when they determined no one was injured and help was on the way. When the tow truck finally arrived, the driver determined the only way out was to block one lane of the road, one of the busiest in town, so I got to direct traffic. I've always had a secret ambition to direct traffic at a construction site with a big stop/slow sign--this was my big chance! For the most part, everyone was nice and cautious, and there was no trouble. The only one who blew past without waiting for my hand signals was the guy in the pickup with the US flag flying high in the back, as big as the US flag on the back of the tow truck cab. I figured the guy must be on the same team as the tow truck driver, so he knew he didn't have to wait.
11/12/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3645.9 miles total.
Categories: vertebrates
The weather was rainy and cool all day today, so I stayed home to work. In the afternoon I went out for a walk around the yard and shot a blue jay, a chickadee, a hairy woodpecker, and a red squirrel.
11/13/21. Elmslie Rd, Calais, VT. 3 miles today, 3648.9 miles total.
Categories: conifer buds and bark, animals
This morning I met up with my 4 friends at the Calais town hall to go walking on Elmslie Rd. We had originally planned to walk Robinson Cemetery Rd, but there is a detour making it hard to get from one side of town to the other. As it turns out, we could have just as easily walked Robinson Cemetery, except, that is where the detour is routing traffic, so it would have been very busy. As it was, although Elmslie is typically quite quiet with almost no traffic, today we had a lot cars since some of the detour traffic was coming down Elmslie. Still, the road is scenic and goes past some lovely cascading waterfall in deep woods. I shot buds and bark of red spruce, balsam fir, white pine, white cedar, and eastern hemlock. One of our group was scanning the road for serpentine treasures and came up with some turtle eggs and a caterpillar that she shared with us.
11-12-21. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1146.25 miles total
Today I was on duty again, so I intended to walk 5 minutes away from the car and 5 minutes back about 4 times in four different directions. But the first time I got back to the car I got called; so much for that. I took photos of 4 kinds of fungi (2 Stereum, a Phlebia and a Phlebiopsis), 3 kinds of fleshy fruit (blackhaw, barberry, rose), 1 fluffy fruit (hawkweed), 2 red leaves (burning bush, maple), 2 orange (hornbeam, maple), 3 yellow (witchhazel, oak, beech), 1 greenish (greenbriar), and a moss.
11-13-21. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, 0.25 miles today, 1146.5 miles total.
Categories: fruit, leaves
Duty again today, from 6 am to noon. We were busy the whole time, then at 1 pm Becca had her 18th birthday party, which went until after the sun set. It poured at the start of the party but then the sun came out, just before it set, and I snuck out just as the sun was setting (even though the party was still going strong) and took a few pictures.
Fruit-wise I got crabapple, privet, foxtail, mugwort, rose, and juniper. Leaf-wise were blackberry, burning bush, mugwort, olive, oak, barberry, hawkweed, creeper, and thistle.
And as I was leaving some skeletal-looking sycamores caught my eye.
11-14-21. Lord Stirling Park, Basking Ridge; Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, S. Washington Ave.., Piscataway, NJ. 2.0 miles today, 1148.5 miles total.
Categories: leaves, fruit, birds
I walked at Lord Stirling, which is part of the Great Swamp at dawn this morning, and was the only person in the whole park for a bit. Sunrise was not colorful, but the sky was clear and the golden light was lovely. Plus the clear skies meant a frost overnight and many things were beautifully outlined in hoarfrost. Leaves I photographed were lots of oak, blackberry, and viburnum, plus mugwort, agrimony, Queen Anne's lace, yarrow, beech, blueberry, loosestrife, barberry, greenbriar, bedstraw, honeysuckle, olive, bayberry, sweetgum, maple, and dogwood. Then fruit were honeysuckle, crabapple, pear, rose mallow, mugwort, bittersweet, rose, blackhaw, goldenrod, woolgrass, mountainmint, winterberry, steeplebush, beardtongue, viburnum, and birds were robin and goose.
I stopped at Washington Valley on the way home to see if the birds were out, but photographed none. Still, the beeches and oaks were very pretty, and the sycamore striking.
In the afternoon I drove 20 minutes to Piscataway to a retention basin where a cattle egret has been hanging out. It was so white I thought at first it was a plastic bag that had gotten stuck in a bush. But I was able to get some photos, a new species for me. There were also killdeer and mallards, plus an interesting pennywort and leafy spurge. On the way in I shot a whole flock of starlings on the electrical wires, too.
It's cool that you shot the starlings as well as the egret! So many folks would come out to see the egret and never record the common birds, giving a very skewed outlook on birds for the day.
11/14/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3649.0 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
I spent much of the day indoors cleaning house (for a change!). In the process, I uncovered several tiny spiders that I shot with hopes of identifying during my upcoming online spider course. I went out to service the trail cameras in the yard, but didn't catch any arthropods outdoors during my excursion.
I feel that way about weeds; people take lots of photos of rare and pretty plants, and ignore the dandelions, giving skewed statistics there as well. Are you taking or giving a spider course?
I'm taking the spider course, learning about spiders for (almost) the first time. And a course about seaweeds on alternating nights, which I know absolutely nothing about.
11/15/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3651.0 miles total.
Categories: galls, blooming, buds
Today was rainy and cool (<40F) all day. I took a quick walk up Peck Hill to get some fresh air. With all the leaves gone, I managed to find some stem galls on a balsam poplar and a willow. I shot some mountain maple and ash-leaved maple buds and bark. I also found some calico aster in bloom and found a centipede in the road.
11/16/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3653.0 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
We had a dusting of snow overnight, so I headed out this morning to hunt arthropods on the snow, the first search of the season. It turned out that the snow coverage was pretty much limited to our driveway and the part of the Peck Hill that is in deep woods. The rest had already melted. Perhaps the reason why our driveway is so rich with arthropods on snow is that it is north facing as well as in the woods. Maybe that reduces the temperature fluctuations and makes for a more complete and deeper snow cover. I think when there are patches of bare ground available, the arthropods avoid the snow. When they can't avoid it, they cross it, and that's when I see them. A hypothesis, anyway. Today I didn't find any arthropods on snow, but I did find a single soldier beetle larva on the road and a slug. In the house when I got back I found a chilled spider by the door.
11-15-21. Colonial Park and Delaware Raritan Canal, Somerset, NJ. 2 miles today, 1148.5 miles total
Categories: birds, high contrast
I walked at this county park looking for interesting plants and birds. The first section is an arboretum and they had castor-aralia, Magnolia officianalis, and beebee tree. Then I found a blue heron fishing in the brook, lots of white throated sparrows. and a yellow rumped warbler. The leaves are still pretty, especially the burning bush, blackhaw, Norway maple, silver maple, black cherry, green briar, and ironwood.
11-16-21. Duke Island Park and Raritan Greenway, Bridgwater and Raritan, NJ. 1 mile today, 1149.5 miles total
Categories: birds, fall leaves
This county park between a canal and the Raritan River was completely flooded in September. The canal-side pathway is still closed and washed away in many places. The far side of the canal upstream had lots of small businesses, and lots of big debris like trash containers and random metal items are still randomly scattered throughout the wilder parts of the park, as well as a lot of just plain trash. It was sad.
But the main section, which is wider and mostly mowed lawns, did just fine, as well as a pretty little pond there, where I saw mallards and a very nice blue heron, and in the wilderness area there were white throated sparrows, a junco, a cardinal, a mourning dove, a blue jay, and a goldfinch. So, for me, lots of birds. The leaves by the canal (where I could get to it) were pretty, especially the norway and silver maples, crabapple, honeysuckle, burning bush, and linden.
11-17-21. Warrenville Golf Course, Warren, and North Branch Park, Bridgewater, NJ. 1.25 miles today. 1150.75 miles total
Categories: birds, fall leaves
I walked along the edge of the golf course in town because I'd seen a stunning Japanese maple as I drove by and I wanted a photo. I also found tar spot on Norway maple leaves. Pin oak, rose, privet, cherry, sweetgum, and blackhaw also had pretty leaves. My only birds were geese on the golf course itself.
In the late afternoon I walked with Molly along the edge of the remote controlled airplane field at the county fairgrounds. Here there were over 100 geese and we felt a bit like sheepdogs as we walked the perimeter of the field they were in, causing them to bunch up significantly. Again they were the only birds. Fall leaves included pin oak, red oak, Norway maple, bitternut, pear, cherry, and barberry, plus there was a whole line of osage orange dropping their fruit along the road.
Your trip to Colonial Park sounds quite interesting. I've never heard of castor-aralia, Magnolia officianalis, and beebee tree, much less seen them. I'm jealous that you still have leaves to look at. The only leaves left here are beech and raspberry.
11/17/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3655.0 miles total.
Categories: vertebrates
I took a quick walk up Peck Hill this morning looking for arthropods, but didn't find any. The snow is all but melted away. The little that remains is not in contact with ground, raised a bit on fallen logs or plants with raised surfaces (eg burdock heads). The ground must still be a little warm compared to the air. Since I didn't find any bugs, I shot the turkeys and the squirrels in our yard.
Neat that the snow melts on the ground and not the plants; so often I see it the other way around.
I think it's an odd time of year, when the ground is warmer than the air. Soon enough, things will change.
11/18/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3655.1 miles total.
Categories: vertebrates
The weather was warmer today and Eve, Ed, and I discussed a quick bug walk, but we weren't fast enough on the decision. By 2 PM we had solid heavy rain. I went out for a quick walk around the yard and shot some of our turkeys, who seem to be preparing for Thanksgiving.
11-18-21. Sourland Mountain and Mountain View Park, Hillsborough, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1151.25 miles total
Categories: birds, fruit, leaves
I got going relatively early and made it half an hour away to Sourland while the morning mist was lingering. It made the spiderwebs particularly pretty. I walked around the pond here and then headed for the powerline cut, but they'd just mowed it (or really brush-hogged it) and there was not much to see. There were birds, though, and I saw a heron, some robins, lots of white throated sparrows, and a song sparrow. Fall-leaf-wise I had Norway maple, tulip tree, greenbrier, privet, blackberry, oak, hickory, blackhaw, autumn olive, red maple, rose, barberry, and black cherry. Fruits were aster, blackhaw, Chinese bush clover, several grasses, goldenrod, thistle, and rose.
Mountain View is a brand new set of playing fields built over an old railroad depot, but they made a real effort to put it swathes of wildflowers as well. Here I found geese, song sparrows, and, surprisingly, blue birds. Leaves was just mugwort. Fruit were grasses, goldenrods, reed, smooth sumac, round headed bush clover, and bergamot. And I found both asters and black eyed susans still with blooms (if rather bedraggled looking).
You have such a great variety of leaves left! Enjoy!
11/19/21. Peck Hill, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3657.1 miles total.
Categories: birds
We had heavy snow showers when I went out for my walk today, but just a dusting of snow on the ground. Our turkeys were milling about in the yard when I went out. I also shot our neighbor's ducks, who were quite scenic in their pond with their white feathers and orange beaks, perfectly matching the white snow and orange pumpkins on the shore of their little pond. But I won't post those photos since the ducks are pets. I found a second flock of turkeys in the farm field just across the bridge on Peck Hill.
I would love to see your duck photo! And turkeys are something special here, I only see a few a year; it's neat that you have your own flock.
11-19-21. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1151.75 miles total
Categories: fall leaves: invasive vs. native
I was on duty again today, so parked in two different spots in the park and walked a little ways from the car in three different directions each. One of the spots had half its trails closed for construction, I think flood repairs. We had rain the night before and the difference in the number of leaves still on trees was striking, though we're not quite to your "stick season" yet. I have noticed that most of the things (other than young oak and beech plus blackberry) that still have leaves are invasive.
For fall leaves on native plants I found: blackberry, red oak, black cherry, black raspberry, beech, white oak, witch hazel, greenbrier, sugar maple, and blackhaw, plus sycamore, bitternut, red maple, and American elm (all on the ground). Invasives with fall leaves were bush honeysuckle, Japanese honeysuckle, autumn olive, Chinese elm, black locust, burning bush, privet, Japanese barberry, wineberry, mugwort, linden viburnum, and multiflora rose. 14 native species vs. 12 invasives, though that doesn't reflect the relative abundance of individual invasive plants. And this is one of the most "wild" of the local parks.
That's a very interesting study of late persistent leaves. Indeed, invasives seem to hang onto their leaves a bit longer up here, too. Which makes them very boring for leaf miner hunting since leaf miners hardly seem to touch them. And if the leaf miners won't touch them, they probably don't support many other arthropods and their bird species.
11/20/21. Bayne Comolli Rd, Calais, VT. 3.2 miles today, 3660.3 miles total.
Categories: trees and tracks
This morning I met up with my 3 friends for a walk up Bayne Comolli Rd. That's a favorite of our 4th hiker, but she couldn't make it today due to travel. It's a quiet road that winds mostly through woods, but there are also a number of houses along it as well. I stopped to shoot a big-toothed aspen and an American hop hornbeam in a whole grove of hop hornbeams. It was also a good day for tracking, with 1/4-1/2" of new snow on the ground. We found tracks of red squirrels (I presume), red fox, deer, fisher, and perhaps marten.
That's an interesting point about mines. Of the lingering leaves I listed, I've seen mines on honeysuckle, rose, locust, and a gall on mugwort. Of the natives, every single one except maybe blackhaw has either galls or leafmines (or usually both) that I've found. And I certainly find more critters "hanging out" on natives than invasives. I think a field full of mugwort (or knotweed) is even more boring than a mowed lawn.
I've never seen a fisher nor a marten; not sure I'd recognize a marten over other weasel-y things. Certainly not their tracks! I'm hoping for not much snow this winter, but thin layers of it are quite lovely, and I'm looking forward to them.
11-20-21. Torpey Field, Bridgewater, NJ. 1.25 miles today 1153 miles total.
Categories: birds, hoarfrost, fruit
This is a playing field rimmed with brushy trees, on the other side of which is a wetland that they claim they are restoring (currently it's at least 50 percent mugwort). I went not long after sunrise and spotted a farmer who lives next to the field turning out her donkey into the paddock there. Birds were noisy but mostly robins and starlings, though I also saw a junco, white throated sparrows, a blue jay, and mourning doves. Lots of plants were coated in hoarfrost, which always makes for interesting photos. Fruit-wise I found aster, bidens, pilewort, thistle, horsenettle, stinging nettle, honey locust, pear, rose, groundsel, black walnut, burning bush, dodder, Japanese hops, goldenrod, several grasses, giant ragweed, the remains of poison hemlock, peppergrass, white snakeroot, and a whole row of fruiting osage oranges.
11-21-21. East County Park, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today 1153. 5 miles total
Categories: birds, fruit
This is a former farm with some ponds. Bird-wise I only photographed a song sparrow, and a mallard, but there were carolina wrens and whitethroated sparrows that were just too fast for me. Fruit were rose, Queen Anne, aster, cattail, privet, honeysuckle, black locust, European beech, stonecrop, pear, smartweed, evening primrose, knotweed, mugwort, ash, tulip poplar, pilewort, burdock, and red oak.
That would be an interesting study--mugwort plantation versus mowed lawn for diversity? I wonder if the donkey can manage to add anything. Great fruit surveys!
11/21/21. Grand Isle, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3660.4 miles total.
Categories: spiders
We spent the morning packing and the afternoon driving up to Grand Isle, where we are staying in a cabin in north South Hero. This is the same cabin where we stayed last May that had the clouds of midges. This evening when I went out to check the lights, I briefly saw a Bruce spanworm moth, but it got away. I managed to shoot 4 spiders of 4 different species, an orb weaver, a Tetragnatha, a Philodromus, and something else, perhaps another orb weaver.
It's sad to be coming to the end of bug season, but I will not miss the clouds of midges!
11/22/21. North Hero State Park, North Hero, VT. 0.9 miles today, 3661.3 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, and trees
This morning my husband and I drove up to North Hero State Park for some exercise. While he rode his unicycle around the park roads (which were entirely empty), I meandered through the paths of the former campground in the silver maple swamp. It boggles my mind that the state would build such a huge campground in a swamp, bringing in loads of fill to create dry campsites, and then abandon the entire venture. I walked up a main road through the campsite past some sites marked 80-108, past the old bath house and a handicapped accessible lean-to with poison ivy growing up the ramp. I was fascinated and challenged by the unfamiliar trees in the swamp, which included silver maple, hornbeam, bitternut hickory, and shagbark hickory. I also found a few leafminers, including some on goldenrod and heart-leaved aster. I found a single gall on big-toothed aspen.
Your North Hero plants are far more familiar to me than your usual finds. Swamp camping makes no sense to me; either, though I have spent vacations on Lake Champlain and thoroughly enjoyed it, and can see why there'd be a demand for more. And then to abandon it...
11-22-21. Lincoln Park, Jersey City, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 1154.75 miles total
Categories: wetland plants, birds
I was at Home Depot yesterday and wanted to walk afterward near salt water, to see both the ducks and the plants. I picked this park as it was one of the closest, I'd never been here before, and the day before an ash-throated flycatcher had been spotted here. Well, I didn't see the flycatcher, but I did see my first ever brown creeper, which was very exciting. Other birds were pied-billed grebe, white-throated sparrow, goose, cormorant, song sparrow, ring-billed gull, herring gull, laughing gull, gadwall, mallard, red-breasted merganser, great blue heron, bufflehead, and mockingbird. 15 species is a huge birding day for me.
As far as marsh plants go I got pretty much all of them: groundsel bush, marsh elder, salt marsh aster, seaside goldenrod, reed, bayberry, winged sumac, cottonwood, black locust, cocklebur, swamp rose mallow, even saltmarsh cordgrass, plus some dodder and a planted willow oak.
I was right next to a lift bridge along the Hackensack River, and I was thrilled to hear its horn going off; they were raising the bridge and so I expected to get to see some tall ship come through; but they must have just been testing the mechanism or something as there was no water traffic at all.
11-23-21. Michael Lepp Field, Somerville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1155 miles total
Category: green in winter
I was dropping off Chuck's used insulin syringes at the hospital today and didn't have much time, so I stopped at this little urban ballfield on a brook and walked the perimeter. While there is still a little color in the lingering Norway maple and pear leaves, most of the leaves have fallen. I was concentrating on lawn weeds and other things that stay green here all winter and found plantain (common and English), dandelion, chickweed (common and mouse eared), ground ivy, bittercress, winter cress, peppergrass, horseweed, white clover, onion grass, blue violet, blue aster, honewort, honeysuckle, cleavers, garlic mustard, mock strawberry, white avens, English ivy, a Carex sp., groundsel, poison hemlock (in the old baseball diamond, which was odd), and mouse ear hawkweed.
Congrats on the brown creeper! They are such fun birds to find! And your list of water birds was quite impressive, especially for this time of year. Meanwhile, your list of shore plants all sound exotic to me. There is no bayberry or winged sumac up here. Our cabin is beside the drawbridge between North and South Hero. The bridge has been under construction for years. It doesn't look like they made any progress on it this summer, although work crews were still out on it this week. I don't think it will be opening soon. You weed list for the ball feed was quite impressive!
11/24/21. Fiske Quarry, Isle La Motte, VT. 1.1 miles today, 3662.4 miles total.
Categories: woody plants
The weather was finally calm today after the big wind storm that kept us inside yesterday. We also celebrated Thanksgiving a few days early where we watched the wind and white caps out the windows while we cooked. Today we took our Thanksgiving guests out to see the fossils at Isle La Motte, the 480 million year old tropical reef. We had a very enjoyable time exploring the quarry together and marveling over the fossils. I also marveled over the exotic to me red cedars. With all the leaves gone, the bittersweet stood out--and it was American bittersweet! There was plenty of Phragmites in the quarry pond, and I found some cedar rust galls, which are just as exotic to me as the red cedars themselves.
I have never seen fossils "in the wild". The basaltic hills I've always lived on don't have any. Nor have I ever seen American bittersweet. You should see the cedar galls in April/May, when they are doing the whole orange tentacle/telial horns come out. I can get the most bored middle school boy excited about nature with those.
11-25-21. Kitchell Pond, Morristown, and Great Swamp, Harding, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 1156 miles total
Categories: birds, wetland plants
Just after sunrise I drove half an hour over to Kitchell Pond, which I'd been meaning to check out for years. There's been a tufted duck sighted here for two days now in the morning, so there were at least a dozen birders wandering around this small pond, the vast majority with much bigger lenses on their cameras than mine, making me rather jealous. However, I was the only one taking picutres of plants as well as birds. The park was also clearly gearing up for a "Turkey Trot", though it was not closed when I arrived at 7;30.
There was no tufted duck. I didn't see it, and I overheard the birders saying none of them had, either. But there were geese and mallards and a brown duck I had to look up at home: gadwall, a male in breeding plumage.
Plants were much more successful. The most interesting find for me was floating marsh pennywort. I also found duckweed, water-starwort, swamp rose mallow, reed, cattails, winterberries, swamp loosestrife, European alder, black willow, silky dogwood, red chokeberry, woolgrass, false nettle, blue vervain, swamp milkweed, winged sumac, panic grass, joe pye weed, and ironweed.
But probably the most interesting thing was leafless alder stems with black and white striping on them. it turned out to be woolly alder aphids, presumably dead (we've had several hard frosts) about half covered in sooty mold and half still white, but in bands like the stripes on a barber pole. Very odd.
My second stop, on the way home, was at the Great Swamp, as I knew they had public flush toilets that would be open (if chilly) despite the holiday. When I pulled in there were only two other cars in the lot, and through my windshield I spotted both a red bellied woodpecker and a deer. Further on there were two squirrels (I only saw one, but the other made it into my photo as well), and a white-throated sparrow.
As I was heading back to my car I ran into someone who recognized me from the pond and who confirmed that there was no tufted duck and told me that a little after 8 am (just after I left) they'd all been kicked out for the sake of the Turkey Trot.
I did find a lot of nice wetland plants. Ones that were not also at Kitchell included swamp rose, button bush, fetterbush, highbush blueberry, sphagnum, swamp azalea, spatterdock, bayberry, water smartweed, and Clethera,
Sounds like a great day at Kitchell Pond. Good thing that you got there early so that you could find all the cool stuff before being asked to leave. I've never heard of a tufted duck. That's one I'll have to look up. And barberpole woolly aphids--very cool!
11/25/21. Grand Isle State Park, Grand Isle, VT. 1.9 miles today, 3664.3 miles total.
Categories: galls, invasives, arthropods
Today we reveled in having an extra long post-Thanksgiving holiday, having already celebrated on Tuesday. This relaxed feeling of a couple extra days of vacation time after the holiday was so great, I think we'll try it again next year. The weather was cloudy, but not brutally windy, so we went to Grand Isle State Park to explore, my husband on his unicycle and me on foot. Last spring when we were here, I wasn't walking, so I came on my bike. Today I got to poke about a lot more and see trails that I couldn't on my bike. I also walked quite a ways along the pebbled shore of the lake. I found galls on oak, hickory, honeysuckle, and a shore weed that was unfamiliar to me, some sort of mint family plant that I need to look up. The understory of the park is dominated by buckthorn, and after much searching, I found a leafminer on the buckthorn. I found cocklebur on the beach, which is always a thrill for me, and some burning bush along the woodland trail. I also found a mystery tree with large black fleshy fruits and opposite branching, but the tree was massive and spreading. It was planted, no doubt, but what in the world? I found a tiny wasp on the edge of an oak apple gall. It tried to fly away but was too chilled. I carefully placed the leaf and gall back into the leaf litter without opening it so as not to disturb the wasp too much more. And I managed to catch a bruce spandworm that was flitting about through the underbrush.
11/26/21. Knight Point State Park, North Hero, VT. 1.3 miles today, 3665.6 miles total.
Categories: big trees, galls, leafminers
We had light rain all day today with the temperature about 40F. My husband and I drove across the bridge and walked the perimeter trail at Knight Point State Park. The trail started off in a grove of Norway maple trees that had just dropped their leaves, providing us with a lush golden carpet where I found tar spot galls. Then the trail moved on to a bitternut hickory forest where we found the big chunky fungus galls that like bitternut hickories. After that the woods got quite interesting. Most of the trees were young, but scattered about were some magnificent old timers, and we practiced distinguishing old red oaks from old sugar maples by their bark. I don't get to see red oaks very often, so these were the biggest red oaks I had ever seen. We also found the biggest shagbark hickories I had ever seen. This truly is a great time of year to look at trees without all that green stuff around to distract us and hide the wonders of the woods. I found some leafminers on a sedge and searched all the buckthorn leaves but didn't find any leafminers on them.
We don't get much buckthorn, so I had no idea they had leafmines; another one to look for. Yes, bark and buds are exciting now, with the leaves mostly down. I have trouble with mature sugar maple bark; I always seem to mis-ID it.
11/27/21. Knight Point State Park, North Hero, VT. 1 miles today, 3666.6 miles total.
Categories: galls, unfamiliar trees
We had a dusting of snow overnight. My husband and I drove up to North Hero State Park hoping for a walk/unicycle ride there, but it was the last Saturday of hunting season with the first snow, and the hunters owned the place. We returned to Knight Point where my husband rode around the parking lot and I walked the perimeter of the mowed land. I found galls on ash and red cedar. I also photographed the cultivated catalpa buds and bark since I don't get to see that often, and the fruits of a green ash, again, a tree I don't see much back in Washington County. And some deer tracks of an animal that was taking the same route as me around the perimeter.
11/28/21. Grand Isle, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3666.7 miles total.
Categories: birds
We packed for home this morning so we didn't get out to a park. Still, I managed a short bird walk around the yard. A flock of 6 blue birds flew in with a few chickadees. I gull flew over and a pair of mallards, but I didn't manage to catch the mallards.
11/29/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3666.8 miles total.
Categories: vertebrates
Back in Calais we had 6 inches of new snow compared to the half inch in Grand Isle. I intended to search for arthropods up Peck Hill, but discovered that we had left a bag up in Grand Isle that I needed to retrieve. I had to settle for a short walk through our yard where I shot some squirrels before heading back to Grand Isle. We had set the bag out on the porch early up there and a tarp had blown over it, which is how we missed it when packing. No birds in the yard up there today.
11/30/21. Peck Hill, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3668.8 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
Today was my first arthropods on snow walk of the season. The snow was 3 days old today, and portions of the trail were melted up by the south facing slope by the farm field. Still, I found 2 live wolf spiders, a green Tetragnatha spider (dead), and a Nematoceran fly (dead).
Oh, how annoying to have to drive all the way back for your bag! We've had snow twice already this year, but neither time did it even stick to the ground, not to mention linger long enough to look for arthropods. And really, that's the way I like it; no shoveling.
11-26-21. Lake Luxembourg, Bucks County, PA. 0.5 miles today, 1156.5 miles total
I was headed down to Maryland and stopped here as the sun was setting as folks had seen an interesting goose (I didn't). I did see black ducks and "regular" (Canada) geese. Thistle stem galls and basillica orbweaver eggs were about as interesting as it got. But the sunset was lovely (if cold).
11-27-21. Loch Raven Reservoir, Jerico Mill, and Conowingo Dam, Maryland. 1.5 mile today, 1158 miles total
In the morning, not long after dawn, I drove over to the big reservoir and stopped in three places, mostly looking at birds. I found Canada geese and mallards, but then also wigeons, buffleheads, gadwalls, ring-necked ducks, and I'm pretty sure a couple cackling geese as well (folks from ebird saw them here today, too). A first for me. Plants were less exciting, but there was an osage orange covered in fruit, a moonseed vine, likewise, and a bladdernut.
In the late morning, the whole family went to a historic mill and walked over to check out a covered bridge. Here I found witch hazel blooming and a bold mockingbird.
On the way back to New Jersey, Katie and I stopped at Conowingo Dam. She "stole" my good camera (with the 55-210 lens) and I was stuck with the 16-50 lens. But I still got some interesting photos. This is one of the best places in the world for bald eagles, especially when they release water from the dam (and we were lucky enough to arrive just before they did so). We saw several dozen eagles (adult and immature), probably a thousand ring-billed gulls, pigeons, dozens of black vultures, over a dozen great blue herons, and a couple double crested cormorants. We got photos of nearly all of them catching fish.
11-28-21. Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1158.5 miles total
I walked along the edge of the bays here, looking at waterfowl. I found herring gulls, gadwalls, black ducks, mallards, buffleheads, and a brant. Unusual (for me) plants included Mexican tea, cut-leaved blackberry, and a planted Kentucky coffee tree. It's such a late fall that I caught 5 things still blooming: dandelion, pepperweed, Galinsoga, smartweed, and (I think) ragweed (hard to tell if those male flowers were still doing anything).
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