October 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
10/1/21. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, VT, Dover Rd, Montpelier, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1.5 miles today, 3555.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, galls, arthropods
This morning I went down to the nature center for their weekly fall migration bird walk. Today the walk was led by Chip Darmdstadt, and we had 7 other folks along. We saw song sparrows, white-throated sparrows, Lincoln's sparrows, a black-throated green warbler, several pine warblers, several yellow-rumped warblers, a chickadee, and some geese flying overhead. I kept getting distracted by plants and galls, and shot galls on grapes, sumac, and goldenrod, much to the bewilderment of the other birders, who couldn't see any birds in front of my lens.
Later in the morning I met up with Eve at Ed's house for our weekly bug walk. The temperature was still barely 50F and not too sunny, so we really had to work to find some arthropods. But we had some success, especially in the compost bin, which was full of fruit flies. We found some common eastern and tricolored bumblebees, a grasshopper, some Syrphids, some spiders, a leafhopper, and several cold honeybees.
In the evening at the lights, I had a looper and micro, plus a midge, a cranefly, a mosquito, and an earwig.
I am often asked by birders who see my long lens if I saw anything good out there today, and I am likely to be all excited about some gall or something and they are always baffled. I would love to learn warblers and sparrows; if it doesn't come to my feeder and it's smaller than a robin I'm pretty hopeless bird-wise.
10-2-21. Glehurst Meadows, Warren, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1108.25 miles total.
Category: galls
The first day of Gall Week, so I went here specifically because I'd seen oak and goldenrod galls here before. This is a wet meadow surrounded by wet woods all of which was an unsuccessful (because so wet) golf course 40 years ago. And I did find galls: mugwort stem, goldenrod leaf, Euthamia leaf, Euthamia pedicellate, pin oak honeycomb, pin oak leaf, elm cockscomb, swamp white oak rough bullet, goldenrod bunch, cedar apple, swamp white oak lobed, honeysuckle aphid, a different goldenrod bunch, blackberry knot, grape stem, gouty oak on pin, goldenrod stem, thistle stem, a possible maple target, and hickory sticky ginger jar (how's that for a name). 20 was definitely more than I expected.
At home I looked through my own yard and found a different gall on swamp white leaves, a pouch gall on elm, finger galls on cherry, black knot, and in the neighbor's yard: pinapple galls on spruce.
Oooh! Mugwort stem? I must check my mugwort in the driveway. I was looking at hickory galls today and saw the hickory sticky ginger jar. What a cool gall! But since we don't have any hickories around here, I'll have to put that one back on my bucket list.
10/2/21. Taylor Farm Rd, Plainfield, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 3.3 miles today, 3558.7 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, arthropods
This morning I drove down to Goddard College in Plainfield to meet up with my friends for our Saturday morning hike. But as it turned out, only one other person was able to make the hike this morning, so we were a group of 2. I started off by finding some grape bunch galls right on the Goddard campus, plus more galls on red oak, goldenrod, ash, red maple, alternate-leaved dogwood, beech, honeysuckle, and basswood. I also found leafminers on grapes, red oak, beech, goldenrod, elm, honeysuckle, box elder, basswood, paper birch, and fleabane, and nibbled on some chokecherries.
In the evening at the lights I had a birch leaftier, plus a fungus gnat, a pair of mating craneflies, an Erioptera fly, some midges, some caddisflies, and a large spider.
Well, a group of two is much better than driving down and finding no one at all! I've been looking for dogwood galls and not yet found any. Your nibbling of trail snacks had me eating both autumn olive and rose the other day (though neither was particularly yummy!).
10-3-21. Stransky Farm, Warren, Great Swamp, Harding, and Dead River, Lyons, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 1109.75 miles total
Categories: galls
This morning I walked at a former farm (25 years ago) that I knew had hickory and willow, looking for galls. I found walnut petiole, oak leaf, Euthamia leaf, Euthamia pedicel, poison ivy flower, 3 kinds of hickory leaf, willow beaked, oak stem, and greenbrier leaf galls. I got rather lost in the woods here (the trails are almost wholly neglected) but eventually got out without having to walk through too many brambles (though my legs are still rather scratched). I did come to a bit of a gully where I had to sit on the bank to get down, but I made it. As I was walking out, I looked at the meadow and thought about how I'd often found narrow-winged mantis oothecae there, but never seen an adult. 10 seconds later I spotted an adult mantis, but I didn't know at the time that I needed to look for orange on the chest to separate it from Chinese, so I didn't take the right photos. Shoot.
In the afternoon I drove Becca, Katie and a friend to a 1770s festival at a county park, and then headed over to the Great Swamp boardwalks, looking for more galls. There were three older women at the entrance, there to greet people and show off a collection of skulls and turtle shells. I don't think I'd ever seen a turtle skull before, or an actual spotted turtle shell. I told them I was looking for galls and they were a bit baffled, though one offered her gall bladder...
Here I found witch hazel cone, three different kinds of oak leaf, tupelo leaf, blueberry stem, hornbeam leaf, greenbrier leaf, spiny rose stem, Euthamia leaf, goldenrod bunch, maple leaf, hickory leaf, and oak stem galls, plus black spots on blueberry, maple, and wild yam leaves. As I was leaving the ladies asked how I did and were surprised that I found "10" different kinds (actually I'd counted wrong).
On the way home I stopped again, along a swampy powerline cut. I found out later that Katie and Becca and their friend drove by in the friend's dad's car and saw me taking photos here (there was an unusually large amount of traffic on that road today). Here I found Euthamia pedicel, oak leaf, oak stem, walnut petiole, honeysuckle aphid, and cedar apple galls.
10/3/21. Adamant, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1.6 miles today, 3560.3 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, arthropods
Today was cool and cloudy with misty rain again. My husband and I went down to Adamant for some adventures. While he rode his unicycle through town, I checked out the "oak grove" for galls. That is, there is a large swamp white oak planted in front of the church, plus some bur oak seedlings across the street at a friends house, and a few more up on the hill above the music school (I think also planted by the same friend), as well as a single red oak seedling. It's the largest, most diverse set of oaks I know of in the area. For all my inspecting, I found a single species of gall on the swamp white oaks and maybe 2 species of oak leafminers in the entire grove. But I also found galls on trembling aspen, goldenrod, clematis, willows, red maple, alternate-leaved dogwood, box elder, chokecherry, and honeysuckle, so I was pleased. I tried to ignore the leafminers, but shot the ones in the bur oak and sunflowers. I also found what sure looked maple trumpet leafminers in some elm and buckthorn. I nibbled on raspberries (very good) and grapes (much better than last time). I didn't mind the autumn olive when I tried it. I really should try some barberries again. But highbush cranberries...ugh, I don't think so.
By evening it was still misty with showers, but it had warmed up to 60F, so I had some visitors at the lights. I found several fern borers, a green pug, a false hemlock looper, some quakers, and a carpet moth. I also found a flower bug, fungus gnats, midges, caddisflies, a western conifer seed bug, and a tiny snail.
I'm always surprised at how few oaks you have, having spent my whole life in oak-hickory forest. I know of one place with a trembling aspen, but I don't know of any chokecherry anywhere here, and alternate-leaved dogwood is not at all common, either.
Sometimes autumn olive is tasty, but often the bitter skin leaves my mouth puckery afterward. I've had good rose hips, too. I forgot barberry were edible; I'll have to brush up on which berries I can eat.
10/4/21. Cherry Tree Hill trails, East Montpelier, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2.3 miles today, 3562.6 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, arthropods
This afternoon I headed to the Cherry Tree Hill trails in search of more galls. I think that at least around here, I'm more likely to find galls in areas that get some sun rather than in the deep woods. Cherry Tree Hill is in East Montpelier, which, in general, has less deep woods and more invasives than Calais. I haven't walked the Mallory Brook Loop trail in about 4 years. As I recalled, last time I walked it, it went through a wet field, good for gall plants. But today I found the trail has been re-routed through the woods on the edge of the field. Even so, the woods aren't like Calais woods--there were plenty of patches of sun with raspberries, and most of the woods were full of buckthorn. There was a delightful stretch through a hemlock forest with fern underneath, followed by a section of white pine plantation in neglect. I even found some burning bush--good old East Montpelier woods. I found about 25 galls in all, including 4 on willows, 3 on goldenrods, beech, alternate-leaved dogwood, grape leaves, grape stems, honeysuckle, poplar petiole, blackberry, jewelweed, elm, basswood, flat-topped aster, cherry meadowsweet, and my only new one for the week, an ash flower gall. I mostly skipped the leafminers, but shot some on helleborine, dogwood, elm, Virginia creeper, yellow birch, and anemone. I nibbled on some barberries. Any reference that says they're edible is lying--they've never tried them. Perhaps they're not poisonous, but the taste (bitter) and texture (seedy) make them inedible in my opinion.
In the evening at the lights I had a quaker, carpet, and micro moth. I also had a large Philodromus spider, some Ichenuemon wasps, a large fly, some craneflies, some midges, mosquitoes, and caddisflies.
10-4-21 Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1110 miles total
Category: galls
It was wet and drippy today, but I managed to walk briefly between rain showers. I was looking for willow leaf galls but didn't find any. I did find galls on leaves of oak, maple, beech, hophornbeam, and witch-hazel, plus poison ivy flower galls. In addition I found (relatively rare for me) rough hawkweed, water plantain, a narrow arrowhead, and kidney-leaved mud plantain, and totally-new-to-me coral pink Merulius fungus.
Interesting thought about galls and sunshine. I'm noticing a lot more at the edge of woods than in them, but hadn't really put it together. I ate Japanese barberry yesterday (the only one we have here) and it was tasteless and seedy but not bitter.
10-5-21. West Brook and Chimney Rock Parks, Martinsville, and Delaware Raritan Canal Park. South Bound Brook, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1110.75 miles total
Category: galls
This morning I first went to West Brook to look for tupelo and willow galls. I found just a few on tupelo, but also goldenrod, oak and hophornbeam. There was some very pretty mile-a-minute and false buckwheat and poison ivy; too bad none are desirable plants!
Next I stopped at Chimney Rock for grape phylloxera (took me a while, but eventually I found some) and tupelo leaf edge galls. Here there were more oak and hickory as well.
I got some poison ivy leaf galls (and also thistle stem) at the local shopping mall, then went to the canal for maple bladdergall and tried (but failed) to find galls on the box elder here. There were a ton on hickory, though.
At both West Brook and the canal (which is just downstream of Manville) the damage from the storm was still very evident, even a month later. At West Brook a big chunk of brand-new blacktop washed off the road and all in one piece landed about 20 feet into the field next to it. Oddly I found no galls on the leaves of goldenrods in either location, even though goldenrods were abundant. They had all clearly been knocked down by the flood water. I wonder if Asteromyia galls wash out of leaves? Some leaves had holes in them...
Congrats on the Merulius fungus--very cool! And you went to the mall for poison ivy galls? And found them? Quite a mall! That's an interesting observation about the flooded goldenrods. I wonder if you might detect similar effects for other galls, such as the goldenrod crown galls.
10/5/21. Maple Corner & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1.5 miles today, 3564.1 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, arthropods
This afternoon my husband and I drove up to Maple Corner for adventures. While he rode his unicycle along the Camp Rd (very difficult, he reported), I checked out the swimming area and the hilly portion of Camp Rd for galls. My hunt was quite successful, with about 30 species. I found galls on alternate-leaved dogwood leaves, red maple leaves, and a new-to-me cherry leaf gall (Taphrina farlowii), chokecherry leaf galls, blackberry petiole galls, blackberry stem galls, petiole galls on big-toothed aspen, leaf spots on striped maple, red maple, and Norway maple, walnut leaf galls, warts and pox on white ash leaves, goldenrod stem and crown galls, warts and horns on basswood leaves, warts on meadowsweet leaves, honeysuckle aphid galls, warts on trembling aspen leaves, and willow pine galls. I also shot a few of the more interesting leafminers, including hawthorn, helleborine, and winterberry. I nibbled on crabapples. They were full of flavor, not bad, but also tannins, not so great. I also found some earwigs, a native bee, and what I was sure was a bumblebee, but turned out to have fly antenna.
The temperature rose about in the evening, and I had quite a few visitors at the moth lights. I found green pug, some carpets, a false hemlock looper, a quaker, a snout, and Idia, and some micros. I also had caddisflies, mating craneflies, Pollenia, Drosophila, other flies, gall midges, midges, dark-winged fungus gnats, march flies, and a harvestman.
10/6/21. North Montpelier & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 4.7 miles today, 3568.8 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, arthropods, invasives, and nibbles
This afternoon I met up with my friend who I walked with Saturday for a special bonus walk. She wanted to show me a trail that connects North Montpelier to Taylor Farm Rd, but said that for some reason our other friend wasn't interested in this trail so we needed to walk it on a different day besides Saturday. The trail was an old road that our neighbor's mother used to sled on back in the 1940s. This road makes a direct connection from high up on Taylor Farm Rd straight to North Montpelier--it would be an incredible shortcut if it were still in service today. The road is quite passable on foot and would probably be fine on a mountain bike as well. It is a dug down road below the level of what used to be fields on both sides. It was lined with buckthorn, Japanese barberry, and even a patch of Japanese knotweed where it passes the back of the state road maintenance department. We found galls on beech, American tar spot, jewelweed stem, jewelweed jewel, alternate leaved dogwood spots, basswood hooks and warts, honeysuckle aphid galls, and blackberry. I also found leafminers on hog peanut, violet, box elder, Paraclemensia acerifoliella on an oak seedling, and black locust. And we shot some puffballs and yellow earth tongue.
After we walked back down the trail, we walked to the end of Butterfield Rd and back from the trail head. We greeted the Belted Galloway cows along the way, shot some yellow-rumped warblers, nannyberries, and Oriental bittersweet, and I nibbled on some grapes.
I wasn't yet satisfied with my gall finds for the day, so I next drove over to Factory St and parked by the dam. Factory St (named for the Factories that have been gone for 100 years) has a short residential section near the pond by the microhydroelectric plant. Then it borders some private hunting land on the south side and fields and overgrown pasture on the north side, with lots of sunny southern exposure. I added more galls to my list: alder bud, alder fruit, goldenrod stem galls, goldenrod leaf galls, goldenrod crown galls, willow stem gall, grape phylloxera, grape petiole, meadowsweet leaf galls, and poplar leaf galls. I also shot some leafminers on grapes, and found plenty of European barberries. There was a patch of white poplar by the dam. I nibbled on crabapples (not bad, but tannic), and an apple (best this season).
In the evening the temperature was cool since we actually had sun today. I found a single Argyrotaenia, a midge, a spider, a fly, and an earwig.
My mall is a strip mall, and most of those around here are near highways, with a strip of stressed-out, invasive vegetation between the parking lot and the road: great spot for poison ivy galls. I think that I see more galls in general in stressed plants than not.
There's a short cut road by me that hasn't been maintained in probably 80 years, but someone made a point of riding a bike down it frequently just to keep the right of way open when the area was being developed. It's still a bit of a path, but certainly wouldn't work for a car anymore.
We see a flock of belted cows on the way to Molly's college; the girls have always called them Oreo cows.
I nibbled on blackhaw yesterday, thinking of you. It was definitely the best nibble, other than maybe a grape, so far this season. Tasted just like a raisin, but the texture was wrong (and there's that big pit). I tried hackberry as well, sweet, but not much to it.
by the way, I think you got the date wrong in the last post; 10-8 is tomorrow!
Thanks for the note about the date! That's an interesting observation about the galls being a sign of stress. I think I would go along with that. Maybe when plants are stressed they can muster fewer defences? The blackhaw sounds intriguing. I'll have to try it if I ever travel south.
10/7/21. Vermont College, Montpelier & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1.4 miles today, 3570.2 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, and arthropods
This morning I met Eve at Vermont College to hunt for galls and other arthropods. Our intention was to head down into Sabin's pasture, but we never got that far. We started along the rim of the Vermont College parking lot, then made it down into the very top part of the Sabin's Pasture trail, but didn't get off the college property. The area is filled with invasives, of course, including Norway maple and mugwort and other pioneers around the parking lot. Down below in the small meadow are Phragmites, lots of goldenrods, some buckthorn, and a planted oak. We turned around to head back just before noon, but I noticed lots of oak leaves in the parking lot, so we swung around to the front of the dormitories to see where they were coming from. There were 2 large pin oaks on the lawn, and across the street there was a line of red oaks. Our gall hunt was quite successful, and we both found new galls. We tallied galls on oaks, grapes, goldenrods, mugwort (thanks for the hint about the stem galls!), alternate-leaved dogwood, Norway maple, cottonwood, box elder, jewelweed, calico aster, willow, and sumac. We also found leafminers on lilacs, oaks, cottonwood, mugwort, elm, and white pine. Arthropods for the day included a woolly bear, bumblebees, pale green assassin bug, spiders, a pair of ambush bugs mating (both appeared to be male), an earwig, some ladybugs, a pile of woolly apple aphids, and a beautiful comma.
In the evening at the lights I had a tussock moth, Argyrotaenia, carpet, and another micro. I also had a blue fuzzy butt (woolly alder aphid), bald-faced hornet, midge, dark-winged fungus gnats, caddisflies, and craneflies.
I tend to ignore lilacs, as they are generally cultivated rather than wild, and had no idea they had a leafminer. Now I'll have to look.
You would think in an insect whose sexual differences were great enough for humans to see that the males would be able to figure out they had a male and not a female partner! And I didn't realize alder aphids are attracted to lights. They are not common here, though I do see them around.
10-6-21 East County Park, Warren and Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 1.0 miles today 1111.75 miles total
Category: galls
In the morning I walked at this former farm with ponds, fields and wooded edges. As I was circling the first pond, I managed to put my foot, heel first, into a deep (but narrow) hole, catching my forefoot on the rim. Scared the heck out of me, as the last time I stepped in a similar hole I'd badly sprained my knee, but I ended up being fine, whew.
Here I found galls on willow (the reason I'd come) plus oak, goldenrod, beech, mugwort, tuliptree, and hackberry. The leaves are just starting to turn here, but the Virginia creeper is spectacular.
In the afternoon I walked along the brook that drowned my house, but a good two miles downstream. There's a high road bridge here, about 15 feet above the usual water surface, and there was lots of debris stuck in trees at even higher than that. Wow. The whole riverbed downstream from there has changed its course almost unrecognizably.
Here I smelled something dead, so (unlike everyone I know) I went to look for it, and found, ultimately, two deer that I suspect were illegally dumped (one was still half in a black plastic bag). Both were actually writhing with maggots. I also found adult flies. I found galls on mugwort, red cedar, oak, black locust twigs, witch hazel, linden, hickory, and hackberry, and spotted a Zelus assassin bug among the hickory galls.
10-7-21. Farmstead Park, Lyons, and River Road, Pluckemin, NJ. 1.2 miles today, 1113 miles total.
Category: galls
Fairly early in the morning, I walked at this local former farm, looking for Acalypha galls (which I didn't find). Instead the shrubs here were full of little birds. I photographed a ton of pine warblers, plus a yellowthroat, a yellow rumped warbler, a catbird, a white throated sparrow (the first of this "winter") and a woodpecker (I'm not sure if downy or hairy). And I wasn't even looking for birds! Gall-wise I found ones on oak, honeysuckle, and goldenrod.
From there I drove across to River Road Park where I was looking for (and found ) Boehmeria stem galls. I parked first by the porta-johns and found lots of hackberry and oak galls plus ones on grape stems. Then in the main area I saw leaf spots on sassafras and linden, and galls on goldenrod and Euthamia.
Yes, I think you are the only person I have heard of who searches for the thing that smells dead, and then approaches a writhing carcass to see who's living there. Way to go! I wasn't aware that hickories are great gall hosts until I was looking over gall hosts of the east this week and found they are second to oaks. We have a hickory that I planted in our back field. Other than that, I think the nearest hickory is 100 miles away on Lake Champlain. I also don't know of any hackberries anywhere. It was great to hear about your pine warblers and other bird finds. Last week at our bird walk we saw one. They were gone this week, so maybe they're all in your neighborhood now.
10/8/21. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, VT, Marshfield Pond, Marshfield, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 5.7 miles today, 3575.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, galls, leafminers, and arthropods
This morning I drove down to the North Branch Nature Center for the last regular guided bird walk of the year, although Chip promised that he might lead a few pop up bird walks at Berlin Pond when the water fowl arrive. Chip Darmstadt led today's walk and there were 7 other birders. We found yellow-rumped warblers, chickadees, song sparrows, downy woodpecker, cedar waxwings, ruby-crowned kinglets, and golden crowned kinglets. I found galls on grape, Clematis, goldenrod, blackberry, alternate-leaved dogwood, alder, basswood, big-toothed aspen, and sumac. After the bird walk was over, I went down to the street tree garden and found galls on the bur oak there, then up to the nature center's compost pile and found galls on the witch hazel planted there, and out to the front yard and found galls on the planted red oak and blueberry. I also found an Asian ladybug this morning and nibbled on crabapples, black raspberries, and red raspberries.
In the afternoon, my husband and I went up to Groton. We parked at Fiddlehead Pond where he started down the trail on his unicycle towards Ricker Pond. Meanwhile, I walked the road along the shore at Fiddlehead Pond and Marshfield Pond towards Lanesboro, taking in the peak foliage views. This trail is one of my favorites for foliage. I found a few goldenrod plants in bloom that were filled with pollinators, including bee flies, a bald-faced hornet, paper wasps, and some micro moths. I also found a hemlock looper. Right around Fiddlehead Pond, there are quite a few oak saplings and I found an oak apple gall on one of them, my first for the season. Other galls along the road included elm cockscomb gall and galls on goldenrods, sumac, sugar maple, striped maple, basswood, big-toothed aspen, meadowsweet, alder, willow, clematis, evening primrose, black cherry, blackberry, elm, alternate-leaved dogwood, and jewelweed. I found leafminers on basswood, oak, white ash, big-leaved aster, and dwarf raspberry. Roadkill today included a bumblebee, several woolly bears, and a garter snake which had just been hit when I found it and was still writhing. Very sad! I nibbled on some thimbleberries.
Next I drove down to Ricker Pond to meet my husband. I had a few spare minutes, so I walked out along the peninsula to look for huckleberries. I managed to find one, and a couple of checkerberries to nibble on. I also found a gall on alder and a leafminer on a buttonbush that I never noticed there before.
In the evening at the lights I had several geometers, a pug, a micro, and a quaker, plus a cranefly, a caddisfly, a march fly, and some midges.
10/9/21. Noyes Pond, Groton, VT, Ricker Pond, Groton, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 3.8 miles today, 3579.7 miles total.
Categories: galls, arthropods, and nibbles
This afternoon my husband and I took my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew up to Groton to see the foliage. While my husband and brother-in-law rode from Fiddlehead Pond to Ricker Pond on unicycle and mountain bike, my sister and I and nephew took a walk around Noyes Pond. I explained galls to them and we found some on beech, blueberry, and striped maple. We also found a patch of mating Japanese beetles and nibbled on blueberries. Then we walked up the trail from Ricker to the campground, also looking for galls.
In the evening at the lights I had an emerald, a tussock, and a micro. I also found dark-winged fungus gnats, march flies, fruit flies, craneflies, and an orbweaver.
I have never seen a golden-crowned kinglet.
I've been checking maples and dogwoods for galls and frustratingly finding almost none. I didn't realize meadowsweet and clematis have galls, I'll have to check them, as well.
I tried a dogwood berry the other day and it was awful, but there was blackhaw not far away and that washed the taste away. I think I'm very sensitive to tannins.
10-8-21. Washington Valley Park and Washington Valley Rd., Martinsville, NJ. 1 mile today, 1114 miles total
Category: galls
Today I was on duty with the rescue squad, so I parked at the local park and walked 5 minutes down the trail and back in three different directions. There are a ton of oak trees here, so I found lots of galls on them, plus greenbrier, pear, hophornbeam, and witch hazel. There was an amazing number of little birds flitting about, and I found my first black-throated blue warbler, plus a yellow-rumped, a white throated sparrow, my first junco of the winter, a cardinal, and two others I've not IDed yet. But the highlight for me was beech blight aphids. Despite having a ton of beech trees around, this is only the second time I've found them. They are really amusing when you jiggle the branch and they all dance around, waving their little tufts of fluff.
Next I stopped at a little one-acre lot of undeveloped "Green Acres" land, with an old truck rut up the middle of it. It was very wet out and the grass was high, so I didn't go far, but I found a gall on ash, plus some pretty calico asters (but no galls there).
Finally I walked at a larger preserve of old farmland, where I'd found the tastiest grapes of the year back in August (all gone now). Here, finally, were box elder galls (I've seen a lot of gall-free box elder this week), plus galls on goldenrod, red cedar, and mugwort.
10-9-21. Institute Woods, Princeton, and Scherman-Hoffman Sanctuary, Bernardsville, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 1115.25 miles total.
Category: galls
Institute woods is supposed to have the best fall warblers in all of New Jersey. They must have been hiding. I found a flicker, robins, geese, and a red tailed hawk, but not a single warbler (though there were unfamiliar tweeting birds unseen in the bushes that were probably warblers, if I knew anything about their calls)
Gall-wise, though, the Institute was great. I found them on oaks, tulip tree, cherry, impatient, black walnut, box elder, poison ivy, and leaf spots on Chinese chestnut.
In the afternoon I went up to the Audubon preserve simply because I knew they had sumac galls. And I did indeed find them. Here there was also a hickory with a ton of different galls, plus tulip tree, beech, goldenrod, tupelo and grape. And this is one of the only places around with aspen (both big-toothed and quaking) and thanks to you I knew to look for petiole galls here (both had them) and they had leaf galls as well. Very nice.
I've never tried dogwood fruits. I didn't know the native species were edible. We have a Cornelian cherry in our orchard, but it has never fruited. I was tempted by some gray dogwood berries last week but decided not to try them since I couldn't remember if they were on the edible list. It sounds like you found a great bird fallout, with all those warblers. I miss our black-throated blue warblers from our woods! And congrats on gall week! Wow, you really found a lot of galls! What great adventures you had searching for them!
10/10/21. Owl's Head, Groton, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1.8 miles today, 3581.5 miles total.
Categories: galls, arthropods, and nibbles
This afternoon my husband and I drove up to Owl's Head with my sister, her husband and teen-aged son. We did the short hike to the summit and sat on the ledges for a while, then went down for a walk through the woods on the trail towards New Discovery campground. I didn't get to do much hunting for galls, but I found some leaf spots on striped maple and beech. We also enjoyed nibbling on the checkerberries out on the ledges.
In the evening at the lights I had a geometer, a fern borer, and some micros, plus lots of dark-winged fungus gnats, a orbweaver, some midges, and some craneflies.
You also did very well on Gall Week; I'm keeping my eye out for the rest of your posts.
For some reason, checkerberries do not grow in the Watchung Mountains where I live. They are common an hour north and an hour south of me, and occasional closer, but none at all in the "mountains" themselves. Odd.
10/11/21. Will Goodwin Rd, Groton, VT. 2.8 miles today, 3584.0 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, and arthropods
This afternoon my husband and I returned to Groton. While he rode from Fiddlehead Pond to Ricker Pond on his unicycle, I drove down to Noyes Pond and up Signal Mountain Rd. I parked at the spot where I turned around two weeks ago and walked up Will Goodwin Rd. This part of the forest is northern hardwoods. After about 3/4 mile I came to a small clearing, and then the road became 2-lane trail through a waist-high raspberry thicket. I think perhaps someone had driven this trail on an ATV 2-3 times this summer, but probably no more. I found galls on beech, striped maple, goldenrod, trembling aspen, and willows and leafminers on sugar maple, blackberry, black cherry, trembling aspen and willows. I also found a pale green assassin bug. The foliage was quite stunning, but there were no berries or other fruits to nibble on.
In the evening I found to my dismay that the house guests had accidentally turned off the automatic switch for the moth lights, so I had no visitors at the lights.
10/12/21. Levi Pond Rd, Groton, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 4.2 miles today, 3588.2 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, arthropods, and vertebrates
This afternoon I dropped my husband off at Fiddlehead Pond for a ride down to Ricker Pond on his unicycle. I drove on down to Ricker Pond intending to walk up County "Road", which is a trail on the map from Ricker Pond towards Levi Pond, but found that it's actually a VAST trail and not open when there's no snow. So I drove up to the beginning of Levi Pond Rd and walked to Levi Pond. The pond was gorgeous and utterly quiet. I followed a trail along the pond which was a continuation of the road, posted as foot traffic only, Vermont Land Trust. The trail was covered by several inches of new fallen leaves, still all red and orange. The forest was mixed hardwoods, mostly sugar maple and yellow birch. I found leafminers on burdock, coltsfoot, sugar maple, goldenrod, flat-topped aster, beech, and black cherry, and galls on beech, striped maple, red maple, and goldenrod. Vertebrates in the forest were a spring peeper, a white-throated sparrow, and an eastern newt in the pond.
In the evening at the lights I had an apple leaf skeletonizer, an Argyrotaenia, and some micro moths, plus some march flies, craneflies, a Melanoplus grasshopper (red-legged?), and a western conifer seed bug.
10/13/21. #10 Pond and Nelson's Pond, Calais, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 4 miles today, 3592.2 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, arthropods, and road kill
This afternoon my husband and I drove up to #10 Pond for a walk together. We walked out and back on G.A.R. Rd, then out to the Nelson's Pond fishing access and back, stopping to chat with a friend who was closing up her cabin on Nelson's Pond for the season. The foliage is slightly past peak, but still quite stunning since it was a warm and clear day. Along the way, I shot leafminers in burdock, colt's foot, sugar maple, goldenrod, and swamp aster and galls in beech. We also found quite a bit of road kill, all dead herps (I think). We found some garter snakes, a red belly snake, lots of frog/toad/turtles and one very fresh headless turtle.
In the evening we had a short shower before I went out to check the lights. I found common idia, loopers, Argyrotaenia, quaker, a Noctuid, apple leaf skeletonizer, and micros. I also found dark-winged fungus gnats, march flies, leafhoppers, a pink and green bug, and midges.
10/14/21. Kenneth Ward Park, Middlesex, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.8 miles today, 3593.0 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, and arthropods
Today was our weekly bug walk with Eve and Ed. The weather was supposed to be less warm today, so we thought we would do the walk somewhere near water. Eve had a meeting in Waterbury at noon, so we decided to look for a location between Montpelier and Waterbury. We came up with Kenneth Ward Park, a fishing access area along the Mad River on Route 100B south of Middlesex. From the parking lot, we walked down the steps to the sandy area near the water, which was lined with Japanese knotweed. We found very few insects down there with the knotweed and were a bit discouraged. Then we returned back up the stairs and walked along the rim of the parking lot, which is where the bugs were, all scattered in the weeds. We found one old field aster that was in bloom and covered with pollinators, including bee flies, Ceratina bees, and a Sphecodes bee. Other arthropods for the day included a stink bug, some flies, and some spiders. We found galls on grapes, goldenrods, and elm. I found leafminers on red oak, hawthorn, goldenrod, old field aster, calico aster, sumac, grape, and Clematis, but I still haven't been able to get Eve and Ed interested in leafminers yet.
In the evening at the lights I had a looper, red-fringed emerald, Argyrotaenia, and several other micros, plus an Icheumon wasp, march flies, dark-winged fungus gnats, midges, leafhoppers, and a caddisfly.
I've been driving a lot in the last few days, and thinking of you as I pass roadkill! There were 5 racoons, 3 deer, an opossum, and, sadly, 2 house cats in just two days. But I virtually never seen dead herps. Maybe they're just too small...
Japanese knotweed is so discouraging, insect-wise (not to mention what it does to plant diversity), except once early in the morning I found a ton of sleepy insects warming up on the leaves. And parking lot edges are one of my favorite spots.
10-10-21. Bicentennial Park, East Brunswick; Mountain Park, Liberty Corner; and Martinsville Rescue Squad, Martinsville, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 1116.25 miles total
Category: galls
Raining today, but the last day of Gall Week, so I got out several times anyway. Katie and I went down to Bicentennial, which is on the edge of a dammed river. Here we found galls on oak, cherry, sassafras, greenbrier, mulberry, tupelo, and the ones I came here for: alder and buttonbush.
In the evening I went looking for galls on clematis (but only found a leafminer) and linden (found those). I also had galls on oak, ash, goldenrod, and mugwort. And there was a lovely (but I think dead) mantis.
And just as the sun was setting I walked in the little park next to the rescue squad looking for Acalypha galls. I'd seen one here, but it got mowed in August. I must have looked at 50 plants, but in the end I found them.
10-13-21. Rosedale Lake, Pennington, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1117 miles total.
Categories: not-a-plant, fruit.
I had to get Molly to sign the taxes (we'd gotten an extension) so I walked here after visiting with her. There happened to be a cross-country race going on at the park, but I mostly avoided them.
This is a Mercer County park, and their park rangers reached out to me over a year ago to help them document biodiversity. So I tried to get most of the species I saw. But I was more interested in non-plant species. Here there were white throated and swamp sparrows, and lots of frogs which were much faster than me, plus one green frog who hopped the wrong way and ended up right in the middle of the path (so I got to shoot it at least). I also found mines in grape and pilewort, galls on honeysuckle and goldenrod, a few mushrooms, and some lichen.
Fruit-wise there was rose, privet, sensitive fern, dock, devil's beggarticks, milkweed, bittersweet, and some sedges and grasses.
10-14-21. Watchung Reservation, Scotch Plains, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1117.25 miles total
Category: not-a-plant
I had a few minutes before a doctor's appointment today, so I walked along the road here, and by a brook. Yet another location where the waterway flooded, and there was debris (and broken guardrails) strewn about in lines along the riverbank.
As far as not-plants go, I found a leafmine in white oak, galls on witchhazel and pin oak, a sunfish, a young pickerel, and a bunch of chicken of the woods. The leaves are just starting to change here, and there was a lovely dogwood and some brilliant Virginia creeper.
That's fun, going fishing in the few minutes before your doctor's appointment, and catching some fish, too! Way to go with helping out documenting the biodiversity in Mercer County parks! That is a terrific undertaking. And way to go on all your galls for gall week!
10/15/21. South Branch Rd, Groton, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 3.1 miles today, 3596.1 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, arthropods, and vertebrates
This afternoon my husband and I headed up to Groton for probably the last foliage run of the year. It was cloudy but still T-shirt weather; however, it's supposed to rain tomorrow with gusty winds, so we'll probably lose all the leaves. I don't ever recall a foliage season still going this late in October. I dropped my husband off at Fiddlehead Pond for his ride down to Ricker Pond on his unicycle. Then I drove up to New Discovery Campground with the intention of walking around Lake Osmore for free now that the camping season is over. But they had the gate closed so I couldn't drive down to the pond. And I were to walk down from the gate, I wouldn't have time to circumnavigate the pond. I guess I'll have to bring my bike next time so I can get to Osmore more quickly. So I drove down to South Branch Rd near Noyes Pond for my walk instead. The road branches and one end heads north to become Depot Brook Rd, but I took the other branch heading west. Just a hundred yards past the intersection, there is a bridge out, and clearly no one travels the road in a vehicle, not even on a bike. Branches were coming in from all sides and the middle was grown up with shrubby plants like beech saplings to waist high (but the "road" is still shown as navigable on Google!). The road went uphill through a young hardwood forest with stonewalls and ditching. I followed it beyond it's end on the map, and then some more to a several acre clearing where I heard water flowing. I found a stream in the woods on the far side of the clearing, and then the traces of the trail continuing beyond that. When I got home I figured out that I had been well on my way to Pigeon Pond. Perhaps this is way to get there, but I would need another hour. On my walk, I found leafminers on beech, sugar maple, red maple, white birch, yellow birch, basswood, white pine, goldenrod, and foam flower. I also found galls on beech, meadowsweet, trembling aspen, goldenrod, and birch. I shot a chickadee who came to investigate me. And on the way back down the hill, I slipped on a large pile of bear scat that had been covered with leaves in the middle of the trail. When I went to check it out, I saw a pair of eyes looking at me from the scat, and then a red-backed salamander crawled out, gave me a disgusted look for wrecking his perfect shelter, and crawled off under the leaf litter.
In the evening at the lights, it was warm and we had light rain. I found an emerald, an angle, and some micros. I also found lots of leafhoppers, some midges, a mosquito, a tiny bug, some Ichneumons, a green lacewing, and a large orbweaver.
--beech, meadowsweet, trembling aspen, goldenrod, yellow birch
Poor little salamander. And what a cool trail! Someone else was commenting to me about the late foliage this year, even down here in NJ. I'm thrilled, as I will be driving through the Finger Lakes with my sister the last week of October and we figured we'd miss everything, but now it looks as though some areas will be near peak (and some done).
10/16/21. Peck Hill Rd & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 3.1 miles today, 3599.4 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, arthropods, and late bloomers
This morning my Saturday morning walking group met on George Rd to walk Peck Hill. Since I know the hill so well, I only shot a few leafminers, ones that are less familiar to me, including butternut, zigzag goldenrod, fleabane, basswood, avens, and poplar mine that I found in a leaf that was already on the ground. I also found galls on goldenrod and basswood. The arthropods for the day were a wolf spider, a woolly bear, a cricket, and and a winter firefly--no pollinators! Blooming today were a mullein, an evening primrose, and a black-eyed Susan. We found a green frog dead in the road and a pile of fresh coyote/racoon scat. After we got back I went up to our orchard to collect the last of the plant covers for winter and found some leafminers on my American chestnut trees, and a fungus on one stem (uh oh!).
In the evening we had steady rain when I went out to the check the lights. I found a Bruce spanworm, another carpet moth and a cranefly.
10/17/21. Groton State Park, Groton, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 3 miles today, 3602.4 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, arthropods, buds, and birds
This afternoon my husband and I returned to Groton for the first stick season adventure of the year. The temperature was in the low 50s with light showers and except for the beeches, most leaves are now on the ground. The beeches still have a lovely gradient from bright green to brown, though. I dropped my husband off with his unicycle at Fiddle Head Pond, then drove down to a logging road just south of Kettle Pond. When I got out of the car I found I was in the midst of a flock of squawking migrating grackles--cool! There were hundred of them flitting about from tree to tree and hopping on the ground. They eventually moved off to Kettle Pond, but then returned. The logging road started off as pressed gravel, then progressed to wood chips. It came out into a recent clearcut that was too messy to cross. I had hoped to make it up to some wetlands where I saw @charlie had walked before, but after checking the satellite view again, I think I may need to access that area from Beaver Brook Rd instead. But I also saw that if I had turned right along the edge of the clearcut, it might have been navigable and then led to a road up to a second clearcut with a pond/wetland on the left. I explored all the side roads off the logging road. The woods were young northern hardwoods with ferns in the understory. I found leafminers on flat-topped goldenrod, sugar maple, red maple, other goldenrods, trembling aspen, yellow birch, and white birch and galls on beech and goldenrod. I also found a katydid, a leafhopper, a hermit thrush, and a red eft.
I went for a short walk along the trail at Ricker Pond and shot some fall buds of Amelanchier, red maple, sugar maple, elm, red osier dogwood, fir, Canada yew, yellow birch, and white birch. As my husband and I were walking back to the car, we were entertained by a family of 3 river otters in the small pond on the opposite side of the trail from Ricker Pond.
In the evening at the lights there was more rain, but I found an unfamiliar micro moth, gray with red polkadots, and a cranefly.
What is a stick season adventure? I love huge flocks of blackbirds, they are so neat to watch (though rather a danger when I'm driving as I get distracted).
@erikamitchell are you talking about that area south of kettle pond? it is REALLY NEAT but also tough terrain. We did access it from Beaver Brook road which at the time was drivable with a Subaru Outback to where we stopped. After the recent storm it may be there are trees down on it. If you email me at charlie.hohn at vermont.gov i can send you a more detailed map of the wetlands. I should show you how our rapid assessment works if you are interested, you could even assess some that way. But i know you already do so much so probably don't need another project :) . Anyway that area is a mix of peaty acidic beaver ponds and somewhat disturbed peatlands and softwood swamps. There are some nicer peatlands too like the southernmost one i went to. The upland area is mostly recently cut conifer so difficult to get through but at that time that logging road visible on the air photo was walkable. Looks like I did no observations in upland at all and only visited a few of the many, many wetlands in there, so still tons to explore.
Yes, Charlie! That's exactly the area. It's good to hear that I guessed correctly about the access from Beaver Brook Rd. Maybe I'll try that end next time we go to Groton. I would be interested in your wetlands rapid assessment procedure. I end up finding quite a few wetlands during my walks.
As for stick season, that's the season that comes between foliage season (aka leaf peeper season) and snow.
If you want I can meet up with you some time next week or possibly the end of this week at some easy to access wetland in Calais/East Montpelier and show you the assessment, it would be easy for you to do it. Like could go to one around Adamant like one of the Sodom Pond ones.
10-17-21. Devil's Tree, Liberty Corner, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1117.5 miles total.
Category: pretty
I took a quick trip through this amazingly overgrown meadow. It had a mown path, but it was mown in like June and not since; the indiangrass was well up over my head and meeting in the middle. In the summer this spot had tons of ticks but I didn't see any today.
I was out looking for color, and found both smooth and winged sumac, blackberries, boneset and virginia creeper all in brilliant fall foliage, plus bright fruits on poke and winterberry. Chicory, red clover, wild basil and smartweed were all blooming as well.
10-18-21. Hoffheimer Trail, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1118 miles total
Category: yellow
Today I specifically tried to find as many species as possible with yellow on them. Flowers with yellow were dandelion, Galinsoga, devil's beggarticks, and two kinds of aster. Fruit with yellow were two kinds of Setaria, Catalpa, hornbeam, and blackhaw, and the inside of some acorns. Trees with yellow leaves were hornbeam, black birch, pin oak, sassafras, red maple, sugar maple, silver maple, Norway maple, pin oak, white oak, another oak, beech, American elm, Ailanthus, Aralia, hickory, black walnut, ash, witch hazel, and bigtoothed aspen, plus white pine with yellow needles. Shrubs included privet, two kinds of honeysuckle, spicebush, barberry, and an unhealthy box. Vines and canes were poison ivy, Virginia creeper, greenbrier, wineberry, Japanese honeysuckle, and some bindweed with yellow-green leaves. And finally herbs with yellow leaves: Acalypha, mugwort, Japanese knotweed, milkweed, three kinds of smartweed, beechdrops, stiltgrass, and snakeroot. I had no idea I'd find so many!
What a great category for autumn. It was fun to see how many different kinds of plants you could find with yellow on them!
10/18/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3602.5 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods
It was cool (below 50F) and rainy today, so I stay inside and worked in the afternoon. But I did go out into the yard briefly to shoot some birds. I found blue jay, white-breasted nuthatch, hairy woodpecker and chickadees. In the evening at the lights I had a Bruce spanworm, some wood gnats, a Diamesa fly and a Bibio fly.
10/19/21. East Montpelier Town Forest, Adamant, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2.1 miles today, 3604.6 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, and arthropods
This afternoon was rather chilly (below 50F) and gray. My husband and I drove down to Adamant. While he terrorized Sodom Pond Rd on his unicycle, I went up into the town forest to search for arthropods. I found leafminers on beech, black cherry, and hazelnut and galls on alternate-leaved dogwood, striped maple, and red maple. On my way back through Adamant I walked through the music school gardens and found a few pollinators resting on flowers including some syrphids, a green bottle fly and some other small flies.
In the evening at the lights I had a Bruce spanworm, a midge, and a window gnat.
Love the image of your husband terrorizing the road.
10-19-21. Delaware and Raritan Canal, South Bound Brook, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1118.75 miles total
category: red (or orange) or purple (or pink, blue)
Having had so much fun finding yellow yesterday, today I looked for other colors. Fall is slowly arriving and looking very yellow so far, so it was fun to find some redness among it all.
In flowers I found henbit, smartweed, knapweed, and spurge (all purplish). In fruit there were bittersweet, burning bush, yew, and swamp rose (all red) and grapes and arrowwood (purple). A few things had red in the stems only: Perilla, dandelions, purslane, amaranth, and wineberry. Box elder had blue stems. Several plants had purple new leaves: Ailanthus, knotweed, red maple, and nettle. And then the conventional red (orange) fall color: cherry, silver maple (only a little), poison ivy, pin and white oaks, and arrowwood (nearly purple).
But there were also animals (even if they weren't the right color): a squirrel, a snail, mallards, common mergansers, pigeons, a double crested cormorant, and a great blue heron (and a lot of birds I didn't manage to shoot).
10-20-21. Ferguson Rd., Warren, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1119.5 miles total
Category: not-green leaves
Another beautiful day here. Ferguson Rd.'s bridge was badly damaged (as was the road itself) in the flood and has been closed since. It's a lovely, narrow, winding road that usually has a car whizzing down it about once every two minutes. It was such a pleasure to be able to wander up the center of the road (or in my case mostly zig zag randomly from one side to the other), with no worry about traffic (though there was one cyclist).
Fall leaves were lovely. I found witch hazel, elm, catalpa, sycamore, red maple, sugar maple, poison ivy, bitternut, shagbark hickory, wineberry, Ailanthus, hornbeam, hophornbeam, white snakeroot, flowering dogwood, beech, sweet birch, tulip tree, sassafras, smartweed, black oak, white oak, chestnut oak, linden, knotweed, hog peanut, ash, hackberry, greenbrier, trumpet creeper, burning bush, blackhaw, and moonseed. There was also a dead European hornet.
When I got back to my car I was shocked to see that I'd parked right on top of a (long-dead, detatched) deer leg. Poor thing.
better than parking on a live deer's leg
Much better!
It sounds like your fall colors are in full bloom! It's great that you got the opportunity to walk Ferguson's Rd without cars, but the deer leg was too bad.
10/20/21. Lightening Ridge Trails & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 3.7 miles today, 3608.3 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, and arthropods
This afternoon I headed up the Chickering Bog trail but turned right onto the Lightening Ridge trail before the access to Chickering Bog. I followed the trail out to the corner of the Nature Conservancy Property, then took a right, which took me out a trail to Lightening Ridge, and which I finally recognized as my friend Richard's trail into his "100 Acre Woods". I didn't see any posted signs with his name on them and began to wonder if his woods are now part of the Nature Conservancy Property. I returned back to the trail, noting the tall ridges with cliffs that I had seen on my last walk through here a month ago. Curiosity got the best of me and I climbed up a ridge to see if there was a view down the other side. Once up on top of the ridge, I saw that on the other side of the ridge was an abandoned hunting cabin, no larger than a tiny house. I didn't go any closer but walked just a little bit further on the ridge and found boundary markers from the Nature Conservancy crossing the ridge and going down into the valley. Which gave me permission to wander down the ridge after all, as well as made me wonder if Richard's land was now part of the Nature Conservancy property. I also saw some ledges splitting right in the center of the top of the ridge, which I could only imagine as showing signs of water on both sides, so I went down to check. Sure enough, there was a very large swamp down below, just below the hunting cabin. I sat on a tree root in the swamp near a large patch of handsome woollywort, my favorite liverwort, enjoying the view. After a few minutes I got up and explored some more of the swamp, finding galls on water horehound and a garter snake, as well as a lot of winter berries. Then I crossed back over the ridge and decided to take a shortcut back, skipping the trail and heading overland towards the bog. I crossed the dry vernal pool, then another ridge, which brought me to the headwaters of the bog. I followed the bog's "Spur Trail" to the main trail, and for the first time noted how the pattern of parallel ridges and valleys continues, with the access trail crossing several more not so dramatic ridges. Along the way I found galls on alternate-leaved dogwood and striped maple and leafminers on beech, helleborine, and sugar maple. (After I got home, I found an article in which Charlie Eisemann had photos of a leafminer in sweet gale at the bog--now I need to search all the sweet gale there!). I nibbled on checkerberries and partridge berries, and I found a rove beetle and a junco.
In the evening at the lights I found a grasshopper, a cranefly, a fungus gnat, and a midge.
10/21/21. Adamant Pond, Adamant, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.5 miles today, 3608.8 miles total.
Categories: late bloomers, birds, and arthropods
This afternoon I met up with Charlie at the Adamant Church so that he could show me his rapid assessment methods. We wandered through a friend's property across the street to get some good views of Adamant Pond. We went out to the "Point" where we saw flocks of geese flying in for the night as well as a possible eagle and a belted kingfisher. I shot some late bloomers in the yard, including orange hawkweed, strawberries, goldenrod, swamp aster, fleabane, and a patch of marsh marigold in a beaver pond.
In the evening at the lights I had some flies, a harvestman, some dark-winged fungus gnats, and a western conifer seed bug.
What a lovely adventure in Chickering Bog. I realized that I don't have a favorite liverwort, aside from Frullania I very rarely see any (though am always thrilled when I do). I am signed up for stream assessment training next month, not quite wetland assessment, but the first of that kind of thing that I've done.
10-21-21. Torpey Fields, Bridgewater, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1120 miles total.
Category: fruits
I planned to walk from the parking lot here to the river floodplain to the south, but I spotted a trail mowed through a meadow to the northeast, and ended up walking there instead. On the way I passed my favorite tree, with the face of a napping old man on the trunk: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/98965885
Fruit wise I found black locust, osage orange, Queen anne's lace, sedge, box elder , groundnut, Bidens, dandelion, horsenettle, milkweed, rose, and pear.
Great catch of the napping man--I'm glad you didn't disturb him!
10/22/21. Adamant, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1.3 miles today, 3610.1 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
I returned to Adamant this afternoon, this time to meet up with Eve and Ed for our weekly bug walk. Although the weather was cool and mostly cloudy, we found lots of insects. We started by checking the dandelions on the church lawn, where we found some native bees, syrphids, bee flies, and other flies. We found an inchworm and several spiders on the church, and Eve found 2 native ladybug species in the lilacs. Continuing on to the gardens across the street, we found 2 Asian ladybugs, some tiny Ichnuemons, some ants in an apple, some Japanese beetles and several different species of leafhoppers. An hour and a half in to our walk, I finally noticed that my camera wasn't shooting anything--no disks! Arghhh!
I then found that I didn't have a spare disk in my bag, so I pulled my disk out of my little camera that I use for leafminers and galls and started shooting with that. We continued on to a friend's garden, where we found more bee flies, some bees, ants, sedge sitters, syrphids, Ichnuemons, a weevil, and then across from the store we found some fancy milkweeds covered with a dozen monarch caterpillars. I also shot some leafminers in a planted viburnum and Eve found a different gall in the swamp white oak at the church that I missed before. As soon as I got home, I looked up the setting on my camera that turns off the ability to shoot without a disk and shared that with Eve since she has the same camera model.
In the evening at the lights it was barely 40F. I found a midge and several craneflies.
I need to find that setting on my camera as well. I've spent a few walks shooting with the disk not quite pushed all the way into the slot, and the camera simply had a tiny icon to let me know this, which, of course, I never noticed.
Still, I'm impressed at the number of insects you are able to find. Have you had your first hard frost yet?
we just hit 31 for the first time here last night but for like 10 minutes as it didn't totally kill the neighbors squash, just irritate it. Erika it sounds like you hadn't frozen either, did you freeze tonight> Her area is a bit colder than mine. And yeah it is very rare to go this late without frost, i don't know if Montpelier set a record (they officially froze at the station too) but St Johnsbury to our east set a record for latest frost :(
10-23-21 Albany Pine Bush Preserve, Colony, NY. 0.75 miles today, 1120.75 miles total.
Category: unusual
This was the first day of my Finger Lakes trip with my sister. I took the train to Albany, and she met me there, and then we stopped at the pine barrens. Here I found NJ tea, flax leaved aster, lupine, what might be waxy meadow rue, bear oak, hairy hawkweed, carolina frostweed, fly honeysuckle (I think) and maybe red elderberry.
Back in NJ, as I was waiting for the train, I heard what I thought was a raven. So I played a recording of it's song, and sure enough, it matched.
Yes, we had our first frost yesterday morning--the squash outside our front door is quite dead. My friends in East Montpelier and Marshfield also got toasted. I haven't been back to Adamant yet, but I bet the marigolds and nasturtiums in our friend's garden are gone as well. It was a surprise frost since it the forecasts said 35F for a low. On the other hand, my measure is 40F at 9 PM with clear skies means frost for sure by morning, and that's what we had. So Friday was probably our last day to find insects in such abundance and variety.
NJ tea, waxy meadow rue, bear oak--you are off to a grand start. Enjoy your trip!
10/23/21. Hayden Rd, Calais, VT, Osmore Pond, Groton, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 4.8 miles today, 3614.9 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, late bloomers, nibbles, roadkill
This morning I met up with 2 friends at #10 Pond for our weekly walk. From #10 we headed up Hayden Rd, which we haven't walked in quite a while. This road doesn't get plowed in winter and gets very little traffic, none this morning. It has a very steep section near the pond, then flattens out. It goes through young hardwoods, past lots of stone walls that were no doubt once fields. I found leafminers on anemone, nettles, elm, beech, and basswood, as well as a very suspicious looking spot on Vinca, which isn't supposed to have any leafminers. We found a large oak tree in the yard of a house at the top of the road, and a few oak saplings along the road, one of which had galls. I also found galls on goldenrod. And we found 2 dead snakes in the road near #10 Pond.
In the afternoon, my husband and I went out to Groton. I dropped him off with his unicycle at Fiddlehead Pond, then I drove to the north parking lot. I got my bike out there and rode down the side entrance to Osmore Pond and found out that the side entrance is now open--it's just the campground that is gated off. Apparently, they keep the side gate open now that the campground is closed. Good to know! I consider Osmore Pond the crown jewel of Groton State Park--it's my favorite spot in the park, but I don't think I've been here since June of 2019. Today I took my time walking around the pond, and found leafminers on beech, blueberry, sheep laurel, coltsfoot, blackberry, balsam fir, bunchberry, and paper birch, and galls on striped maple, beech, blueberry and blackberry. Not bad, considering there are hardly any leaves left on the trees-we are in high stick season now. I found a twin flower in bloom and nibbled on partridge berries and checkerberries. I also found a tree face, screaming in terror as it smashed to the ground:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/99196658
In the evening I skipped the moth lights since the temperature was quite low and I was tired.
My sister and I very much enjoyed your tree face. I had no idea that coltsfoot has leafminers or that twinflowers can bloom this late in the year, neat.
we had a light frost Friday night/Saturday morning and a hard freeze last night, down to 30. Growing season is over. No more freezes likely in the next week, instead looks quite rainy.
10/24/21. Coldwater Brook Rd, Groton, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 3 miles today, 3617.9 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, late bloomers, nibbles, and arthropods
This afternoon my husband and I returned to Groton to enjoy a beautiful sunny if cool day. While he rode his unicycle down from Fiddlehead Pond to Ricker Pond, I drove to Boulder Beach Rd to walk Coldwater Brook Rd. This road is usually gated by open now that it is bow season for deer. It is in quite good shape, very driveable, but no one was driving on it today, which made me happy. It winds up a hill and separates a long chain of beaver ponds that Charlie visited at least once. Then it turns and runs parallel to Rt 232, the main road through the park, but a mile or so east into the woods. The woods here are very young hardwoods that seemed to be quite recently logged. Eventually I came out to a large clearing with a placard saying that they are managing the woods for woodcock, clearcutting in strips to encourage thick growth of poplars. Hmmmm...I'm always a bit dubious about "managing" a forest. Along the way I found leafminers on beech, blueberry, pearly everlasting, blackberry, and white birch, and galls on striped maple, blackberry, and alder. I nibbled on checkerberries and raspberries, and I even found a strawberry in fruit, but the berry was just a little too far gone to nibble on. In bloom today were strawberry, mullein, and black-eyed Susans. I had a new macro camera lens along, and I practiced shooting a crab spider, a Bibio fly, an aphid, and several leafhoppers.
In the evening at the lights I found a solitary western conifer seed bug. I think the season is just about over, but if it warms up a little this week, maybe we'll get a few more stragglers.
Erika, those are neat acidic beaver wetlands at that location. I actually did a VRAM for one of them, we named it Blackfly Meadows for obvious reasons, but also obviously not an issue this time of year. Lots more wetlands to explore around there. I too am skeptical of the woodcock stuff especially given fields elsewhere, but that's all i will say about that in a public forum, haha. There's also a shooting area used to sight in rifles and such back there, so don't wander behind the sand pits off trail.
Thanks for the warning about the shooting area--I haven't seen that posted anywhere, and I do like to go wandering off trail these days.
10/25/21. Calais Elementary School & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1 miles today, 3618.9 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, late bloomers, and arthropods
It was cool and rainy all day today, but I needed some time away from the computer, so I went out for a short walk around the perimeter of the Calais Elementary School property. I've never walked this area before, so I didn't know what I would find. When I drove into the parking lot, there was a large flock of turkeys that I had to drive around. They were headed for the heavily laden crabapple trees. The school is nestled in beside the fields of a large dairy farm but has some woods at the back that I've never seen. And in the woods is a very scenic stream down a steep embankment, plus several outdoor classroom spaces. There are also picnic tables under tents and even a permanent wooden pavilion scattered about the edges of the fields, but none were in use today. I found leafminers on apple, goldenrod and buckthorn and galls on goldenrod. The woods and fields were loaded with invasives, including buckthorn, Japanese barberry, common barberry, burning bush, autumn olive, and wild chervil, giving the area more of an East Montpelier flavor than Calais. Late bloomers today were swamp aster, goldenrod, strawberry, black-eyed Susans, autumn dandelion, dandelion, fleabane, bedstraw, and loads of broccoli rabe surrounding the back of the dumpster.
It was still misty in the evening and cool. At the lights I had a western conifer seed bug, some dark-winged fungus gnats and several small flies.
10/26/21. East Calais Recreational Fields & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.6 miles today, 3619.5 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, late bloomers, and arthropods
This afternoon was still misty and cool. I took a short break from work to go poke around the edges of the East Calais Recreational Fields. They comprise about 8-10 acres of ball fields between Route 14 and the Kingsbury Branch upstream of the Winooski River. Between the fields and the stream is a a narrow patch of shrubs and trees, mostly pines and poplars with some firs. The understory is wild raisin and blueberry. I found galls on goldenrod, trembling aspen and blueberry, and leafminers on goldenrod, bush honeysuckle, blueberry, white pine and wild raisin. Blooming today were autumn dandelion, common dandelion, and mullein. I also found a few Bibio flies, some other flies, and some tiny wasps crawling around on the tops of wild raisin leaves near the water, and also on a discarded banana peel.
In the evening at the lights it was still misty. I found an underwing and 2 micro moths. I also had small Ichneumon wasps, a bug, craneflies, caddisflies, fruitflies, dark-winged gnats, and Diamesa flies.
10/27/21. Dodge Rd Cemetery, East Montpelier, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.8 miles today, 3620.3 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, late bloomers, and arthropods
This afternoon I went to the cemetery on Dodge Rd for a look around. My husband joined me there for a while on his way home for work. The cemetery is several acres, all neatly mown, and quite new. The stones are quite contemporary with a number of photos etched in them, including one in color. Most of the people resting there were born in the 1950s and 1960s, some more recent than that, which was a bit sobering. There were some lilacs on edge along with some white pines. Another edge had a collection of field weeds, especially goldenrods. I found leafminers on the lilacs and goldenrods, and a gall on trembling aspen. Late bloomers were common dandelions and autumn dandelions, many of which harbored hungry native bees. I also found a pot of mums still serviceable that was covered with flies, and a very fresh bouquet with beautiful large fragrant roses and other flowers beside a grave with a 2021 date. A Covid victim? I still don't know anyone who has gotten Covid in Vermont. The cemetery is on a gentle south facing slope, with the stones in the northern half facing south, ideal for collecting arthropods on a cool, sunny fall day. I found jumping spiders, running crab spiders, a small harvestman, Ichneumonid wasps, fungus gnats, and other flies, plus a large grasshopper.
In the evening at the lights I had a midge and a Pycnopsyche caddisfly.
I saw you passed 100,000 observations, congrats!!
Thanks--I think. I never meant to do that. It just happened. Now what? I guess on to 150k.
10/28/21. Dog River Fields, Montpelier, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1.2 miles today, 3621.5 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, late bloomers, and arthropods
This afternoon I met up with Eve and Ed at the Dog River Fields for our weekly bug walk, probably the last one of the season since Eve is leaving for a work trip on Saturday. Two guys with some dogs - 14 of them - arrived just before us, and the dog were bouncing all over the fields. The guys led the dogs down the trail nearest the water treatment plant, so we headed in the opposite direction towards the river. The fields had been freshly mown, and there were very few dandelions left to inspect. We managed to find a few bee flies in them. Along the river, which is lined with Japanese knotweed, there were very few bugs. We searched and searched, eventually coming up with some flies, a calligrapher beetle, a blue fuzzy butt (woolly aphid), some crab spiders and a money spider. Eve left early to finish preparations for her trip, and Ed and I continued on down the trail near the sewage treatment plant once the dogs had left. There were a few more insects out there since there are lots of willows and some native sunflowers. I found some tiny bugs on the sand, some mating, and some nymphs. We also found an autumn meadowhawk and some native bees on some blooming goldenrod.
In the evening at the lights there was nothing--nothing flying, nothing resting on the screens.
I guess Dog River was well named. May you continue to not know anyone who has caught COVID in Vermont. I was pleased to see that one of the larger hospitals near me has decommissioned their COVID wing in the emergency room; they don't have many patients for it anymore. And congrats on 100,000, whether intentional or not.
10-24-21. Syracuse, Cayuga, Seneca Falls, NY. 2.5 miles today, 1123.75 miles total
Day two of our Finger Lakes trip. In the morning we stopped at Starbucks where I showed my sister bird's nest fungi. Then we went to the Old Erie Canal State Historic Park. I walked around the lot at Burdock Street and found hawkweed oxtongue, which was an unfamiliar weed (but I saw it at virtually every stop from there on). There was a sunflower I can't figure out, a tree with some lovely lichen, and a nice, gall-covered hackberry leaf.
My sister walked west to Cedar Bay along the canal but I drove over to meet her and checked out the aqueduct there. It was still misty and I took some artsy landscape photos. Here I saw fragrant sumac and golden-bell forsythia, both planted but both unusual for me. There is brown knapweed here instead of the Tyrol that we would have at home. I found a willow with cone galls, some moonseed, plus watercress and coontail in the canal. But the highlight was a very bold pileated woodpecker right next to the parking lot.
From there we went up to Onondaga Lake Park (while waiting for the Erie Canal Museum to open). Here there were both red breasted and common mergansers, plus lots of common buckthorn (another thing that's very common here and almost never seen at home). And some kind of morning glory in fruit.
After the museum we drove to the next lake over, to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. There were enormous numbers of people out with big lenses and spotting scopes checking out a pool by the visitor's center, so we did, too. I got a few photos, but the birds were really too far away for my camera. We also drove the ring road and I shot some more birds (badly). In the end I spotted Canada geese, a northern shoveler, some kind of sandpiper (people were seeing a yellowlegs on ebird, so maybe that), mallards, green winged teals, coots, ruddy ducks, and redheads.
We brought a picnic lunch to Cayuga Lake State Park (which might not have been the wisest choice, as it was pretty stinky there) and walked around a bit. I saw some kind of stringy green alga that looked a lot like gutweed, only the water here is fresh. There was also an Atriplex and a Hypericum that I haven't keyed out yet.
Next we checked out the (disappointing) Ludovico Sculpture Trail next to the It's a Wonderful Life Bridge in Seneca Falls. This was nothing but weeds and invasives, but I saw some dog strangling vine and honesty.
That evening I walked in the empty lot by the hotel where there was cut-leaved teasel, honeysuckle aphid galls, and some Asteraceae in fruit that I've not keyed out yet.
i have never explored that dog river fields area. i am sure you've already inatted it pretty heavily but maybe there is a wetland to assess (with VRAM Rapid assessment ) or something.
Speaking of rapid assessments, it wasn't a recreational walk, but yesterday my co worker Elijah and I did a VRAM and iNaturalist blitz of the St Albans area. Hope it's OK to describe here though i didn't add to the project. Looked at the bike trail, the Hard'Ack park (kind of like hubbard woods or Ethan Allen park in burlington, only harder to find parking to access), and a few wetlands along the Lake Champlain shore. It's an area we didn't have much data on so it was great. 2 life list firsts, oddly i'd never gotten bluegill before (dumped dead fish by a road :( ) and a Common Yew that somehow seeded into the Hard'Ack park forest. The bike trail wetlands were unsurprisingly in awful condition, but we wanted data on some like that. Hard'ack is a nice habitat parcel with ledgy oaks, very limited wetlands but a few little pocket wetlands and marginal vernal pools. Lots of bitternut hickory and a few unusually large trees. The end of the day we checked out a slate cobble shoreline at Kill Kare state park which had some neat stuff. Tons of gulls flying around mostly impossible to get a good photo with my phone. Did some 'road inatting' too on the way home.
10-25-21 Letchworth and Stony Brook State Parks (mostly), NY. 3.75 miles today, 1127.5 miles total
Day three. It was extremely foggy today. Our first stop was Mt. Morris Dam at the low end of Letchworth Gorge. It's a 230 foot tall flood control dam, and we were on the escarpment above it. I explored the edges of the parking lot and then into some dry woods and a powerline cut. Here I found a whole flock of starlings, field horsetail, hooked buttercup, a rattlesnake root, gypsymoth eggs, red pine, motherwort, a slug, several kinds of fungi I can't ID, an amber snail, and a mustard I don't know. Plus leaf mines in pilewort, beggarticks, snakeroot, burdock, and (thanks to your mentioning it, Erika) coltsfoot.
We drove to the other end of the gorge and walked from the upper falls to the middle and back to the car. My sister continued down the trail to the lower falls, and I drove around to meet her. The falls were big and impressive, both tall and wide. The fog made it hard to take good photos, though. Here at Letchworth I found some very brave chipmunks, some asters I can't ID, coralberry, rattlesnakeweed, and lots more fungi I can't ID.
After lunch we headed over to Stony Brook Park, where they dam up a river in the summer to make a swimming hole, then undam it in the off season (something I'd never seen before, but which seems to be common in NY state parks). We agreed that Kate would hike the gorge to the top and I'd drive around on the upper falls road to meet her. Only when I got to the road I found it closed. And there was no cell phone service. So I parked and hiked in and did eventually meet her. It was rather worrisome there for a few minutes, though.
Here I found "real" (Bellis) daisies, purple flowering raspberry, ferns that I think were fragile ferns, lots of herb Robert, and rough horsetail.
We spent the night in Corning, where I found a nice Toxomerus geminatus hoverfly on some goldenrod, along with a common bumble bee that was either sleeping or dead.
The Dog River fields can be interesting at the right time of year, Charlie. Most of the river access is pure Japanese knotweed on the park side of the river and heavy industrial agricultural fields on the other. But down by the sewage treatment plant there is a little wetlands area that could be interesting for its uniqueness. Perhaps it's a "cobblestone toilet" natural area. Right now it is rimmed with 12-15' high sunflower stalks.
We were up in the St Albans area last December, but we picked up the bike trail at Franklin Park W on the edge of town in order to avoid any contact with people, so we missed Hard'Ack park. Kill Kare State Park sounds quite interesting, though. We'll be North South Hero for Thanksgiving, so maybe we can check it out then.
Your trip to New York sounds like great adventures, Sara. I loved Burdock St. It reminded me somehow of Rue de Écureiuls in the town we lived in in France. Finding dog strangling vine and honesty near the It's a Wonderful Life bridge is classic! Your description of Montezuma reminded me of our one trip there, many moons ago. We saw a few birds, but the only ones we recognized at the time were the Canada geese that I shot with my point-and-shoot 35mm film camera. Thanks for the tips on leafmines in beggarticks--now I will make a point of searching them. The practice of dam and undamming rivers in New York for swimming holes is so odd! But perhaps that might make some good places to search for ephemeral bryophytes.
10/29/21. Cold Water Brook Trail, Groton, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 4 miles today, 3625.5 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, late bloomers, and arthropods
This afternoon was bright with sunshine and nearly 60F so my husband and I took off to Groton for adventures. I dropped him off at Fiddlehead Pond with his unicycle, then continued on to Cold Water Brook Rd. The gate at the bottom of the road was open, so I drove my car up and parked it at the trailhead to the Peacham Bog Loop trail, in hopes of finding a shortcut to the bog. I always get so distracted by plants along the way that I've only made it to the bog once, and that was over 15 years ago. The main trail to the bog starts from the nature center on Boulder Beach Rd. I wondered if this alternative trail might be a short cut, but I should have checked the map first. This trail goes straight up through an old logging area. At 2 miles it opens out onto a brand new road with a bridge constructed across an active beaver dam dividing 2 small ponds. The beavers must have loved watching the bridge go in! I wonder if they're still there. And just beyond this brand new 500' of road is a gate that leads out to Martin's Pond Rd. My time was up, so I turned around and headed back down the trail instead of continuing along the loop trail, which would have actually led to the bog. Next time, I will try parking at the other side of the gate on Martin's Pond Rd--then I might make it to the bog in time to see it.
Most of the woods along the trail was young hardwoods, dominated by beech. The first mile was uphill with a southwest facing slope. Then it was flat or slightly downhill. There was a short patch of softwoods just near the beaver dams at the top. I found leafminers on goldenrod, sugar maple and blackberry, and galls on goldenrod and trembling aspen. I found a few grape ferns near the top and goldenrods and fleabane in bloom. There weren't many insects about today, but I found a few flies and some tiny bugs in the leaf litter in the sun.
No action at all tonight at the moth lights.
wait 10/30 don't you mean 10/29?
I think i know which beaver pond you mean, the double one... it's a neat acidic one. Or maybe not if there's a bridge over it. i will have to check your observations
Good catch on the date--getting ahead of myself!
10/30/21. Chickering Trails, East Montpelier, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2.5 miles today, 3628.0 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, fungi, and arthropods
This morning I met up with my four friends on Chickering Rd for our regular Saturday morning hike. We were joined by Sue Chickering and her dog. Sue gave us a guided tour of her trail system, explaining some of the names of the trails ("Bobcat" for the frequent bobcat tracks, "Toilet Bowl" for the neighborhood dump), and pointing out the boundary between the East Montpelier portion of the property and the Calais portion. All together, it's about 100 acres. Sadly, it's under current use and scheduled to be logged next year. I hope the logging doesn't transform this area from this huge patch of contiguous hardwood and boreal forest sprinkled with vernal pools into more of the typical East Montpelier invasive habitat. Sue took us up to see some fresh bear poop, then we went off at a fair trot on her favorite loop (which she blew the leaves off of yesterday morning before climbing Camel's Hump in the afternoon). I shot a single leafminer on some wild roses, and also a few fungi, including some yellow fairy caps, some polypores, and some Dacromyces.
It rained most of the day and was a little warmer in the evening. At the lights I had a single tiny micro moth plus some caddisflies, craneflies, fruit flies, and other flies.
Don't they rotate the logging? would Current Use log 100 acres in one pop? From what i've seen logging done reasonably well doesn't seem to bring in the invasives too bad, that is way worse with things like past pasture use. But, hard to say. Hopefully they did a good job finding and buffering wetlands and waterways. Could do some VRAMs before and after if the Chickerings are into it. They do work on vernal pools though I know VCE has a more specific protocol they use on them too.
Hopefully they'll just log a small portion. I took a look at a vernal pool there for VCE. There are lots more pools to look at, though. Basically, between every fold in the land is another wetland of some type.
10/31/21. Emslie Rd & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1 miles today, 3629.0 miles total.
Categories: late bloomers, leafminers, galls and arthropods
This afternoon I put on my rain gear for a short walk up Emslie Rd. I parked at the town hall and walked the perimeter of the parking lot for the first time since the big reno job that's been going on for 18 months. On one end, the parking lot is within 10 feet of a stream (Dugar Brook/Pekin Brook), then it goes past the new sewer mound on the other side of the building on the edge of a wet meadow. From the parking lot, I continued up Emslie Rd, which has its own little stream. As the road heads up the hill into the deep woods, there is a cascading waterfall which was going at full power this afternoon, quite scenic. I found some goldenrod, red clover and fleabane in bloom, galls on goldenrod, trembling aspen, alternate-leaved dogwood, and elm, and leafminers on goldenrod, poplar, alternate-leaved dogwood, and elm.
It was still raining in the evening when I went out to check the lights. I found some large yellow flies, fruit flies, craneflies, and a caddisfly.
10-26-21. Watkins Glen, Buttermilk, and Ithaca Falls, NY. 0.75 miles today, 1128.25 miles total
Day four. It was pouring rain today, so we did museums in the morning, then slogged into Watkins Glen. the gorge trail was closed for flooding, and the main fall that I saw was amazingly full and powerful. Here there was a huge assortment of plants in a small space. There was a formal garden, but I suspect the "wild" stuff had been helped along with some seed as well. Interesting plants here included ramps, a joe pye weed, some kind of sunflower, New England aster, and valerian.
Next was Upper Buttermilk Falls. The rain was really pouring down and we only looked at one little fall before heading back out. We missed the famous ones entirely. But here I did see cut leaved coneflower.
Finally, we walked in to see the very impressive Ithaca Falls, and passed a brave big blue heron on the way. Also here was jetbead, and something that looked a little like trailing arbutus.
10-27-21. Taughannock, Treman, and Fillmore State Parks, NY. 2.0 miles today, 1130.25 miles total.
Day five. Finally had nice, clear weather, and the waterfalls were amazingly full. First stop was Taughannock, the tallest waterfall in the east, they say. It was lovely, and we saw two people taking significantly more professional photos than mine while we were there. I also walked down by Cayuga Lake, (which was full of debris from the flooding) and up to one of the lower falls. Here I saw wood betony and rough horsetail, soapwort, ninebark, striped maple, and my first-ever Nostoc.
Next was Treman State Park, but once again the trails were closed for flooding, and we managed to go to the less scenic end of the park. here I found lopseed and polypody.
Finally we went to Fillmore State Park and checked out both the lower falls and the dam at the upper part of the park. Both were impressive waterfalls. Highlights here were wild ginger, foamflower, plantain leaved sedge, stump puffballs, and spikenard.
10-28-21. Thacher State Park, NY. 1.25 miles today, 1131.5 miles total.
Last day of my trip. We stopped at this park and walked along an escarpment with stunning views of fall foliage, and of two skinny waterfalls that dive off the edge of the cliff. We could have walked the trail along the bottom, but it involved lots of stairs and walking behind the waterfalls (and likely getting soaked in the process) so we declined. Here I found downy arrowwood, snowberry, two kinds of pussytoes, what I think was round leaved dogwood, thimbleweed, and featherwort.
10-30-21. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 1132.75 miles total.
Category: red and yellow together
Today I decided to only take photos where I could get red and yellow in the same shot (without cheating and moving things). There were easy ones, like red maple, sassafras, tupelo, Japanese aralia, and surprisingly blackberry, wineberry, and white oak leaves which had both colors in the same leaf, plus barberry, bittersweet, and spicebush with red berries and yellow leaves. Dogbane had red stems and yellow leaves, smartweed had pink-red flowers next to yellow leaves, and zigzag goldenrod had yellowish flower remains with purple-red leaves. But I also managed some all red (or purplish) things next to some other yellow leaf: dogwood, rosehips, maple-leaved viburnum, linden viburnum fruit, sweetgum, blackhaw, honeysuckle fruit. And red maple leaves managed to lie next to yellow leaves of birch, tulip poplar, hickory, beech, witchhazel and richweed. Most interesting were violet toothed polypore that turned out to be purple and yellow. And there were tons of rove beetles walking on yellow leaves, with no red in sight (but how could I resist).
10-31-21. Pleasant Valley Park, Lyons, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1133.5 miles total.
Category: solid colored leaves
Today I looked for leaves that were entirely one color (some had a few speckles). I found red: sassafras, red maple. Orange: sassafras, poison ivy, Virginia creeper. Yellow: hickory, honeysuckle, autumn olive, spicebush, tulip poplar, black locust, and poison ivy. Purple: blackhaw, ash. Brown: oak, elm, tulip poplar, ash, hickory. And green: buckthorn, bittersweet, mugwort, bittercress, garlic mustard, dock, and avens.
Your trip to Ithaca and environs made me quite nostalgic. When we lived in Ithaca, it was great to have visitors come because then we would take them around on the waterfall tour, to Buttermilk, Ithaca Falls, Taughannock, and our favorite, Treman State Park. It sounds like you had a great trip despite the rain. Your color days on the leaves are neat--I've never seen yellow white oak leaves. But then, the only white oak I know of is the one planted in our yard which simply goes maroon. I've never noticed before which leaves simply stay green, like buckthorn. Cool!
I've still never been to Ithaca, would nove to go poke aroundt here though Srall is getting all the iNat observations now :)
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