October 24, 2018

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 50°F, mostly cloudy and windy at 12:30 PM on October 24, 2018.
• The grounds close at the end of October and reopen April 1, conditions permitting...
• Seeds and berries getting ready for winter were balanced by new buds getting ready for spring.
• This trail report covers the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.

The Trails

• There were no butterflies at the puddles on the road to the Carriage House today.
• The front Old Hayfield was windswept today.
• Invasive Oriental bittersweet was ripening behind the Carriage House.
• The berries make the vine popular in wreaths and among birds.
• A few berries were remaining of pokeweed.
• On the other side of the drive, magnolia buds were already formed and would wait out the winter.
• Farther in the back, rhododendron had employed the same tactic.
• Below, one goldenrod seemed not to have heard about the changing season.
• There was a break in the clouds over the Little Bluestem Meadow.
• At the end of the Scots Pine Allée, silverrod was going to seed.
• By the split in the trail, hay-scented fern was still green.
• Now some sun was actually shining down on Gifford House across the meadow.
• In the Old Gravel Pit, the occasional maple was sporting some red.
• And once in a while the sun would come through, lighting up red and yellow together.
• The bottom of the Old Gravel Pit was still flooded.
• In the Fern Glen, Herb-Robert had not given up yet.
• Again, the sun would light up a few red leaves over the pond.
• Faded ostrich fern fronds reminded me of bird wings.
• Crazy witch hazel was blooming, but the scent was absent from the air.
• Winterberry was back in the shrub swamp. Its berries are a last resort for the birds and will last late into the winter.
• Poison sumac had lost all its leave.
• But its white berries were not all gone.
• On the Cary Pines Trail, one Gypsy moth egg mass looked pale. It was somebody else's cocoon.
• Farther along, partridgeberry lined both sides of the trail.
• Next April: the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.