October 29, 2015

Notes and Changes since last report

• This week's trail report covers the whole trail system.
• It was 64°F, cloudy and blustery at 2:00 PM on October 9, 2015.
• After 1-1/4" of rain yesterday the creeks were up but not as swollen as expected.
• This is the last trail report of this season. The grounds will be closed Nov. 1 and will reopen April 1.

The Trails

• It was wild and blustery as I headed towards the Carriage House.
• Invasive oriental bittersweet had been hiding along the side of the road, but was now making its fruit obvious.
• Magnolia buds seemed to lean defiantly into the wind.
• Behind the Carriage House, blue appeared in the sky to brighten the remaining leaves on the hills.
• In the Old Gravel pit, burning bush and Japanese barberry were easy to spot: they still had their leaves and they were colorful.
• Sometimes a mechanism that gives invasives an advantage (like early or late leaves) also helps in fighting them - here by making even small plants obvious for removal.
• Burning bush can take over the understory.
• In the Fern Glen, a hearty fly was clinging to a brochure box.
• And a hearty American green frog was in the shallows of the pond.
• The golden leaves were striking on the blackening water.
• For a moment I feared a black swallowwort vine had escaped my notice - it was a native clematis, virgin's bower.
• I didn't remember a tree with leaves so small.
• Those "leaves" were the strange fruit of ironwood.
• Deeper in the 'Glen, I was surrounded by still colorful beech.
• Along the road out of the 'Glen, the muted colors of oaks were dominating.
• At the "Appendix", those maples were still hanging on to their brilliance.
• Just beyond in the floodplane was a good example of Japanese barberry taking over the understory.
• I paused to look back at the view down stream.
• Then I looked down the bank to find a snapping turtle swimming by.
• It paused to look up at me...
• In the depths of the Sedge Meadow Trail was another bully of understory and fields: honeysuckle. The several bushy Asian species keep their leaves in production after others have fallen.
• And in the back Old Hayfield, most leaves had indeed fallen.
• The winds had taken care of the leaves covering the Sedge Meadow boardwalk.
• I should have such luck at home.
• Until April...