October 8, 2019

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 61°F, cloudy with light breezes at 2:00 PM on October 8, 2019.
• Although it seemed mild enough, there were no cicadas, katydids or treefrogs calling today.
• Leaves had continued to gain more color or collect on the ground.
• This week's trail report covers the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.

The Trails

• Only a weak sun shown over Gifford House today. Rain was promised for tomorrow, Wednesday.
• Needles were coming down along the Scots Pine Allée.
• Three or four clouded sulphurs was the butterfly count for the Little Bluestem Meadow.
• Other insects were undaunted by the clouds. On one goldenrod head were: a tiny beetle, two kinds of fly, a bumble bee, and an ant.
• With so much activity little patience was required to get a fair portrait of a locust borer...
• ... or a hover fly.
• The trail into the Old Gravel Pit was now covered by fallen leaves.
• A little shelf fungus was taking advantage of the recent rains.
• Club mosses are evergreen. These will be poking through the snow in the spring.
• Briefly, the sun came out on the Fern Glen pond.
• A couple bull frogs seemed to have reached a compromise over a favorite spot on a log.
• From around the corner it appeared that one had actually come out on top.
• At the back of the pond summersweet had been happy this year.
• A little weevil was burried in a flower head.
• Off the boardwalk in the fen poison sumac was at peak color.
• Its loose, white berries are distinct from staghorn sumac's dense red cones.
• Draped across the shrub swam was climbing hempweed, at the end of its season.
• The seeds resemble those of other members of the composite family, e.g., boneset and Joe-Pye weed.
• Winterberry was laden with fruit.
• There are always a few with ghostly pale leaves.
• Witch hazel was in bloom.
• It seems the flower is often smelled before it is seen among the leaves.
• The sun made another effort to appear and that enhanced the view from the deck.
• Upstream, the bridge even had a patch of sunlight on it.
• The little stream by the deck had hosted a nice patch of swamp milkweed, now sporting numerous seed pods.
• Below, great lobelia was now all seed head.
• On the way out of the Glen, there were still a few white blossoms on the black cohosh.
• Little, well developed seed pods were on other stalks.
• Out on the Cary Pines Trail, the path runs along a ridge.
• One side opens up as it drops down to the creek running through a gorge.
• Spotted wintergreen and partridgeberry are scattered along both sides.
• Cool and moist, this is often a place to find coral fungus but today it was puffballs.
• It was a quiet walk to bench at the "Appendix", by Trail Marker 10. The view here is a favorite.
• Next week: the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.

Sightings