This week's trail report covers the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.
It was 85°F, partly cloudy and breezy at 12:00 PM on September 2, 2015.
Trails have been mown and brush trimmed back.
The front Old Hayfield was mowed.
The Trails
The front Old Field has been mowed to keep it a field free of shrubs and trees.
Along the unmown edge, invasive but pretty spotted knapweed attracted a Peck's skipper.
Something flew around my head and dove into a cedar along the dry side of the Sedge Meadow Trail.
Surprise, it was a red admiral. Strange place for a red admiral...
The low side of the trail was, as last week, throbbing with birds including red-eyed vireo.
In the back Old Hayfield, goldenrods were pulling in locust borers. We usually think of bees, but beetles are major pollinators as well.
Next year, the back field will be mown with the front remaining as refuge for late season wildlife and overwintering eggs, larvae and pupae.
The fungus by the watershed kiosk on the Wappinger Creek Trail was expanding. I've seen these grow 1-1/2" in diameter per day.
A little farther along was an interesting blue-green mushroom.
As I approached the "Appendix", something looked a little different up ahead... Actually it was arump.
She was aware of me sitting on the bench watching her browse the shrubs.
Eventually she wandered upstream, playing peek-a-boo along the way.
Wandering back towards the parking lot, I stepped back as something again flew around my head. It was the size and color of a pearl crescent, but the place and behavour were odd... It was a harvester, our only carnivorous butterfly: Its caterpillar eats woolly aphids, typically on alders. But by now we were in a dry conifer forest... Another mystery.
