September 21, 2016

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 75°F, cloudy and breezy at 2:00 PM on September 21, 2016.
• This week's trail report covers the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.
• A little bit of color was starting to show up in some leaves.
• Berries and seeds were becoming more obvious.

The Trails

• A puff of white off the side by the Carriage House made me nervous.
• Happily, it was not the return of black swallowwort, but a native milkweed, butterfly weed, going to seed.
• At the head of the Scots Pine Alleé, an eastern phoebe was perched low to hawk insects flying above the lawn.
• A house finch was also going between the ground and a low perch that was provided by fencing.
• A little farther along, there was motion, then nothing - a little eastern tailed-blue was working the remaining wild basil flowers.
• In spite of their metallic blue, they can really blend in with their surroundings.
• Another appeared and the two would fly up in challenge. I tried for a better position before their return and did eventually get photo from below.
• In the middle of the path along the Little Bluestem Meadow was a dogwood sawfly larva.
• The blade of grass conveniently flipped over exposing the 6 abdominal prolegs that help distinguish sawfly larvae from true caterpillars, which have no more than 5.
• The view back across the field of rusty looking little bluestem reminded me of my childhood haunts.
• In the Old Gravel Pit, another white puff on a log caught my attention.
• This one was mushrooms - we did have a little rain recently.
• Something flew into the browning hay-scented fern on the other side of the Old Gravel Pit's low point.
• The flattened legs suggested it was one of the leaf-footed bugs, to which the familiar squash bug belongs.
• As the trail opens above the Fern Glen, invasive burning bush was starting to show the colors that made it a popular ornamental.
• Farther along the road was a little patch of native pearly everlasting.
• Along the pond near the kiosk, that crazy groundnut vine's maroon, pea-like blossoms had finished and it was forming pods.
• Along the boardwalk through the fen, another milkweed, swamp milkweed, was releasing its flying seeds.
• Around the bend, winterberry, a holly, had ripe berries. Birds use the berries as a last resort so they persist through the winter making this native shrub a functional as well as aesthetic landscaping alternative to exotic plants with questionable behavior.
• On the way out of the 'Glen, I realized I'd been seeing leaves on the ground. It shouldn't be a surprise late in September...
• Next week: surprises on the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.