September, 2012 - Trail Report Archive
Notes and changes since last report
- It was cloudy, 60°, and occasionally breezy at 12:00 PM on September 26, 2012. It calmed down and there were sprinkles later.
- Several butterflies made appearances in spite of this unfavorable weather.
- Waterman Bird club and Cary Institute dedicated two memorial benches this afternoon.
- My clutch cable broke on the way home.
The Trails
- It was one of those cool, gray days that get surprisingly sticky when you start moving along.
- A couple crows in a dead tree along the front Old Hayfield were making a lot of noise.
- Dogbane was turning golden in the back corner.
- I stopped to look for the long, skinny seed pods and instead found a long, skinny caterpillar - one of the inchworms, or geometer moths.
- Pods were indeed present, but in searching for the most photogenic I came across another caterpillar. Kind of like a very plain tiger moth, I thought... dogbane tiger moth? Only the Golden Guide agreed; "Delicate cycnia" claimed the other books... but the latin names were the same.
- I settled on one nice grouping of pods and moved on.
- Even though the back Old Hayfield had been mowed, I circled it anyway because, well, that's what I do. A large dark butterfly zig-zagged from behind and landed along the tree line - a mourning cloak!
- Along that tree line, burning bush was warming up.
- Birds eat the berries and assist the spread of this alien.
- If it hadn't been for the 'cloak on this cool, gray day, a pearl crescent in the Old Pasture would have been more exciting.
- Another little bit of orange went racing by... too fast for a "PC". It was an American copper.
- A dead tree along the Wappinger Creek Trail was sporting some amazingly orange fungi. I'll have to keep an eye on these.
- I interrupted my usual route to attend the dedication of two memorial benches, one in the Scotch Pine Alleé, and one in the Lowlands.
- Members of the family, the Bird Club, and the Institute attended.
- Back on my rounds again, I admired partridge berry tucked among the hemlock roots on the Cary Pines Trail.
- A little farther along I was struck by the geometric regularity of Virginia creeper. creeping up a tree.
- In the Fern Glen, a lesser traveled trail surprised me with black cohosh.
- The sepals fall off and the petals are tiny giving the impression each blossom is just a cluster of stamens.
- Witch hazel was just beginning to bloom around the pond and in the shrub swamp; I smelled it before I could see it.
- Fungi were widely spread along the trails today. I stopped for a pair of puffballs in the Old Gravel Pit, but it had sprinkled briefly once already and I didn't want to push my luck so I pressed on wondering rather than waiting to see if it was slugs that had made the all too familiar holes.
- Luck was indeed with me: drops began to fall as I approached my driveway and my clutch cable failed just as I arrived at the garage door. Bad luck doesn't get any better.
Notes and changes since last report
- It was partly cloudy, 65°, and breezy at 2:15 PM on September 19, 2012.
- The previous day's high winds and heavy rains made for plenty of sticks and leaves down.
- The back Old Hayfield had been mown.
- Another quiet day for birds and insects.
The Trails
- The only thing moving in the Gifford House parking lot was a milkweed bug.
- The skys were dramatic today.
- Along the driveway to the Carriage House, pokeweed was ripening.
- Birds enjoy these berries and it was hard to find an intact cluster.
- Near by, magnolia was forming velvet bud-like thingees that would have to really be seeds.
- Buckeye, on the other side, was forming its own somewhat peculiar fruit.
- At the head of the Scotch Pine Alleé was the first of what I would continuously encounter today: branches.
- The Fern Glen pond had been looking low lately; not so now.
- I could hear the water rushing under the stone bridge and went over for a look.
- Nothing like the spring flood, but three inches of rain made for a lively flow today.
- Turning to leave, I paused to admire maidenhair spleenwort eking out an existance in a crack in the wall.
- On the way up the hill, asters were putting on a good show.
- Note the simple, narrow petals for future reference...
- I looked forward to the Wappinger Creek Trail and comparing the views downstream and upstream to those of last week.
- The little bluestem grass in the Old Pasture was glowing when backlit.
- A smaller aster was abundant in the Sedge Meadow.
- I knew it was coming, but the back Old Hayfield "missing" stopped me in my tracks. And I reflected that it would be a good time to mow my own: the birds were done with their broods and some young shrubs and trees were taking hold.
- In consideration of the wildlife, the front Old Hayfield's mowing alternates years with the back. And here spotted knapweed was still flowering.
- Similar in size and color, it looks a lot like an aster or like a thistle but these petals are different.
- Continuing my lap around the last field of the day, I contemplated the 60 some species of goldenrod here in the Northeast.
- I came across a locust borer beetle and thoughts drifted to the goldenrod gall insects. Some use only a particular species and produce distinctive galls that make identifying the host plant trivial.
- There was no problem identifying the last blossoms of wild bergamot on their own merit.
- On the way home I reflected on asters: they too come in some 60 species - but I don't recall any getting galls.
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