October 13, 2021

Mushrooms and Poison Ivy

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 70°F, cloudy, and calm at 3:00 PM on October 13, 2021.
• There was a little more color in the leaves and the mosquitos were still out in number.
• Lovelace Drive - past the Fern Glen - has been opened to traffic again.
• This week's trail report covers the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.

The Trails

• It appeared that some branches were down by Gifford House.
• Actually, a car had come off the highway taking out a redbud and leaving it in the pathway as it passed between a big oak and Gifford.
• Out at the "Appendix", as I like to call the area around trail marker 10, the witch's butter looked almost unchanged from the week before.
• Biscuits - that's what the neighboring mushrooms look like. The browns and the texture.
• Even the seedlings of burningbush turn red.
• Mushrooms would be a common sight today.
• Coral fungus was more frequently encountered than usual.
• The expanse of one colony of brown mushrooms was surprising.
• Shaggy stems below were interesting.
• One clump of coral fungus was taking on unusual coloration.
• Color was creeping in along the road past the Fern Glen.
• Hobblebush always gets interesting in quiet ways.
• Water was getting darker in the pond.
• Seen from the other side, the ostrich fern was getting pale.
• The path back to the fen was getting covered with leaves.
• Back in the fen, poison sumac didn't have a lot of leaves to boast.
• But they did have a unique red-orange that can be picked out of a crowd.
• Fruit of speckled alder will eventually open as little cones to scatter their seed.
• Chickweed was looking very fresh. Its five petals are so deeply notched they appear to be ten.
• It always seems that witch hazel is easier to smell than to see.
• The whispy little flowers choose this time of year to bloom.
• Winterberry leaves were turning ghostly pale.
• Perhaps the better to set off the red berries.
• Out on drier soils, gaultheria had a few berries too. Teaberry is one of its common names.
• Leaves of partridgeberry are much smaller and have that pale main vein.
• The view downstream from the deck was opening up with the dropping leaves.
• Upstream, a small witch hazel was hanging on to its yellow.
• Shingle strips have improved wet traction on some of the walkways.
• A cheerful find was caterpillars eating purple loosestrife. These look like Haploas - very handsome moths, perhaps LeConte's Haploa.
• The Fern Glen was not lacking mushrooms.
• Coral fungus was looking better here than anywhere else.
• These look like the same as the large colony on the Cary Pines trail.
• A splash of color was creeping up one of the members of the Scots Pine Alée.
• The young leaves of Virginia creeper are sometimes made of three leaflets, looking too much like poison ivy.
• In the field behind, a patch of dogbane was golden among the brown grasses.
• Towards the end of the Allée, Virginia creeper was climbing high.
• On the opposite side, poison ivy was not to be outdone.
• Next week: the Wappinger Creek Trail the side of the trail system.

Sightings