October, 2018: Describe your walk by adding a comment below
Each time you go out and make observations for this project, describe your walk by adding a comment to this post. Include the date, distance walked, and categories that you used for this walk.
Suggested format:
Date. Place. Distance walked today. Total distance for this project.
Categories.
Brief description of the area, what you saw, what you learned, who was with you, or any other details you care to share.
Comentarios
10-1-18. Blackwells Mills, Millstone, NJ. 0.5 miles today 362 miles total
categories: insects, spiders, fungi, unintentional plants
This is a bottom land between a river and a canal, which had flooded just days before and much was coated in mud. There were large numbers of different spiders, some very nice fungi, woodnettle in fruit, something that looks like Iva frutescens (which doesn't grow this far inland in NJ) or like ragweed with big bracts and leaves like white snakeroot. I can't figure it out.
There were several asters I don't know, bur cucumber in bloom and fruit, and just about every species of smartweed I ever see. Virginia creeper and silky dogwood were showing fall color. In another week the poison ivy here will be glorious, but not yet.
10-2-18. Martinsville Rd., Liberty Corner, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 362.25 miles total
Category: unintentional plants
I had lunch with a friend and then had a few minutes to spare afterward, so I walked the edge of woods surrounding the development that housed our restaurant (and several office buildings). There were a few goldenrod and asters that I don't know to species, and a false daisy, but not much else interesting. Still, I'd never walked here before, which was neat.
10-3-18 Warren Municipal Park, Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 362.5 miles total
Category: unintentional plants
I walked from PT to the local park, which meant I covered a section I've not photographed before. Not many surprises here: an aster, a goldenrod, a false turkey tail fungus, a flatsedge, a particularly deeply lobed poison ivy. Wineberry and red maple are starting change color.
10-4-18. Black Brook Park, Kennilworth, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 363.25 miles total.
Category: things I can't ID
I was headed to Walmart and took half an hour to walk at this park nearby. There were asters and goldenrod I can't ID, several bees, some aquatic plants that might be starwort and Ludwigia, a couple of ferns and some fungi. Not a lot that's exciting, but it was a lovely day.
Smartweed? I think it's time for a smartweed festival! Great finds with the aquatics!
10-9-18. Washington Valley Reservoir, Martinsville, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 364.5 miles total.
Categories: fall color, can't ID.
This trail was closed for a year for repairs. I figured I'd walk down and see what they did, but I made it 3/4 of the way to the end and didn't reach the repair. I'll have to walk in from the other side some time.
As far as unknowns go, there were some fungi, asters, goldenrod, grasses, and flies. Fall color included Virginia creeper, tickseed trefoil, wineberry, milkweed, poison ivy, dogwood, blackhaw, autumn olive, mugwort, ash, blackberry, dogbane, grape, elm, red maple, sycamore, and hickory. But really only the ash, sycamore, creeper and ivy have turned all the way, fall is just getting started here.
10-10-18. Busy Bee Lane, Warren, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 365.25 miles total
Category: can't ID
I walked in the neighborhood in the evening as the light was failing. I found my neighbor had liverwort under his (sprinkler-watered) hedge that I'd never noticed before. There were the usual fungi, asters, and goldenrod, and some mosses I don't know. I also spotted a dead deer and a little white flower that turned out to be Eclipta prostrata that had been mowed many times and I didn't recognize it at all.
10-11-18. Tamaques Reservation, Westfield, NJ and Cedar Brook Park, Plainfield, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 365.75 miles total
Categories: unintentional plants, can't ID, fall color.
I went to walk at Cedar Brook but stopped at Tamaques on the way, which is mostly a series of ball fields surrounded by some land allowed to be brushy woods. Not much of interest here. The poke was turning color and I found a few mushrooms I don't know.
Cedar Brook itself is an urban park, a place I would not want to visit at night, but on a rainy afternoon it was quite safe and nearly empty. I walked around the pond, which was (blessedly) allowed to keep its brushy border. Interesting things there included lizard's tail gone to seed, amber snails on milkweed, pickerelweed fruit, bur cucumber and Japanese hops.
10-14-18. Grassland, Locks, and Causeway all Griggstown, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 366.25 miles total
Categories: unknown, unintentional, fall color
I walked at the Griggstown Grassland because I forgot until I arrived that I'd been there before. Still, it's interesting, and I walked a different section of the meadow than I'd covered last time. This was mostly mugwort and goldenrod, with milkweed. The only things here I couldn't ID to species were aster, goldenrod, and blackberry. I even recognized all the insects (there were not many).
Next I stopped at the locks on the Delaware Canal. Someone else was here, also taking pictures, but he seemed to be doing landscapes and the buildings. Here there were several interesting mosses, More asters than usual, some huge wild lettuce, and an osage orange in fruit. There was also dodder with the original stems fallen away, looking like galls on the plants it was parasitizing.
My final stop was next to the one way bridge out of town. There were no surprises here, but I got a good look at the traffic pattern over the long, one-way bridge. Instead of politely alternating, one direction of traffic would squeeze as many people in on one trip as possible, with the other direction only getting to go when there was a break in the flow. This offended me, but I can see it's probably more efficient given that cars tended to fall into groups of three or four, and the bridge is long.
10-15-18. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 366.75 miles total.
Categories: I can't ID.
I was the driver for my daughter who hiked over the mountain here, looking for Jupiter. This park has a scale model of the solar system in it. and she had found Sun through Mars, and I knew where Saturn was, but we'd both missed Jupiter (though it turns out I'd hiked past it before). So I dropped Molly off on one side and hiked as far as Mars with her, then went back to the car and parked (illegally) on the other side and hiked to the trailhead. as far as interesting plants go, they were nearly all mosses, though there was also a sedge and a ground cricket. And I got to point out jimsonweed to Molly; she'd never seen it before.
10-16-18. North Rd., Warren, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 367.5 miles total.
Categories: unintentional plants, insects, fall color
I went to the farm store for birdseed but walked first. Back at the store I bought 61 pounds of seed because I'd lost 61 pounds so far on Weight Watchers and I wanted to see how much that was. How ever did I carry all that around with me all the time?
Somewhat unusual stuff I found included a grove snail, a hackberry with galls, hedge bindweed fruits, several mosses I don't know and one I did (silvery Bryum), whitlow grass rosettes (didn't realize they were already out), greenhouse bittercress, and an awesome set of coral fungus of some kind.
I passed a pit bull that growled at me, then further along by a dense cluster of shrubbery I heard more growling, but eventually realized that one was my stomach!
10-17-18. Glenhurst, Warren, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 368.75 miles total
Categories: fall leaves, unusual
I went for a walk at this former golf course (closed because it was really too wet to use). I've walked here many times and I know the northwest corner gets pretty damp, but I was wearing old shoes and pants I don't care about and I figured I'd do the loop and just deal with the mucky wetness. Well, a beaver or something must have been through here because it was a whole lot wetter than I remembered. You could see where the trail was because of a bridge, but it was all underwater. I was slogging through nearly up to my knees. And then I hit a section just a few feet across, but too big to jump that was thigh deep. And I just said the heck with it and waded on through. Didn't think I'd need hip waders just to go for a walk! But, you know, I actually had a lot of fun.
And just at the start of the wet part I found mud plantain (which I've only seen twice before) and water plantain in fruit (which I'd never knowingly seen before). Very exciting, and worth the wetting (especially since it was a stunningly beautiful day and not that cold). However, I think I'll wait for a good, hard freeze to go back!
10-18-18. Warrenville, NJ, 0.75 miles today, 369.5 miles total
Categories: fall color, can't ID.
I had a few minutes to spare when grocery shopping this morning so I walked over to the town hall and back. I was surprised to find some interesting moss and two kinds of fungi I'd not seen before (even though I walk here all the time). The blackhaw and privet berries were ripening and the red maples were just starting to turn.
10-18-18. Warinanco Park, Elizabeth, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 370.5 miles total
Categories: unusual, fall color.
I walked around a pond at this fairly urban park. Someone has done a very intense project of attempting to establish a real native plant pond border here, and it's working very nicely. They have a huge selection of interesting plants. Things I don't see often included: blue false indigo, American senna, clotbur, partridge pea, mile a minute weed, Ludwigia (okay, not all of these were good plants), hollow joe pye weed, and a nice orange fungus that I don't know.
10-20-18 Town Hall Park, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 271 miles total
category: haven't seen before.
I took a quick walk before heading to the grocery store this morning. I've walked this park a zillion times, but still found a Mazus, a forget me not, false daisy, and some mosses I'd not seen here before. An Asian man was out jogging and stopped to ask me what I was doing. I tried to explain about iNaturalist but am not sure he really got what I was saying, but he at least understood I was taking photos of small plants.
10-20-18. Chimney Rock Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 371.75 miles total.
Category: unintentional plants, moss
I had a little while before Katie's 12th birthday party this afternoon, so I walked a loop I'd not done before at a local park. It was mostly mowed grass, but there were some woods. I have been reading about mosses at the breakfast table recently and I found nearly a dozen species here, about a handful of which were distinctive enough that I might be able to puzzle out an ID or at least a family. Otherwise it was mostly the usual collection of mostly invasive species, no real surprises.
10-21-18. Gene King Park, Bridgewater, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 372.75 miles total.
Category: unintentional plants, moss
I stumbled upon this park thanks to Pokemon Go. I figured I'd found every park in Bridgewater long ago, but I was wrong. The Boy Scouts built a mile loop in the woods on the side of the "mountain" here and it made for a lovely Sunday morning walk. I found amazing amounts of mosses, about a dozen fungi (including a coral, what might be hen of the woods, and an amazingly orange fairy ring. There was northern maidenhair fern, indian pipes, beechdrops, linden viburnum, and the first blooming witchhazel of the year. Very exciting.
10-21-18. Stranski Farm Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 373 miles total
Categories: fruit, fall color
I took a very quick walk while underdressed for a very cold wind this evening. Maples and wineberry were turning, asters, goldenrod, joe pye, indian grass, swamp milkweed, bullrush, and honey locust were fruiting, and I found a wooly bear caterpillar crossing the parking lot.
10-22-18. Somerset County Parkland, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 373.25 miles total
categories: fruit, moss
I took a quick walk around the park next to the rescue squad while I waited for my CPR student to arrive. In fruit I found bur cucumber, grapes, milkweed, and oriental bittersweet. And there were at least half a dozen types of moss. They are doing some kind of construction on this little patch of park, and the parking lot is closed, which annoys the squad as we have only 10 spaces and about 30 members, and usually use the park's lot for overflow. Now for meetings we have to park on the street and walk up the hill! Horrors!
10-23-18. River Rd. Park, Pluckemin, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 374.5 miles total.
Categories: unintentional plants, moss, fruit, fall color
I walked a loop around a mowed wilflower field, then crossed another field to get back to the car. Fruiting were bittersweet, poke, mountain mint, goldenrod, agrimony, rose, pear, milkweed, bluestem, red cedar, queen anne's lace, pilewort, orchard grass, steeplebush, a flatsedge, barberry, and dogbane. The red maples were turning as were the blackberries. The mown field had surprising amounts of moss. But the highlight of the walk was a bald eagle circling overhead (and no one to point it out to, oh well).
10-24-18. Somerville, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 376.25 miles total.
Category: unintentional plants.
After Weight Watchers I walked around downtown Somerville and through the train station to a path that disappeared into the woods at a fenced off field. I was mostly playing Pokemon Go and photographing weeds. There were some mosses, a grass I don't know, and an unfamiliar weed in the sand by the fenced-off field, but no real surprises. Some pretty autumn leaves and a New England aster on the railroad embankment were a nice surprise.
10-25-18. Kean University, Union NJ. 1.75 miles today, 378 miles total.
Category: unintentional plants
I walked through Kean University today and visited the historic house there (not a tour, just walked around the outside). The campus is very well tended (so very uninteresting plant-wise) but there was a brook running through it with banks allowed to go wild. There was some lovely poke, birch (turning yellow) and roses. On the way out I passed a construction site and it had two weeds I don't recognise. one a sort of spiky thing shaped like a spurge or a Chenopodium relative, and one that reminded me of the flowers of long-bracted plantain, without the basal leaves. I'll have to see if I can get them IDed.
10-28-18. St. Martin's Church, Bridgewater, NJ. 0.25 mile today 378.25 miles total
Category: unintentional plants
We took part in the church nursery school's Trunk or Treat on Sunday afternoon (it's like trick-or-treating but you go from car to car in a parking lot instead of from house to house, a big thing here where the driveways are long and kids are lazy. We decorated our car with eyes and teeth and handed out candy). Toward the end I got bored so walked the perimeter of the property and checked out the weeds. Mostly they were familiar, but I found what I think might be a swallowwort, something I think I've only seen in Massachusetts before. There was also a blackhaw turning color and covered in fruit, and a blackberry also turning, with white specks all over the leaves.
10-29-18. Pleasant Valley Park, Lyons, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 379.5 miles total
Categories: moss, fall color
I walked randomly in this park and found a path I'd never been down before. There were lots of different mosses in the woods and by the pond here, and fall has finally arrived, with red maples, poison ivy, privet, hickory, and burning bush being most of what I photographed. I also found a little weed I can't ID growing around the bases of some of the trees.
Welcome, Mark! We'd love to have you post your walks and your finds along them here. Of all the members, only Erika approaches the 3 miles a day needed to go 1000 in a year, but we still enjoy getting out and looking around. And how cool to have a Kiwi to post species for us to check out!
10-30-18 Thonus Pond, Morris Plains, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 380.25 miles total.
Categories: moss, fall color, unintentional plants.
I walked at this community center playground and pond before my orthopedist appointment today. The pond looked like it had a path all the way around it, but the back half was just bushwhacking through swampy woods. Luckily the deer have eaten nearly all the brush, so it wasn't particularly hard, and the pond was easy to see, so there was no chance of getting lost. I did worry I'd be late, though.
I found a number of interesting mosses, privet that was amazingly dark purple, bur cucumber, burning bush in all its glory, watermeal, a bright red leaved blueberry, swamp azalea, a blue heron, the first ditch stonecrop (a favorite of mine) in two years, several ferns including royal, cinnamon, christmas and ones I don't know, several unknown fungi, and a painted rock that said "Help Earth Live".
Our Wegman's grocery had hen of the woods mushrooms for sale when I stopped by. I've never eaten them, but have found them several times and every time someone has commented on how wonderful they are. So I bought them and had some with my morning eggs today. I agree, they were the most perfectly mushroom-flavored mushrooms I've ever eaten. Delicious.
10-31-18. Middaugh St.. and surroundings, Somerville, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 381.5 miles total.
Categories: unintentional plants, bryophytes.
As it was Halloween I wore a pair of devil's horns and a red shirt to my Weight Watchers meeting today. Afterward I went for a walk down to Middaugh St., which I had not walked before, still wearing the horns. I did get a few funny looks.
Middaugh is over grown and has two railroad trestles, so I had lots of lovely weeds. Unusual ones were Kenilworth ivy, and a little mossy plant that might be a moss or might be a leafy liverwort. I'll have to wait and see what the experts think, once I finally catch up with the posting.
It was a stunningly beautiful fall day, and suddenly we are nearly at the peak of color. Everything is late and compressed, but also less red than usual, especially the maple. Still, there were a few brilliant red red maples to admire along the way.
10/1/18. Tucker Rd, Calais, VT. 3.6 miles today. 1629.6 miles total.
Categories: flowering, birds, road kill, road crossers
This afternoon I took a hike up to Tucker Rd to see if the waterfall was flowing yet. Still no water, but I had a great time looking for blooms. I found fleabane, red clover, herb Robert, Queen Anne's lace, soapwort, evening primrose, black-eyed susan, butter-and-eggs, Galeopsis, oxeye daisy, a wild sunflower, and several kinds of asters and goldenrods, including swamp aster, parasol whitetop, zigzag goldenrod, rough-leaved goldenrod, and flat-topped goldenrod. No frost yet, so the sensitive fern fronds were still green.
Road crossers today included a slug, a red eft, and earthworm, and a woolly bear. Roadkill was a toad, a garter snake, and a woolly bear. As I was walking past the outhouse/cell phone booth (the only place in the area where there is a smidgeon of service), I saw what looked to be a decoration on the roof. No decoration--a barred owl! Other birds today were a female common yellowthroat, a crow, a yellow-rumpted warbler, and a hairy woodpecker.
10/2/18. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT 3 miles today, 1632.6 miles total.
Categories: fruits, fungi
Today I took a walk up Peck Hill Rd in the rain. For fruit, I found box elder, burdock, jack-in-the-pulpit, and helleborine. I found lots of different kinds of fungi, but the only one I recognized was an eyelash cup. No frost yet--sensitive fern leaves still green.
10/3/18. Montpelier, VT. 2.1 miles today, 1634.7 miles total.
Categories: fruits, birds, fungi
This morning I joined the senior center photography club for a walk around Montpelier--there were 4 of us today. My personal photographic theme for the day was reflections, while we were also shooting fall colors. Meanwhile, I had my eye out for fruits, birds, and fungi. I saw a yard with Japanese knotweed that looked quite picturesque. I also saw a large patch of willowherb gone to seed in a roof gutter. We all stopped to admire a crow perched in a dead tree above the elementary school. I also managed to catch a chickadee and a vireo in a backyard, some pigeons in the street, and some hooded mergansers in the river. Plus some identified fungi, including some boletes.
10/4/18. Montpelier, VT. 0.8 miles today, 1635.5 miles total.
Categories: insects, fruits, flowers
This morning I met up with my insect chasing friends for a walk up to Hubbard Park. We weren't sure if we'd have much luck with our insect hunt, but actually, we did quite well. We started off with a dead grasshopper in the road, then found a blue fuzzy butt (Bryan Pfeiffer's term for a certain fall aphid), a cricket, several flies, several wasps, a leaf hopper, a bee, several spiders, and a monarch. We also found several woolly bears, a Haploa caterpillar, a yellow fuzzy caterpillar, and a sick looking caterpillar. And we tallied up some galls as well, including goldenrod stem gall, goldenrod flower gall, elm leaf gall, cherry leaf gall, and Paraclemensia acerifolia. We found a garter snake, a snail, and a gray squirrel, and also a dead short-tailed shrew. In bloom today were a bluestem goldenrod, calico aster, celandine, zigzag goldenrod, rough-leaved goldenrod, Oxalis, self-heal, autumn dandelion, fleabane, Galeopsis, and forget-me-not. In fruit were jack-in-the-pulpit and daphne. The sensitive fern leaves were still green.
I love your outhouse / cell phone booth. I remember being a young adult and visiting a very distant (and very wealthy) relative who had a corded phone in his bathroom and I thought it was a terrific idea. And of course now so many people bring their phones along, but how funny that the outhouse is the only spot with reception.
10/5/18. North Branch Nature Center. 1.3 miles today, 1636.8 miles total.
Categories: birds
I started the day this morning with a bird walk at the nature center, together with Sean Beckett and 6-8 other birders. It was a lovely foliage day with mist rising up through the colored leaves. We saw yellow-rumped warblers, eastern phoebes, cedar waxwings, songs sparrows, robins, white-throated sparrows, blue-headed vireos, ruby-crowned kinglets, chickadees, and a dark-eyed junco. Also, an osprey and a red-tailed hawk. I spotted some crimson clover escaping from the community gardens, a first for me.
In the afternoon I had a picnic lunch along the river at the tiny parklet on Elm St. While sitting there I saw some mallards and a belted kingfisher. I also managed to catch an autumn meadowhawk (dragonfly) and a house centipede with my camera.
Glad to see you going back to October, as I'm still processing photos from July! I feel like I will never get caught up!
10/6/18. Robinson Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 3.3 miles today, 1640.1 miles total.
Categories: blooms, road kill
This morning I met a botanist friend for our Saturday Morning hike. We did an out-and-back along Robinson Hill Rd for the views both over Curtis Pond in Maple Corner and through the woods. We found a bonanza of late bloomers: red clover, yarrow, butter and eggs, herb Robert, fleabane, self-heal, goldenrods, parasol whitetop, white campion, Queen Anne's lace, black medick, wood sorrel, bedstraw, wrinkleaf goldenrod, hop clover, bladder campion, horseweed, sow thistle, common eyebright, white clover, sweet white clover, giant goldenrod, crown vetch, Barbarea vulgaris, St Johnswort, caliclo aster, swamp aster, creeping buttercup, Joe Pye weed, flat-topped goldenrod, dandelion, fox and cubs, mugwort, heart-leaved asters, sneezewort, and greater celandine. Other plants of note included a north wind bog orchid in seed, an escaped lilac bush, a path rush, a soft rush, a moss (Philinotis fontana), and mosquito bulrush. Road kill was a dead garter snake and a dead woolly bear caterpillar. We also saw a turkey vulture and a robin. The sensitive fern leaves were still green, unfrosted.
10/7/18. Adamant, VT. 1.4 miles today, 1641.5 miles total.
Categories: birds, road kill, insects
Today I took my weekly birdwalk through downtown Adamant. Birds today included crows, some American wigeons, blue jays, wood ducks, a swamp sparrow, some hooded mergansers, cedar waxwings, robins, a double-crested cormorant, and a great blue heron. Also, a pair of Wilson's snipes on Adamant Pond, which was a rather exciting sight. Lots of road kill today including several red efts, a frog/toad, a pickerel frog, and a woolly bear caterpillar. Other insects for the day where a Tetanocer plebeja fly and a brown Caenurgina caterpillar. The sensitive fern leaves were still green.
10/8/18. Green Mountain Cemetery, Montpelier, VT. 0.7 miles today, 1642.2 miles total.
Categories: arthropods, fungi
This morning I met my friends who like insects and led them on an insect hunt through the margins of Green Mountain Cemetery. We had great luck from the start--under almost the first hunk of rotting bark that we lifted we found an eastern red-backed salamander. Other finds for the day were a crazy snake worm, a grey-field slug, an Arion slug, and another slug that might also have been an Arion slug, but was black. Arthropods included some isopods, a pale colored millipede, some harvestmen, a stone centipede, an eastern yellowjacket, a ground beetle and some beetle larvae, some dark millipedes, several kinds of oak leaf galls, a hemlock looper moth, and a pale green assassin bug. Blooms today included bluestem goldenrod, a mustard, a grass and a big witch hazel--what a thrill! For fungi, we found some puffballs, a Russula, and some yellow fair cups.
10/9/18. Partridge Farm Rd, Berlin, VT. 2.4 miles today, 1644.6 miles total.
Categories: blooms, imperiled trees, birds, insects, invasives
This afternoon I explored the Partridge Farm Rd neighborhood on the far side of River St in Berlin. This is a remote residential development consisting of 2 intersecting dead-end roads on the wrong side of the highway between Montpelier and Barre. The area showed up as a blank on iNaturalist, so on this sunny foliage day I figured it was a good opportunity to fill in the blanks. Blooming today I found swamp aster, red clover, field sow thistle, Queen Anne's lace, chicory, New England aster, autumn dandelion, parasol whitetop, birdeye pearlwort, cow vetch, sweet white clover, spotted jewelweed, black-eyed Susan, bird's foot trefoil, fleabane, yarrow, flat-topped goldenrod, evening primrose, wrinkle-leaved goldenrod, early goldenrod, bladder campion, soapwort, Barbarea vulgaris, ragweed, white clover, black medick, and butter and eggs. I noted some Japanese knotweed and Phragmites, also a large white willow. Insects today included a 6-spotted tiger beetle, a common eastern bumblebee, a tri-colored bumblebee, a cabbage white, some Sarcophaga flies on the goldenrod, a European paper wasp, and a dead woolly bear caterpillar. Trees today were a sugar maple, hemlock, eastern white cedar, tamarack, and a beech.
10/10/18. Montpelier, VT. 2.5 miles today, 1647.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms
This morning I joined 4 others for the weekly photography group walk through downtown Montpelier. Starting at the senior center, we walked up Rt 2 to the high school for a photo shoot with the school chickens, then back through the center of town. Birds today included pigeons on the Catholic church roof, a crow, a great blue heron in the river, some common mergansers in the river, and a giant flock of turkey vultures over Hubbard Park. Blooms that I found included crown vetch, Rosa rugosa, wood sorrel and bittersweet nightshade. I found some Oriental bittersweet along the river, a plant that isn't very common here, yet. The poison ivy is also spreading along the bike trail, heading east towards the pedestrian bridge. I was very delighted to find the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha in the paving stones in front of city hall.
Love those long lists of blooming flowers; can't wait to get back to that kind of thing! I've never seen eyebright or even whitetop before. Nor (not knowingly at least) a snipe. Neat!
10/11/18. Center Rd, Adamant, VT. 2 miles today, 1649.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms, road kill
Today was rather wet, so I took my waterproof camera for a short walk up Center Rd from downtown Adamant. I found swamp aster in bloom, also purple clover, Queen Anne's lace, wrinkle-leaf goldenrod, galanisoga, sow thistle, heart-leaved aster, creeping buttercup, forget-me-not, black medick, fleabane, and autumn dandelion. Road kill today were a toad and several garter snakes. And the surprise was a blue baby sneaker draped on an alternate-leaved dogwood like a Christmas ornament. Sensitive ferns still green.
10/12/18. Montpelier, VT. 4.2 miles today, 1653.3 miles total.
Categories: blooms
It was still wet and gloomy today, so I took my waterproof camera for a walk through the residential areas of Montpelier near Vermont College. Blooms spotted today include calico aster, sow thistle, thimbleweed, chicory, fleabane, clearweed, bladder campion, butter-and-eggs, dandelion, green carpetweed, violas, and calendula. And a volunteer tomato. I also found some new Japanese knotweed and a honeylocust.
10/13/18. Stranahan Forest, Marshfield, VT. 2 miles today, 1655.3 miles total.
Categories: fungi, imperiled trees, blooms
This morning my botanist friend led our Saturday morning hike group (6 of us today) through some of her favorite trails in the Stranahan Forest. Lots of us were looking for fungi. We found puffballs, stacks of polypores, Amanita mushrooms, Dacromyces chrysospermus, gilled mushrooms, oyster mushrooms (collected to eat at home), a yellow-gilled mushroom, yellow fairy cups, and a coral mushroom. Blooms for the day included common hempnettle, galnisoga, white campion, pineapple weed, black nightshade (both flowers and fruit), fleabane, wall lettuce, Herb Robert, purple clover, chicory, and chickweed. We also stopped to admire a paper wasp hive broken open on the ground. Imperiled trees included beech, white ash, hemlock, and sugar maple.
10/14/18. Adamant, VT. 1.7 miles today, 1657 miles total.
Categories: birds, road kill
This morning I took my weekly bird walk along Sodom Pond. I saw large flocks of Canada geese, some mourning doves, a pied-billed grebe, an American wigeon, some wood ducks, a great blue heron, a Cooper's hawk, a brown creeper, a white-throated sparrow, a song sparrow, some hooded mergansers, and an American crow. Road kill today were a dead toad and a dead painted turtle. I also found some St Johnswort in bloom.
10/15/18. Hill St. Montpelier, VT. 3 miles today, 1660 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
This afternoon I took a brisk walk up Hill St in the rain. I found a box elder bug, a millipede, some isopods and another crazy snakeworm. These worms are taking over Montpelier! I also found hop clover and some persicaria in bloom.
10/16/18. Sodom Pond, Adamant, VT. 3 miles today, 1663 miles total.
Categories: blooms, roadkill
This afternoon I took another wet walk up Sodom Pond Rd. In bloom today I found red clover, heart-leaved aster, St Anne's lace, sow thistle, golden Alexanders, some milkweeds, black-eyes Susans and fleabane. For road kill, I found a dead frog/toad and a dead garter snake. I also found plenty of live woolly bears on the road.
10/17/18. Montpelier, VT. 1.5 miles today, 1664.5 miles total.
Categories: mammals, oddities
This morning I met up with 4 other people from the photography club and we strolled through downtown Montpelier on our way to the State House. My photography theme for the day was people at work. I captured a few of the guys putting up walls at the worksite near the river. I also shot some common mergansers from the bridge. I found a dead mammal in the road, unidentifiable, and some gray squirrels in the trees. I also found a black raspberry growing about 10' off the ground in a crotch of a large tree across from the State House. And some lichens growing on the canvas awnings of a downtown shop.
wow, I've seen plants growing in tree crotches plenty of times, but never a black raspberry!
10/18/18. Prospect and Pleasant Streets, Montpelier, VT. 3 miles today, 1667.5 miles total.
Categories: blooms
This afternoon I took a hike up through a residential neighborhood on the far side of the Winooski River in Montpelier. This neighborhood had some blank spots, so ti went exploring, looking for blooms. I found sow thistle, common groundsel, Barbarea vulgaris, spotted jewelweed (frosted), autumn dandelion, heart-leaved aster, Persicaria, New England aster, some pink turtlehead, common barberry, crown vetch, St. Anne's lace, butter and eggs, Herb Robert, swamp aster, and zigzag goldenrod. I found some buckthorn in fruit, red raspberry in fruit and crabapple in fruit. And a little pile of volunteer lamium. A flock of turkeys crossed the road in front of me, and I spotted a dark-eyed junco. Trees for the day were red oak, beech, hemlock, white ash and elm.
10/19/18. Sodom Pond Rd, Adamant, Vt. 3 miles today, 1670.5 miles total.
Categories: blooms, birds, roadkill
This afternoon I took a brisk hike up Sodom Pond Rd. Along the way I found yarrow, fleabane, swamp goldenrod, silverrod, chicory, dandelion, New England aster and red clover in bloom. I also found a ground beetle, a harvestman, and some live woolly bears in the road, plus a grayish thin smooth caterpillar, about 3" long. I only got one bird today, but it was a great one, a great blue heron. Roadkill today were some woolly bears and flattened frog/toad.
10/20/18. Sodom Pond Rd, Adamant, VT. 1.9 miles today, 1672.4 miles total.
Categories: blooming, arthropods, imperiled trees
This morning I went walking with 2 other members of our Saturday morning hike group. We walked up Sodom Pond Rd just like I did yesterday, so I kept my eyes out for something different this time. We found a goldenrod with a fuzzy stem that wasn't wrinkle-leaved, swamp aster, purple clover, sweet white clover, Black-eyed Susans, fleabane, bog goldenrod, New England aster, sow thistle, and dandelion in bloom. Other plant finds were Dulichium and Canada yew. I noted some beech trees, elms, sugar maples, and white ashes. Insects today were a winter firefly, a Tetragnatha spider, and a live woolly bear. We also found some very fresh coyote scat as well as some old dried coyote scat.
10/21/18. Adamant, VT. 1.7 miles today, 1674.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, road kill
I headed back to Adamant once again this morning for my weekly birdwalk along Sodom Pond. I found some robins, a dark-eyed junco, lots of geese, a pair of ring-necked ducks, some wood ducks, an American crow, some chickadees, hooded mergansers, a yellow-rumped warbler and a pair of greater yellowlegs. I also found quite a lot of roadkill today, all seemingly fresh since I didn't see these specimens yesterday. The first item was a large chunk of bloody liver, which I eventually traced to a large raccoon lying the ditch. Other items were a frog/toad, some woolly bears, some toads, and a red eft.
10/22/19. Hubbard Park, Montpelier, VT. 2 miles today, 1676.1 miles total.
Categories: blooms, animals
This morning I met up with a friend who had 2 friends visiting from California here to see the foliage. What foliage? It's practically gone now. But we took the Californians up to the tower in Hubbard Park where we could gaze down on the few oaks in town since the oaks are still holding steady. The Californians seemed satisfied. Maybe they can make it back some time during foliage season to see some maples. Meanwhile, we found some knotgrass in bloom, also heart-leaved aster, procumbent pearlwort, fleabane, and Artcium lappa. Animals today were a robin, some bluejays, a red squirrel, and a gray squirrel. Road kill was a grizzled spurthroat grasshopper.
10/23/19. George Rd, Calais, VT. 2.6 miles today, 1678.7 miles total.
Categories: blooms, dead things
This afternoon I went out for a brisk walk up George Rd. I found red clover, fleabane, heart-leaved aster and black-eyed Susans in bloom. Also, I found plenty of roadkill, including woolly bears, a frog/toad, a red eft, and a northern redbelly snake. The herp folks are starting to tease me about only finding dead herps. I did find some live woolly bears, though.
10/24/19. Sabin's pasture, Monteplier, VT. 2 miles today, 1680.7 miles total.
Categories: blooms, birds
This afternoon I took a walk in the rain up to Sabin's Pasture, an undeveloped plot of land on the edge of town that locals have co-opted as an un-official park. It is private land, but not posted. The owners hope to develop it some day, which makes many locals upset since they want to continue using the land for public recreation. I decided to go get some observations while the access is still open, but it was too wet to get very far along the trails today. Still, I found some autumn dandelion in bloom, also red clover, common dandelion, asters, goldenrods, swamp aster, fleabane, and heart-leaved aster in bloom. Plus witch hazel blooming in some landscaping. Birds today were a turkey vulture, a white-throated sparrow, a black-capped chickadee, an American crow, and a hairy woodpecker.
10/25/19. Martin Rd, Adamant. 3.1 miles today, 1683.8 miles total.
Categories: blooms, road kill
This afternoon I stopped in Adamant for a walk, but headed up Martin Rd for a change instead of along Sodom Pond. I paused to admire the flocks of geese on Adamant Pond first. Then along Martin Rd I found swamp aster, red clover, heart-leaved aster, autumn dandelion, yarrow, fleabane, sow thistle, and several goldenrods in bloom. Road kill today was a dead garter snake.
10/26/19. Murray Hill, Montpelier VT. 2.8 miles today, 1686.6 miles total.
Categories: blooms, birds, imperiled trees
This afternoon I hiked up through St. Augustine's cemetery and took a back path into the Murray Hill development. Along the way, I found chickweed, heart-leaved aster, dandelion, sow thistle, red clover, fleabane, Queen Anne's lace, chicory, and giant goldenrod in bloom. I found a pair of deer on the edge of Murray Hill just beyond the cemetery. I also saw a dark-eyed junco and an American robin. Trees today were beech, sugar maple, and hemlock, plus some red oak. I also found a patch of garlic mustard.
10/27/18. Calais Town Forest, Calais, VT. 1.4 miles today, 1688 miles total.
Categories: fungi
This morning I met up with 5 other friends for our Saturday morning hike. We bravely decided to tackle the Calais Town Forest in hopes of finding Bliss Pond. The town forest has a network of criss-crossing trails, and on our first few attempts to find Bliss Pond we lost the trails and had to go by dead reckoning. Once we had a hiker collapse ill while we were lost in these woods. But we surprised ourselves today--we got in and out with no mishaps. I guess we're getting more familiar with these trails. We found puffballs, some frozen brown mushrooms with gills, and yellow fairy caps. I also found a purple loosestrife plant in seed along the pond. I don't remember seeing any there before.
10/28/18. Adamant, VT. 4.7 miles today, 1692.7 miles total.
Categories: birds
This morning I did my regular bird walk around Sodom and Adamant Ponds. I found mallards, blue jays, lots of Canada geese, some black-capped chickadees, songs sparrows, hooded mergansers, and a great blue heron. A northern harrier also came down and sailed over Sodom Pond while I watched.
Just as I finished my birdwalk, a college friend arrived for a short visit. He wanted to go on a hike, so I took him up Peck Hill. Along the way we found some scaly capped mushrooms, some puffballs, and a dead rodent. We also found a live woolly bear in the road.
10/29/18. Moscow Woods Rd, Calais, VT. 3 miles today, 1695.7 miles total.
Categories: blooms, road kill
Today I took a wet meander up Moscow Woods Rd. I found crown vetch, sow thistle, goldenrods, red clover, heart-leaved aster and autumn dandelion in bloom. I also noted some beech and hemlock trees. Road kill was a dead chickadee. I think the last time I walked this road was back in early summer when I had to hitchhike back due to a bear in the road with her cub. No sign of the bear today, thank goodness.
10/30/18. Sodom Pond Rd, Adamant VT. 3 miles today, 1698.7 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms
I took a quick walk up Sodom Pond Rd today in the rain. It was high tamarack season, with their needles all aglow. I saw flocks of Canada geese overhead and caught a chickadee on camera. I also found red clover and autumn dandelion in bloom.
10/31/18. Montpelier, VT. 2 miles today, 1700.7 miles total.
Categories: blooms
Today I met up with the photography group (4 people) for a walk around Montpelier. My photography theme for the day was energy, which I found rather challenging. I shot some people on scooters and some electrical wires. Meanwhile, I found sow thistle, red clover, Galinisoga, and Persicaria in bloom. I also saw some pigeons and found a birch seedling growing in a roof gutter. Today was the day for Ginkgo leaf drop, so all of us in the photo group made collections of photos of Ginkgo leaves from the street plantings.
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