On the Trails of IES

Trail Report for Sept 27, 2006

Many birds were passing through the shrubs around the Gifford parking lot.
An unfortunate monarch appeared to be trying another method of migration.
A late monarch was on a late aster in the Gifford Gardens. It wasn't that late, really; There are monarch records in November.
The koi in the water garden swim over to greet visitors.
The Old Gravel Pit held a perfect mushroom.
Next to it was a cluster of quite different ones.
I heard my first golden-crowned kinglets on the Cary Pines Trail, but it wasn't until the next day that I could actually catch a glimpse of them.
Wood nettle along the Wappinger Creek Trail was beginning to form its littl black seeds.
Both bur-cucumber and wild cucumber were side by side at the "Appendix".
One more mushroom I had to stop for resembled a corroded trailer hitch.

Last week I noticed berries all around; this week it was seeds and pods, starting with horse balm.
The inconspicuous beggar-ticks are like daiseys, but without the white petals around the edge.
But the seed is familiar to anyone who wears socks and earns the plant's other name, "sticktight".
Spotted touch-me-not is also named for its seed pod which explodes on contact when ripe.
Turtlehead was just forming seed pods.
Ah, here was a water snake in a cool shady spot. "I'll bet it's sluggish from the cool and I'll be able to get a nice close shot." I ended up having to wipe snake nose prints from the lens...