November, 2019: 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.

Posted on November 1, 2019 03:20 PM by erikamitchell erikamitchell

Comments

11-2-19. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 2.25 miles today, 596.75 miles total
Categories: fungi, moss, fall leaves, miners

I walked a loop of two trails that I'd (mostly) never been on before in this park. I'd not done them mostly because I used to not be able to walk this far, so that was particularly nice. This is a wooded hillside. The far end had a discarded car, only the frame left, really.

I found 6 fungi, only one of which (violet toothed polypore) I could name (one was an ink-cap type that I'd love to know) and 6 mosses (though one might have been a liverwort) plus a frullania liverwort. I knew one moss (brocade). I found witchhazel and amazingly an indian tobacco blooming. There were leaf mines in wood aster, wineberry, and blackberry. And my "roadkill" of the day was an earthworm that drowned in a puddle.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-4-19. Rock Meadow and Beaver Brook Parks, Belmont, MA. 1.0 mile today, 597.75 miles total
category: whatever I could ID.

I took the train to my sister's in Boston (spotting a house sparrow inside the station in Newark) so that I could drive her old car home, to be my 16-year-old's "new" car. But first I took a day off to walk in the Boston area. First stop was this pair of parks just a little south of her house. It's an open meadow, a brook, then woods, and back again on a different trail, in a figure 8.

Interesting things I found included motherwort, black swallowwort, European euonymus, hazel, and a leafmine in a bush honeysuckle. As I got back to my car my phone died , and "my" car was my sister's old car, which meant no phone charger in the car! but I knew I was heading west next, and did so, watching for a gas station, where I was able to buy a charger. whew.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-4-19. Graverson Playground, Waltham, MA. 0.5 mile today, 598.25 miles total
category: whatever I could ID.

I stopped at a park by the gas station while my phone charged up a bit. I figured I'd look at the weeds at the edge of the ball field. But there was a little trail along the brook at the back corner of the park, and that led to, among other things, a stand of Aaron's rod, a plant I'd never even heard of before (and they are huge!). Also here were black chokeberry and European rapsberry. Very glad I stopped.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-4-19. Great Meadows National Wildlife Reserve, Sudbury, MA. 0.5 miles today, 598.75 miles total
Category: whatever I could ID.

I was heading west to this national wildlife reserve, which is the closest one to my sister's house. There was a pond, marsh, and low woods. I spotted several autumn meadowhawks, but otherwise the most interesting things were some clubmoss. There was standard moss, lichens, and a number of wetland plants, but nothing that I don't see often.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

I loved your investigations of the dead car. Maybe we should start a project for species found in and on old cars.

And what a fortunate place for your phone to die! It led you to a new plant. Better there than downtown Boston. I think your sister and mine are neighbors. Next time I'm down in Medford, I should go visit some of these parks that you have found.

Posted by erikamitchell over 4 years ago

11-4-19. Castle Island Park, Boston, MA. 0.75 miles today, 599.5 miles total
Categories: shells, weeds

I was not thrilled with the wildlife reserve and wanted a change of scenery. In fact I wanted to look at shells. So I found the closest beach to that location, which turned out to be this one, in South Boston, and just south of Logan Airport. The planes were impressively close.

It was lunchtime, so I stopped at the lobster shack first, wading through a sea of starlings, gulls, house sparrows, and pigeons to do so. The lady eating at the table next to me was afraid of the birds and cringed so much I'm not sure how she actually ate anything.

Next I walked partway around the fort (tansy, nightshade and Galinsoga were unexpected here) and down to a bit of beach with charlock, cocklebur, some amaranth I don't recognise and, appropriately, Boston ivy. On to the beach proper where I found periwinkles (not something I see often) and european green crabs (also unusual) along with slippers and mussels and barnacles and lots and lots of kinds of seaweed, including a kelp.

Around the front of the fort (Atriplex here, and ring billed gulls), then past a maintenance shed (jimsonweed, sheep sorrel, clematis, ginkgo) to a beach on the lagoon here (surf clam, hard clam) across a bit of land, and down to my favorite of today's beaches (razor clam, european flat oyster (a first for me), and a big barnacle base that I thought was a sand dollar.)

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

I'm really looking forward to checking out more of the parks in the Belmont area. There's Lone Tree, Shady Pond, Chester Brook, Storer, and Falzone, none of which I've been to yet, as well as Habitat (which I did last year).

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-4-19 Belle Isle Marsh, Boston, MA. 0.25 miles today, 599.75 miles total
Category: whatever I could ID

I had time left on my epic day of exploring the greater Boston area and so picked this marsh near Logan Airport. The neighborhood looked a little iffy, and when I arrived there were 4 cars in the lot, each with a single guy sitting inside, which also made me leery. So I stuck to the edges of the mown area. Interesting finds included a dead bunny and some catnip. It was indeed swampy with reed and loosestrife (and lots of mugwort) and I would have liked to have felt safe enough to explore farther.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-4-19 Coughlin Park, Point Shirley, MA 0.5 miles today, 601.25 miles total
Category: anything I could ID.

My last stop was this spit of land that kind of curls out behind Logan. The planes were landing overhead and looked low enough to touch. They are restoring the salt marsh here but there was a little trail down to the water edge. They have the European oysters here, and periwinkles, things I never see at the beach at home. There was some amaranth-y thing I don't know and sea lavender as well.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-5-19. Great River Park, East Hartford, CT. 0.5 miles today, 601.75 miles total
Category: anything I could ID.

I noticed I had a bit of hole in my observations map around Hartford; apparently I never stop there on the way to and from New England, so on the way home with our "new" car I made a point of doing so. This was a park on the edge of the Connecticut River, right across from the blue dome of the Colt Armory, my favorite sight in the city. Some of the bank had been mowed/string-trimmed, but there were still some weedy bits. I found Mexican tea, Amorpha fruiticosa, cocklebur, henbit in bloom, Arabdopsis, sheep sorrel, willowherb, and blooming knawell, none of which are common at home.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-5-19. West Rock Ridge State Park, New Haven, CT. 1.75 miles today, 603.25 miles total
Category: anything I could ID.

I wanted to drive to the top of West Rock, the mountain that the Wilbur Cross passes through in a tunnel, but it appears the access road is permanently closed. So instead I walked around Lake Wintergreen. It was a gray and drippy day, but the light was very interesting and I took some lovely pictures of the lake. I was just about the only person in the park (and I certainly didn't pass any other hikers).

Unusual (for me) things I found included watershield, a great blue heron, swamp rose, alder tongue galls, swamp smartweed, helleborine, golden ragwort, blooming witchhazel, and a chipmunk. But the highlights were pink lady slipper in fruit (I've never seen it fruiting and it was only the fourth time I've seen it at all), grove earwort (a new liverwort for me), and common apple moss (a first for me, plus I was able to ID it correctly myself).

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

On November 7 we drove to Maryland to visit my husband's aunt. On the way we stopped at the Serpentine Barrens in PA but I didn't find much of interest (and we didn't stay long as my kids were impatient) and then at the Conowingo Dam on the Susquehanna River where there were bald eagles (but too far away for me to photograph well) and about 2 dozen people with massively bigger camera lenses than I had, photographing them. But behind all the photographers Katie and I managed to find a DeKay's brownsnake (a first for me, though I thought it was a garter snake when I found it).

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-8-19. Gunpowder Falls, Baldwin, MD. 2.25 miles today, 605.75 miles total
Category: whatever we could ID.

Chuck's aunt, Vivian, and I walked at this park near her house through a bit of farmland and then down a wooded hill to the "river" and back up again. She is very interested in nature, too, and much better at birds than I am (though we didn't see many). My favorite finds included southern lady fern (a first for me), Canadian ginger, northern maidenhair fern, sharp lobed hepatica, a Carolina geranium in fruit, and a Conocehalum liverwort.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-9-19. Gunpowder Falls, Baldwin, MD 1.5 miles today, 607.25 miles total
Category: whatever I could ID.

The next morning I went back to the park, by myself, but this time walked in another section, which was entirely wooded and hilly. It was a lovely day for a walk, but there was not much in the way of surprises, plant-wise. The most interesting find was a leafminer in a tulip tree leaf.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-9-19. Torrey Brown Trail, Sparks, MD. 1.25 miles today, 608.5 miles total
Category: whatever caught my eye

That afternoon Chuck, Molly, Katie and I went on "an adventure" and stopped at this rail trail to walk a little ways down to the river. Today was the day that all the white mulberry leaves were falling off the trees. I found a carrot-family flower that I couldn't ID (I've finally determined it is probably burnet-saxifrage) and a shrub with red berries that had me stumped. On the way back from the river we spotted two other people looking at the shrub, and they tried using iNat to ID it (as did I, with no success). Turns out this was @samanthaeff . I posted it to Facebook Plant ID as well, and by the time we got back to the parking lot I had an answer: red chokeberry (duh). Which I really should have recognized as there's one growing in my yard (but it's not nearly as healthy as this one was).

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-9-19. Oregon Ridge Park, Cockeysville, MD. 0.75 miles today, 609.25 miles total
Category: whatever I could ID.

The second half of our "adventrue" was at Oregon Ridge, where there is a nature-themed playground, a path with murals painted on the trees, and a very nice nature center. Interesting things here were jetbead and pawpaw.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-11-19 Colonial Park, Somerset, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 611 miles total
Category: whatever caught my eye

I started out here walking the edge of a pond by the minigolf course. But I did not have boots on, and when I got to the feeder brook for the pond there was no way across that didn't involve wet feet. I walked around the edge of the mini course and then across the street to go around the larger pond with more of a mown verge. I thought I could just skirt it, but it turned out the brush was too thick and the ground too damp and I had to cut across the main golf course, carefully and awkwardly trying to avoid interrupting anyone's play. But eventually I made it back to my car. Interesting things I found included dodder, ebony spleenwort, winged sumac, swamp milkweed, swamp rose, bushy and little bluestems, and a great blue heron.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-13-19 Tullo section Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 3.25 miles today, 614.25 miles total
Category: anything I can ID in new section

I walked a few trails to connect sections of the park I'd not been in before. This is all a wooded hill with a brook at the base of it. I had not walked 3 1/4 miles in one shot without stopping to rest in over a decade. It is so nice to be in this kind of shape. Interesting things I found included seedbox (a favorite of mine), lots of moss and lichen, the same deer both coming and going (I think) and, of all things. trifoliate orange, right in the middle of the woods, nowhere near any houses. I have no idea how it got there.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-14-19 Delaware Raritan Canal, Somerset, NJ. 3.25 miles today, 617.5 miles total
Category: whatever I could ID.

I walked upriver on a section of the canal towpath that I'd not done before. The lighting was beautiful (as was the weather) and this was the second day in a row that I walked over 3 miles. Interesting finds included something that I think was germander, turtlehead, mimosa, hempvine, groundnut, 3 kinds of Elymus, bladdernut, Asian clams, and crested elsholtzia.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-16-19. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 1.0 mile today 618.5 miles total
Category: mines and galls, fruit, ferns, lichen, moss

I walked up to a hemlock grove here near my house, one of the few remnants left at all near us. Interesting finds were ditch stonecrop (one of my favorites) oak shothole leafminer, rockcap fern.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-17-19. Lord Stirling Park, Basking Ridge, NJ. 3.25 miles today, 621.75 miles total
Categories: fruit, also fungi, lichen, moss, miners, galls.

I can walk farther now than I used to be able to, so I figured I'd check out the northeast end of the park. Of course I made two wrong turns to the south but I got there eventually. On the way back I spotted something on the map labeled "Plymouth Rock". It turned out to be an old car, which got me started taking walks to photograph abandoned vehicles. I also walked over to the southwest end of the park. Someday I'll go back and do the northwest.

I was concentrating on winter fruit and found tons: rose, honeysuckle, hibiscus, cleamitis, loosestrife, aster, groundnut, woolgrass, privet, beebalm, purpletop, indiangrass, goldenrod, thistle, 2 dogwoods, mountainmint, ironweed, queen anne's lace, healall, maleberry, wood reed, holly, 3 viburnums, barberry, steeplebush, monkeyflower, 2 milkweeds, sensitive fern, burning bush, little bluestem, bush clover, seedbox, agrimony, winterberry, vervain, beech, oak, beechdrop, hickory, horse nettle, poke, walnut, ailanthus, joepye, olive, chokeberry, ditch stonecrop, avens, bald cypress, burdock.

I also looked for the oak shotgun leafminer and saw it all over in swamp white oak leaves. And there was evidence o f beavrs, which I'd not seen here before.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-18-19. Washington Valley Park Miller Lane, Martinsville, NJ 1.75 miles today, 623.5 miles total
Category: oak shothole mines

I wanted to see if the oak shothole miner was present in the chestnut oaks here on the top of the Watchung "mountain", as I'd only seen them in lowland trees so far. So I came here, only to find they'd just had a controlled burn, so recently that sections were still smoldering. Still, the trails were open and I did find oak shot hole, though mostly in white and red oak.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-19-19 Washington Valley Park, south of reservoir, Martinsville, NJ. 2.0 miles today, 625.5 miles total
Category: oak shothole mines

I walked here to check the oak leaves and also photograph a wrecked car I knew of. Turned out there were three of them, all together. I also finally found chestnut oak leaves with shotholes in them.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-21-19. Washington Valley Park, Tullo section, Martinsville, NJ. 2.25 miles today, 627.75 miles total
Category: whatever I could ID in new sections.

I walked here to photograph an old car (only one this time) but then to check out the "middle path" which I had never taken before. Only I missed the turn off, and ended up walking the southern path all the way to the other end then taking the middle one back. which worked out fine in the end.

I found a very striking ichneumon-y wasp, bright orange, with a striped abdomen and multicolored antennae, just hanging out on a small stone in the middle of the trail. There were also stump puff balls, and a lot of moss and lichens, the vast majority of which I can't ID. The trail ended (where I was supposed to get on it) in a neat little glen by a bubbling brook. The blaze in the direction I'd intended to go was missing, so it's not really surprising that I couldn't find it.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-23-19. Farmstead Park, Liberty Corner, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 628.5 miles total
Category: wetland plants

I went to take a photo of a wrecked car here, but the trail has been closed by a fallen tree since last winter. However, years ago I bushwhacked out from the car, so I knew where to go to bushwhack my way back in and shortly found it. Then I bushwhacked along the river to the powerlines (though I had to go well up a feeder brook to find a spot to cross it) and came home along the road. I managed to avoid most of the rose and blackberry but was not so lucky with the stickseed, bane of my late fall hikes.

This was the car with the good-sized pin oak growing right out of the middle of it. I am getting good at spotting waterpepper in the late fall, even though the leaves are all dried up. The blueberries here still had their leaves, and along with the blackberries were a lovely shade of purple. There was lots of willowherb and some buttonbush plus steeplebush, all things I don't see often.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-23-19. Dock Watch Hollow, Warren, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 629.25 miles total.
category: oak shothole, fungus

In the afternoon I walked with Becca and Katie behind our house to take photos of "our" abandoned car. It's nearly buried in the creek bank. At Thanksgiving, our waitress, who lives across the street from us, told us that it was her father's first car, and it washed back there in a flood when he was in high school. There was no way to get it back out. This must have been in the early 1980s.

On the way I proved to myself that all of our oaks, except the pin oak out front, have oak shothole leafminers. The worst were the swamp white oaks, but we also have black, white, and northern red, and they all had holes. Out in the woods the girls showed me a "toadstool" (might have been artist's bracket fungus) that was big enough to be a human stool. They also showed me the rotting ash tree with what I think is straps made of fungus growing between the wood and the bark. They figured it was just the dried up phloem. And they'd pulled much of it off the tree and brought it home a week before, announcing as they arrived that they'd brought me "a circulatory system"!

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-25-19. Garafola Woods, Warren NJ. 2.25 miles today, 631.5 miles total
Category: caught my eye

I parked at one park (East County) and walked down the road to our newest park (Garafola Woods), which is on a narrow, curving, through road with no shoulders. For us it's very quiet, which means about a dozen cars passed as I walked the mile back to my car. There was an abandoned car here I could see from the road, though it turned out to be two old trucks instead of one old car. After the cars I continued on past the house that had burned down last winter in a fire to which I had been sent with my squad to help out. They've torn down the remains but done nothing more with the property and it looks awful.

Here I found my first oak shothole mines in pin oak, a blotch mine in violet, something that stumped me at the time but I think now is just bugle, another weed by the water that has me rather stumped, a chestnut, and a blooming crocus (or, I assume, an autumn crocus, but even that is out of season at the moment).

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-26-19 Darren Woods, Martinsville, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 632.75 miles total
Category: weeds

I bushwhacked my way up the "mountain" behind the squad building. This is the Second Watchung Mountain, which is slightly shorter than the First, and there are very few parks on it, so I rarely climb up it. But there is another dead car up here, off the old service road to the radio tower (now accessed from the other side). I plowed through a thicket of dames rocket, then roses, ugh, then mugwort nearly as high as my head. But I made it. Actually, walking out was harder, as I went down the main road down the mountain, which is narrow and curving, with steep banks and no shoulder. I don't think I'll do that again, soon!

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-27-19 East County Park, Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 633 miles total.
Category: whatever caught Molly's eye.

I went with Molly to get her flu shot this afternoon, and we had a few minutes before our appointment so stopped here to "point at weeds" as she calls it. She's getting pretty good at IDing winter plants.

No real surprises here, mugwort, rose, black walnut, black locust, honeysuckle, rose, goldenrod, aster, Queen Anne's lace. But it was nice to stroll around with her.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-28-19. Buttermilk Falls and Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 634.5 miles total
Category: anything I could ID on the new sections.

I walked up the First Watching Mountain, took a little connecting trail I'd not been on before on the far side, and then some spur trails first to cliffs overlooking the dam (Buttermilk Falls) then down the far side of the mountain to the road and a weir. This is where emergency services usually park when someone gets injured by the dam, though I've never done it myself. So I decided to try to hike in to the dam from the road, without going over the top of the "mountain" but instead walking up the river valley. There was a trail of sorts for quite a ways, though narrow and crumbling and I would hate to have to carry a stretcher out this way (that's what firefighters are for). But then I ended up in a boxed canyon. And I am much better at going up than down. I thought I might have to go back out the way I came in, scooting on my backside down the steep parts, but instead I saw a game trail going up the lowest section of hillside and decided to give it a try. I had to use hands and feet much of the way, but I made it. At the top I hit the main trail, and walking out was much easier.

Interesting things I saw included a pretty pixie cup lichen, several kinds of hickory buds, coralberry, ebony spleenwort, what I think might be jetbead, dittany, waterleaf, lesser celandine with actual green leaves, a witchhazel in full bloom, pennyroyal, Carolina rose, and a couple things I haven't figured out. And there were Asian clams by the weir.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

11-30-19. Coddington Farm, Warren, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 635.25 miles total
Category: winter ID of woody plants

I have a new book on winter ID of woody plants, so I went to this local park and took a slow stroll around photographing buds and twigs and bark on things that I know well but have never looked quite so closely at the details of: white pine, shagbark hickory, red male, northern red oak, black walnut, autumn olive, border privet, blackhaw, eastern red cedar, american holly, persimmon, northern highbush blueberry.

I also found two deer stands and a feeding station in these woods, and I've never seen them posted for deer hunting season; I suspect these are unsanctioned stands. We had someone fall off an unsanctioned deer stand in town two years ago and die;when he got caught up in his incorrectly applied safety harness. I hear it was a horrible call, and no one could find him as no one knew where exactly his stand was. Things are so crowded in my area it's tough to find spots where you are officially far enough from houses to use a rifle to hunt at all. If these were official stands they'd have to be for bow hunting, or be highly restricted in the direction in which they were allowed to shoot, as I could easily see houses through the trees.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

It has been so much fun to join you vicariously on your November hikes--thanks for the stories! And big congratulations on walking over 3 miles for 2 days in a row! What a tremendous accomplishment!

Too bad about the creepy guy at the Logan airport marsh! It's so rare to run into such people when we're out walking. I guess now we know where they hang out. Your apple moss find was great! Such a pretty moss, but hard to find. The straps made out of fungus...I wonder if it was the hyphae of a honey mushroom? Dave Muskas, the mushroom guy at the nature center, pointed out some black "straps" in some rotting bark. I think he said it was from a honey mushroom, but I'm not entirely sure. Either that or a circulatory system....

I need to study up on the oak shothole miner. I'm pretty sure I've seen that, but had no clue what it was. We don't have many oaks here in Washington County, so I don't see it unless I actually leave town. Your hunting stand story about the guy who fell off sounds simply awful. Our neighbor hunts from a stand on our land. He's quite skilled and knows his way around a hunting stand, thank goodness. He prefers bow hunting, so he'll be back in his stand again this week, now that rifle season is over. I can't stand rifle season--having to stay out of the woods for weeks, plus the roads are full of slow moving pickup trucks with their windows rolled down and very creepy guys behind the wheel. Who toss fast food bags and beer cans out their windows.

Posted by erikamitchell over 4 years ago

A major advantage to having hunting be a smaller deal here, no slow pick-ups littering. NJ has a no-hunting-on-Sundays law, so even closed parks are open and (theoretically) safe to walk then.

Posted by srall over 4 years ago

the creepy guys lingering around parking lot thing does happen in certain areas, unfortunately including some fish and wildlife access areas too. At least they rarely go far from their cars but... yucky

Posted by charlie over 4 years ago

Fish and wildlife access areas around here are often places for drug dealers to hang out. Customers seem to know that's where the pick-up location is. They get annoyed if you pull in while they're parking. On the other hand, if you got there first and are trying to get your boat out so you can leave, they often jump out of their cars and help with the boat so you will leave faster. I don't know why the state police don't patrol the fish and wildlife parking lots more. Or maybe they do, but undercover.

Sundays with no hunting sounds great, at least for non-hunters who just want to go the park. But a lot of hunters I know can only hunt on weekends, so no hunting Sundays would be a bummer for them.

Posted by erikamitchell over 4 years ago

11/1/19. East Hill Rd, Plainfield, VT. 2.3 miles today, 2067 miles total.
Categories: blooming, trees, invasives

This morning we had a major windstorm. The wind had quieted somewhat by the time I went out for my walk after lunch. I set out to explore East Hill Rd in Plainfield, planning to park at the park-and-ride and walk uphill from there. But when I got to Plainfield, I found powerlines down along Main St, blocking the road before the park-and-ride. I parked on the street by the church and decided to walk from there. Although the street was blocked off with emergency barriers, there were no signs on the sidewalk, so I foolishly continued up the sidewalk. On my way back, I was smarter and took a detour through the cemetery in order to stay clear of the downed powerlines. It was a great day to walk East Hill Rd. East Hill is one of the main arteries through Plainfield and is usually quite busy with very fast moving traffic. But since the way into town was blocked today, traffic was rather light and slow moving. I was wearing my reflective vest that I usually wear when walking along the roads. Several people stopped to ask if I was from the power company, eager to hear when they would be getting power back. I couldn’t tell them that, but I could point out which flowers were blooming. I found pineapple weed, dandelion, Queen Anne’s lace, tansy, red clover, fleabanes, goldenrods, prickly sowthistle, white sweetclover, oxeye daisy, black-eyed Susan, alsike clover, autumn hawkbit, heart-leaved aster, and calico aster. Trees today were box elder, white cedar, black cherry, balsam fir, white ash, sugar maple, Canada plum, apple, American elm, common juniper, hemlock, paper birch, hawthorn, balsam poplar, white pine, red spruce, tamarack, yellow birch, staghorn sumac, and speckled alder. Invasives were Japanese knotweed, burning bush, buckthorn, European barberry, and some escaped garden lilac.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/2/19. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, VT. 1.1 miles today, 2068.1 miles total.
Categories: insects, fruit

Today I missed the regular Saturday morning hike in Adamant because I was taking a drawing workshop at the Nature Center. I am not very good at drawing, but my friend, who is an accomplished artist, was taking the class and urged me to take it with her. I barely know which end of the pencil goes up, but I tried anyways. It was a beautiful sunny day, and I wanted to be outdoors walking rather than sitting around the table trying to draw. After lunch, the teacher sent us out to collect a few leaves to draw. From her instructions, all I heard was go look at leaves, not the part about returning in 15-20 minutes. An hour later, when I finally dragged myself back indoors, they were discussing sending out a search party. I had a nice bag of leaves to draw, but only time enough to draw a single one. Meanwhile, on my walk, I found some red-legged grasshoppers, and Alydinae bug, a woolly bear, and some raspberries in fruit.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/3/19. Adamant, VT. 1.6 miles today, 2069.7 miles total.
Categories: birds, caterpillars

This morning I took my weekly birdwalk in Adamant. It was cool and cloudy, and it seems most of the birds have already left town. Still, I found mourning dove, white-breasted nuthatch, black-capped chickadee, Canada goose, American crow, robin, hooded merganser, and some mallards. Crawling across the road were a ruby tiger moth caterpillar, a Virgina ctenucha caterpillar, and a pirate wolf spider. Blooming today was a dandelion. Road kill was a woolly bear.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/4/19. Berlin Pond, 4.3 miles today, 2074 miles total.
Categories: blooming, fruiting, crawling in the road

This afternoon I met up with a friend to walk along the road beside Berlin Pond. We have been getting together for a month or so to practice Indonesian. Her daughter married a guy from Indonesia, and she plans to go with them to visit his family in Indonesia next summer. Way back when, in 1991, I studied Indonesian because my sister was spending a year there as an exchange student. Towards the end of her year, I went to visit for a month and we traveled around the country, speaking Indonesian the whole time. I haven’t spoken Indonesian since, but it’s coming back now that I’m practicing with this friend. Her active vocabulary is bigger than mine—I can’t find my words to say what I want at all. But I have an intuitive sense of how to put words together into natural sounding sentences (once I can find the words, that is). Today when she suggested walking as we talked instead of sitting in the café, I agreed immediately. So we walked along the road, chatting about all manner of things entirely in Indonesian, while I kept an eye out for interesting plants. And then tried to describe them in Indonesian with my faltering vocabulary. We found dandelion, red clover, bladder campion, musk mallow, fleatbane, prickly sowthistle, Queen Anne’s lace, wintercresses, chicory, nipplewort, black-eyed Susan, evening primrose, forsythia, giant goldenrod, creeping buttercup, swamp aster, and pineapple weed in bloom, and grapes, poison ivy, buckthorn, greater burdock, and helleborine in fruit. We also found an intermediate hooded owlet caterpillar, an armyworm caterpillar, a Virginia ctenucha caterpillar, and sumo mites crawling in the road. Road kill was an oil beetle.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

I also tend to be a little oblivious to downed powerlines. And I can totally see everyone trying to ask anyone about when the power will be back. I have always wanted to be able to draw things like flowers and leaves well, but I just don't have the patience. I would far rather gather interesting things for someone else to draw. I love the idea of trying to describe the flowers in Indonesian. I've not used my Russian since about 1991, either, and am not at all sure I could describe the difference between a clover and a mallow in it.

Posted by srall over 3 years ago

11/5/19. Montpelier Bike Trail, Montpelier, VT. 2 miles today, 2076 miles total.
Categories: blooming

This afternoon I walked along the Montpelier bike trail while my husband rode his unicycle. Blooming today were fleabane, perennial sow thistle, Queen Anne’s lace, chicory, wrinkle-leaved goldenrod, red clover, autumn hawkbit, dandelion, calico aster, creeping buttercup, garlic mustard, white sweetclover, cup plant, and crown vetch.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/6/19. Adamant, VT and Templeton Rd, East Montpelier, VT. 3 miles today, 2079 miles total.
Categories: insects, blooming, fruiting, trees

This afternoon I met up with my 2 bug friends for what is likely our last bug walk of the season. It was warmish today, in the 50sF, with plenty of sun. But snow is forecast perhaps as early as tomorrow. We wandered through downtown Adamant chasing bugs, and then toured a friend’s garden. We found European earwig, shiny woodlouse, eastern yellowjacket, Anthophila bee, Calliphora fly, cluster fly, Cladius pectinicornus larva, autumn meadowhawk, two-striped grasshopper, bog leafhopper, ground beetle, wooly bear, and hitched arches caterpillar.

After our walk, I continued up to Templeton Rd to see what might be blooming up there. I found fleabane, white sweetclover, dandelion, wintercress, asters, sow thistle, goldenrods, Queen Anne’s lace, autumn hawkbit, red clover. Fruiting were bittersweet nightshade, apples, and buckthorn. Trees were white pine, American elm, black cherry, white ash, speckled alder, pussy willow, Scots pine, red spruce, hemlock, balsam fir, box elder, and beech.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/7/19. Industrial Lane, Berlin, VT. 1.5 miles today, 2080.5 miles total.
Categories: blooming, fruiting, trees

I had another doctor’s appointment today and not much time, so I ended up walking along Industrial Lane again in Berlin. It was a good chance to see the hardiest of the hardy plants, late bloomers in unlikely places. I visited a small cemetery at the end of Industrial Rd near the Blue Cross building and found a few lichens on the gravestones. Blooming today were autumn hawkbit, red clover, dandelion, fleabane, pineapple weed, giant goldenrod, and Queen Anne’s lace. Fruiting were buckthorn, highbush and cranberry. Trees were white pine, paper birch, box elder, balsam poplar, trembling aspen, and white ash. Roadkill was a flattened body so far gone I could only say it was a mammal.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/8/19. Montpelier Bike Path, VT. 5.5 miles today, 2086 miles total.
Categories: trees, fruiting, blooming

Today was the grand opening of the new eastern section of the Montpelier bike trail, celebrated with much pomp and fanfare. As part of opening day, a proposed extension of the bike path was also open, Power Plant Rd, which leads to a hydro-plant along the river. The road has big signs saying private property, no trespassing. But just for today it was open. For years, I’ve been staring at that road on the iNat maps, noting how it’s the only unexplored road in the area. So of course, that’s where I headed for my walk today. I started off with a golden crowned kinglet, a good omen. Trees were red oak, box elder, staghorn sumac, yellow birch, basswood, white cedar, buckthorn, white ash, white pine, black cherry, beech, bigtooth aspen, speckled alder, paper birch, hop hornbeam, cottonwood, elm, balsam fir, and trembling aspen. Fruiting were European barberry, Japanese barberry, grapes, and honeysuckles. I even found a single goldenrod blooming in the snow.

After the walk out Power Plant Rd, I went down to the whisky brewery to meet my husband for the official opening ride on the new section of the bike path. We both rode our unicycles for the ride. It was my first time riding my unicycle in a year—the gluten-free diet has gotten back on track.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/9/19. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, VT. 1.1 miles today, 2087.1 miles total.
Categories: scenic

Today was the first field trip of a new photography group in Montpelier that I recently joined. They decided to have a morning photoshoot at the Nature Center, then share the photos at our next monthly meeting. So I wandered around the Nature Center this morning looking for pretty shots to share with the group. I was by myself, yet surrounded by about 25 other photographers all doing the same thing. We had had several inches of fresh snow over night, so lots of folks were working with snow and shadows. I shot some raspberries, grapes, Queen Anne’s lace, Bidens, a wood fern, some alder tongue galls, and a goldenrod crown gall.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

That photography group sounds like a lot of fun (and I would surely be doing winter fruit and leaves, branches rather than snow and shadow.

Posted by srall over 3 years ago

11/10/19. Adamant, VT & Montpelier bike path, Montpelier, VT. 7.3 miles today, 2094.5 miles total.
Categories: birds, trees, blooming

This morning I took my weekly bird walk in Adamant. I found song sparrow, Canada goose, hooded merganser, white-throated sparrow, raven, robin, cardinal, chickadee, and blue jay, as well as a bruce spanworm moth and some deer tracks.

In the afternoon I went into Montpelier with my husband to enjoy the bike trail end-to-end with the new eastern section. I took my electric scooter just to cover the entire distance in an hour while my husband rode his unicycle. I focused on trees on the new section of the trail since that section hasn’t been documented yet on iNaturalist. I found red oak, staghorn sumac, speckled alder, box elder, basswood, apple, paper birch, white ash, black cherry, gray birch, white pine, buckthorn, Norway spruce, American elm, and cottonwood. I also found goldenrod and butter and eggs in bloom.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/11/19. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 3 miles today, 2097.5 miles total.
Categories: fruits

This afternoon I took a walk up Peck Hill in search of fruits. I came up with burdock, box elder, apple, beaked hazelnut, helleborine, staghorn sumac. I also found my first arthropod on snow of the season, a soldier beetle larva.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/12/19. Portal Rd, Middlesex, VT, 1.8 miles today, 2099.3 miles total.
Categories: trees, fruits, birds

This afternoon I took a short walk between errands along Portal Rd just over the Middlesex line from Montpelier. I haven’t walked this road much, so I looked for trees. I found hemlock, gray birch, balsam fir, beech, red spruce, white ash, white pine, yellow birch, paper birch, apple, American elm, sugar maple, and box elder. Fruiting today were cranberry viburnum, burdock, wild raisin, grapes, as well as the apples. Birds today were a robin picking apples, and a large flock of Canada goose that flew overhead. And together with the Canada goose were some snow goose, which was quite exciting. I think this was one of the first iNaturalist observations of snow goose near Montpelier.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/13/19. Chandler Rd, Northfield VT, 3 miles today, 2102.3 miles total.
Categories: fruit, trees, blooming

This morning I took a walk along Chandler Rd, which runs parallel to Rt 12 from Berlin to Northfield. It’s a quiet residential road with some small homestead farms. I found staghorn sumac, spindle bush, milkweed, European barberry, grapes, bull thistle, basswood, and highbush cranberry fruits. Trees were beech, black cherry, apple, paper birch, beech, white pine, red spruce, red oak, hemlock, yellow birch, gray birch, white ash, and paper birch. I also found some white sweetclover managing a few last blooms in the snow.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/14/19. Chandler Rd, Northfield VT, 2.4 miles today, 2104.7 miles total.
Categories: fruiting, trees, blooming

This afternoon I continued along Chandler Rd to the end. To extend my walk without repeating the portion I did yesterday, I walked a little ways up West Hill Rd. I found bull thistle, staghorn sumac, buckthorn, grapes, apple, autumn olive, helleborine, and groundnut in fruit. Trees were beech, white ash, bigtooth aspen, Scots pine, yellow birch, black locust, white pine, paper birch, sugar maple, black cherry, American elm, balsam fir, hemlock, hop hornbeam, mountain maple, hawthorn, red spruce, yew, and basswood. I also found more white sweetclover struggling to bloom in the snow and some witch hazel, which is not at all common around here, in bloom.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/15/19. Jack Hill, Calais, VT. 3.8 miles today, 2108.5 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow, fruits

I went for a walk through fresh snow today up Jack Hill. I started out looking for fruit, but soon found myself distracted by all the arthropods on the surface of the snow. I found 2 Acleris busckana moth near our shed. Then I found 2 Tetragnatha spiders (brown and green), a black and red spider, 2 Diamesa flies, a Pharotimpus spider, and a scorpionfly (gold), all before I left our driveway. Up on Jack Hill, I found an elegant crab spider, spring harvestman, Trichocera fly, soldier beetle larva, wolf spider, and a winter rove beetle. Fruits today were blue cohosh, highbush cranberry, buckthorn, grapes, apples, and wild raisin.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/16/19. Camp Rd, Calais, VT. 2.9 miles today, 2111.4 miles total.
Categories: trees, arthropods on snow

This morning I met up with our Saturday walking group to hike Camp Rd along Curtis Pond. There were 5 of us today. Camp Rd runs along the east side of the pond, past the cabins by the pond. Many of the cabins are summer only, but some are occupied year round now. After yesterday’s snow, the weather turned quite cold overnight. It was barely 10F during our walk. Having had so much success finding arthropods on snow yesterday, my eyes were still tuned in to them, and before I knew it, I was seeing spiders everywhere. Except, today at least half of them were frozen in the snow. I found 11 green Tetragnatha spiders, 1 brown Tetragnatha spider, another spider, a ground beetle, and a stink bug (which a friend pointed out to be encased in ice on a branch). A few of the green Tetragnatha spiders were moving, but the rest of the arthropods all seemed frozen solid. Trees today were elm, yew, red spruce, black cherry, balsam fir, beech, paper birch, yellow beech, and eastern hemlock.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

wow, snow geese! I've only seen them once, flying overhead at our aunt's farm in Maryland. And blue cohosh would be a very exciting find for me; that one I've only seen in a garden.

Posted by srall over 3 years ago

11/17/19. Adamant, VT. 1.5 miles today, 2112.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, tracks

This morning I took my weekly bird walk along Sodom Pond. It was chilly with snow on the ground and the pond was frozen, so there weren’t many birds to be seen. Still, it was great to get out. I found a blue jay, a hermit thrush, some robins, a pair of cardinals, and a chickadee. For tracks, I found white-tailed deer, squirrels, and a coyote.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/18/19. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT. 1.9 miles today, 2114.8 miles total.
Categories: galls, fruits

This afternoon I took a quick walk along Pekin Brook looking for galls and fruits. I found Rhopalomyia capitata, Hyadaphis tatarica, Eurosta solidaginis, willow pinecone gall, maple leafcutter gall, and dogwood golden canker. For fruits I found grapes, barberry, apple, and honeysuckle. I also managed to find a spider on the crusty old snow.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/19/19. George Rd, Calais, VT. 2.5 miles today, 2117.3 miles total.
Categories: tracks, arthropods on snow

This morning I went out for a quick walk along George Rd before lunch. We had slushy snow, so I went hunting for tracks. I found squirrel, wild turkey, and white-tailed deer tracks, as well as a flock of live turkeys. I also found a stink bug and a soldier beetle larva on the snow.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/20/19. Sanders Circle, East Monteplier, VT. 3 miles today, 2120.3 miles total.
Categories: galls, trees, fruits

This afternoon I explored the lower end of Sanders Circle. I have walked the top portion several times before, but today I completed the loop down to Horn of the Moon Road. This is a partially open west facing hillside with beautiful views and sunsets over the spine of the Green Mountains. The houses along this road are widely spaced, many with small homestead farms. I found alder tongue gall, willow pine cone gall, goldenrod gall fly, goldenrod bunch gall, and dogwood golden canker for galls. Trees were apple, speckled alder, white pine, hemlock, balsam fir, white ash, gray birch, beech, elm, yellow birch, striped maple, black cherry, and sugar maple. Fruits were apple, honeysuckles, multiflora rose, milkweed, wild raisin, buckthorn, and grapes.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/22/19. Cameron Rd, Plainfield, VT. 1.9 miles today, 2122.2 miles total.
Categories: fruits, trees

This afternoon I drove down to Plainfield to explore Cameron Rd, a dead end road off of Brook Rd. Actually, Cameron used to go through to East Hill Rd, as a passing fellow walker told me. Now there is a trail that connects Cameron to East Hill, but I stopped at the end of the public road and turned around. I found staghorn sumac, buckthorn, basswood, zigzag goldenrod, bittersweet nightshade, grapes, mountain maple, box elder, and European barberry with fruits. Trees today were sugar maple, black cherry, white pine, apple, elm, red oak, hemlock, white cedar, red spruce, tamarack, white ash, yellow birch, balsam fir, hawthorn, and paper birch.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/23/19. Apple Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 3 miles today, 2125.2 miles total.
Categories: tracks, bryophytes

This morning I met up with our Saturday hiking group to walk Apple Hill Rd. This is a steep road through deep woods that is very quiet and scenic. At the end of our walk, we continued down Emslie Rd a short ways to check out the pond. We found white-tailed deer, squirrels, ruffed grouse, bobcat, racoon, and coyote tracks. I paused to admire some Ulota crispa, Porella platyphylloidea, and Ulota coarctata on the tree trunks. I also found 2 Donacia beetles on the snow near the pond.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/24/19. Colchester Point, Colchester, VT. 1.3 miles today, 2126.5 miles total.
Categories: birds, trees, fruits

We decided to take a short vacation before Thanksgiving up in Colchester on Lake Champlain for a few days. So this morning instead of doing my Sunday bird walk in Adamant, I walked around the block from our cabin on Colchester Point. I found Canada goose, blue jay, house finch, chickadee, cedar waxwing, hairy woodpecker, house sparrow, American tree sparrow, white-throated sparrow, cardinals, blue jay, American crow, common merganser, pileated woodpecker, bufflehead, mourning doves, and greater scaups, plenty more birds than are in Adamant these days. For trees I found hop hornbeam, silver maple, white ash, American elm, white cedar. I found bittersweet nightshade, burdock, buckthorn, multiflora rose, rough cocklebur, staghorn sumac, cottonwood, white oak, basswood, grapes, and poison ivy in fruit. I also found a Dineutus beetle out on a patch of frozen ice along a beech.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/25/19. Colchester Point, Colchester, VT. 3.7 miles today, 2130.2 miles total.
Categories: birds, fruits, trees, blooming

This afternoon I took a long walk around Colchester Point. We chose this cabin because it is right along the Colchester bike trail that goes out on the causeway across the lake. But the causeway is closed right now for repair, so it turns out we can’t go riding or walking along the causeway. Still, the trail extends for miles in the other direction. I from our cabin down the sidewalk, and then turned on to Colchester Point Rd, a road that is hard to visit otherwise since no parking is allowed near it. Colchester Rd was in the lowlands near the lake, with mostly large summer cabins and few winterized cabins. I returned back to our place via section of the bike trail. Birds today were common goldeneye, pied-billed grebe, red-breasted merganser, common merganser, scaups, and a chickadee. Fruits were box elder, buckthorn, Oriental bittersweet, American bittersweet, knotweed, cattails, highbush cranberry, poison ivy, autumn olive, apple, Japanese barberry, winterberry, button bush, staghorn sumac, and grapes. Trees were white ash, sugar maple, cottonwood, white cedar, pin oak, white pine, red cedar, red spruce, paper birch, gray birch, tamarack, and hop hornbeam. I also found dandelion, goldenrod, and witch hazel in bloom.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/26/19. Colchester, VT. 6.2 miles today, 2136.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, fruits, trees
This morning I drove out to Delta Park to see another section of the bike trail system. I started at the park itself following fishing trails in the delta. This took me deep into the cottonwood swamp, which was a marvel. I found that there was a fence between the bike trail and the swamp, so I had to retrace my path back to the parking lot so that I could walk the trail. The trail crosses the outlet of the Winooski River on a large metal bridge, from where I could overlook the cottonwood swamp that I had explored.

Birds today were great black-backed gull, mallards, common goldeneyes, American crow, mergansers, chickadee, brown creeper, hairy woodpecker, mourning dove, and a tufted titmouse. Fruits were rough cocklebur, wild cucumber, highbush cranberry, winterberry, grapes, staghorn sumac, American bittersweet, burning bush, poison ivy, Japanese barberry, buckthorn, box elder, and multiflora rose. Trees were silver maple, swamp white oak, red oak, gray birch, and cottonwood. And road kill along the bike trail was a northern short-tailed shrew.

After lunch I went for another walk, this time parking at Thayer Beach. I parked in the lot by the beach, walked along the beach, continued along Thayer Beach Rd, and then walked out along the paved road towards Marble Island. I found Canada goose, mallards, American crow, common raven and got some magnificent views of a bald eagle in the top of a tree along the beach. Trees were white pine, red oak, white ash, gray birch, American elm, bigtooth aspen, white cedar, Japanese yew, paper birch, red cedar, trembling aspen, musclewood, hemlock, sugar maple, black locust, and red pine. Fruiting were apples, button bush, velvetleaf, buckthorn, multiflora rose, winterberry, highbush cranberry, grapes, poison ivy, box elder, burning bush, staghorn sumac, bittersweet nightshade, witch hazel, and milkweed. I also found a dandelion in bloom.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/27/19. Thayer Beach, Colchester, VT. 1.1 miles today, 2137.5 miles total.
Categories: birds, tracks

This morning I took my husband for a short walk along Thayer Beach before we returned home to Calais. We found Canada goose, common goldeneye, herring gull, dark-eyed junco, chickadee, and both of us got to see the bald eagle hanging out in the tree over the beach today. We also studied tracks in the wet sand on the beach. We found racoon and squirrel tracks, plus some other tracks that haven’t yet been identified.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/28/19. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT. 2.6 miles today, 2139.1 miles total.
Categories: arthropods, tracks

This morning I took a walk along Pekin Brook Rd, taking advantage of the light Thanksgiving traffic to see one of the busier parts of the road. I found tracks of squirrels and deer. And I also found a few arthropods on snow, including 2 caddisflies, 2 Trichocera flies, and a Virginian tiger moth caterpillar that was crawling on the muddy road but had snow in its “fur”. I also found a large group of goldfinches feeding in the road.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/29/19. George Rd, Calais, VT. 2.4 miles today, 2141.5 miles total.
Categories: bryophytes, tracks

Right after lunch I went out for a walk today to look for tracks in the snow. I paused to examine some Ulota crispa and Orthotricum mosses on tree trunks. I found some white deer tracks, and I also found a dead red-bellied snake.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

11/30/19. Chapin Rd, Calais, VT. 3.1 miles today, 2144.6 miles total.
Categories: fruits

This morning I met up with our Saturday morning hike group. We walked out Chapin Rd, which is a dead-end road through the woods, one of my personal favorites. The group thought the out-and-back a little short, so we continued along Gray Rd a ways just to enjoy walking together. I didn’t stop much today to take photos. Still, I managed to find apples, buckthorn, and bittersweet nightshade in fruit. I also found some deer tracks.

Posted by erikamitchell over 3 years ago

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