September 16, 2015

Notes and Changes since last report

• This week's trail report covers the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.
• It was 75°F, mostly clear and breezy at 2:30 PM on September 16, 2015.
• It was another quiet, but pleasant late summer day.

The Trails

• A few low lying plants survived the recent mowing of the front Old Hayfield. A female eastern tailed-blue was finding them.
• In the back Old Hayfield, invasive burning bush was starting to show how it got to this country.
• Japanese barberry was doing likewise.
• Our native Virginia creeper was keeping up with the competition.
• At the field's exit, I paused to remove some pointy grass seeds from my socks and enjoyed the peace of a late summer afternoon.
• As I rose to me feet, something flew across in front of me to land on a sunny leaf. It was a species of net-winged beetle, sometimes mistaken for a moth.
• If it were not for the interesting shadow, a bug-chewed leaf would never have been noticed.
• The Old Pasture is a reliable place to find American copper.
• Another came by and both went up together in a spiral, one returning to the ground, the other to a goldenrod.
• On the way out of the Old Pasture, a lone winterberry was glowing in the low light.
• Along the Wappinger Creek Trail, invasive Japanese stilt grass was starting to flower.
• The tall, late season flower stalks make good "red flags" to announce its presence.
• And the shiny midrib of the leaf clinches the ID.
• The stilt-like roots allow one's fingers to slide under and lift sometimes the whole plant out for a satisfying pull!
• A steely-nerved American green frog almost got burried by a wad of soon-to-be compost.
• Note: I'm trusting the seeds were not yet pollinated, otherwise disposal rather than compost would be safer.
• I sighed and gazed down the Creek.
• Next week: the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.