September 30, 2015

Notes and Changes since last report

• This week's trail report covers the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.
• It was 56°F, breezy and misting at 2:00 PM on September 30, 2015.
• This was the middle of a cool, rainy week; suddenly it was Fall.
• Mushrooms have been waiting for this...

The Trails

• Mist hanging in the air behind the Gifford Carriage House was a good indicator of how the walk would be today.
• Something was in the road coming towards me.
• Not a skunk, but a cat - a healthy looking one. It snuck off at my approach.
• Virginia creeper was lighting up on the Scots Pine Alleé.
• Colors really come out on a gray day. The Little Bluestem Meadow's namesake grass was glowing.
• That muted red might have been oak starting up.
• The promise of bright yellow to come was clearly maple.
• Dogbanes in the adjacent field were a bright, pale yellow.
• The first of the expected bounty of mushrooms was in the Old Gravel Pit.
• Little parasols were not much farther along the way.
• A big downed maple had quite the colony of a shelf fungus.
• The margin of each "ear" had a glowing violet edge.
• Something else was well past its prime, reminding me of how I *don't* like my eggs.
• In the Fern Glen's fen, poison sumac was putting on a nice display with cinnamon fern helping in the foreground and spicebush in the background.
• In spite of 3-1/2 inches of rain overnight, the creek under the bridge was not the torrent one might have expected.
• Nearby, Indian cucumber root had an interesting way of making its fruit obvious.
• A large mushroom was hidden behind the kiosk.
• Not so hidden in the pond were several red-spotted newts.
• On the Cary Pines Trail, a dead hemlock had come down.
• By the big snag farther ahead, red maple seedlings made a colorful carpet.
• At the approach to the "Appendix", tiny mushrooms were like scattered popcorn on the ground.
• Inspected down and close, they turned out to be quite interesting.
• Next week: the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.