November 2020: 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.
Comments
11/1/20. Groton State Park, 2 miles today, 2908.7 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, insects, buds
This afternoon my husband and I went out to Groton State Park so he could ride his unicycle while I walked. Today I walked a stretch of the old railroad bed that connects Lanesboro to Rt 232. All summer long, the railroad bed road from Marshfield Pond to Lanesboro (a crossroad with a 2'x3' self-serve farmstand) had been almost undriveable because it had been submerged many times by beaver dams. However, about 2 weeks ago, a road crew came through and thoroughly flattened and widened the road, still dirt, but no potholes. Oddly, they kept going, flattening not just the road, but also the entire stretch of rail trail, all 9 miles to Ricker Pond. Now instead of a rough but bikeable trail through the woods, wide enough for 2 bikes, there is an actual road, 1.5 lanes wide and smooth as can be. That's a bit dangerous for hikers and bikers since cars are now quite easily able to drive on the trail. My husband is disappointed since the trail is no longer a technical ride. And I am also a bit disappointed since when they widened the road, they removed all roadside vegetation. Between stick season and the road work, there's hardly any leaves left of any sort near the road. But I still managed to find a few leaf miners today, some Agromyza vockerothii on Rubus ideaeus and Phytomyza tiarellae on foam flower. Plus the ubiquitous Paraclemensia acerifoliela and Ectoedemia on poplar. Insects were quite hard to find given the cold blustery wind, but I managed to find a Ribautiana leafhopper under a raspberry leaf and a single bruce spanworm moth. I shot a few buds today, including black cherry, hobblebush, wild raisin, and mountain holly (down by Ricker Pond).
11/2/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2910.7 miles total.
Categories: insects
Today we had a dusting of snow that stayed with us all day, the first snow on the ground all day of the season. I walked my Peck Hill route in search of spiders on snow, but no luck. I managed to find a pair of Ribautiana leafhoppers under a raspberry leaf and a dead woolly bear in the road. I wonder if the insects only crawl across the snow when they have no choice, when there are no bare patches. And perhaps the ground is still warmer than the snow.
11/3/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2912.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
This afternoon I celebrated our first significant snowfall by hiking up Peck Hill with my meteorology equipment hunting for arthropods on snow. I hope to do this hike every day we have snow on the ground for the entire snow season, at least as long as we are not traveling. I'm carrying some portable weather stations so I can measure the temperature, humidity, and wind speed wherever I find arthropods on the snow. I take measurements both at snow surface level and 1.5 m above the surface with the hopes of documenting whether (or not) there are any significant differences. I don't think anyone who has chased arthropods on snow before has recorded the conditions at snow surface level, which are the only ones that matter since that's where the arthropods are walking. Mostly they just record conditions at 1.5 m or at the nearest airport.
Anyway, I had good luck for a first day out, finding a lovely large turquoise spider, 2 bibios, 2 trichocera, and a beetle larva.
11/4/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2914.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
This afternoon I hiked up Peck Hill, taking advantage of another day with snow on the ground. Arthropod hunting was good, with 4 Trichocera flies, a Nabis bug, and a Haploa caterpillar. I also found a Ribautiana leafhopper under a blackberry leaf and caught a spiderling drifting on the wind.
11/5/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2916.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
Today was quite a bit warmer, with temperatures up into the 60s. Still, some snow remained through much of my route up Peck Hill, and I managed to find a fuzzy caterpillar, a group of 3 dead bibio flies, a live bibio fly that got photo-bombed by a spider with red legs, and a tiny gnat all on snow. In addition, I found quite a few other insects in the road where there was no snow, including some spiders, an ant, a very small bug, and several ground beetles. I also found a Cuerna striata leafhopper sunning on a blackberry leaf. I passed 5 neighbors out for walks as well, a red letter day!
11/6/20. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, VT. 1 mile today, 2917.7 miles total.
Categories: insects, buds
This afternoon I met up with 3 friends at the Nature Center for a masked bug safari. The weather was gorgeous for November, sunny and warm and the insects were all around. We started at the witch hazel bush growing at the old compost pile site. It is spectacularly in bloom right now. It was covered with honey bees and a few other bees. My friends managed to shoot a green sweat bee that landed on the back of my shirt, but I never saw that one. We found a Nabis eating an aphid, several kinds of leafhoppers, a stinkbug, a tiny flea beetle, several kinds of spiders, an oil beetle, a cucumber beetle, a Virginia ctenucha caterpillar, a woolly bear, a bagworm, and an aphid. I also got roped into take the high school cross country team's group photo. They were gathering in the parking lot just as we were leaving and their assigned photographer didn't show. Lots of legs, but not arthropods.
11/7/20. Batten Rd, Calais, VT. 3 miles today, 2920.7 miles total.
Categories: leaf miners, arthropods
This morning I met up with 3 friends for our Saturday morning walk. We started at the East Calais post office and headed up the hill. Just past the post office was a house with a free pile including a pair of little used snowshoes. One of our members was in need of just such a pair. Score! I found leafminers on goldenrod, fleabane,, sweet clover, sugar maple, asters, and anemone. I also found a spider, a Cuerna striata leafhopper, a Ribautiana leafhopper, and a black-eyed susan in bloom.
11/7/20. Cranberry Meadow Rd, Woodbury, VT. 2.3 miles today, 2923 miles total.
Categories: arthropods, galls, blooming
This afternoon my husband and I took advantage of the unseasonably warm weather for a ride/walk up Cranberry Meadow, he on his unicycle, me on my own 2 feet. I found galls on willow and alder and a leaf miner on columbine. I also found a red and black spider, a horse beetle, and a whirligig beetle in the road, as well as a smooshed ladybug and part of a woolly bear. Blooming today were a patch of goldenrods and a buttercup.
11/8/20. Lamoille Valley Trails, Joe's Pond, VT, 3.2 miles today, 2926.2 miles total.
Categories: tree shapes, leaf miners
This afternoon my husband and I drove up to Joe's Pond for a unicycle/walking adventure. Although this is a scenic trail, we had been avoiding it this year because it is so popular. We thought we would give it a try today since it is youth hunting season and our favorite trails in Groton would be full of hunters. Indeed, the bike trails at Joe's Pond were quite populated, but worse, not a single person was a wearing a mask. I don't expect the bikers or even the joggers to wear masks. But certainly the dog walkers and social walkers should be wearing them on a popular bike trail. I was the only one on the trail with a mask. We didn't dally and I guess we won't be going back until the virus is over. In Groton, everyone carried masks and put them on when they met up with another walker along the trail. Maybe they were all tourists from out of state. The virus hasn't been seen much in Lamoille county yet, so maybe they don't think the mask mandate applies to them. On the other hand, we came from Washington county, which is in the midst of an outbreak, and we saw our neighbor and the city manager of Montpelier on the trail with his wife, so there are certainly folks from outside Lamoille county on the trail.
I collected some shape pictures of trees today since there were hardly any leaves around to search for miners on. The vegetation had been trimmed back from the trail, so there were hardly any raspberry or blackberry leaves to look under. I managed to find leafminers on trembling aspen, sugar maple, and colt's foot. For tree shapes, I found American elm, birch, fir, spruce, white pine, tamarack, and sugar maple. I also caught a honeysuckle and a yew.
11/9/20. Cutler Cemetery, Montpelier, VT. 0.4 miles today, 2926.6 miles total.
Categories: arthropods, birds
This afternoon I met up with my 3 friends again for another bug walk. After checking the weather, it seemed this would be the warmest and sunniest day of the week, so even though we met just last Friday, we went out again today. We visited Cutler Cemetery, a small cemetery that none of us has visited, despite driving past it on almost a daily basis for 20 years. It had many old stones memorializing names that are familiar to us from street names throughout Montpelier. And on many of the stones were mating crab spiders. Wonderful! We also found a fuzzy caterpillar on the stones, a Nabis, plenty of leafhoppers, and a Bruce spanworm. I found yarrow in bloom and a little grape fern right in the middle of the grass. There were pigeons flying overhead from the compost factory across the street, and some crows came by harrying a red-tailed hawk.
11/10/20. Groton State Forest, Groton, VT. 1.8 miles today, 2928.4 miles total.
Categories: buds, arthropods
This afternoon I went on a hike along a side trail off the rail trail in Groton, from Boulder Beach Rd up the rail trail. I was struck by the silence when I first got out of the car, a truly quiet piece of the woods. I saw no one else along the trail today. But plenty of spiders (perhaps all the same species), mainly hanging in blackberry leaves. I found a single Ribautiana leaf hopper and a Trichoptera. Buds today were tamarack, wild raisin, hobble bush, red maple, striped maple, and a mystery plant with dried fruits. I found panicled aster in bloom. Leafhoppers were on maple and bunchberry.
11/11/20. Chickering Bog, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2930.4 miles total.
Categories: leaf miners, arthropods
I took advantage of perhaps the last warm weather today to head up towards Chickering Bog. But instead of turning onto the Bog trail, I went straight down the VAST trail towards Chickering Pond. I was hunting for spiders and leafhoppers, checking under every raspberry leaf (they're about the only green leaves left). I had a good time shooting merrily away, but then I discovered my camera didn't have a disk. Ah...must be a Canon thing. Nikons don't let you do that. That's what I get for carrying a Canon around for a change. I ended up taking a few photos with my phone instead. I found a bug and an aphid, leafminers on raspberry and ground ivy. I also found gall on an alder and a large wild rose bush.
11/12/20. Groton State Park, Groton, VT. 1.5 miles today, 2931.9 miles total.
Categories: buds, leafminers, arthropods
This afternoon we got a bonus day in the woods when the university decided to switch to online classes overnight. And hunting season doesn't start until Saturday. We saw a few folks out scouting for deer while we were driving to Groton, but nobody is shooting yet. While my husband rode his unicycle on the rail trail, I hiked the loop trail near the nature center. I was collecting bud photographs, since I don't have very many in my catalog. I found beech, willows, sugar maple, red maple, beaked hazlenut, paper birch, yellow birch, wild raisin, hobblebush, amelanchier, alder, red oak, and sweetgale. Not many leaves left, but I found leafminers on bunchberry and beech. I also found galls on Rubus, blueberry, and alder. And a single Trichocera fly.
I love the cross country team's legs. I am often asked to take photos of people, since I so often have my camera out, but I am not at all good with portraits. (though I suppose I could manage a posed team photo shoot). We have had only a dusting of snow and a bit of hoarfrost so far this year, but I did look at the dusting to see if I could spot any arthropods (no luck). Probably needs to be a bit thicker. I have often taken photos with my Sony without realizing there's no disk. It has a small warning on the screen but still lets you snap away (and I never notice the warning). We are starting to see a slight rise in cases here in NJ as well. Folks in the more wealthy or more rural areas never wear masks in the park. Folks in the city always do. Here, in between, most people carry them and then put them on to pass one another, or at least when passing elderly walkers. It's interesting how it's also now polite to turn your back to people when passing on a trail, where in the past it felt kind of rude. My sister is near Boston where they are now required to wear masks at all times outdoors except in your own yard or your own car.
11-1-20. Lord Stirling Park, Basking Ridge, NJ. 2.5 miles today, 851 miles total.
Category: not a plant
I walked on a dry but gloomy morning through this swampy wooded park on a trail I'd not taken before. At first it was quite empty but by the time I finished things were getting crowded (and I opted to just leave my mask on, instead of constantly taking on and off while passing folk). It turned out the national wildlife reserve next door was closed for some reason, so everyone intending to go there, came here instead.
I was working on photographing things that were not plants, as I've done most of the plants here already. It was an interesting challenge and really made me realize just how many fungi were out now. (I observed 47, but I'm not at all sure they were all different species). Insect-wise I saw four flies, a debris-carrying lacewing larva, a lanternfly, and 9 leafmines.
11-3-20. Mountain Park and Devil's Tree, Liberty Corner, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 851.25 miles total
I noticed a pull off along the road that goes by the back side of this park, along with a path and "No Hunting" sign, so late this afternoon I decided to check it out. It essentially went no where, just about 50 feet into the woods to a stream. Still, I found christmas berry and hazel, neither of which is common here.
I drove just down the street to see the "Devil's Tree", which is supposed to be haunted. The last time I took the kids here was 4 1/2 years ago, and the whole area in front of it was mowed grass. Now it's shoulder-high weeds and very young shrubs. Weird. I didn't go far as it was getting dark and I had dinner to make, but there was an intriguing path off through the woods. The tree itself is just a white oak. I did find a Laccaria fungus here, though.
11-4-20. Jockey Hollow and East County Park, Harding and Warren NJ. 5 miles today, 856.25 miles total
The weather today was stunning, and the girls had school in person, so I had the morning off. I drove up to the closest National Park to our house (it preserves land where Washington camped one winter) and walked the trail along an old aqueduct system there, which I had no idea was there. We are well past peak foliage season here, but there were still some stunning shrubs here and there, especially the burning bush. A few fungi out on logs, but almost no insects at all.
While I was walking, i got a text from a friend asking if any one wanted to walk later! I said yes, and ended up walking back in town with two friends, at my favorite park that's actually in Warren. We essentially walked the perimeter of two parks, then back up the middle and down. I took very few photos, though, as these ladies are in very good shape and not photographers; they walk fast! I did find some stump puffballs and a bigtoothed aspen I had not seen before.
11-5-20. Bronx Zoo, Bronx, NY. 1.5 miles today, 857.75 miles total.
Today Chuck and I took Becca and Katie and their friend Melissa to the Bronx Zoo to celebrate Becca's 17th birthday. New Jersey schools were closed for the annual teacher's union convention, but the New York schools were open and therefore the zoo was not at all crowded (though I saw more strollers today than I have total in the past year). The zoo is very well weeded, but I did manage to find a few wild spots to photograph. The highlight, though, were the (wild) melanistic eastern gray squirrels. And of course the actual zoo animals.
11-8-20. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 858 miles total
I was on duty with the rescue squad today so had to stay close to my car and had to park it near the building, but the weather was pleasant and I got to get out in 'the wilderness" a bit at least. I was looking for non-plant items, but today that ended up being almost entirely lichen. I did find a wood ear here, though, and a sweat bee. The nice find, though was winged (as opposed to the usually Allegheny) monkey ear. Maybe next year I can find it in bloom.
11-9-20. Brookside Dr., Martinsville, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 859.25 miles total
I was looking for somewhere quick and easy to walk today and ended up walking an old road along the edge of property owned by the Boys Club of America, and on the other side a small brook. I found white rattlesnakeroot, and five-leaved akebia, and a lot of very pretty burning bush and barberry. In the brook were both minnows and suckers.
11-10-20. Washington Ave., Martinsville, and Devil's Tree, Liberty Corner, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 861 miles total
I looked at my observations map and noticed a hole in the coverage here, so parked on a side street and then took this narrow, winding, luckily rarely used, residential road down the side of the "mountain". I used iNat on my phone, hoping it would track my walk, but the hill seems to have interfered some with the GPS accuracy. My favorite find was a Polyphemus moth cocoon.
In the afternoon, Carl, Molly, Katie, and I went back to the Devil's Tree and followed the intriguing path, which lead half a mile through old fields to a pond. The pear trees here were absolutely gorgeous. We found a deer carcass and a mantis ootheca.
11-12-20. Johnson Park, Piscataway, NJ. 1 mile today, 862 miles total
Today Becca took (and passed) her driver's test. We then stood in line for an hour for her license, only to be told we'd get called back in about 2 hours (it actually took 5 hours all together). We spent much of that in this park, walking by a pond and around a small zoo. We saw someone practicing with a horse-drawn sulky as well. Interesting weeds included groundseltree, cheeseweed, mazus, ground cherry, and mermaidweed.
11-13-20. Arbor Way, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 862.25 miles total
On squad duty today and it was sort of misting rain. I parked at the end of a residential street and walked a little ways into the woods here, then along the street a bit as well. There was periwinkle still blooming along the road. I found a couple of interesting fungi, a pair of common crows (fish crows are much more common here than "common" ones), and a maple with different leaves, but falling at the same time as the Norways so probably related.
11/13/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2933.9 miles total.
Categories: buds, arthropods
This afternoon we were just heading out to Groton for one last walk in the woods when it began sleeting. We decided to stay local for our hike instead, just to be extra sure to avoid encountering any people. I kept my eye out for buds and tree shapes today. I photographed buds on box elder, hawthorn, yellow birch, alternate-leaved dogwood, grape, and elm. I also found typically shaped hemlock, sugar maple, and red pine trees. Insects were tough to find today. I managed to find a leafhopper skin, an aphid, and a fungus-eaten fly, all under raspberry leaves.
I like the idea of doing tree shapes; perhaps I'll try that this winter.
11/14/20. Chickering Rd, Calais VT. 2 miles today
Categories: tree shapes, buds, arthropods
Our Saturday walking group is on hiatus since the governor has banned all multi-household gatherings, indoors or out. A lot of my friends are grumbling about the restriction, but I think it is important. Yes, we can walk safely outdoors with masks on, but walking outdoors is a public act. The last thing we want to do is set a poor example for the anti-maskers by walking together in a group. So I took a walk out Chickering Rd alone with my camera. I had great fun photographing tree shapes and buds. I found some bright red basswood buds, also hawthorn, willow, red maple, sugar maple, red osier dogwood, honeysuckle, hop hornbeam, apple, and balsam poplar. I had just stopped to photograph some buckthorn buds when 2 friends came walking down the road. They stopped to chat, but I had forgotten my mask in the car--how embarrassing! I'm going to stick a mask in the pockets of all my coats, just in case. Tree shapes today were tamarack, hemlock, sumac, red pine, and red spruce. And I found a white spruce with burls. There were no raspberry leaves to look under for insects, but I managed to find a wolf spider in the road and a rove beetle larva.
5 miles in one day for you! Fantastic! What a day that must have been! It was great to hear about the melanistic squirrels in the zoo. I wonder if the melanism is a city thing. I think the last time I saw any was in Toronto.
11-14-20. Adams St., South Bound Brook and Walck Park, Somerville, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 863 miles total
Category: pretty.
I went first with Molly to this ballfield as no one on iNat had been there and it looked like it was surrounded by woods. I expected to go up and down the side streets along the woods, but we found a path through instead and took that. There's still a little bit of color around, especially in the Norway maples (which are only half bare). Burning bush, barberry, Canada cinquefoil, red oak, and Rubus all still had color to them.
I came home an uploaded my photos, only to find I was just 19 shy of 100,000 total observations. So as the sun was setting I went back out to this park in Somerville (out of the mountains, though the sun still set fast) and walked along the brook. There was a little knapweed still blooming. Arrowwood, apple, and silky dogwood still had some pretty leaves. And my 100.000th observation ended up being a Norway maple with a bit of red in the leaf in addition to the usual yellow.
11-15-20. Watchung Reservation, Mountainside, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 864.75 miles total
Categories: fruit, not a plant.
I had accidentally found the gorge here last winter with Katie and so I went back today to see if I could figure out exactly how to get there on purpose as I'd like to bring some friends. It turned out not to be difficult and I only made one wrong turn. I worked here as a camp counsellor 30 years ago, and never realized I'd been in the lower part of the gorge many times, but it looks quite different now.
Not a lot of surprises, especially as far as fruit go, though there was a tulip tree laden with fruit , holding it down near the ground where I could photograph it, which was different. In not-a-plant I found two very pretty fungi, one yellow and one cluster of orange. And there was a fleabane plant still in full bloom, of all things.
Wowza! 100K observations! That is truly amazing! Way to go!
I have never seen a tulip tree in fruit. That one is on my bucket list.
11/15/17. Quarry Rd, Adamant, VT. 2 miles today, 2935.9 miles total.
Categories: tree shapes, buds, arthropods
I took a walk up Quarry Rd this morning and remembered my mask. But I forgot my winter hat, so I wore my mask the whole time to stay warm. At the end of the public part of the road, at the gate with the big no trespassing, no hunting signs, there was a car parked. And as I looked at trees through the gate, a hunter came out of the woods. Odd, very odd. I backed away from the gate and looked at more trees on the other side of the car. Then the hunter greeted me. It was a neighbor, and former caretaker of the property, out there with permission, no doubt. He said his rifle wasn't loaded. I guess if he's not going to pull the trigger, he figures it's safer not to load the gun. My camera was loaded though. I got photos of the shapes of white pine, red oak, black ash, honeysuckle, red spruce, red maple, and white willow. Buds were black cherry, beech, and red spruce. When I pulled down the red spruce branch to see if the buds truly were hairy, there was a Tetragnatha spider on the end, oh joy! I also found an aphid on the bottom of a raspberry leaf and a single bruce spanworm moth.
Oddly, I've never met anyone with a gun while out hiking. I see tree stands and feeding stations occasionally, but not hunters. Then again, trails are simply closed in hunting season if there is hunting allowed at the sight at all. But it's just not as big here. There's so little space to hunt safely.
11-16-20. Dukes Parkway Park, Manville, NJ. 1 mile today, 865.75 miles total
I noticed there was a path to the northeast of this park that I'd never followed before, along the river. It was a beautiful day, a little cool, but very breezy, blowing from behind me at first and it kept knocking off my hat. I was glad eventually to turn into the wind such that when I was looking at the plants on the ground it was pushing the hat more firmly on my head. I needed a hood or a scarf or something.
No surprises here, but much more prickly sowthistle and Amorpha fruticosa than I'm used to seeing.
I guess I'm not that surprised to meet people hunting here. If I'm in the woods and meet a hunter, it's a good reminder that I've forgotten the season. Last month I met a hunter with a dog deep in the town forest. I had no idea it was hunting season, but he said it was the first day of grouse season. Who knew? His dog was well trained to ignore people. Now that it's rifle season for deer, I won't go in the woods at all, just stick to the roads. I hate finding hunters on the roads because they're the worst kind. They drive down the road slowly with their windows open "hunting" from their cars illegally. And dumping their fast food trash out the window.
11/16/20. Center Rd, Adamant, VT. 2 miles today, 2937.9 miles total.
Categories: tree shapes, buds, bark
I needed to pick up my curbside order from the Adamant store today, so I took a quick walk up Center Rd. The temperature was almost 40F and their was mixed precip falling, so I didn't find any insects. I tried to focus on tree shapes, but I kept getting called back to buds. Shapes today were white ash, American elm (dead), white pine, hawthorn, sugar maple, Bebb's willow. Bark was grape, staghorn sumac, box elder, and white ash. And buds were box elder, red elder, staghorn sumac, and white ash.
11/17/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2939.9 miles total.
Categories: tracks
This afternoon I set out for a walk up Max Gray Rd, but got a massively flat tire on the way. The tire was completely shredded and I may have ruined the rim. So no more driving for a while until I can get it properly fixed. It was late by the time I got the tire changed so I headed out to Peck Hill with dusk approaching. There was some light snow but nothing on the ground, so I didn't have any luck finding insects. I managed to find a deer track, a turkey/grouse feather, and a cocoon on a fir needle.
11-17-20. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 867 miles total
categories: still has leaves., recognizable fallen leaves, fleshy fruit.
I walked up to the top of the ridge here and back down, going clockwise as I realized I'd only ever done it counter-clockwise before. In woody plants still holding their leaves I found honeysuckle, blackberry, autumn olive, red oak, mulberry, rose, raspberry, black locust (barely), holly (obviously), privet, barberry, burning bush, hophornbeam, beech, white oak, and witch-hazel (barely, but it was also blooming).
Leaves on the ground that I could ID were red, chestnut, and white oak; beech; red and sugar maple; American elm; bitternut; sycamor: and black cherry. Fleshy fruit included some rose hips that were so droopy I thought in the field that they might be bittersweet nightshade, barberry, privet, burning bush, and coralberry (one of the only places around here it grows wild).
11/18/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2941.9 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
This afternoon I took a walk up Peck Hill under heavy falling snow. We only had about an inch on the ground, but I was delighted to find spiders everywhere. I found 20 Tetragnatha viridis, 2 other Tetragnatha species, 6 other spider species, 2 Chionea, a winter scorpionfly, and a caterpillar. An excellent day for spider hunting!
11-18-20. Mattben Rd. Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 867.5 miles total.
Category: Unintentional plants.
I noticed that no one on iNat had posted anything from this large block in town, so I walked down most of this dead-end road in the center of it. It's mostly manicured lawns, but there were two undeveloped lots. There were lots of Chinese elms, and blooming witchhazel. I also found three spotted lanterflies. One was clearly dead, but I assume the other two were, too, as they don't live through the winter and we've already had a couple hard frosts.
Amazing to hear plants with leaves. Even the raspberries have given up theirs around here. And so much witch hazel in bloom! I only know of a few witch hazels in Washington County, and most or all of them are planted. Out in Groton, there's a few that seem to be wild along the rail trail, but that's off limits now due to hunting season.
11/19/20. Peck Hill, Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2943.9 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow, tracks
This afternoon there was still snow on the ground, although the temperature was quite a bit warmer than yesterday (40F). I found plenty of arthropods on the snow, but an entirely different mix than yesterday. There were 8 winter rove beetles, 9 dark spiders, 1 filmy dome spider, a Trichocera fly, a Chionea fly, and a Boreus brumalis (yesterday's Boreus was B. nivoriundus). All of this bounty was along our driveway, which is a north facing slope. I didn't find any arthropods at all along the rest of the route, which gets more sun. I also found a set of clear American crow tracks on the road near the open field.
11-19-20 Seeley's Pond. Watchung Reservation, Scotch Plains, NJ. 2 miles today, 869.5 miles total
Today I met a friend and took her hiking here, though there was a sign up warning of bow hunting. I switched out my blaze orange hat and scarf for my blue ones and we stuck to the trail. It is a steep but scenic trail but today was covered in fallen leaves, which made descending on the steep rocky trail especially challenging. But we made it, without falling. Lisa walks very quickly, though, and is not a naturalist of any kind, so nearly all my photos were shot at the beginning, while I was waiting for her to arrive.
We didn't meet any hunters (not even bow-hunters) but did come across two men carrying chainsaws, who said they were sent to clear a tree from the path we'd just walked. Only there was no tree blocking the trail that we saw. hmm....They decided to hike through and check anyway.
Hunting with chainsaws? Very interesting...
For the last 2 weeks we weren't allowed to hike with anyone outside our household. Now the governor has granted permission for hikes with 1 other person outside our household, that is, walks of 2 people maximum, masked and distanced.
11/20/20. Martin Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2945.9 miles total.
Categories: arthropods, buds
It was warmer this afternoon (50F) and the little bit of snow that we had was gone. We needed to pick up some fruit from Adamant, so went down there for my walk. I parked at the church so as not to take up a parking space by the co-op, and I began by inspecting the church for spiders. I found a flock of Tetragnatha spiders on the church walls (south facing white siding), and even some on the north facing siding. Then I headed up Martin Rd in hopes of finding some leaves to look under for insects, but there weren't many. I found a few blackberry leaves left, covered with fungus but not insects or spiders. So I kept my eye out for interesting buds. I collected some black ash, red maple, and trembling aspen buds, plus a couple hemlock tree shapes. Not a single person or car on the road.
11/21/20. Center Rd, East Montpelier, VT. 2 miles today, 2947.9 miles total.
Categories: tree shapes, buds
This afternoon I stopped by the orchard on Center Rd to get some apples. Then I drove a little ways further to take a walk. Car traffic was rather heavy since it's a thru-road to Montpelier. On the other hand, there was only 1 other walker, so these days that's a good thing. Adamant was slammed--all available parking and then some downtown was full. I guess it's back to being a popular destination walk again. I couldn't find any insects on Center Rd. Too chilly and no leaves left. But I found some striped maple bark, and buds of buckthorn, thimbleberry, and black raspberry. For tree shapes, I found sugar maple, white ash, and tamarack. I also saw several large flocks of turkeys in the fields.
11-21-20. Baldpate Mountain, Titusville, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 870.25 miles total.
Category: plants
I was asked by some folks at Mercer County Parks to help with biodiversity at their holdings; two especially, and this one is about to close for hunting season. So I drove the 45 minutes down and walked there in two different spots at 8 this morning. First was through a field and then a bit of a way up a rocky switchback trail in woods until it got too steep for me to feel comfortable coming back down. I still have trouble gong down steps that are higher (lower?) than a standard stairstep. Next I drove to the main building near the top of the mountain and walked along the road. I couldn't stay longer, though, as I had to get home to take my daughter to an appointment for a sore back.
All in all I added 57 plant species that had not yet been recorded in the park. Unusual species for me included redbud, Carolina (I think) geranium, sheep sorrel, pale corydalis, a possible blackjack oak (though I was going entirely by fallen leaves on that one), some pretty mosses I don't know, and lots more sweetgum than I am used to seeing.
While I was walking today I heard four people but never saw any of them (two were blowing leaves). Here in my section of NJ we are still mostly walking without masks, then putting one on if we have to pass someone. My sister in MA is required to wear one at all times off of private property. Probably a good idea but also a big pain, especially on a day like today when I went an hour and a half without seeing a soul. I'm glad you are allowed to walk with a friend, it's a nice way to connect without spreading too many germs (hopefully).
11-22-20. Roebling Park, Trenton, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 871.75 miles total
Today Katie and I went and checked out another Mercer County Park. This one is a swamp/marsh, with several plants I mostly see in South Jersey. Unusual finds for me included a black cherry leafmine, gadwalls, Monarda, swamp loosestrife, inkberry, swamp rose, jimsonweed, cottonwood, an old beaver dam, maybe linden viburnum, glaucous greenbriar, tree clubmoss, red osier dogwood, what might be smooth winterberry, a possible black huckleberry, 3 yews I think must have been planted here long ago, European bugleweed, and a great blue heron
What a great project helping with the park inventory! And you found some cool plants I wouldn't know at all--pale corydalis, blackjack oak, inkberry.
11/22/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2949.9 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
This afternoon I took a quick jaunt up Peck Hill Rd searching for bugs. With no snow on the ground, the search was a lot harder, but I still managed to find some. I found an aphid on what must be one of the very last blackberry leaves, a spider in the road, and a rove beetle in the road, plus a larva in the road masquerading as a caterpillar. I also found some fleabane with a leafminer. I never noticed before how fleabane basal leaves seem to last the entire winter. I didn't see a soul on the road besides my husband, who was terrorizing the neighborhood on his unicycle.
11/23/20. Worcester Rd, Calais, VT. 0.2 miles today, 2950.1 miles total.
Categories: recognizable in the dark
This afternoon I didn't manage to get out of the house for my provisioning run until 3:30. I swung by Adamant, then dropped off a computer at a friend's house so that they could Zoom with a camera for a change. I arrived at Maple Corner to pick up our CSA order at exactly 4 pm, only to be told by another customer that the CSA was running late for delivery. So I took advantage of the delay for a walk up Worcester Rd looking for plants. I had barely turned the corner when I met the CSA truck, so I turned around again, but not before photographing a new-to-me patch of Japanese knotweed in the back of someone's yard. By then it was already dusk. On my way home I discovered that both my headlights were out. I wonder how long they've been out. This was my first time driving after dark since February.
Oh, wow, not after dark since February! Though I've definitely done less driving at night this year than usual.
11-23-20. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 872.25 miles total.
Categories: buds and bark
I managed to squeeze a walk on this ridgetop today between errands, though I had meant to continue on to the gas station afterward and completely forgot and headed home instead. While I was walking, a doctor's office called to change my appointment and I spoke to my dad about my mom who's been sick (though on the mend). So it wasn't exactly the escape from everything I'd hoped for (and may explain why I lost track of what I'd planned).
I'm working on winter ID of woody plants. Trees I mostly recognized by their bark included: dogwood; black, red, white, and chestnut oaks; black birch; black and bird cherries; beech; Norway and red maples; and hophornbeam. Trees, shrubs and vines that I could ID by their twigs and buds included: Japanese aralia; dogwood; hickories (but only to genus and only when I got home and could enlarge the photo); American and slippery elms; Ailanthus (it had my first ever set of lanternfly eggs on it); green ash; red and sugar maples; grape (though only to genus); birch; beech; spicebush; and burning bush.
Woody plants that still had leaves (thus letting me cheat) were Amur honeysuckle, multiflora rose, Japanese barberry, round-leaved greenbrier, wineberry, hemlock, white pine, and beech. And rose, barberry, and witch-hazel all had fruit.
Wow--what a great collection of winter plants! What's your go-to method for the oaks?
11/24/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais VT. 2 miles today, 2952.1 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
We had a little snow last night that stuck to the ground, so this afternoon I went out on my Peck Hill route searching for arthropods. The weather was a mite chilly for the season so far, about 25F and blustery. I thought I was going to come up empty for insects. But as I returned to our driveway, I found a soldier beetle larva in the snow, dead. And then 3 crawling spiders in quick succession. They were all the same species, the same that I saw last week. I wish I could at least figure out what family it is.
Spiders give me such trouble; I'm still working from my old Little Golden Guide, plus one for the Carolinas.
With oaks, I mostly only have red, black, white, chestnut, pin, scarlet, and occasionally swamp white and swamp chestnut (way north Jersey and the Pine Barrens add 6 more species, and sawtoothed is commonly planted here). Pin and the two swamps I can't do from trunk bark, but won't be on the ridgetop. Scarlet I can't do from bark, either, and not from acorns and half the time not even if I have leaves and buds but it's not dark like black. So that leaves me red (ski slope bark), white (flaky bark), chestnut (enormously blocky bark) and black (dark and small chunks with the buds clustered at the tips of branches, but usually I have to cheat with leaves or acorns, unless I can reach the large and somewhat hairy buds).
Wow! So many oaks to deal with! Up here, we have red oak. And it's not very common. So I'm not familiar with the bark differences between red and any of the other oaks that I don't see. Do you recognized pin oak by shape?
11/25/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2954.1 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
We had another inch or so of snow last night, and it was a bit warmer today, about 40F. Conditions were ideal for spiders and other arthropods on the snow, especially since my husband didn't plow the driveway, and Peck Hill wasn't plowed either. I found at least a gazillion spiders. Actually, more like 77 individual spiders of about 20 species. And about 25 Trichocera flies in at least 2, maybe 3 species. And 15 winter rove beetles, plus 2 harvestmen, 3 spring tails of 2 species, and a yellowish green caterpillar. Yikes! If the rest of the month is like this, I don't know if I have the stamina to chase all these critters every day!
The drooping branches help a lot on pin oaks. Plus in wet areas they are almost always the ones with big round galls (horned or gouty) that look like some fisherman got his bobber stuck in the tree. And large ones (a foot or more across) have pretty smooth bark for an oak.
It helps that I have pin, black, red, white, and swamp white all growing in my yard.
Swamp white has twig bark that pulls away along one side, like the trunk bark of of an old sugar maple. But it also has bullet galls on most twigs, which helps a lot.
Pin has little buds, black has hairy buds, red has fat smooth buds as does scarlet (but they are smaller) and chestnut has long buds. But I am totally useless with swamp chestnut. I need to plant one.
In south Jersey we add southern red, bur and post, willow, blackjack, bear, chinquapin, dwarf chinquapin, turkey, water, and more. It's overwhelming.
Holy cow on all the bugs in the snow! We've only had snow like twice since you started studying them, and I found no critters at all. You are making me look forward to it (which is pretty rare, as I'm usually the one who ends up doing most of the clearing, and that by hand with a shovel).
11-25-20. Delaware-Raritan Canal, Manville and Franklin, NJ. 3.75 miles today, 877 miles total.
Categories: Bark and Buds
Today I walked the canal to work on winter plant ID, as these are lowland plants, so a different selection. Also the canal towpath is an extremely well-maintained cinder-paved road with no uneven bits and my foot was sick of rocks and roots. It has trees on both sides, but just in a foot-wide strip, and then the canal on one side and a steep bank on the other. It wasn't too crowded today but I passed about 1 person every 5 minutes or so. Which became more significant as I went along and realized I needed to pee.
The bank was too steep to get down, but it looked like just a little further along it would be gentler and I could bushwack into the floodplain to do my business. But no, each time it was too steep, but looked shallower further on. Eventually I came to a pipline clearing, with a mowed bank, that was a little bit less steep and I thought I could manage, but just as I got there someone inspecting the line (I guess) came bopping along in a golf cart and parked right next to the trail. ugh.
I went further and found a spillway that was perfect, but with a whole line of people coming toward me in the other direction. I sat on a handy bench and waited for them to pass, but the last one was a fisherman, who decided to set up right in the middle of the spillway!
A little further down and I reached a park. There was a sign for restrooms. I followed it only to find a note on the door that they were closed (but the ones on other side of the park, half a mile away, were open). It was not worth it. I headed back toward home. At the spillway the fisherman had moved to the very far edge, so I wandered casually into the woods at the very near edge and did my business, and then trekked all the way back to my car. Almost 4 miles is a very long walk for me still.
I did find lots of neat stuff including Kentucky coffee tree, a flowering frost aster, and the prettiest glaucous greenbriar (in fall colors) I'd seen. As I reached down to check that the leaves really were glaucous below, I realized that right next to it was a little, foot-long garter snake, all curled up but, thankfully, not looking at all aggressive (as he could easily have reached my hand had he wanted to).
Things I recognized by their bark: black and bird cherry; shagbark hickory; white and red oak; the coffeetree (that bark is weird); grape; sycamore; silky, flowering, and red osier dogwoods; black locust; and river birch.
Things I recognized by their buds: black walnut; ailanthus; green and black ashes; alder; poison ivy; barberry; box elder; some hickory; and spicebush.
Thanks for the tips on the oaks! There's a swamp white oak planted in front of the church in Adamant. I need to go out and check its bark and buds. It sounds like really cool bark! I'll check the tree to see if it has the bullet galls. But oaks are so uncommon here that many of the usual galls are missing.
What a nightmare with the bathroom situation on the canal trail! Jeesh! Glad you finally found a solution. I know of a single Kentucky coffee tree in the county. It's in the yard of the professor I studied dendrology with. Next time I'm in Northfield, I need to wander through his yard to check the bark.
11/26/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2956.1 miles total.
Categories: arthropods and tracks
Late this morning I took a quick walk up Peck Hill. Overnight we had some rain which made the light covering of snow quite soggy. I didn't expect to find many arthropods. In fact, I was quite relieved to find just one spider, on our driveway. After yesterday's excessive bounty, my legs were rather sore. All that stooping down on my knees to photograph the spiders, then standing back up again. Since there weren't many spiders to look at, I photographed some ruffed grouse tracks that crossed the road as well.
11-26-20. Hoffheimer Trail, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 877.5 miles total
Categories: buds, bark
A very quick walk on Thanksgiving morning. It had just stopped raining and was still dripping from the trees. In barks I found hornbeam, hophornbeam, elm, birch, red oak, tulip (but I had to check the fruit for that one). Buds were just white ash. White oak and Norway maple had leaves, which made ID simple.
11/27/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2958.1 miles total.
Categories: arthropods and tracks
We had more rain overnight, so by the time I went out for my walk this afternoon, the snow was almost entirely gone. Just a few scattered thin patches. No arthropods on snow today, so I searched under the few remaining leaves I could find. I found a white fly and an aphid under some blackberry leaves. I also found a tiny cocoon on a fir needle but decided it was too difficult to ID, not worth posting. For tracks today, I found some fresh turkey tracks crossing the road.
11/28/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2960.1 miles total.
Categories: needles
It was chilly but no snow left today, so there was practically no chance of finding insects. Instead, I focused on collecting some needles photos. I found red spruce, white spruce, balsam fir, white pine, and eastern hemlock. I kept my eye out for the Canada yew in the wood on Peck Hill, but managed to miss it both ways.
11-27-20. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 878 miles total
categories: bark and buds
I had duty today, so simply parked and walked the perimeter of the parking lot here, so I could get back to the car swiftly if needed (as it turned out we had no calls all day, which is quite unusual, especially on Black Friday).
There were blueberry bushes that I suspect might be deerberry (I'm still learning to sort them by twigs). Beech and white pine were easy as the leaves were still on. Black birch bark. A juniper seedling was also easy. I found some cute little mushrooms in the center of a rotten stump, and an aster-y plant I don't recognize. And there was a sprig of mountain laurel, something I've never seen at this park before. Red and white oak bark, red maple buds, and a few more fungi was about it. I wasn't here long.
11-28-20. Cliffwood Beach, Aberdeen, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 878.75 miles total
Categories: seashore plants and animals
Katie, Molly, and I drove "down the shore" to one of the very closest beaches to our house today. It was windy and overcast but in the 50s. We walked in two different spots, along a beach, through a salt marsh, and out some tidal flats. We accidentally arrived at the perfect time: low tide. I brought my oldest camera, as I didn't want the sand and salt spray to damage my good ones, and the viewfinder is virtually useless. So nearly every one of my photos is aimed too high, with whatever I was trying to photograph in the bottom half of the screen. I also can't see if it's focused, have to rely on the camera's beeping, so many shots have a lovely blade of grass in focus, and whatever I was looking at blurry in the background. Really makes me appreciate my birthday camera.
The kids like to bring me stuff to photograph, and at one point Molly brought me "a domesticated rock, returned to the wild" (a very worn brick).
Plants I mostly see down the shore included: a red alga, sea lettuce, seaside goldenrod, clotbur, bayberry, winged sumac, groundel tree, spotted knapweed, marsh elder, an Atriplex sp., inkberry, Amorpha fruticosa, sandspur, sea rocket, and saltwort. Surprises were lots of pearly everlasting, osage orange, and groundnut on the beach.
Animals were a chestnut clam, soft shell clams, slipper shells, lots of sponges, ribbed mussel, quahog, oyster, razor clam, mud snail, lots of pieces of dead menhaden, a surf clam with two little scuds swimming in it, horseshoe crabs, and acorn barnacles.
And both daisy fleabane and a dandelion were blooming in the mowed lawn by the playground.
What a wonderful family walk on the beach! Horseshoe crabs and clams, they sound so exotic!
11/29/20 Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2962.1 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
This afternoon the sun actually came out and the day was quite beautiful. The first thing I saw when I went out the door was a fly on my porch. I've been playing around with focus stacking, trying to figure it out. The fly wasn't moving very fast, so I took a bunch of shots with the intention of trying to focus stack them later. Down at the end of the driveway I found the same aphid and white fly as yesterday, so I think they're quite dead. But up Peck Hill I found another aphid and took a few shots for focus stacking. I also found that pesky Canada yew I was looking for yesterday. It's so much easier to find things when it's not so cold and rainy. When I got my photos on the computer I found I actually had good luck with the focus stacking, especially with the fly. Now I'm hooked, but I need more insects to practice with.
11/30/20. Sodom Pond Rd, Adamant, VT. 2 miles today, 2964.1 miles total.
Categories: needles
This afternoon I went to Adamant for groceries, so I took my walk up Sodom Pond Rd. I hunted and hunted for insects, but no luck. Just too cold and rainy. So I turned my attention to needles and came up with just about the same set that I photographed the other day on Peck Hill Rd: white spruce, red spruce, eastern hemlock, balsam fir...and Canada yew.
I have never tried focus stacking; it always sounded intimidating (and I'm not a very patient photographer). If I were to do needles, unless I were walking in a landscaped neighborhood, my only possibilities would be red cedar, hemlock, and white pine. And in most places I walk it would be only the red cedar.
So interesting! Red cedar is one I would have to travel far to see. There's some along Lake Champlain, but none in our county.
11-29-20. Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, NY. 2.25 miles today, 881 miles total
categories: green, birds, shells
I explored this fort system which is part of Gateway National Park. I'd been here briefly before, but had not found the "cool" parts of the fort, with hidden rooms you can explore. Now I want to bring the kids back.
I came for the interesting ferns in the oldest part of the wall and found ebony spleenwort and then both clifbrakes: purple and smooth.
Green things were overwhelming. I found 47 things that were still green (other than those ferns). I also found dandelions, and aster, and a sowthistle in bloom.
Birds were black duck, song sparrow, double crested cormorant, herring gull, ring billed gull.
Shells included slipper, jackknife clam, blue mussel, soft shelled clam, quahog, jingle, shark eye and a horseshoe crab.
Add a Comment