November Wanderings, Redux

Once again, I am neglecting this blog, often finding only enough energy in my lame old age to enjoy a woodsy or watery adventure,  but not enough to post in good time a blog about these adventures.  I have been out, and I do have hundreds of new photos to select and edit, but since a couple of these photos were more blurry than I wanted to post, I went searching through past posts to see if I might have better ones in my files.  And lo!  I found this entire old post from almost exactly five years ago (11/23/2020), in which I reported many of the same finds that I have found this year, and from exactly the same locations.  So I decided, why not re-post this blog from 2020? Some of the photos are better than my new ones, and I'd probably have written the same words about them now.  The post was titled November Wanderings. So here it is again, November Wanderings, Redux!

Yep.  It's November, all right.  One day the temps are down in the teens, then two days later they reach the mid-70s.  And after that, mostly gray has prevailed.  Maybe the sun breaks through for a bit, but low clouds soon cancel out that bit of blue in the sky. Next day, some rain, a few flakes of snow.  A sunny day dawns promising, but a chill wind drives the cold inside my winter coat.  It hasn't been very inviting out there, for this aging old lady with an arthritic knee.  But I have ventured out since I posted here last, just for an hour or so here and there.  And I'm always glad I did. Nature always has something delightful to offer. Even in November.

November 10, Bog Meadow Brook Nature Preserve 

There's lovely color still to be found on this trail, even after the vivid autumn foliage fell many days ago.  The Winterberry shrubs (Ilex verticillata) that line this pond are thick with scarlet berries (above), and Red Osier twigs (Cornus sericea) (below) glow lipstick red along the bank. The curling siliques of Northern Willowherb (Epilobium ciliatum) shine golden in the late-fall sunlight.

What once were the small white flowers of a trailside aster have turned into fluffy white tufts.

The pale-gold seedpods of Loesel's Twayblade Orchid (Liparis loeselii) are much easier to find this time of year than were their tiny greenish-yellow flowers hiding among summer's grasses.

How wonderful to still see dragonflies darting about on the autumn air!  Especially dragonflies as colorful as this Autumn Meadowhawk basking in the sun.

The sun goes down early these late-fall afternoons, and it cast a warm golden light on this small flock of Canada Geese floating calmly on a trailside pond.

November 18, Evergreen Plants at Mud Pond

I didn't get out until afternoon on this freezing-cold day. On my way to a powerline clearcut near Mud Pond at Moreau Lake State Park, I was surprised to see how thickly icicles hung from the spring-watered boulders along Spier Falls Road, despite their exposure to hours of sunshine this day.

The powerline clearcut above Mud Pond passes beside a pine woods, and the open area next to the woods is carpeted with thick mosses, this carpet studded with small seedling conifers and other evergreen plants.

I had come here on this Wednesday to prepare for leading some friends on an "Evergreen Plants Walk" the following Friday. But before I even began to catalog the many green plants that grow here, I was startled to see how the stems of many Frostweed plants (Crocanthemum canadense) were still surrounded with icy curls of frozen sap, even this late in the day (it was now 3pm).  Usually, these delicate curls melt or evaporate as soon as the morning sun touches them.  But the freezing cold had persisted all day long.

As I walked near the edge of the woods, my feet sank deep into thick carpets of moss. The predominant moss here is one called Big Red-stem Moss (Pleurozium schreberi).

Many other mosses thrive in this sandy soil, including this lime-green one with fern-like leaves called Brocade Moss (Hypnum imponens).

Among all the green mosses were several mounds of Sphagnum capillifolium moss that was colored a surprising pink! This mound was studded with tiny White Pine seedlings (Pinus strobus).

There were at least two species of Reindeer lichens (Cladonia spp.) sprouting up from amid the pine needles, both a pale-green one and this one, colored a beautiful gray.

Fallen logs lay at the edge of the woods, most of them covered with many different lichens, mosses, and liverworts, including this curly-leaved liverwort called Lovely Fuzzwort (Ptilidium pulcherimum).

Several clubmosses, too, are part of this evergreen community, including this Tree Clubmoss (Dendrolycopodium obscurum) with its golden pollen stalks.

Fan Clubmoss (Diphasiastrum digitatum) is another evergreen denizen of this powerline clearcut.

Running Clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum) also thrives here.  Another vernacular name for this sprawling, ground-hugging plant is Wolf's Claw, suggested by the pointed tufts of white hairs at the end of each branch.

And of course, there are several different kinds of baby evergreen trees, including at least two species of pine. I believe this one is a Red Pine seedling (Pinus resinosa), with its fascicles (needle bundles) containing two stiff needles.  White Pine seedlings, with fascicles containing five more-slender needles of a bluer shade of green, were even more numerous at this site.

An occasional Spruce seedling (Picea sp.), with its short sharp needles, could also be found among the other baby conifers.

I found only one Juniper sapling (Juniperus sp.) among all the other conifers, and it was abundantly studded with berries of the most beautiful blue.

I assert that we can call these British Soldier lichens (Cladonia cristatella) another evergreen plant, since its leafy thallus is definitely greenish, even when its fruiting bodies are a brilliant red.

November 19, Moreau Lake Shore

This Thursday afternoon was breezy and cold, but breaks in the clouds let a few rays of warming sun cast a golden light on the north shore of the lake.  My friend Sue had joined me to see how far we could walk on dry land around the lake.  But first we had to cross the brand-new bridge that spans the narrow waterway between the main lake and the back bay.  Thanks go to The Friends of Moreau Lake State Park for providing the funds to replace the old bridge, which had been much in need of repair. 

For the past month or so, I've been celebrating the emergence of the lake's walkable shore, as lake levels had started to fall from the highs that found the water risen well into the woods.  But wow! It looked as if just overnight the levels had fallen precipitously, as the still-damp sand along the north shore appeared to indicate.

Sure enough, we were able to easily stride along the shore, with ample amounts of dry footing between the woods and the water's edge.

We made it all the way to the cove along the eastern shore, where seven years ago I had discovered a large population of one of New York's rarest plants, the Endangered species called Whorled Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum verticillatum var. verticillatum). At that time, the population included nearly 300 blooming plants, many of which had been submerged now for nearly two years by remarkably high water levels.  Would we find any at all remaining today?  Sadly, only a few.  But the specimens we did find bore seed heads that had dropped their seeds, so we can hope that many more of this super-rare plant will once again find a happy home on the shore of Moreau Lake.

Nature's November Rainbow

While walking at Bog Meadow Brook Nature Preserve last week, I glanced across a pond to see these Winterberry shrubs glowing vibrantly amid the forest's darkness.  The surprise of encountering such vivid color when much of nature has retreated into the grays and browns of late autumn set me to looking about for other colorful surprises still to be found along this and other nature trails.  And I discovered that I could still find a veritable rainbow of vivid hues, even in mid-November.

The REDs, of course, are still plentiful, with entire swamps blazing with masses of Winterberry (Ilex verticillata).

A somewhat more surprising RED find are the still-vivid pedicels of Gray Dogwood berries (Cornus racemosa).

ORANGE comes next on the spectrum, and I was lucky to find a gorgeous cluster of Orange Mycena mushrooms (Mycena leaiana).

Seeking examples of YELLOW,  masses of Lemon Drop Fungus (Bisporella citrina) certainly delivered a punch of that vivid color.

As for GREEN, a walk along some spring-watered cliffs presented me with this beautiful clump of Marsh Cardinal Moss (Ptychostomum pseudotriquetrum), its star-shaped leaves tipped with sparkling water drops.

I feared that BLUE examples would be more difficult to find, but that was before I discovered this remarkably large mass of Blue Stain Fungus (Chlorociboria aeruginascens).

As for PURPLE, I knew exactly where to look, for the ordinarily green leaves of Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) turn quite a lovely shade of purple in the fall.

Waterside Wonderfulness

As rain and cold and even some frost arrived the past few days, I'm recalling some sunny, warm, sweetly mellow days last week, visiting two of my favorite wetlands, Moreau Lake and the Hudson River.

I love weekday visits to Moreau Lake State Park this time of year, when all is quiet and just a few people are enjoying what this beautiful lake has to offer.  Here, a lone fisherman casts his line into the water, while only two canoes carry their silent paddlers around the lake.

I enjoy walking along this sun-warmed, pine-scented trail that passes between the main lake and the lake's back bay, offering glimpses of blue water to either side. Both White Pines and Pitch Pines line the trail.

The vividly colored leaves of a Shadblow tree (Amelanchier sp.) cast a warming glow as I passed beneath its branches.

The sunlight beaming on these shoreline shrubs made their leaves glow like embers.

 

What shoreline shrub could rival the intensely scarlet color of Highbush Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum)?

Here's a closer look at super-saturated red of those Highbush Blueberry leaves:

Due to the past summer's lack of rainfall, the shore along the north end of the lake presents a wide stretch of sandy beach, which felt quite summer-warm this day, thanks to abundant sunshine.

I was happy to find on this sandy shore a few plants of the quite-tiny Small-flowered Dwarf Bulrush (Cyperus subsquarrosus) still looking quite healthy, with its chubby spikelets still intact. A hard frost will cause the plants to wither and disappear until spring. Because these particular plants (an Endangered species in New York State) grow quite high up on this beach, they avoid being covered by higher water in wetter years, so I can count on finding them every year.   This year, due to drought, on another stretch of Moreau Lake's shoreline, many thousands of plants have re-emerged from several years of inundation, looking hardly the worse for their several years of biding their time under the water.

Further up on this sandy shore, a thick hedge of Black Huckleberry shrubs (Gaylussacia baccata) was displaying its gorgeous autumn color.

As I turned to leave, I lingered for some time enjoying the glittering wavelets that sparkled and danced on the lake.

On my way home, I took Spier Falls Road, which closely follows the Hudson River.  Along this stretch of the river, forested mountains fall to the water's edge, and virtually all of the land you can see here on both sides of the river is part of Moreau Lake State Park. The Spier Falls hydroelectric dam can be seen spanning the river far off in the distance.

Because of a raging fire that damaged part of the Spier Falls Dam last year, the water upstream of the dam has been lowered significantly, so that work may proceed on repairing those damages. Consequently, much of the river bottom here has been exposed for over a year, and a fascinating variety of plants has sprung up, now that sunlight and air is available to them.

I confess that I sidled around some "No Trespassing" signs to make my way out to the water's edge to see what I might find springing up from what was once river bottom. The most obvious plants were abundant clusters of deep-pink leaves and scarlet seed pods, belonging to Dwarf St. John's Wort (Hypericum mutilum). A tiny sprout of Red Maple leaves added a rosy accent to this patch of rock- and snail shell-strewn mud.

The sprawling stems of Water Purslane (Ludwigia palustris) formed carpets of rosy red, punctuated by slender green spiky growths. I bet those spiky, curving green growths are some new plants of Slender Milfoil (Myriophyllum tenellum).

When I first visited this drawdown of the river, almost exactly one year ago, the only plants I could see covering this muddy stretch were vast masses of Slender Milfoil, as this year-old photo reveals:

Here's a closer look at those newly uncovered plants of Slender Milfoil:

It amazed me how different this same patch of exposed riverbottom had changed in just one year. No flowering plants poked up from amid those milfoil stems a year ago, while many had by now.  Most were quite small, like the Dwarf St. John's Wort and the Water Plantain. But this solitary stem of Sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) was quite the showy exception!

A wonderful day on the waterways!  And the roadsides on the way home were pretty spectacular, too.