December 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.
Comentários
12/1/20. Wharf St, St. Albans, VT. 0.2 miles today, 2964.3 miles total.
Categories: trees, flowering
This afternoon my husband and I took a quick walk up the block to get the lay of the land near our Airbnb just before sunset. The warmest day of the week, and we spent it packing and driving instead of outdoors. Ah well, we hope to get out quite a bit this week. Trees along our road are mostly green ash (I think), cottonwood, and silver maple. In bloom were forsythia and a Symphyotrichum, right along the water.
12/2/20. Mississquoi Valley Rail Trail, St. Albans, VT. 3 miles today, 2967.3 miles total.
Categories: trees, woody plants
This afternoon my husband taught 2 classes on line and I attended a virtual seminar, we headed out to explore the Mississquoi Valley Rail Trail, him with his unicycle and me on my own 2 feet. The trail runs 26 miles from St Albans to Richford. I wonder how many chunks of it we'll manage to see during our stay here in St Albans. We started a little over a mile from downtown St. Albans. Today's portion went under Rt 89, then past quite a few farms. We were surprised to see the size of St Albans. All this time living in Vermont, we never drove through downtown St Albans before. It dwarfs Montpelier. There seems to be a lot more money up as well. Maybe due to the big farms? In any case, plants along the road today were cottonwood, elm, gray birch, trembling aspen, sugar maple, white ash, box elder, and loads of buckthorn. A few patches of Phragmites at intersections. Although the trail is supposed to be for non-motorized vehicles only, a police car came up the trail as I was heading back to the car.
12/3/20. Mississquoi Valley Rail Trail, St Albans, VT. 4.7 miles today, 2972 miles total.
Categories: trees
This afternoon my husband and I returned to the Mississquoi Rail Trail, starting at the parking lot at Mile 3 this time. The sun was shining when we started out, so we decided to make it a long one. I had no idea how long it was until I got home and downloaded my GPS data. 4.7 miles--my longest walk in a very long time! There were no leaves left and no insects today. There were a few birds, but I had my macro lens, so I couldn't catch them. Instead, I just focused on trees. I found box elder, sugar maple, red maple, silver maple, beech, red oak, hop hornbeam, white ash, black ash, basswood, trembling aspen, cottonwood, hemlock, white pine, white cedar, staghorn sumac and alder.
Neat how much more St. Albans trees resemble what I have here in NJ than what you usually see, though I think it's even further north? but lower, I assume, and the lake maybe makes it milder? So much fun to explore a new place; I would love to rent a house for a bit just to not always be right here.
12-1-20. Hicks Tract, Millington, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 882.75 miles total.
Monday was absolutely miserable; raining sideways and only 40 degrees, followed by torrential rain and thunderstorms. But Tuesday was lovely, and I got two friends to go for a walk with me, through a little wooded, hilly park that neither of them had been to before. But it meant I didn't take many photos.
This is the peak of Amur honeysuckle, with yellow leaves and red berries. You can see it from far off through the woods. There's a little burning bush still with red leaves, and about half the callery pear and half the barberry leaves are still up and beautifully red. Of course all of those are invasives, but it made for a pretty walk.
12-2-20. Six Mile Run, Franklin, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 884. 25 miles total
categories: fruit, fall color
I had an hour, so I walked out this trail for 30 minutes and then turned and walked back. Just as I turned, the sky started looking very ominous, and I hurried a bit, and it started raining just as I got back in my car, whew.
Fruiting I found: bitternut, rose, bittersweet, stickseed, poke, aster, privet, honeysuckle, burning bush, vervain, nightshade, and Queen Anne's lace. And I found yarrow still blooming!
For fall color there was pear, barberry, christmasberry, zelkova, cherry, arrowwood, a goldenrod, privet, honeysuckle, and blackberry.
12-3-20. Laurelwood Arboretum, Wayne, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 885 miles total
category: unusual (for me)
Sandy @sadawolk and I walked at this lovely arboretum today. It's so nice to have her to go around with, as she's okay with my snail's pace, and she knows a lot about the cultivated plants (and is willing to talk and talk about the weeds with me).
Unusual things for me included (mostly cultivated): mahonia, fountaingrass, spotted deadnettle, plum yew, cherry laurel, Youngia japonica, cedar of Lebanon, Virginia sweetspire, feverfew, astilbe, corkscrew willow, sourwood, Carolina hemlock (I think), Skimmia, glorybower, and umbrella pine. We also saw a flock of half a dozen deer, mostly laying down, right by the path and totally unconcerned with us.
Amazing to hear you still have some leaves and color. Enjoy it while you can! There isn't much for leaves up here, just a few dried up beech and oak leaves. Yes, St Albans is a least one zone warmer than Montpelier. Even so, I haven't found any insects all week.
12/4/20. Mississquoi Valley Rail Trail, Sheldon, VT. 3.4 miles today, 2975.4 miles total.
Categories: galls
This afternoon we had a bit of rain. While my husband went out unicycling on the trail, I did another section on foot, around mile 7 of the trail. I was carrying my camera inside my raincoat to keep it dry, so I decided to bring it out only for things I hadn't shot yet this week. I found some honking big stem galls on an oak, some honeysuckle and galls, and the first hazelnut bush I've seen here.
12/5/20. Mississquoi Valley Rail Trail, Sheldon, VT. 4 miles today, 2979.4 miles total.
Categories: ferns
This afternoon my husband and I went back to Sheldon to see another bit of the rail trail. Today we parked in Sheldon Center in a small lot behind a giant feed grain operation. I walked west a short distance so I could cross the Mississquoi on the historic railroad bridge. The bridge was the site of the historic derailment in 1984 that closed this section of the railroad, making the rail trail possible. The bridge was scenic enough as ordinary railroad bridges go, nothing to indicate the great derailment. I decided to focus on ferns today because I'm taking a fern class online through Eagle Hill. The class is about ferns of Central America, but it certainly has got me thinking about ferns. Today I found intermediate and marginal wood fern and Christmas fern. I also found some more Phragmites and saw lots of honeysuckle.
12/6/20. Mississquoi Valley Rail Trail, Sheldon, VT. 4.2 miles today, 2983.6 miles total.
Categories: ferns, galls
This afternoon we returned yet again to the rail trail for our afternoon outing. We started east of Sheldon near mile 11 of the trail today. It was quite blustery with light pelting snowflakes. I walked rather fast, taking time to stop only every now and then when I found some ferns. Today's section was a mix of industrial cornfields and northern oak forest with hemlocks. In the forested section I found more intermediate and marginal wood ferns and Christmas fern. At one point the trail had a cat tail marsh wetlands on one side. I found a few ostrich fern fertile fronds there. Galls today were goldenrod stem galls and goldenrod crown galls.
12-5-20 Washington Crossing State Park, Titusville, NJ. 1 mile today, 886 miles total.
Categories: fruit, leaves
Katie and I went to walk at Baldpate Mountain, to survey it for the Mercer County Parks people, only to find it was closed for hunting (despite the fact that the Mercer County people told me it would be open until the 11th). So instead we drove "next door" (6 miles by road) to Washington Crossing State Park. Here we spent quite a bit of time finding the bathroom, then walked through the woods, along the edge of a field, and finally down what is supposedly the road George Washington marched almost 224 years ago, to go help kill our distant cousin (Colonel Rall) in Trenton.
Fruit I found included linden viburnum, deutzia, burning bush, barberry, timothy, tulip, some panic-like grass, pilewort, rose, box elder, and privet. Still had leaves included privet, bittersweet, chickweed, garlic mustard, Japanese honeysuckle, avens, wintercreeper, Amur honeysuckle, arrowwood, wineberry, oniongrass, holly, woodfern, beech, linden viburnum, deertongue grass, and black elder,.
12-6-20. Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, NY. 1.5 miles today, 887.5 miles total
Chuck and I took all three girls back to this neat old fort on Staten Island. They all brought flashlights and explored through the dark tunnels in the ruins. I decided to wait outside instead. They found enormous numbers of cave crickets (we call them sprickets: spider-crickets) and I am not at all fond of the things, especially in big groups. (I think these are Japanese camel crickets, but I didn't get a usable photo).
Afterward, we walked down to the beach and watched the barges go by, plus lots of seagulls. I didn't find anything I hadn't seen here a week ago, but we had a great time.
Too bad about the park being closed for hunting. Glad you got another walk in anyways! What an adventure looking through the fort on State Island. I don't think I've ever seen cave crickets.
12/7/20. St Albans Bay Park, St Albans, VT. 1.5 miles today, 2985.1 miles total.
Categories: unintended plants
This morning my husband only had a short stretch of free time between teaching and meetings, so we decided to explore the park which is right around the corner from our rental house. It is a large very well manicured park with all manner of recreational facilities as well as a nice stretch of beach. Nobody was there besides us, though, with the cool temperatures, spitting snow, and stiff breeze off the water. We found cocklebur, mullein, honeysuckle, and poison ivy in the park. We also found a few dandelions struggling to hold onto their blooms.
12/8/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2987.1 miles total.
Categories: tracks, arthropods
We found about an inch of snow on the ground when we got home this afternoon, so right after lunch I took a hike up Peck Hill searching for insects. It was a bit chilly (-5.7C on the ground), so hunting wasn't very good. I managed to find a single winter firefly and a brown caterpillar, both quite still. Perhaps they were just resting, not dead. I also found some deer tracks and some grouse tracks.
12/9/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2989.1 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
Light snow showers last night and today plus warmer temperatures made for great arthropod hunting. I started finding them right off the back steps as soon as I stepped out the door. In all, I found over 60 specimens today. There were lots of Trichocera, flocks of Psyllids, and some winter rove beetles, a few Diamesa flies, a few caterpillars, and nearly a dozen spider species.
12-7-20. Peach Tree La., Hemlock Cir., and Sycamore Way, Warren, NJ. 1 mile today, 888.5 miles total
Categories: woody landscape plants, lawn weeds.
I snuck a walk in before my dental appointment this morning, walking the development across the street from the office. This is highly landscaped, so I figured I'd work on landscape shrubs and trees, not my strong suit. Trees were: blue spruce, a cedar and a weeping cedar, a cherry and a weeping cherry, dogwood, mulberry, ash, apple, norway spruce, another spruce, pin oak, white pine, Bradford pear, southern magnolia, river birch, silver maple, red maple, Japanese maple, arborvitae, and elm.
Shrubs were abelia, azalea, dwarf blue spruce, box, chamaecyparis, a couple other scale-leaved conifers I can't ID, spindle, two kinds of hydrangea, inkberry, Japanese holly, another holly, andromeda, at least two kinds of juniper, amur honeysuckle, Japanese black pine, another little pine, rose of sharon, barberry, spiraea, spring heath, two kinds of viburnum, rhododendron, and a yucca.
On the way back I looked at weeds in the lawns. Very few and far between (though one lawn was clearly not done by the same poison-everything landscapers and had quite a nice variety of wild plants). I found hairy bittercress, wood sorrel, dandelion, speedwell, wild garlic, mouse ear chickweed, silvery bryum, ground ivy, plantain, groundsel, white clover, and Indian strawberry.
12-8-20. Greenbrook Rd., Green Brook, NJ. 1 mile today, 889.5 miles total
category: leaves
I was looking for somewhere nearby I hadn't walked before and settled on this road bordering a brook. Not much of a shoulder and a fairly busy road, but still a pleasant walk (though I was a little underdressed).
Interesting finds included a fly mine in dandelion, a phlox that still had flowers, likewise periwinkle and dandelion in bloom, ginkgo leaves (with no sign of the parent tree) basilica orbweaver eggs, and a white nuthatch.
12-9-20. Tullo Rd., Bridgewater, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 890.25 miles total
category: fruit
I squeezed a walk in this morning before teaching CPR (ironically while I was teaching the course the rescue squad was dispatched to a CPR call, but unfortunately the patient didn't make it).
Fruiting I found: bittersweet, goldenrod, dock, privet, mugwort, barberry, rose, clematis, wood reed, wild rye, grapes, asters, and honeysuckle.
12-10-20. Delaware-Raritan Canal, South Bound Brook. 3.5 miles today, 893.75 miles total
Category: birds
I walked with two friends, neither of whom is at all a naturalist (and both of whom do a "boot camp" exercise program together and are in much better shape than I am). They do not pause, but I managed to get them to stop so I could photograph a few birds. We saw geese, common mergansers, mallards, hooded mergansers, bluebird, whitethroated sparrow, and a turkey vulture (I didn't manage to photograph) plus a very brave squirrel . There is also an enormous amount of bladdernut here, probably more than I've ever seen total before.
Landscaping plants are tough! So out of context that even when you know them well, they still don't make sense. Glad you're out there counting them! Cool find with the leaf minter in the dandelion. I haven't found any leaf mines in about a month. Or any leaves for that matter...
12/10/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2991.1 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
Today was a little warmer than yesterday, perhaps in the mid 30s. We had light snow overnight, so conditions were good for finding arthropods on snow, but not exactly ideal since it wasn't actually snowing when I went out. I found about 30 specimens today, not a bad haul. There were loads of Trichocera and lots of red and black spiders. But not a single psyllid, where yesterday there were flocks of them. I also found a nice snow scorpionfly, the gold kind (Boreus brumalis).
We had a dusting of snow the other day and I thought of you and your arthropods, but didn't see any in a cursory glance. Do you find one kind of habitat has more critters on snow than others?
I'm finding the best habitat is our driveway. Well, to be more general, deep woods without a lot of exposure, either sun or wind. That's on snowy days. On sunny days, I tend to find more on the edge of a farm field. I'm hoping that by the end of the season I'll have enough data to figure out at least where the best habitats are.
12/11/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2993.1 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
Today was quite a bit warmer, in the 40sF. When I went out I didn't think I'd find any spiders because of the warmth. Indeed, I was nearly done with the out portion of my out-and-back walk before I found my first creature, a spider, in almost the same place where I found my first one yesterday, in the woods below the farm field. And then I started finding quite a few, mostly spiders, most the same species. But I also found a winter rove beetle, a caddisfly, and a bug. After I returned from the Peck Hill walk, I went out to check our trail cameras. By then it had cooled off a bit and I found several more spiders and a Trichocera fly that had crash landed.
12/12/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais VT. 2 miles today, 2995.1 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
This afternoon was warmer still, and a lot of snow had melted up on Peck Hill, so I didn't think I'd find anything. But I didn't come home entirely empty-handed. I found a Trichocera fly on the drive way heading out, and a spider near the brook coming back. And then another spider when I was coming back up the driveway. A pretty good haul for a warm day with melting snow.
12-11-20. Gilbride Rd., Martinsville, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 895 miles total
Category: fruit.
I was on duty today, so parked and then walked 4 minutes up a trail, then back then 4 minutes up another trail, then back, etc. This is probably the most interesting place near my squad to do so. Fruiting were rose, burning bush, barberry, crabapple, a dried up old raspberry, border privet, Japanese honeysuckle, butter and eggs, curly dock, yarrow goldenrod, asters, mugwort, ragweed, pilewort, horseweed, bottlebrush grass, Canada wild rye, orchard grass, path rush, wood reed, purpletop tridens, and yellow foxtail grass.
I also managed to photograph (badly) a bluebird and a goldfinch. And I found cracked cap polypores on black locust and stump puffballs (on something so old it was hard to tell it was wood).
12-12-20. Watchung Reservation, Berkeley Heights, NJ. 2 miles today, 897 total
Category: fruit
Katie and I walked in the reservation today, first past the "deserted village" (an old mill town) and then through the woods. At one point we came to a ravine with sides so steep there was a knotted rope to help (and much appreciated). Fruits in winter was the right category for walking with Katie, as they are both vaguely interesting (at least the berries) and not terribly common in the woods. I found: multiflora rose, Oriental bittersweet, border privet, poke, crabapple, barberry, Amur honeysuckle, Japanese honeysuckle, tulip poplar, white avens, burdock, a St. John's wort, yarrow, white vervain, cinnamon willow herb, a dock, garlic mustard, mugwort, late boneset, a goldenrod, an aster, and giant foxtail.
Fruiting butter and eggs? That's one I've never noticed before. I guess they must fruit--where else would eggs come from? Great finds for December!
12/13/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais VT. 2 miles today, 2997.1 miles total.
Categories: athropods
This morning I went for a quick walk up Peck Hill in search of arthropods. There was still a bit of rotten snow on our driveway, but I was surprised to see how little there was as soon as I left the driveway. Hardly enough to for an arthropods on snow walk. I managed to find a beetle larva on the bare road. But then on my way back down Peck Hill, in the woods below the farm field, I found a bug. And later I found an Arion slug. I tallied it as an invertebrate, but not enough legs to call an arthropod.
...from a chicken, maybe?
We are supposed to get a dusting of snow today, "plowable" snow on Wednesday. I'm looking forward to looking for critters (though a slug on snow would really surprise me).
12/14/20. Sodom Pond Rd, Adamant, VT. 2 miles today, 2999.1 miles total.
Categories: bark
There was no snow left when I went out for my walk today. I had to go to Adamant to get provisions, so I took my walk along Sodom Pond Rd. It's funny when even going to Adamant these days feels like a trip to the big city. As I walked today, I kept my eye out for bark pictures to use for my Eagle Hill class. I was especially looking for clear transitions between bark phases and young bark. I found trembling aspen, balsam fir, red spruce, hemlock, red maple, and yellow birch. And a beetle larva crawling about in the mud on the road.
12-13-20. Baldpate Mountain, Titusville, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 898.75 miles total
category: anything I can ID
I finally got back to Baldpate when it was open, and Molly and Katie came with me. I was surveying it for the parks department, so first we walked a ways down the powerline clearing, and then we walked through the woods. It was remarkably crowded with hikers, dog walkers, mountain bikers and even three people riding horses. But it was a beautiful day before a week of anticipated cold rain and snow.
Things I don't see all that often included Chinese bush clover, wild basil, sidwalk firedot (I think), orange-cored shadow lichen, hooked buttercup, what might be sweet cicely, christmas berry, golden ragwort, ox eye daisy, and something with green basal leaves that are red below and a tall, dead stem with large opposite leaves. Plus several mosses, a couple lichen, and at least one fungus that I don't know the names of.
12-14-20. Stirling NJ. 0.5 miles today, 899.25 miles total
Category: unintentional plants
I didn't have much time, and it was raining this morning, but I went to a grocery store I don't often visit and simply walked the edge of the strip mall, with my umbrella. The big surprise here was something in the amaranth family that might be summer cypress. I don't recognize it, at any rate.
Cool find with the amaranth! Strip malls are great places for invasive diversity!
12/15/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3001.1 miles total.
Categories: bark
We had a dusting of snow last night, but not nearly enough to hunt for spiders on. Plus, it was chilly (22F) and breezy, so when I took my walk up Peck Hill today, I concentrated on young tree bark for my course. I found balsam poplar, alder, alternate-leaved dogwood, and white ash.
12/16/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3003.1 miles total.
Categories: bark
This morning I went for a brisk walk up Peck Hill. There was just the barest dusting of snow in a few patches here and there and temperatures were barely breaking 2 digits, so there were no insects to be seen. I collected some more photos of young bark for my course, including white pine, black cherry, and yellow birch.
12/17/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3005.1 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
We had a decent snowstorm today, better than a nor'incher, but not quite the snow fall that they had further south (40"). We had 4" of new snow with snow still falling when I went out after lunch. The temperature was cold, though, just 20F, so I didn't expect to find many arthropods. But I was wrong. I had 17 just on the driveway heading out, mostly green long-jawed orbweavers, and another 28 on the driveway heading back up. There weren't any along the plowed roads, but as soon as I got up to where Peck Hill turns into a Class 4 road and unplowed, I found more arthropods, mostly spiders. I ended up with 62 specimens for the day, mostly long-jawed orbweavers, green and brown, plus some tiny orbweavers, a springtail, and a scorpionfly. I think the snow brings out long-jawed orbweavers, regardless of the temperature, as long as it's at least 20F, or perhaps even a little cooler.
12/18/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3007.1 miles total.
Categories; arthropods
The weather was cooler today. In the morning it was just 0F when we got up, but by early afternoon when I went out, it was about 15F. Although we had that fresh snow from yesterday, I didn't expect to find many arthropods because of the cold, but again, I was wrong. I found 19. At least half were frozen, but a few were moving about, especially up along the farm field on the unplowed part of Peck Hill. I found lots of green long-jawed orbweavers, almost all frozen, but at least one moving. And some frozen brown long-jawed orbweavers, and a few of the same tiny orbweavers that I saw yesterday, with at least one moving. Also, another unidentified brown spider that I've seen a lot of this season. The only non-spider of the day was a dead Pollenia fly I found upside down along the driveway.
We got 6 inches of snow on Thursday. I've been looking on and off since, but have yet to see any arthropods at all in the snow. Then again, I haven't yet broken out the snowshoes, and have been sticking to plowed, shovelled, or well-travelled paths.
12/19/20. Chapin Rd, Calais, VT. 6.2 miles today, 3013.3 miles total.
Categories: birds, frozen
Today was the Christmas bird count. I was originally supposed to walk with the same person I walked with last year, but he decided to do another route alone because masks make his glasses fog up. So I did the Chapin Rd loop alone today. Along the way, I met up with another couple who I have often done the bird count with before. They were doing the Leonard Rd loop since my sore foot prevented me from doing both Leonard Rd and Chapin Rd today as I have in the past. I also met up with a couple from Stow who were birding the roads by car. The organization of the bird count has certainly stepped up in the last few years. Years ago, before I was doing any birding, a neighbor from Adamant did the entire area, or what he could of it, alone on foot. He couldn't possibly have covered the territory that gets done now. Then another neighbor up Peck Hill was organizing our section of the territory. She begged me to do a bit of birding. I protested that I didn't know any birds. She said it didn't matter, just count what I did know. So that's when I started hiking the Chapin Rd loop. Now there are experienced birders covering every road, and at least 3 groups like walking trails through the woods.
In any case, the temperature was not quite 0F when I left the house. I had plenty of electronic heaters with me, from my heated socks to my heated hand warmers. Unfortunately, I forgot extra camera batteries and within 1/4 mile of the house, my battery froze so I returned home to get it. I loaded up with more batteries for both cameras and also grabbed an extra handwarmer. I ended up wearing my mask the whole time just to keep my face warm. Then my eyelashes got full of ice crystals, so I had to be careful not to touch my face with my camera or it froze to my eyelashes. Several times I had to switch the batteries out and once I had to take the camera disk out and warm it with my hands. I don't think I've had to do that in 20 years because of cold. But I stayed quite comfortable, thanks to those hand and foot warmers. There weren't many birds out. I photographed a white-breasted nuthatch, a hairy woodpecker, a black-capped chickadee, and a starling. There was quite a bit of rime ice, especially up on Lightening Ridge Rd, so I photographed some angelica, hawthorn, honeysuckle, and sugar maple in rime. I managed to find 2 dead spiders, green and brown long-jawed orbweavers, both frozen, and a frozen mouse along the trail. Plus one live green long-jawed orbweaver.
Wow, only once do I remember having camera batteries fail because of cold (and that was in the Catskills, not at home). Never the disk, and never have I managed to freeze anything to my eyelashes (and I lived in Moscow in February)! Yikes!
Edit: I just looked, and while the average February high is colder in Moscow, the average February low is colder in Montpelier (and you're probably a bit colder than that, wow!)
12-15-20. Lyons train station, Lyons, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 899.75 miles total
Category: green
Once again I ended up at an unusual grocery store (this time I succeeded in finding the blasted chicken fingers). It was late afternoon, so the light was not great, but I walked around the block to the train station and back, looking at things that were still green (mostly winter rosettes of weeds): I found oniongrass, horseweed, hairy bittercress, common ragwort (blooming), henbit, common dandelion, prickly sowthistle (blooming), bull thistle, a goldenrod, mugwort, garlic mustard, wineberry, Japanese honeysuckle, chickweed, common mullein, common evening primrose, catsear, a mouse ear chickweed, healall, common greenshield lichen, Thuidium delicitatulum, Virginia strawberry, dwarf cinquefoil, common speedwell, brocade moss, mouseear hawkweed, multiflora rose with rosette disease, plantain-leaved pussytoes, red cedar, an English ivy, rough speckled shield lichen, a ground Cladonia that might be C. peziziformis, a sedge, hedge bedstraw, curly dock, and two other things I can't ID.
12-16-20. River Rd. Park, Pluckemin, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 900.75 miles total.
Category: fruit
I asked two friends to walk with me, but one had errands to run before our "big storm" (we got 6 inches, but they'd said 12-20). The other is from Florida and it was just too cold for her. It was about 26 with a 15 mph wind, and I have to admit I was a little underdressed myself.
I tried to walk in a park near home, but they'd just closed the lot, I think to stage snowplows there, or maybe just so folks wouldn't be out on the trails in the storm (they've been having a lot of trouble in the park lately: drinking, illegal swimming (with a drowning), even a suicide).
I tried the next park down the road; closed for deer hunting. But the big one after that was open, despite two dozen snowplows staged and waiting (the first flakes didn't fall for another hour, and it wasn't plowable for 5 or 6 hours from when I saw them).
I walked mostly along the edge of a field that's mowed once a year or so, to encourage wildflowers, also through a bit of swamp, and across a flooded spot in the trail (where the ice was not quite strong enough and I got my ankles wet). Winter fruit - wise I found: goldenrod, aster, thistle, dock, yarrow, chicory, horseweed, rose, milkweed, mountain mint, golden-top, queen Anne's lace, vervain, ironweed, wool-grass, Tridens, blackberry (all dried on the stalk), beardtongue, pilewort, dogbane, bittersweet, barberry, privet, honeysuckle, red cedar, steeplebush, monkey-flower, rush, heal all, bugleweed, bluestem, foxtail, knapweed, orchard grass, and garlic mustard. There was a brilliant yellow lichen on the red cedar, and some frozen sphagnum moss, but other than the three red and three blue fruit, everything was gray, just like the day.
12-19-20. Rutkowski Park, Bayonne, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 901.75 miles total.
Categories: birds, fruiting
I had a day of shoveling and then a busy day of rescue squad duty (so no walks), but Saturday Molly, Katie, and I drove in to this salt marsh preserve on Newark Bay, very near New York City. Katie saw the city skyscrapers and said she was worried as the virus is so prevalent there, but we only passed three sets of two people and wore our masks to do so (as did they).
The bays here are known for water birds, and I saw Canada geese, mallards, ring billed gulls, herring gulls, widgeons, a bufflehead, and a song sparrow (that I'm certain of) and maybe some gadwalls, a pied bill grebe, and some other dark ducks. I'm waiting for the real birders to come in and tell me.
Fruit-wise I saw knotweed, reed, mugwort, mallow, black locust, evening primrose, winged sumac, rose, aster, love-grass (I think), hops, senna, a Bidens, a Monarda, milkweed, poke, wildrye, poison ivy, a Solanum, some mustard, and ironweed.
Also, on Friday an article was published, that I co-wrote, on the first North American occurrence of an Asian species of smartweed, which I found (as did the main author in NY, incidentally on the same day) on my 50th-birthday excursion along the Delaware River. I've never had a scientific article published before, so it was a neat celebration of the day.
12/20/20. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.7 miles today, 3014 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
This afternoon I went for a short walk along the driveway looking for spiders. My feet were sore enough yesterday after the bird count that I figure I need to stay off them a bit. So no hike up Peck Hill today. My husband came with me for the walk up and down the driveway. We found a snow fly and 3 spiders, including a green long-jawed orbweaver, one of the little orbweavers that showed up on Thursday and another spider. My husband actually spotted a few of them without me pointing them out first. He was quite pleased.
12/21/20. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.5 miles today, 3014.5 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
This afternoon I took another walk along just our driveway to rest my feet. The weather was warmer, about 40F, and the surface of the snow was 32F. I found a total of 13 specimens, with a much wider variety than on the colder days. I found several winter rove beetles, 2 snow scorpionflies (red and gold), a yellow springtail, a Trichocera fly, a fungus gnat, and 5 spiders, all different species, and only one of which was a long-jawed orbweaver (brown).
12-20-20. Liberty Village, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today 902.25 miles total
Category: unintentional plants sticking out of the snow
I took the girls sledding today. Everyone here sleds into the big cache basins for the housing developments from the 1990s, and this is the largest and steepest. They no longer need me, aside from the driving (which, frankly, two of them could do themselves), so I walked the roads in the area. I was tired of tramping through snow, so had to shoot things I could see from the road. I found fruit: bittersweet, tulippoplar, ragweed, goldenrod, goldentop, mugwort, white pine, and staghorn sumac. The bark I recognized was bird cherry, black cherry, and black walnut. Buds included pear, sassafras, Ailanthus, rose and the walnut. And leaves or needles still present: Norway maple, autumn olive, white pine, red cedar, Japanese maple, wineberry. And there was a turkey vulture as well.
12-21-20. Warren Municipal Park, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 902.75 miles total
Category: identifiable
I didn't have much time and was not up to snowshoeing, yaktracks, or dealing with slush and ice, so I walked the parking lot and the part of the paved (and plowed) walking trail in the center of town that goes along the woods. Unusual things I found included a whole set of 4 or 5 river birches I'd never noticed before, and some little plant with winter fruit that might be deptford pink, or could be some Poale that I totally don't know.
12/22/20. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.5 miles today, 3015 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
I had some unavoidable errands in Montpelier today, my first time into town in over a month. I wasn't able to start my walk until after 3:00, when it was already getting dark. The temperature was 35F, with an inch of new snow on the ground, and snowing while I was walking, so I figured I would find some creatures, and I did. I came up with a total of 12 species today, but most were different from yesterday's species. I had one long-jawed orbweaver (green), 5-6 other species of spiders, a rove beetle, a large fly with dark maroon eyes, and what I thought were 2 more rove beetles, but turned out to be 2 large springtails (dark).
12/23/20. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.5 miles today, 3015.5 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
I went for a quick walk along the driveway again today. The weather was a little cooler than yesterday, about 31F for the air temperature. The snow surface temperature was a little cooler, -2.8C (27.8F). There was a lot of debris on the surface and no new snow. I made it all the way to the bottom of the driveway without finding a single arthropod. I had just about given up and decided to look for tracks instead when I found my first spider, a green long-jawed orb weaver. Then I found a brown one, another green one, and another brown one. Hardy souls, or just random finds?
12-22-20. Mannino Park, Old Bridge, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 903.25 miles total
Category: identifiable
The snow is just starting to melt, making things slushy and hard to walk on. I drove southeast into the coastal plain to check out this park. The woods were totally different from what I have at home, all pitch pine and oak, mostly swamp white and some scrubby red-type oak, and the ground was all covered in blueberry. Unusual things (for me) that I found included: oak rosette gall, oak club gall, and some lovely Usnea and Rammalina-type lichens.
12-23-20. Harry Ally Park, Bridgewater, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 903.75 miles
category: fruit, birds
This is a set of ball fields tucked among suburban houses, but there's a strip of wood along the edge, and some nice swampy spots. I trudged through about 2 inches of snow (and muck), but it was a beautiful day. Unusual finds included hazel and hawthorn. Birds I managed to photograph were white breasted nuthatch, cardinal, blue jay, canada goose, and redbellied woodpecker, a huge number for me (at least without water or a feeder involved).
12-24-20. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 904.5 miles total
category: fruiting
It was 60 degrees today, with snow still on the ground. It was melting fast, but much of the trail was still iced over, and the rest extremely muddy. Took me nearly an hour to go 3/4 of mile mostly from being very careful where I put my feet. It started raining as I was about 1/3 of the way along, so I didn't take many photos. I was looking for fruit but ended up also photographing two kinds of Stereum sp. fungi and two kinds of baby conifers: red cedar and the very-unusual-for-us escaped Norway spruce. Fruit was aster, goldenrod, wildrye, oak, barberry, rose, stickseed, garlic mustard, boneset, mugwort and a moss.
12/24/20. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.5 miles today, 3016 miles total.
Category: tracks
This afternoon I went on a driveway walk looking for arthropods on snow. It was 35F, while the snow surface was 31F and rather dingy with birch seed and lichen scraps. I had absolutely no luck finding any spiders. So I photographed some of the mobs of turkey tracks instead.
12/25/20. George Rd, Calais, VT. 0.7 miles today, 3016.7 miles total.
Category: red and green
This afternoon I took a stroll out George Rd. It was 56F and raining, and the snow was almost entirely gone, just a few tufts here and there. I decided to hunt for red and green plants. At first I couldn't find anything red, but then I remembered to check for buds. I found red maple, dogwood, and box elder in bright shades of red. Green was easy, with garlic mustard, balsam fir, and bedstraw.
12/26/20. Martin Rd, Adamant, VT. 2 miles today, 3018.7 miles total.
Categories: buds
This morning our Saturday morning hike resumed for the first time in 6 weeks. The governor gave his permission earlier this week for people from different households to walk together outdoors with masks. What a thrill! All 5 of us made it out this morning. We passed at least 3 other groups out walking along the road, and Martin Rd isn't even very scenic. Great to see so many people walking! Lots of catching up to do this morning, so there wasn't much naturalizing. I managed to find some buds, however, including dogwood, daphne, yellow birch, apple, and balsam poplar.
12/27/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3020.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
We had considered going to Groton today so my husband could unicycle the trails and I could walk, or maybe even scooter to cover more ground. Except yesterday's snow showers were more significant than promised. We had a good 3" of fluffy dry snow that was slippery underfoot. Too much for unicycling, so I walked Peck Hill instead. In the morning, my husband had some chores to do on the tractor, so as long as he had the tractor out, he cleared the driveway. He thought I might be mad because he cleared it before I could check for spiders. I wasn't mad, just curious, at least this time. Indeed, when I went out, there wasn't a single spider along the driveway. Nor were there any along the town roads. But as soon as I got up into the Class 4 section of Peck Hill, which wasn't plowed, I began finding arthropods. I found 8 spiders of about 4 different species, but not a single Tetragnatha. I also found several Trichocera flies, a Diamesa fly, and another fly. Plus 2 caterpillars and 4 snow scorpionflies. I think that's a record for snow scorpionflies in one day. I also think perhaps humidity plays a big role in the species mixture. The temperature was around 30F, with fresh snow on the ground, but no Tetragnathas! But there was some sun and puffy clouds and the snow was quite puffy and dry with little moisture. I need to check my humidity data and see if there is a pattern. I wonder if the latent heat of humidity has something to do with it. I guess I need to study up a lot on the physics of environmental conditions as well as learn more about the individual species.
Your snow studies are so fascinating. I am really interested in what you find out about species and conditions and habitats.
12/28/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3022.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
Last night and this morning we got a very light dusting of snow. By the time I went out for my walk after lunch, the temperature was in the mid-30sF, so conditions were pretty good for hunting spiders. I found 15 spiders of about 10 species, a harvestman, 2 snow scorpionflies (both gold), several rove beetles, a soldier beetle larva, a new-to-me orange fly, lots of Trichocera flies, a Chionea fly, and several large springtails, 2 green and one reddish. And not a single Tetragnatha.
In the evening I discussed the missing Tetragnatha spiders with our weekly Zoom bug group. One person suggested perhaps the Tetragnatha appear during heavy snowstorms because they get blown out of the tops of trees where they are sheltering. Sounds plausible to me, as plausible as anything. I had been wondering today if perhaps they dropped out of the sky during snow. But then why would they be mostly in the woods? The idea that they drop out of tree tops would make more sense than dropping out of clouds, and also explain why they are mostly in the woods during and right after a storm. Perhaps the ones I find frozen on the snow after the weather turns cold simply didn't make it to shelter in time after finding themselves in dire straits on the snow surface.
12/29/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3024.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
This afternoon I walked my Peck Hill route looking for spiders. The temperature was about 23F, sunny, dry, and windy, and the snow was down to about 2 cm, with lots of lichen and bark debris, so I didn't have a lot of hope of finding any spiders. When I was taking my calibration weather measurements in the driveway, "our" resident turkeys came over to see what I was doing, so I shot them. I just had my macro lens, so it was tough to get them. No spiders on the driveway going out, none on the plowed road. When I got to Peck Hill, I found the lower part had been plowed and sanded, so no spiders there. Even the upper part through the woods had no spiders. I figured I was going to end up with a zero for the day. But then just as I turned back up my driveway, there was a green Tetragnatha crawling on the snow, and a little ways up the driveway was a caterpillar, also crawling.
Love the curious turkeys.
12-25-20. Schiff McVicker's Preserve, Mendham, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 906 miles total
Categories: fruit, fungi
Molly, Katie, and I walked up this wooded hillside. Katie forged on ahead, texting me at each fork in the trail but nonetheless eventually got turned around and a little lost. We consulted and discussed the map and eventually she made it back out, but there were a few minutes of worry there.
Fruits were privet, rose, hempweed, mugwort, aster, barberry, St. John's wort, bittersweet, steeplebush, mountain mint, and greenbriar, and there were the remains of witchhazel flowers.
Fungi were more interesting. There was an enormous (beachball-sized) cluster of polypores of some kind, and a chunk of a beech tree covered in black sooty mold, plus four more fungi I don't know, honey mushroom "straps", black knot, two Stereums and violet toothed polypore.
12-27-20. Franklin Parker Preserve, Chatsworth, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 907.5 miles total
Category: unusual plants
Becca (age 17), Katie (14) and I drove and hour and a half down to the Pine Barrens to walk at this park. I was particularly looking for bearberry, which I'd never seen before (and found it). This time I had paper maps for each of us and made sure everyone had well-charged cell phones. The girls each wanted to hike alone and were originally planning to walk down to the other parking lot, four miles away. But there was a bridge out on the red trail, blocking Becca's way. She came back to me in the original parking lot. Katie texted that she made some wrong turns and was now going to do the red trail loop and come back up to me, and then her phone died, too, before she got to the missing bridge. We'd started at 1:30, the phone died at 2:30 (I later found out it was because she'd been listening to music the whole time on it). Sunset was 4:40. At 4 pm, after she should have made it back if she either found a way around the missing bridge or backtracked the way she'd come, there was still no sign of her, and I ended up calling the police. At 4:20, just before the police arrived, she texted, having somehow gotten her phone to work; she was at the other parking lot! Argh! But in the end it all worked out, we thanked the police, picked her up and headed home.
But before all the drama, I did find a whole lot of really interesting (to me) plants that I have rarely (if ever) seen before, including what is probably the second NJ iNaturalist record (one of only 5 on the east coast) of subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum). Others were Virginia Pine, lots of blue curls, rough buttonweed, northern whitecedar, gallberry, panic grass, cranberry, leatherleaf, sand blackberry, red chokeberry, yucca, glaucous greenbriar, blackjack oak, fetterbush, hairy bush clover, meadowsweet, dixie reindeer lichen, two kinds of three awn grass, PIne Barrens beachheather, shortleaf pine, pitch pine, sweet grass, and about half a dozen other things that I haven't managed to ID yet.
12/30/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3026.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
When I went out for my arthropod walk this afternoon, the temperature had risen to 30F after being in the single digits in the morning. The skies were cloudy and the air was clammy. Should have been good pickings, but no luck. Hardly any luck, that is. I did manage to find a single caterpillar, but that was all.
Oh my, so much drama on the trail! Glad you eventually all reconnected. These early sunsets don't allow for much wiggle room for trail wanderers. Congratulations on the subterranean clover!
12-29-20. Briant Park, Summit, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 908.75 miles total
Category: fruiting
Molly and I drove to Summit to buy her some "real" sneakers as the cheap ones she's been wearing have been giving her blisters. On the way home we stopped at this park surrounding a pond that I used to walk at as a teen. They've added a few more paths since then, but the drinking fountain that was old in the 1980s was still there and still functioning in late December, 40 years later!
Someone had seen Elsholtzia here and I had my eye out for it, but was unsuccessful. I did find: ring billed gulls and geese, reed, scarlet oak (planted), mugwort, sensitive fern, wild rye, knotweed, woograss, boneset, glaucous greenbriar, and red pine (planted).
I can't image an outdoor water fountain in December. Must be Zone 6?
12/31/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3028.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
This afternoon the temperature was about 43F when I went out, rather warm, and mostly cloudy. The snow is looking ragged. I had very little hope of finding any arthropods, so I shot some tamarack buds from a branch that had fallen into the road. And then up on Peck Hill, right at the turn around, I found a winter firefly. Hooray! My last insect of the year.
Yes, zone 6, and the fountain is operated by a foot pedal and drains the above ground parts after each use, but still, I was shocked, too.
12-31-20. Franklin Parker Preserve, Chatsworth, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 910.25 miles total
Category: unusual plants
In all the drama of Katie getting lost, she lost her favorite hat and I never got to go see the tundra swans. So the whole family (except my son) drove down on New Year's Eve together. We parked at the south end this time and Chuck took Katie (and eventually Molly and Becca) to look for the hat, while I walked to a lookout tower and found my swans (there were about a dozen, not very close by, but I could hear their odd call).
Other interesting things included: sweetbay magnolia, staggerbush, British soldiers and C. peziziformis lichens, swamp loosestrife, robins and juncos, pearly everlasting, bushy bluestem, several Carex spp., something with large capsules similar to a St. John's wort that I can't figure out, wintergreen, Dixie reindeer moss and another species of Cladonia that was a brighter green, something like a very rounded bittercress, what I think it Carolina redroot, white campion, big toothed aspen, and clavate oak galls.
On the way home we pulled over to the side of the road as we spotted strings of what turned out to be over 1000 geese flying overhead, very neat.
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