Fall

There’s little doubt that fall is here. Warblers and other migrant birds are trickling through, the raccoons, groundhogs, and fox are feeding more heavily, and, as mentioned in a previous post, snakes are moving about more. Here’s just a few more signs of the season before us.

Not a banner year for Flowering Dogwood, there is nevertheless fruit on at least some of the trees. We also lost one tree to Hurricane Irene’s high winds.
Hearts a Bursting, or Strawberry Bush is beginning to display the reason for its names. This plant is on the Dinosaur Trail just past the Albertosaurus.
Persimmons are beginning to ripen on the trees.
Some of the persimmon fruit has already fallen to the ground, good news for the raccoons, fox, and groundhogs.
Although raccoons, fox, and groundhogs can climb trees, squirrels are expert at the sport and don’t wait for the fruit to hit the ground.
The tiny, waxy fruit of the Wax Myrtle is ripening, but not quite there yet. It should be ready for the arrival of the Myrtle Warblers next month.
The Fall Webworms within the silken web are still quite small, they’re just getting started (9/9/11).

And, not necessarily a sign of fall but perhaps a sign of exhaustion towards the summer season…

Two shots of the same large snapping turtle in a shady area of the Wetlands. First spotted at about 10:30 AM (left) the turtle was still there at 4:00 PM. There were many questions by passersby as to whether the turtle was alive. Notice that the right front foot is extended and the head slightly to the right on the right photo. The color difference is due to lighting conditions at the time of the photo. (both photos 9/13/11)

Have we seen this snapper behavior before?

That’s all for now.

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