October 2

Friday, Remi and I along with my wife, Caroline and my sister Peg, visiting from California, hiked at Forest Hill Nature Area. The mid-afternoon weather was mostly sunny with a temperature of 55 degrees and a strong easterly wind. We descended Energy Hill and passed Mallard Marsh where I spotted a cluster of Milkweed Bug nymphs on one seed pod and a couple of adults on another. With a chilly, stiff wind at my back, I hiked west through Bobolink Meadow and entered the shelter of North Woods where the canopy remained dense and green. Exiting the woods, I could barely make out a Turkey Vulture soaring high above Succession Field that no longer had a yellow hue since the Goldenrod blossoms were seeding out. Circling the field, I entered South Woods where the path meanders through a grove of Witch hazel trees. These understory trees bloom in October as they’re shedding leaves and often continue to bloom after they’re completely dormant. While the blooms are open, the seedpods from the previous year mature and eject tiny black seeds up to 30 feet. In short, Witch hazel trees go dormant, bloom and spread their seeds all at the same time, processes that most plants widely separate over several months. I left the woods, passed Sora Swale and followed the south trail east where I spotted a one of many Clouded Sulfur Butterflies on the grassy path. From Frog Fen, I circled south past Brady Cemetery and turned north into Native Grassland where some yellow blossoms of Sow Thistle provided the last color of the season. After pausing at Grebe Pond, I continued north around the pond where, to the east, dozens of Tree Swallows gathered on the power lines before leaving for warmer latitudes. Arriving at Raske barn, I quickly turned west and ventured out on the dock to scan the pond where the wind had cleared the surface allowing sunlight to glisten off the water. Finally, we piled in the car and headed home.

One of nature’s finest

Harbinger of spring

Waking the wetlands

Acrobat on the wing

Iridescent blue

Swooping low and high

Your beauty revealed

In the summer sky

Flocks gather in autumn

Bearing south they’ll go

Farewell Tree Swallows

Next April you’ll show

D. DeGraaf