October 3

About a ½ mile upstream from my last Pine Creek encounter, I’m using a map to hike cautiously through private property toward the flowing watercourse. With temperatures in the low 50’s, the morning sun at my back and a stiff wind in my face, I look up at an azure blue sky to see the leaves of a towering Cottonwood tree sway in the wind. As the trail leads me into a clearing, I spot blossoms of Panicle Aster and a Milkweed plant with a seed pod opening to reveal its brown seeds attached to white, silky strands, called floss. Alayna Rasile, an environmentally conscious textile artist has a small apparel line and a Milkweed-based design studio called May West that makes outerwear using milkweed floss as a goose down alternative. Just ahead, I pause to look at and listen to a perching male Eastern Chipmunk. The “chip-chip” sound is an alarm call to other members of the colony that a predator (or curious human) is nearby. Only male chipmunks have vocal sacs for making sounds. Moving toward the dark shade of a dense woods, I hear the call of an Eastern Wood Pewee. A long-distance migrant, this small bird (stock photo) is one of the last to leave for its wintering grounds in wooded and shrubby habitats of Central America and the Andes region of northern South America. Entering the woods, I’m pleasantly surprised to witness an amazing riparian landscape of old growth Beech and Maple trees, sloping terrain, a wide floodplain and a gently flowing Pine Creek. At the water’s edge, I watch a narrow tributary converge with the shallow Pine Creek as it flows south over piles of rocks along a lush bank where I come upon a small Shagbark Hickory tree. Turning around and heading back toward the car, I pass by a moss-covered, 1000+pound, glacial erratic boulder that was transported here thousands of years ago during the last ice age. Back into the clearing, I spot a Cockspur Hawthorn tree with its long thorns and one remaining berry (haw). Hawthorn fruit is extremely high in pectin and therefore particularly useful for making jams and jellies. Near the car, I see the walnut-like compound leaves of a Tree of Heaven. This rapidly growing deciduous tree has become a widespread invasive species across North America. Known by other names including stinking sumac, Chinese sumac and stink tree, the plant releases a strong, offensive smell from its flowers. It was brought from China to the United States in the late 1700’s as a horticultural specimen and shade tree. 

 

October forest 

Brushed with green

Artist is ready

To change the scene

Her canvas is set

Her easels unfold

Orange and brown

Oak leaves behold

Dabs of yellow

Splashes of red

Maple leaves

More colors ahead

 

D. DeGraaf