December, 2017: 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
December 1, 2017. Place Gambetta, Bordeaux, France. 1.2 miles today, 699.7 miles total.
Categories: birds, unintentional plants
Found a new route to the tram stop in downtown Bordeaux today that crossed a tiny park with a small man-made pond. I was hoping to find mallards in the water, but there was only Lemna. On the edge of the pond was an old man, seated on the ground, lovingly feeding pigeons and house sparrows, who were eating out of his hand. Most of the parklet was mowed grass, but there were some gardens around the pond, and in the gardens...weeds! I found some Hedera helix, and some Senecio vulgaris and some Ficus carica. On the wall of the pond just above the water was some Hart's-tongue fern. No luck finding any liverworts, though.
December 2, 2017. Gradignan, France. 3.5 miles today, 703.2 miles total.
Categories: birds, December flowers
I enjoyed some birding in the backyard this morning, including a greenfinch that hung out at the feeder for a while. Then I walked to the farmer's market with my husband for our last market foray of this trip to Europe. Along the way, I kept my eye out for late bloomers. I found a Senecio vulgaris and a dandelion. Not much else has blooms anymore, but I guess that's to be expected even here in December.
December 3, 2017. Gradignan, France. 1.3 miles today, 704.5 miles total.
Categories: birds, frost-covered, mosses
Bird watching in the yard was a bit chilly this morning, -4 by local standards (still well in the positive zone for us). The feeder is working well now, so we always have tits bouncing through the yard, great tits, blue tits, and coal tits. Plus nuthatches and chaffinches. And the greenfinch also returned today. I walked to town in back with my husband and shot a few plants along the way that were covered with frost, including Hedera helix and some Lonicera. I also paused to admire several types of moss growing in the front lawn and on a neighbor's fence across the street.
December 3 - 1.5 miles, 120.5 total. BARELY was adding to iNat in November for a variety of reasons, and wasn't outside nearly enough. (not all bad reasons, some involved successful potty training efforts). Today though we got out on a small walk in Hubbard park, but part was on a trail i'd never done iNat on before so I added a few things. Nothing exciting, but did get the first Carex lupulinus in Montpelier and Washington County so that's cool. It was nice to be out, though it was colder than we expected. A few patches of ice, no snow to speak of now, supposed to get into a more wintry pattern starting Wednesday afternoon though!
12-2-17 Delaware and Raritan Canal, Princeton. 0.25 miles today, 165.5 miles total.
Categories: green in winter, fruiting, bark, buds, lichen, moss
Stopped very briefly on the way home from picking up my daughter's car from college; she is finally (4.5 months later) finished with PT for her ankle. This is a junction where a large feeder creek enters the canal and adjacent to Princeton College's boating "lake", but no one was out in a boat today. No surprises here, except maybe for the low biodiversity. Virtually every shrub in the place (and there were lots) was Amur honeysuckle. I will have to come back and walk farther; the less well-traveled areas looked promising.
12-3-17 Mt. Vernon section of Washington Valley Park, Bridgewater, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 165.75 miles total.
Categories: things I have not photographed yet.
I've walked this trail many times over the years, it's a pleasant boardwalk through wet woods. I needed a little nature break at the end of a hard weekend; I had a patient die in front of me while on rescue squad duty last night. Unfortunately the sun was setting as I arrived, so I didn't go far. The only new thing I saw was a dumped deer carcass. It was fairly rotted, but you could see where the antlers had been cut away.
:( sorry to hear that. Hope you get some better nature time soon
12-4-17. Vatican City, Rome, Italy. 6.6 miles today, 711.1 miles total.
Categories: Birds, unintentional plants, fungi
Had great fun taking a guided tour with my husband through the Vatican Gardens this morning. We walked through the "Forest" (Quercus robur, bay laurel, Acer campestre), and through many formal gardens, grottoes, and paths. I shot anything that didn't look like someone put it there on purpose, from black medick to butcher's broom. I managed to find a few fungi, and also shot some bryophytes and lichens. No luck with liverworts. There were several ferns in the fountains and one turtle. Birds flitted through the trees and ivy-covered walls, including monk parakeets, house sparrows, and pigeons. Many of the plants I've seen in France, but there were a few new ones as well.
Hope you get some good woods time soon!
wow, Vatican naturalized plants, very interesting!
12-4-17. Stransky Farm, Warren and Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 167 miles total
Categories: moss, lichen, fungi, green in winter, not photographed before.
I went to walk along a power line cut on the other side of the "mountain" from me, but as I crested the hill everything was covered in fog. This would not have mattered except that when I got there, two hunters' trucks were parked in the lot, and I was not going to risk walking rarely-used trails in the fog with at least two hunters who didn't know I was there.
So instead I walked at a nearby old farmstead with lots of weeds in a meadow. I've been picking seed pods and winter fruit to put in a vase in my kitchen, so I collected Gerardia, dogbane, blackhaw, some other things. No new plants here, though.
In the afternoon I went up to the park where the control burn had been. You could see that they walked the trails, burning about 2 feet on each side. Sometimes it spread beyond, but mostly not. However, they got rid of the vast majority of the Japanese stilt grass, which is good. The woods looked very different, much more open. Not a lot here that was new, but there were several mosses I"m not sure I've gotten before.
I'm also fascinated by the Vatican weeds. How neat!
12-5-17. Palombara Sabina, Italy. 4 miles today, 715.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, unintentional plants, French friends
Walked to the subway station (several blocks through urban streets) with my husband this morning, shooting weeds like pokeweed, which seems to be just as common here as in France. We took the subway to a train station, then a train to a small town beyond the outskirts of Rome, where I shot a few more weeds while waiting for our ride to Palombara Sabrina. Palombara Sabrina is an ancient village on a mountain topped by a castle. We got to walk around the town a bit together with other members of our cooking class and our local hosts. I had great fun looking for weeds in the castle walls and between the paving stones during our stroll. I think I found some annual mercury flourishing and some Senecio inaequalis. After cooking and eating, we had a fabulous tour of the castle, with more weeds, more pokeweed and plenty of bear's breeches.
The Vatican weeds were quite a thrill, especially since you have to be on a pre-booked guided tour to get access to the gardens. These tours started quite recently, and it looks like nobody has entered observations of Vatican plants on iNaturalist before.
12-5-17. Coddington Farm, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 167.5 miles total.
Categories: Things I've not shot here before.
Was looking for a quick trip into some peace and quiet, so walked at this local preserved farmstead. I've never encountered anyone here before and didn't today, either. Not one new plant or animal, and the barrenness of winter really struck me today, though there were mosses and lichens and plants that will stay green, plus the dried seedheads. There were a few old persimmons, and there's a hazel here, with catkins (something I rarely see). My kitchen seedhead collection has gotten quite large as well, though I only added velvetleaf to it today.
it's a bleak time here. we usually do start getting snow this time of year but while we had some a few days ago, it's melted and there is a cold rain today. We should start building back into some snow over the next few days but until then.. browns and greys. I know your winter is like that more often than not, right?
Yes, we spend most of the winter bare. It's nice as it makes hiking easier than with snow, but bleak. In December most years I go dead car hunting, as the trails are easy to walk on, the woods are easy to see through, and all the abandoned vehicles stand out. (not that there's tons of them, I can think of about a dozen I've found over the years).
i've found some neat dead cars from the 60s that were driven into a field and the field abandoned the day after it seems...50 year old trees growing around and even through them.
12-6-17. Colosseum, Forum, Palantine Hill, Rome, Italy. 5.8 miles toay, 721.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, unintentional plants, flowers
Hiked the Colosseum and the Forum today with my husband. There was a fascinating display describing the Colosseum in the mid-1800s, covered with plants like a hanging garden. The display was accompanied by artist's depictions of the site, with plants, trees, and weeds covering everything. At some point "they" decided that all the greenery had to go, so they stripped the walls down to bare brick and marble again. Except, of course, there are still are weeds and a little moss, sneaking in here and there. I saw some Senecio inaequalis on top of a mound of bricks in the old floor, some Silene gone to seed and plenty of small sidewalk weeds. On the edge of the monument there was a hefty hops vine and some pokeweed, as well as a flourishing patch of Malva sylvestris in full bloom. The weeds made me very curious about whether anyone did an inventory of the weeds before "they" cleared them out. After lunch, we hiked through the Forum field, which had many more weeds: Bella perennis, bear breeches, olives and figs. And what might be date palms, which appeared to be wild rather than planted.
Dead car hunting? That's a great sport!
12-6-17. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 168.5 miles total
Categories: moss, lichen, fungi, old car
I walked out in the (unburned portion of the) local park to check on the old, abandoned car there. I hadn't been in three years, and have pictures from the last time. About half the rusted body panels are missing; I don't know if someone carried them off or they got covered in debris (though it doesn't look any more deeply buried than before). I found a lot of mosses along the way, and I hope to start working on learning mosses this winter. There was also a particularly handsome patch of false turkey tail. My favorite, though, was an Indian pipe in fruit, which I rarely spot.
I love that you are finding weeds in all these famous locations. So often my friends and family take pictures abroad and I peek around the edges of them to see what's growing there. It's nice to have someone who actually looks.
12-7-17. Borghese Gardens, downtown Rome, Italy. 7.5 miles today. 729.4 miles total.
Categories: birds perched on statues, unintentional plants, sidewalk weeds
My husband and I joined a group tour of the Borghese Gardens this morning after a tour of the Borghese Gallery. The Gardens are the largest public park in downtown Rome. In the 1-hour tour, we basically strolled almost in a straight line from the Gallery straight across to the other side of the Gardens. In other words, the gardens are huge, and it would take a long, long time to see the entire park on foot. On the other hand, the diversity of plants seems quite low. Even in the Forum yesterday, I think I saw greater variety of unintentional plants. Most of the trees in the park appeared to be planted (like the long rows of London planes). Then on the hillside on the far end of the Gardens was a wild, neglected area with plenty of weeds, like pokeweed and a yellow weed with thin, entire pinnatifid leaves that I've only seen here in Rome. I also saw a bit of papyrus sneaking away from a fountain. From the gardens we walked all the way to St Peter's Basilica, then back to our apartment behind the Vatican City. Along the route, I kept an eye out for sidewalk weeds, but there really weren't many. Some amaranths, some annual mercury. But most of the sidewalks were truly barren. On the other hand, we saw plenty of sculptures along the way, some by Bernini, others dating to Roman times, and most topped with seagulls. So I ended up shooting a lot of birds.
@erikamitchell Recent article of interest re: Colosseum flora https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/romes-colosseum-garden/547535/
Wow! what a tremendous article! Thanks, Kitty! I am so delighted to read that there was indeed an inventory of the Colosseum plants during its botanical heyday, and that inventories continue. The botanical history of the monument is fascinating!
12-8-17. Trastevere and "The Heart of Rome", Italy. 6.5 miles today, 735.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, street weeds, wild trees
My husband and I took a street photography course this morning that began in the Trastevere neighborhood, crossed the river, and eventually wound up at the Pantheon. During the tour, I obediently took nicely framed photos of narrow streets with and without people. But much to the puzzlement of the teacher and other participants, I also darted off to catch the street weeds that we passed. Actually, there weren't that many--there is a weed that looks a lot like Dioica and appears fairly often. But many of the narrow streets are truly bare since the sun doesn't get down into them and they get so much foot traffic, right up to the edges between cobbles and streets. We finally saw some sun along the river, and I managed to spot a few wild trees on the banks (white poplar and London plane). I stopped to photograph a dead pigeon in the street, which raised some eyebrows. And I also saw plenty of live pigeons, seagulls, and house (Italian?) sparrows. My favorite sparrow of the day was eating the display outside a tourist restaurant, and went off with a large hunk of dried home made pasta. After the tour/course, my husband and I continued on our own from the Pantheon, following a walking tour with recorded audio commentary. I continued to search for plants along the route, but the crowds got thicker as the day went on, and eventually, it became hard to see the ground to look for weeds. The gulls and pigeons remained visible though, from their perches atop statues or in the fountains.
12-7-17. Farmstead Park, Lyons, NJ. 1 mile today, 169.5 miles total.
Categories: moss, fungi, lichen, things I haven't photographed before.
I walked out to visit another dead car. This one was in much the same state as the last time I saw it three years ago, but more overgrown with blackberries. The area is swampy and the last time I was here I fell face down in the mud, but this time I made it out with mostly dry feet. A few interesting mosses, but not a lot that I haven't seen here many times before. I got some swamp rose mallow for my kitchen table winter weed collection.
i love it. If i were in Rome i would do much the same, rather than as the romans do (though some modern ones probably use iNaturalist too)
12-9-17. Parc of the Cafarella, Parc of the Egerio, Parc del Celio, Parco del Colle Opio, Parco di Treiano by bicycle (9.7 miles), & downtown Rome from Plaza Vittorio Emmanuel to Trasteveria and Vatican City on foot (7.8 miles), 17.5 miles today, 753.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, unintentional plants, street weeds
Took a bicycle tour from the center of Rome to Cafarella Park with my husband and 2 local cycling proponents this morning. Cafarella Park, south of the city, is a wild park where there is very little that is planted. I saw everything from elms to Lemna. Lots of Phragmites, of various species, and one of the tour leaders confirmed that the nettle-looking plants I've been seeing everywhere in the streets are indeed Dioica. I think I found a second species of Dioca today as well, one with longer, more pointed leaves. The street Dioica has much more rounded leaves. I also saw a great variety of thistles. After the bike tour, my husband and I walked to Trasteveria via the Parthenon. I shot more weeds along the way, including what appeared to be a tiny patch of papyrus growing at a wall/sidewalk junction. And plenty of birds decorating statues (all pigeons today).
December 9, 1 mile or so, 121.5 total, took a little walk on national life trails, didn't go too far since Holly had to inspect everything (she is going to be a great naturalist) and because it was going to get dark. Didn't see much of note except a pretty mostly-frozen pond. A small snow storm was approaching but no snow on the ground yet, we will hopefully go on a walk tomorrow in the snow that we now have. Just an inch now, maybe we will get another inch, but more storms on the way so it finally is going to be winter.
12-10-17. Vatican Walls, Rome, Italy. 0.1 miles today, 753.5 miles total.
Categories: birds
I managed to get a short birdwalk in this morning in our backyard before heading to the airport. Rome has been a wild adventure, but we are quite, quite ready to be heading back home to France. We are just not big city people. We were fortunate, however, to find this apartment along the Vatican walls with its spectacular view out across the northeast corner of Rome. And across the green space that extends down a little ways from the Vatican walls. This morning, the Pope's parakeets were in our backyard, all 30 or so of them. I also saw a great tit and what was either a Eurasian blackcap or a Sardinian warbler--I'll have to process the photos to find out which one. Plenty of hooded crows and seagulls as well..
Decemer 10 - 0.75 miles, 122.25 total. Took Holly on her first snow hike! It wasn't very long but i got a few observations. Just another visit to Hubbard Park. She loved the snow though! Also got exciting maybe there was a grey fox in our field but it turned out to be a stupid house cat. At least it was hunting for rodents instead of birds this time.
12-10-17. Delaware Raritan Canal, South Bound Brook. 0.75 miles today, 170.25 miles total.
Categories: bark, buds, fruit, lichen
No walk Friday because I was on duty, no walk yesterday because I was cooking for a party (and it was snowing). Today I finally got back out. We'd had about 3 inches of wet snow, which very kindly barely stuck to the roads and still looked pretty everywhere else. We didn't even bother to shovel the driveway. Our first snow of the year. I walked the canal because I figured the flat, pea-gravel walkway would not be slippery (and it was fine). Not much new here, maybe a moss or lichen I haven't done here before. But the afternoon light was lovely and the weather perfect.
12-11-17. Ermitage, Gradignan, France. 2 miles today, 755.5 miles total.
Categories: blue, fungi
Chilly and rainy all day today here in Gradignan. I took a walk through Ermitage park zigzagging through all the trails to see if I have overlooked anything. I selected the color blue just for fun. For blue flowers, I found some wild clary and some oregano (well, bluish, anyway). Blue fruits were Hedera helix and madder. Beyond that, blue was limited to bits of trash (not much in the park), telephone pole markings, cars, and fences. I also shot a few lichens since this seems to be their season.
12-11-17 Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 170.75 miles total
Categories: lichen, fruit, bark, buds, green in winter
I walked the edge of the parking lot after my eye exam this morning, where I've never iNat-ed before, but there were no new plants. I didn't expect box elder and devil's beggar ticks, but I guess it's wetter there than I realized. Then I walked in my neighborhood and just photographed whatever caught my eye. In this case that was fuzzy autumn clematis fruit, forsythia in two different places reblooming, some old yew fruit, greenshield lichen deep in a yew shrub, Virginia creeper fruit that were so droopy I had trouble in the field being certain they weren't grapes (it was obvious back on my computer), a turkey vulture, foxtail grass contrasting with mugwort fruit, yucca fruits, amaranth fruit, several more lichens, rose of Sharon fruit, deer tracks, and butterfly bush that still has lovely blue-green foliage contrasting with its brown fruit.
I like the idea of looking for a color whether or not it's natural. I will be walking a lot of trails this winter that I've already thoroughly covered, it would be nice to have something new to focus on.
12-12-17. Gradignan, France. 2.5 miles today, 758 miles total.
Categories: birds, "fruit" on woody plants
This afternoon I headed out in the bright sun to explore the trails in the Bord d'Eaux river park, especially the trails on the far side of the river since I haven't been there much. For something new to look for, I photographed anything remotely "fruity" on woody plants, including galls, catkins, and mistletoe clumps. My collection of the day included European ash, box elder, clematis of some flavor or other, alders, hazelnuts, and the ubiquitous butcher's broom and Hedera helix. I had also hoped to look for fungi, but didn't spot any today, not even any shelf fungi. I was so engrossed in searching for fruits that I never noticed the storm clouds gathering and got thoroughly drenched.
12-12-17. Mountain Park, Liberty Corner, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 171.5 miles total.
Categories: pink, birds
Today's walk was in a park I've walked many, many times before. On the way in was a hawk on a lamppost. On the way out another (or quite possibly the same one) at the top of a small tree. I'll have to wait to download the pics to ID it, as the only hawk I know offhand is a redtailed, and this had an unstreaked breast and striped tail.
I looked for pink things on my walk, which I've never done before. It caused a lot of internal debate about how light red had to be to be considered pink, how not-purple lavender had to get to be pink, etc. I found one piece of pink trash, and Japanese honeysuckle leaves (and especially their veins), dwarf cinquefoil leaves, blackberry petioles, rose stems infected with rosette virus, wineberry bristles, black raspberry canes in the sun, blackhaw peduncles and buds, the lighter portion of silky dogwood twigs, peduncles of arrowwood and grey dogwood and of Virginia creeper, one very light crab apple, an unknown seedling with oval leaves, and bradford pear leaves. I was surprised by how much there was that was at least marginally the right color.
It drizzled on me, but luckily I didn't get drenched. I've never seen real mistletoe, and it sounds like you have it everywhere there. Neat.
12-13-17. Gradignan, France. 2.1 miles today, 760.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, lichens
I walked home from a friend's house across town today, taking a route along some favorite river trails. There was a steady rain, so I had my underwater camera. It takes better macro shots than regular shots (which isn't saying much), so I mostly looked for lichens. I think there are about 6-8 common lichens that I see everywhere. Flavoparmelia caparata, a similar blue one, a big thick stringy one, a thin darker green stringy one, a yellow one that grows on trees, a yellow one that grows on concrete, and some crustose stuff. I wish I knew more about lichens! If it rains again tomorrow, I'll probably end up looking for mosses.
Your pink list was very impressive! Well done!
12-13-17. Watchung Reservation, Scotch Plains and Berkeley Heights, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 172.25 miles total.
Categories: red, lichen, moss
This park is on the way home from the medical center, and this path is one of the smoothest (my ankle was bothering me). It also has several different plant communities, which is nice). I looked for red today, and found a red plastic ribbon, red fruit: winterberry, multiflora rose, oriental bittersweet, Japanese barberry, burning bush, some red buds on rose and red thorns on blackberry, and a red leaves: Japanese honeysuckle and red maple.
I only have about a dozen lichen names down, mostly thanks to tcurtis who IDs them for me, but I'm slowly learning. Lichen and moss are things I spend most of the winter working on, but very slowly.
btw @srall, you just recently passed me as having the highest number of verifiable plant observations on the site! it was inevitable between the baby/toddler craziness and living in a place where there isn't much to add for several moths, but even still, i had a huge head start i think so pretty impressive.
You still have nearly twice the number of species as me, though.
12-14-17. Gradignan, France. 3.8 miles today, 763.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, "epiphytes" on human-made structures, fungi
Walked through the river park again today, this time starting right about where I left the trail on Monday in the rainstorm. Since I walked the easternmost part of the park yesterday, and the westernmost today, I guess I've walked the entire length of the park (at least the Gradignan sections) this week. As soon as I selected my categories for the day, I came across a snail on a wall, then a bug on a wall. So I decided to call them "epiphytes", loosely speaking. It was either that, or change my category to "living things" on structures. By the end of the walk, I had at least 2 species of snails, 4-5 mosses, some lichens, a liverwort (Conocephalum conicum), Hart's tongue fern, a tree with no leaves, 2 vines (Hedera helix and an herbaceous plant with sticky glands), and a slime mold growing on a woven-straw privacy fence, that is, a rotting woven-straw privacy fence.
Way to go with all those plants, both of you!.
12-14-17. Elizabeth River Park, Union, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 173 miles total.
Categories: orange, fruit, buds, bark
I walked two different sections of this park along the Elizabeth River. The river itself stank of raw sewage in both spots, and the biodiversity was very low, mostly white snakeroot and Japanese knotweed under planted maples in the first site and mugwort under sycamores in the second. But at the first site I also found crested Elsholtzia (which I'd seen a few weeks ago downriver) and Perilla frutescens, which I don't see often. At the second I saw a kingfisher but it was too fast for a good picture. As to orange I decided oriental bittersweet capsules, Japanese knotweed at a distance, and a faded but orangish norway maple leaf counted. There was also a bit of orange trash in the (smelly) river. It had snowed last night, just two inches, but it was enough to keep me from looking for anything orange on the ground.
I'm fascinated by the number of things you found living on structures; now I'll have to keep my eyes open around old walls and whatnot.
when i was in Ireland (sadly pre-inat) i noticed a lot of things growing on buildings! I guess in Europe things have had longer to adapt to that sort of human building than here.
12-15-17. Gradignan, France. 0.1 miles today, 764 miles total.
Categories: Birds
Weather kept me close to home today. We kept having instantaneous heavy downpours with hail and occasional lightning. Every time the clouds would lift for a second, they would settle back down again after a few more minutes. Birds in the yard included common chaffinches, tits great and blue, a common wood pigeon, and a lovely robin. In the evening I had a moth at the door and a cricket in the house. I tried mothing when we first arrived here. I didn't get many visitors, so I gave up right away. Perhaps I should have tried it a few more times. The habitat for moths here seems pretty good, with plenty of moist woods nearby.
I bet Ireland has a bunch of roof-growing plants! ...Meanwhile, I like the color orange. I think I'll try that one out next time I get a chance for a proper walk.
12-16-17. River Rd. Park, Pluckemin, NJ. 1.0 miles today, 174 miles total.
Categories: yellow, lichen, fruiting
We got another inch of snow yesterday, but most of the old snow is gone or compacted, so there's only an inch or two on the ground. Just enough to cover even under the trees. I've walked here before but I don't think I've iNat-ed this particular path. Looking for yellow I found two street signs and the trail map, then some Oriental bittersweet where I counted the lightest of the capsules as yellow (considering I called the darkest ones orange last time). There were several yellow-ish grasses including deer tongue and purpletop Tridens, and there was flattopped goldenrod with fruit looking fairly yellow. I found a bit of candleflame lichen that was truly yellow, and I scratched the bark off a twig of Japanese barberry to get to the bright yellow inner bark. I would have liked to get bitternut, which I see a lot, but this was red maple-red cedar woods, too damp for hickory, I think. I did find some yellow snow on this path frequented by dog walkers, and I took a photo. My kids would get a kick out of that.
12-16-17. Bordeaux Airport, Merignac, France. 0.1 miles today, 764.1 miles total.
Categories: life
We were packing right up to the last minute this morning, so I didn't get a chance for a proper walk before we left Gradignan. At the airport, I walked around as much as I could at the gate, searching for any signs of life besides people and the green grass of the runways. My bird count was 0, but I found a small patch of moss on a roof seam, and a few weeds along the runway. Hopefully, they will be recognizable when I zoom in on them after I download the photos. In the distance, I could see some trees, but the only recognizable ones were evergreens, which may have been planted. Airports hardly ever have much for diversity, but what little they have, I always find fascinating. And for me, one of the other reasons for looking for life at airports is to compare the diversity of what I see. Certainly at Ciampino airport in Rome last week, the bird diversity was a lot higher than what I've seen at other busy European airports. And the Fort-de-France airport has quite a few bird species as well. Actually, I don't know if having lots of birds at an airport is a good thing, since birds get sucked into jet engines. Anyway, my bird count for the Bordeaux airport was a big zero.
Yellow snow...that could be a category in itself! Dogs, foxes, coyotes, hikers,....
someone actually created a project for documenting things at airport. I've done silly things on layovers to get cheap inaturalist state firsts :)
12-17-17. Chimney Rock Park, Martinsville, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 175 miles total.
Categories: green, birds
I've walked here many times. We still have an inch of snow on the ground, though there are a few bare spots under trees. I'm working my way through the rainbow, which brought me to green today. I found 4 man-made green items, seven greenish lichens, at least six mosses, three evergreen conifers, sassafras and multiflora rose with green stems; Japanese maple, sawtoothed oak, autumn olive, and privet that should have lost their leaves but still had a few greenish ones holding on, and 13 herbs that stay green all winter.
But it was a surprisingly big day for birds, not that I got any good photos with the "wrong" camera: robins, jays, sparrows, and a huge flock of mostly starlings.
12-18-17. Thompson Preserve, Pennington, NJ 1.0 mile today, 176 miles total.
Categories: blue, whatever I could identify
Walked a new-to-me preserve today, on my way home from dropping my daughter back at college to take her last two final exams. This preserve has a path between a shrub/tree border and an organic farming field. I think the border of the field was sown to wildflowers, as it had quite an impressive assortment of seedheads, and very few (relatively) invasive herbs. I will have to go back during the growing season and see what else is there.
I did not have much hope for blue, but not five minutes after I started walking I spotted at least three bluebirds. I never see bluebirds, but there they were. Very exciting, if still the only blue thing on my walk.
12-17-17. Dorval, Canada. 0.1 miles today. 764.2 miles total.
Categories: things in the sky
Did a bird walk around our hotel in Dorval while waiting for our ride back to Vermont this morning. I searched and searched for birds, but after 30 minutes, all I had was a single peep from a house sparrow. On the other hand, I saw 2 gray squirrels, and 10 airplanes. There was a pretty yellow lichen on some tree bark, but I was too far away to get a photo of it.
I should search for that airport project. I fascinated and challenged by finding signs of life where life is so limited.
12-19-17. Wood Rd, Middlesex, VT. 0.7 miles today, 764.9 miles total.
Categories: tracks, "flowers"
I went out looking for tracks in the snow this afternoon, but I didn't find any at all that were fresh enough to identify. So then I started looking for flower heads. My virtual bouquet included bluestem goldenrod, meadowsweet, steeplebush, Queen Anne's lace, and evening primrose. Tomorrow I'll try again to find some tracks. And maybe I can work on some rainbow colors as well.
Welcome home! i haven't been out much lately, but the snow has been nice (until today anyway)
12-19-20. Schaub Park, Somerville, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 176.5 miles total.
Categories: purple, identifiable.
I walked a new-to-me park (well, a new section of the large Peter's Brook trail), at the county seat today, as I had to go get fingerprinted for our fancy new county-wide emergency services IDs. This is a mowed park with a bit of a naturalized edge, one side along a hill, one side on a brook. There were two markers by the brook saying "wildlife habitat area" and both were completely surrounded by nothing but Japanese knotweed. However, other sections had more diversity. As to purple, there were privet, Japanese honeysuckle, blackberry, English ivy, callery pear, white oak, American elm, and ground ivy leaves, and multiflora rose and (interestingly) black walnut twigs. There was a ton of Japanese wisteria. Interestingly, there were a lot of sycamore fruits on the ground but the "fluff" had fallen, still in a ball, without the hard center and stem. I've not seen that before. There was a cool lichen like a rock tripe but on a fallen log, and I spotted a female fall cankerworm moth walking on the bridge (these are the ones with no wings).
12-21-17. Kennedy Park, Nunzio's, and Raritan Bay Park, all in Sayreville, NJ. 2.0 miles today, 178.5 miles total
Categories: identifiable
I had to go to Sayreville (a city I've never been to before) today for an errand, so I looked up some local parks (and a restaurant) and iNat-ed there. Sayreville is where the Raritan River meets essentially the ocean, just south of the islands of New York Harbor.
First stop was Kennedy Park, with several man-made ponds, some playing fields, a lot of mowed grass, but a "natural" section toward the back. One person on iNat has been here before and just did a few birds. I got to do plants, and they have lots of "Jersey shore" plants I don't see often including groundsel tree, bayberry, pitch pine, Clethra, and even sweetfern. They had huge patches of Dendrolycopodium, which doesn't grow in the parks by my home. There was mimosa right next to black locust, and just yesterday I was discussing with someone how to tell the pods apart. Then there were two wisterias, Japanese and one that twines up and to the right, with smaller, redder pods.
And there were birds (and I brought my longer lens so was actually able to photograph them, sort of). Ring billed gulls by the hundreds, mallard x domestic which were very weird looking, hooded mergansers, Canadian geese, and mute swans including a nearly adult cygnet.
Next stop was the actual point of the trip: the medical supply store in an industrial complex without a single unintentional plant (and it reeked of sewage). Next was lunch at a very "hipster-y" pizza place but in a stripmall with lots of nice weeds.
Then I headed over to the waterfront proper at Raritan Bay park. This is a mud and rocky shoreline on the bay right by the ocean. There were tons of brants, and a lot of juvenile gulls that I'll let the experts sort out. There were seaweeds I don't know, and lots of shells: razor clams, slipper shells, jingles, scallops, oyster, and some surf clam. There was Russian thistle and lots of evening primrose. Seaside aster, and knapweed that was (finally) not Tyrolian (it was spotted, which is maybe not an improvement, but at least different). I had a blast.
12/20/17. Sodom Pond Rd, Adamant, VT. 2.4 miles today, 767.3 miles total.
Categories: tracks, orange
Went for a walk along Sodom Pond today with my husband and members of our Saturday morning hike crew for a special Wednesday morning hike since we won't be in town on Saturday. We found 3 types of mammal tracks: deer, snowshoe hare and red squirrel, but no coyote tracks today. We also looked for any hints of orange. We found some golden canker (Cryptodiaporthe corni) on a dogwood, and some Alnus incana whose orange inner bark was showing. We also found a strip of orange marker tape wrapped around a cherry tree. The road surface was good and slippery, with many near falls despite most folks wearing yak trax.
I loved the hipster pizza place with nice weeds! And wow, what a nice batch of gulls you found!
12-21-17. Peapack-Gladstone, NJ. 0.5 miles today 179 miles total.
Categories: birds, unintentional plants.
I got lunch at a deli with my daughter then walked around a pond to a bakery for dessert. The pond was mostly frozen but had an impressive number of geese, mallards, and swans in the small section of open water. My daughter (who's 18) was ahead of me and said, pointing through the ice, "oh look, a fish. No, wait, it's gone." and I pretended not to believe her. "Next you're going to tell me those round rocks at the side of the ice are turtles." But in fact they really were turtles!! Snapping turtles about 10 inches across each, not buried at all, but under the ice! I thought turtles buried themselves in mud for the winter.
I'd not heard of golden canker before you mentioned it, and the iNat map of it is funny, as over 50% of the sightings, somehow, happen to be just northeast of Montpelier. It's like goldenrod pedicellate galls (Rhopalomyia pedicellata) are almost only recorded from central New Jersey (as I'm pretty much the only one tuned in to looking for them).
12-22-17. North St, Medford, MA. 0.2 miles today, 767.5 miles total.
Categories: Plants
Walked to the school bus stop with my husband and brother-in-law to meet my nephew as he got off for winter vacation. I looked for street plants along the way and bagged a giant mugwort. Not much snow down here so far, but I guess they got buried in Vermont yesterday. Good thing we made it south when we did, or we might have missed Christmas with the family.
Congrats on turtles in December. Who woulda thunk! That's funny about the goldenrod pedicellate galls. Now I'm going to try to hunt some down. As for the golden canker, a friend pointed it out to me on a walk. I had noticed it before, but didn't know it had a name. After she gave me the name, I began "collecting" it.
I'm wondering what giant mugwort is? or just a giant one of mugwort? How funny that you are in Medford, as my virtual walk (instead of 1000 miles) is to my sister's. She lived in Cambridge when I started and now moved to Arlington. I'd just have to walk one town further to get to you. As it is I'm 5 miles shy of Massachusetts, 69 miles to go to her (and 5 more miles to the center of Medford).
Going to have to wait on the goldenrod galls, they fall off in late fall and don't show up again until the flowers bud out in midsummer. But I will be looking at dogwoods now, though it seems to be mostly on pagoda dogwood? I rarely run into that one.
yeah we got 9 inches of snow here, and now there is freezing rain. We are hoping to drive south to CT today but if it stays freezing rain we may not go today. Supposed to turn over to regular rain at 11 Am but um, it's 10:54 and it's 24 out with freezing rain so... don't see that happening.
also we skiid two mile today but it was freezing rain then too so didn't even try to do inat
12-24-17. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 180 miles total.
Categories: moss, fruit.
I walked with my sister, her dog, my husband, and two of my children to the hawk watch overlook (not that anyone was watching) and down to a dam (called Buttermilk Falls). With all the people along I didn't take many pictures, plus I've iNat-ed here many times. I did find a Bidens I don't think I've done before, and some mosses and lichens. It's a crazy time of year and I have both rescue squad duty (for the holiday) and am hosting my family for Christmas, so may not get much walking in. Merry Christmas!
12-24-17. Mystic River, Medford, MA. 2.2 miles today, 769.7 miles total.
Categories: birds, red, green
I took a walk along the river in my sister's neighborhood this afternoon, looking for red and green for Christmas. For green, I found some red cedar and escaped Japanese yew, also some privet and blackberry bushes with leaves. For red, I found some euonymous fruits, crabapples, and red maple buds. The birding was excellent along the river, with Canada geese, mallards, mute swans, hooded mergansers, belted kingfishers, and a blue heron, as well as starlings and house sparrows . Some crows were cawing loudly in a tree. When I looked more closely at what they were cawing at, it turned out to be a red hawk of some kind. Only a few inches of snow out here, but plenty of ice, the walk was really more of a slow shuffle.
I've never iNat-ed in Arlington, but I'm sure you'll get there, Sara.
12-26-17. Wilmington, MA. 2.6 miles today, 772.3 miles total.
Categories: birds, yellow, seen in France
I explored my aunt and uncle's neighborhood in Wilmington today, shuffling carefully through the ice-covered snow. A bit chilly, especially since I haven't had a chance to harden off yet this season. Plants in the neighborhood that I've seen in France include pokeweed, red oak, evening primrose, and Japanese knotweed. I didn't have any luck finding yellow plants, but there were a few yellow items (including yellow snow) that I managed to fit in some frames with local trees. Around here the woods are mixed oaks (red, white, pin) and pines (white and red). There are a few red cedars tucked in here and there, which I've never noticed here before (that I remember). The birds were strictly feeder types, like common titmouse and white nuthatches. And maybe some golden crowned kinglets, if I managed to catch them on film.
I think my friend told me that golden canker is pretty much limited to pagoda dogwood. So that would be where to look for it. As for giant mugwort, I was just referring to the size of the regular mugwort plant in my sister's front yard--head topping. Hope you made it to CT, Charlie, and I hope your duty shift was boring for Christmas, Sara!
12-26-17. Jordan Creek, Whitehall, PA. 0.25 mile today, 180.25 miles total.
Categories: fruit. lichen, green in winter, buds, bark, animals
I stopped at this park at dusk to stretch my legs (and check out somewhere I've never iNat-ed before) after dropping my son off at a motel for orientation for yet another shot at a truck driving job. He had left the house (with two dufflebags in tow) to take a train to catch a bus at 8:30 in the morning. Got bumped to a different bus, missed his connection, took a subway and train back to the starting point, and I picked him up at 3 and drove him, arriving at 4:30 at the motel. What an ordeal (and the traffic was terrible, too). Hopefully the job will go better than getting there did.
At any rate the park was covered in a thin layer of refrozen snow, but I found some lichens, winter creeper, and what I think is probably buckthorn with berries and thorn tipped branches but no leaves (I have a mental block against buckthorn, I think). A few other things, but nothing very interesting. Still, I'm the only one who's ever iNat-ed there.
My company has finally left. I'm hoping to get a bit more walking in now they are gone, but it's still pretty darn cold out there.
12-27-17. Community Center and Town Hall, Bernards Twp., NJ. 0.5 miles today, 180.75 miles total
Categories: lichen, planted trees, lawn weeds, shrubs
I took my 14-year old out to hunt Pokemon near two sections of Basking Ridge that I'd not iNat-ed before. It was very cold and she had some fun sliding on ice while I walked around. No real surprises at either site, except a Colorado Spruce (labelled) and what may have been a Chamaecyparis pissifera, both planted at this former Astor mansion (now the town hall). We did well with the Pokemon, though.
12-28-17. Marconi Park, Somerset, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 181 miles total
Categories: moss, lawn weeds, shrubs
I have passed this little park, an island surrounded by roads, many times before but never before figured out how to drive into it (it took me 5 "jug handle" turns to get it right). It's not much of a park, some lawn and specimen trees and shrubs, but there were weeds, and a "wild" border. It was very cold, at least for New Jersey, about 10 degrees.
12-28-17. River's Edge, Moyock, NC. 3.6 miles today, 775.9 miles total
Categories: birds, entire leaves
I took a walk around the perimeter of River's Edge development near my sister-in-law's house in Moyock today. I've iNat-ed the development quite a bit, so I returned to my random categories to try to find something new. For entire leaves, I found sweet gum, tulip tree, a mistletoe, saw green brier, and river oak. I've forgotten what few local trees I learned when I was last here 2 years ago. The birds were located primarily in just 2 spots, one near the entrance of the development near the highway, and another near a house with a great garden that I remember from my last visit. In addition to European starlings, there were plenty of yellow-rumped warblers, some sparrows (chipping? tree?), a house finch, some dark gray birds with finch beaks, a junco, a white-throated sparrow, and several northern mockingbirds. In general, these were the thickest flocks I've seen this year since the migration fallout I wandered into in the spring. I wander if they're here for the winter. Other finds were some cool leaf galls on a plant I didn't recognize. According to locals, it was freezing cold here at 29F, but it felt pretty warm to me. It's all relative, I guess. It was definitely quite warm compared to Vermont. How cold did it get today in Montpelier, Charlie?
12-29-17. Brumsey Landing, Moyock, NC. 3.5 miles today, 779.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms, fruits
I took advantage of the balmy 40 degree weather and lack of ice on the roads for another long walk around my sister-in-law's neighborhood today. My random category generator gave me "fruits" today, which was a challenge since so much of the neighborhood is pure surburbia with manicured lawns and very few unintentional plants. Still, there were a few vacant lots here and there with some wild trees, and ditches everywhere, some with weeds. No big flocks of birds today, but there were still some birds flitting about. My favorite bird of the day was a Carolina chickadee, a new species for my chickadee/tit collection for the year. There were plenty of dandelions in bloom everywhere, but also some buttercups and even a sweet white clover. Fruits included sweet gum, pine cones, rose hips, Japanese honeysuckle, fire thorn, and tulip tree.
12-29-17. Coddington-Van Tuyl and Mt. Horeb cemeteries, Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 181.25 miles total
Categories: shrubs, fruit, green in winter, unintentional plants
I rarely get out walking on "duty day" (for the rescue squad), but I read about this tiny cemetery not 5 minutes from my house that I'd never noticed, so I checked it out (fenced and locked, but so tiny you could see it all from the perimeter) and I'd never walked through the nearby Methodist Church cemetery, so I did that one, too. (but it was cold enough that I drove between them). Nothing new, except maybe some lichens I don't recognize, but a nice selection of the usual winter weedy shrubs and vines, and some lawn weeds. Lots of hawkweed of some kind in the larger cemetery.
I've seen dandelions and groundsel in bloom this week, and white sweet clover last, but I've not seen a blooming buttercup in at least a month. My sister lived in North Carolina when my kids were very young, and we visited one February. The kids decided that spring lives in NC, and just comes up to us in April.
@erikamitchell we hit -20 last night. Didn't really get above zero yesterday, maybe one or two degrees above today with light snow.
also, does this project end in 2018? i haven't been out walking a ton but i will miss it if so!
No fears about the project ending before you're ready, Charlie! It will end when everyone participating is satisfied that they have met their goals. As for me, when I started at the end of February last year, I figured it would take me about a year to walk 1,000 miles. So I'll be probably be here until at least the end of February. Chip is doing 1 mile per day, so he might take 3 years. How about you?
i'm totally inconsistent, but i doubt i'll count xc skiing when i never do much iNat so i doubt i get much in the winter. I also don't count walking i do for field work at my job. So yeah, who knows. 8 more years? :)
If the project's still open, I'll walk to some other relative's house. I just picked my sister because I figured it would take about a year.
12/30/17. Currituck on the Sound, Moyock, NC. 3.7 miles today. 783.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms, trash
I took advantage of the balmy temperatures today (upper 40s) to cut through River's Edge to the next development along the water, Currituck on the Sound. These developments seem to be more or less all the same--clear cut the trees, drain the swamps, and put up big box houses within a block or 2 of the water. There's not a lot of biodiversity left once the lawns get built and cared for. Yesterday's walk was interesting since it took me through a budding development, which was recently clear-cut and drained, but there are only 2 house starts on it, so there are a lot of weeds and no traffic. Today, on the other hand, I walked through 2 well-established developments, and the second one had no vacant lots at all. So there were few weeds or other unintentional plants. In fact, probably the most common unintentional plant was the mistletoes now visible in the leafless trees. The lawns are way too monocultural for weed collecting.
Anyway, my random category generator gave me "trash" today. I certainly saw a lot of trash, particularly on the highway, not so much in the developments, but hardly any recognizable plants near the trash. Just grass, grass, and more grass. I did find a mixed flock of birds near a wooded corner of the first development, a corner which they left as undeveloped swamp. The flock included yellow-rumped warblers, chipping sparrows, juncos, and cardinals.
Maybe after you get to your sister's house, you could continue your walk on up to Montpelier, Sara!
It's only 182 miles from my sister to downtown Montpelier, which is exactly how far I've gotten in 10 months of walking. If I stop by my parents in Dublin, NH, it only adds 18 miles to the trip. I think I may have a plan here.
12-31-17. Coddington Farm, Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 181.5 miles total.
Categories: tracks, not posted before
We got aobut 1 inch of snow in the latest storm, perfect for seeing tracks. Interestingly, about 6 vehicles had driven into the parking area of this little-used park, but none parked in the assigned spots, and there were no human footprints. The sign is a Pokemon Go Stop, maybe they were driving in for that?
I got out and actually walked, and followed some canine tracks through a section of mostly overgrown grass that I'd not walked through before (as there's no trail there). There were so many tracks, and I have no idea how to tell if this was a lot of fox or just dog (s)? running loose. No new species, but a lot of plants that I haven't actually photographed here before, which was something. It's very cold (for NJ) and I was not properly dressed, having forgotten both scarf and hat. After about 15 minutes my face was starting to hurt and I gave it up.
Back home my daughters and I have been enjoying seeing all the little bird tracks around (and also not particularly near) our feeders. They run in circles that seem to make no sense. The squirrel tracks are more logical, going directly from one tree to another. We are feeding a friend's cats while they are away, and in their (untouched) driveway was a track where a bird landed (you could see wing marks), walked a bit, and then took off again (bigger wing marks). It was at least as big as a crow. Very cool.
whoa are people playing Pokemon Go still there? It only caught on in Vermont for a few weeks. I guess it's kind of doomed in a place where you can't do it half the year without freezing your hands and anyhow there were too few portals or whatever
12-31-17. River's Edge, Moyock, NC. 2.6 miles, 785.7 miles total.
Categories: birds, grasses, red, white
I got to go walking with my niece today, who I only see every year or so when we come down here to visit. She has a wonderful eye for spotting things and is curious to learn their names. When I told her the random categories of the day (grasses, red, white), I explained that this is a game sort of like Pokemon Go, and then she really got into it. She wanted to walk through River's Edge, practically the same route I took the other day. But with the random categories, we found a few new plants/locations to photograph. We found a red oak, some white aster fruits, and 3 different kinds of grasses. We also found a mushroom and a yellow fruit on a thorny Solanum bush. When I pulled the mushroom up to photograph its gills, she was concerned about destroying it, so I explained about mushrooms and hyphae. We saw quite a few birds, including more yellow-rumped warblers, juncos, a snipe in a drainage ditch (I don't know if I succeeded in getting a photo), and a flock of very long necked birds (swans?) flying overheads.
My niece asked why I wasn't wearing a scarf, and then guessed that I might when it gets cold. It seems 30F is inconceivably cold down here. Soon enough, we'll be back to real cold, though. I wonder where I left my scarf....
Pokemon Go got an overhaul and a lot of new characters this December, so a lot of people who were not playing it are back on it again. But it's still mostly "nerds". And at least here in suburbia, a lot of it is played in cars. I looked at a Pokemon map, and while I could see it working in Montpelier itself (or Barre or Stowe), if you lived, say, off Route 12 north of Worcester you'd have to drive 10 miles just to get to a single "Pokestop" which would be totally frustrating (or over by my cousin in Corinth, forget about it).
yeah there are no pokemon at our house at all (or weren't when i looked years ago) and only a few spots down town where the poke stops are. Not really a game for rural people, so i'll stick with inaturalist
Adicionar um Comentário