December, 2018: 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
12-1-18. Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 403 miles total
Category: unintentional plants
I walked the grounds for sculpture with my three girls, having picked Molly up from her college nearby to give her an end of semester outing. This is a very well maintained park and we were walking briskly in the drizzle focusing on the sculpture, but I did find white snakeroot, common evening primrose, rose with rosette virus, and one moss.
12-2-18. Overpeck Park, Leonia, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 403.25 miles total.
Category: unintentional plants, birds
I arrived early for the iNat meet up so went to Overpeck mostly to play some Pokemon Go but also to check out the weeds along the river. I stopped both at a gazebo and outside the new dinosaur park, where both the county sheriff and the park security drove by slowly, scoping me out. I found out later that Daniel had already been stopped by the sheriff and thoroughly questioned about just what it was he was doing in the park, so I guess they just figured I was another one of those nature nuts.
Here just as I stepped out of the car I spotted a great blue heron flying overhead, and there was a large flock of geese on the lawn. As I got back in the car I spotted a robin as well. Plant-wise there were lawn weeds: two plantains, deadnettle, white clover, ground ivy, garlic, dandelion, cleavers (on the edge) and water-side weeds: white snakeroot, poke, blackberry, bittersweet, hops, knotweed, wineberry, reed, rose, burdock, plus some weedy trees: black cherry, silver maple, box elder, tree of heaven. There were also 5 lichen and a fungus on the planted cherry trees.
Outside the dino park I found most of the waterside weeds plus evening primrose, porcelainberry, peppergrass, poke, horseweed, purple loosestrife, and groundsel tree
12-2-18. Highwood Hills Park, Leonia, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 404 miles total.
Category: bioblitz
I met up with @danielatha , @sadawolk , @schoenitz , @wsimmons @kayspurlock and one other iNaturalist (and two local guides) to explore this suburban park. I did my best to photograph everything we found:
20 trees, 16 native (2 of which were probably planted: white pine and catalpa) and 4 invasive (Norway maple, Norway spruce, a Japanese cherry; and London plane-though that might have been a planted American sycamore). The natives were: red and sugar maple; red, white, and pin oak; black cherry; sweetgum; tuliptree; sassafras; American elm; American beech; a hickory: sweet birch: and American holly.
8 shrubs, 3 native (highbush blueberry, blackhaw, sumac) and 5 invasive (burning bush, privet, Japanese barberry, yew, Japanese holly)
9 woody vines and brambles, 4 native (grape, common and glaucus greenbriars, poison ivy) and 5 invasive (porcelainberry, Japanese honeysuckle, multiflora rose, common ivy, wineberry). I think bittersweet was also present but I didn't photograph it.
1 probably native woody subshrub that might be teaberry
15 herbs and grasses, 8 native (white snakeroot, an aster, bur cucumber, deertongue grass, a sedge, indian pipes, path rush, poke) and 7 invasive (wild garlic, mile a minute, mugwort, Japanese knotweed, garlic mustard, periwinkle, Perilla).
11 different mosses (as far as I could tell) none of which I can ID
2 lichen: rosette and a Cladonia. The lack of lichen in this forest was striking.
31 fungi (as best I can tell, that I photographed) including: a splitgill, several kinds of turkey tails, crowded parchment, lumenescent Panellus, gilled polypore, a Leucogloea, several jellies including witches' butter and amber, milkwhite toothed polypore, giraffe spots, false puffball, jelly spot, purple jellydisc, cinnabar, black knot, and a funnel mushroom.
4 mammals: 3 native (deer, squirrel, a deer/ whitefooted mouse) and 1 invasive (feral cats)
several bird species but none that I was able to photograph
no reptiles or amphibians
3 insects: green stink bug, a ground beetle, bark beetles
a spider that got away
a brown soil centepede, a millipede, rounded snail and maybe another species of snail, and an earthworm
12-1-18. Mallory Brook Trail, East Montpelier VT. 2.3 miles today, 1772.1 miles total.
Categories: tracks, fruits, fungi, insects
This morning I hiked the Mallory Brook Trail from Cherry Tree Hill with 3 hiking buddies on our regular Saturday morning hike. We chatted a lot so we didn't get very far very fast. I was on snow shoes, but the others in the group decided not to bother. We found some snowshoe hare tracks, some fungi (frozen witch's butter and birch polypore), and some snow spiders. Also, plenty of buckthorn fruits.
12-2-18. Adamant, VT. 1.6 miles today, 1773.7 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects, things on ice
I made my rounds through downtown Adamant this morning, looking for birds along the ponds. Both Sodom Pond and Adamant Pond have been frozen over for 2 weeks already, so there were no water birds. On the other hand, there were some river otters playing on the ice. Last week they were up on Adamant Pond, but apparently they moved down to Sodom Pond a few days ago, and that's where they were this morning. I managed to catch a couple chickadees, a couple bluejays, and a nuthatch. Plus a cranefly on snow.
12-3-18. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2.9 miles today
Categories: birds, insects
I took a quick dash up Peck Hill this afternoon through the slush. Not much new to see on this route, but the full flock of turkeys was out gleaning in a farm field. I also found a spider on snow and a green caterpillar with black markings. Along the way I had to pass by some black Angus cows in a field. I first met them as youngsters in the lower field this past summer. Now they're really getting big, and I was hoping that the battery running their single strand electric fence was working. They came right up to the fence to look at me.
Way to go on that bioblitz in Leonia! Sounds like a cool adventure! Glad you didn't get arrested for taking photos or encouraging wild plants!
I haven't had to break out the snowshoes yet, though there were a couple times I could have used them just to stay out of the mud. I'm always thrilled to find turkeys, and I love that you have watched the same cows grow up. I only run into cows very occasionally here, there's just not enough space for most people to raise them in my area (though a few years ago a cow did escape from a farm in town and was missing for a month and then wandered home. The assumption is it was in the woods just over the hill from my house).
12-4-18. Martin Rd, Calais, VT. 2.7 miles today, 1776.4 miles total.
Categories: tracks, galls, birds
I took a brisk walk up Martin Rd this afternoon. It was cooler today with several inches of powder, so I didn't find any creeping arthropods on the snow. And tracks were few as well, probably because the new snow covered all but the most recent ones. Few birds, too. Cold and windy for them, too. Not a single car passed me during my entire walk. I guess everyone was simply staying home.
12-2-18. Vince Lombardi Service Area, Ridgefield, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 404.25 miles total.
Categories: birds, weeds
After the big iNat meet up and two hour stroll through the woods I stopped at the first rest area on the way home (and ran into Bill Simmons, who ran into Mirko Schoenitz, it was a popular spot). Someone had fed the birds in the parking lot and they were perched all over people's cars, eating. Mostly ring billed gulls and some kind of crow, but also starlings and house sparrows and probably other birds.
The edge of the parking lot was also the edge of the Hackensack River, and was clearly very wet. There were sumac, tree of heaven, paulownia, autumn olive, groundsel tree, reed, mile a minute choking out the reed, mugwort, smartweed, rose, poke, bittersweet. I accidentally took some nice silhouette shots of the trees.
12-3-18. Great Swamp, New Vernon, NJ. 1.0 miles today, 405.25 miles total
Categories: unintentional plants, trees, fruit.
I walked a section of this National Wildlife Preserve that I'd not covered before. There was a maintained wildflower meadow, some native plant foundation plantings, a big lawn, then a nature trail through the woods with signs clearly aimed at elementary school kids, and a partially handicapped accessible trail in woods around a set of vernal pools. I was practicing IDing trees by their bark, not a strong point for me, and buds, which are easier.
I found a dandelion still bravely blooming. They had a (planted) Kentucky coffee tree. There was a labelled black gum (something I can't reliably ID in winter) with katydid eggs on one of the twigs. And there were striking, gray, round leaves with a long tip and tiny teeth, about 3 inches or so, at the base of what was clearly poplars of some kind, with the diamond lenticels and white bark up high. I'll be interested to find out what they are, Balsam poplar, maybe? Not something I've seen much before.
12-4-18. Town Park, Warren, NJ 1.5 miles today, 406.75 miles total
Categories: fruit, winter trees.
I walked from the grocery store to the local park, around in the park, and back around the back of the grocery before doing my shopping today. I found the cart graveyard, where someone has shoved half a dozen shopping carts off a bank into a stream, and a spot where the gas station guys have been feeding and housing stray cats, giving them random plastic boxes on their sides with old blankets to live in, and a dozen food and water bowls scattered around. No cats visible, though.
I was working on trees by their bark, and there was tons of box elder that fooled me every time. Not once did I figure it out until I checked the buds; will have to work on it. There were several that I still have no good idea what they were, even at home with photos of bark and buds (generally because the buds are 30 feet up in the air). There were several spots with beautiful photos of barberry and bittersweet berries. I see why they were imported. And behind the bank were about 5 trees that were like a display of vines. one was so covered in old bittersweet that it looked like a crabapple tree, like the fruit was just part of the tree. There was a huge old ivy and a huge poison ivy "tree".
12-6-18. Warrenbrook, Warren, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 408 miles total
Category: unintentional plants.
I walked from the center of town to the county pool and golf course, which meant going up a major road with no shoulders and no sidewalks. It wasn't bad except for a bridge, but I made it. Not many surprises, though I found blackhaw in fruit, which I hadn't expected and some little plant among rocks in front of the senior citizens center that I can't identify yet. It almost looks like a clubmoss, but I suspect it's actually a sedum or something more ornamental and evergreen.
12-9-18. Baldpate Mountain, Titusville, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 409.5 miles total.
Category: unintentional plants
I had intended to bring Molly some surprise exam-week cookies (left over from a party last night) but she wanted to come for a walk to get a break from studying. So we checked out Baldpate Mountain. This was a fairly steep trail on a wooded hill , though we parked in a powerline cut. I'd heard they had great biodiversity here but didn't really see it. There was a lot of linden viburnum in fruit. Other interesting things were wild yam and hepatica. She was working on learning winter berries and we saw rose, barberry, bittersweet, privet, poison ivy, and the linden viburnum. Still it was nice to get out for a brisk afternoon walk before the sun went away.
Great fun learning trees by their bark! That's a favorite topic of our Saturday morning hikes. Here in Vermont, if you can't tell a tree by its bark, you won't be able to recognize for about 8 months of the year. I consider the bark the face of the tree and the leaves its clothing. Yes, you can tell a friend by her clothing, but a more reliable method is her face. Then again, most of the trees around here have very distinct bark. Telling oaks from maples is tough for me--fortunately, we don't have many oaks. And to tell maples from maples, we look at the "hair" to see if it's frizzy (sugar maple) or bejeweled (red maple).
12-5-18. Montpelier, VT. 2.7 miles today, 1779.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, fruits
Folks in our photography club didn't want to walk today--they thought it was too cold. So after the club meeting, I took a walk around the eastern neighborhoods of Montpelier, zigzagging back and forth to try to get close to 3 miles in. I found a surprising variety of birds, a flock of robins enjoying some crabapples in the snow, a dark-eyed junco, some gold finches, a cardinal, a blue jay, some crows and some pigeons. I was looking for some deer tracks and wondering where they could be. Then I looked up and a herd of 4 deer crossed the road in front of me.
12-6-18. Center Rd, East Montpelier VT. 2.7 miles today, 1781.8 miles total.
Categories: birds, tracks, fruits
I walked up Center Rd from downtown Adamant this afternoon, looking for anything animal or new. I found some chickadees, a pileated woodpecker and what I thought was a hairy woodpecker. Up by the farm was a flock of pigeons and some starlings. I also managed to catch a brown creeper and a common redpoll. Fruit for the day was sumac, buckthorn, and nightshade. I found white tailed deer tracks, squirrel tracks, and tracks of some other carnivore.
12-7-18. Montpelier, VT. 3 miles today, 1784.8 miles total.
Categories: birds, fruits
I was in Montpelier again this morning, so I took a brisk walk in the other direction from Wednesday, this time heading to the west end of town. I walked to the end of the sidewalk on Route 2, a bit industrial, but found some weeds, including Japanese knotweed and an escaped hydrangea in fruit. Other fruits for the day were nightshade, sumac, mullein, and Rosa rugosa. Birds today were some crows and pigeons, and I managed to catch a red squirrel within city limits.
12-8-18. Robinson Cemetery Rd, Calais VT. 3 miles today, 1787.8 miles total.
Categories: tracks, birds, fruits
This morning I met up with my Saturday morning hike buddies. There were 4 of us walking today, bundled up for the -2F temperatures. We had a grand time admiring the ice crystals on the road, but they're not living so I couldn't post them here. We also found deer tracks, turkey tracks, and some other carnivore tracks which we supposed might be coyote based on the trail pattern. Not much for new fruit on this route today, just a cattail. But a willow full of pinecone galls got our attention. The only birds we saw were a flock of wild turkeys in the cemetery and some chickadees at a feeder.
I would love to see a brown creeper, a redpoll or a red squirrel. I love the deer that appeared while you were wondering where they were, such a deer thing to do.
12-10-18 Ashland and Blackburn Rds, etc. Summit, NJ. 2.0 miles today, 411.5 miles total
Categories: unintentional plants, oaks.
I had a doctor's appointment in a neighboring town and afterward decided to walk near my old house. I parked by my elementary school, though the house I walked by was the one I lived in during high school. The park where I started has a ton of big, old oaks, and I realized they were many different species, so I worked on telling them apart by their (abundant) acorns. I still have trouble with black oak unless the acorns are there, so I spent some time trying to recognize its bark, too. There was also red, pin, and white.
Summit is very upscale suburban so everything is manicured. I walked past a private school that did have a row of weedy plants by their back fence, including Akebia quinata, which was a surprise. Their front has a lovely old stone wall with some interesting moss on the sections to either side of the main circular driveway, but the entire wall in front of the school had been scrubbed clean.
My mother is an expert gardener and loves to collect rare plants. However, they moved from our old house over 16 years ago and it was sad to see how little is left. Just a few scraggly, neglected shrubs in the front. Mostly they have lawn now.
12-11-18. East County Park, Warren, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 412.5 miles total.
Category: frost on weeds
My daughter missed the bus today, mostly because I was not paying attention to the time. I drove her to school, then parked across the street and walked through to the county park. It was very cold for us (about 15F) and there was hoarfrost on everything. So I had fun photographing common plants looking frosty. I did get to one section I'd not walked in before, but there were no new plants. At the pond I scared a blue heron and then later found the spot on a split-rail fence where it had been perching; there were footprints melted in the frost.
12-11-18. Blue Star Mall, Watchung, NJ. 0.75 mile today, 413.25 miles total.
Category: unintentional plants.
I had some extra time after clothes shopping today so I decided to walk all the way around the shopping center's main building. It was not quite a mile. I've been coming here since I was a child, but I had never been behind it, which was interesting, though the plants themselves were just the common weedy species. My favorite was a row of dump trucks and plows. One of the dump trucks had a 4-foot-tall evening primrose growing out of the bed.
12-12-18. East Dr. Watchung, NJ. 0.75 mile today, 414 miles total
Category: unintentional plants
I walked in the neighborhood beside my local Walmart today, after finishing my shopping. There was a lovely, winding path between stands of Chinese silver grass that was remarkably isolated and peaceful for such a crowded area. Then a residential street that had recently been gone over with a brush-hog or something similar, even tree saplings were torn apart. There were Chinese bush clover and Japanese aralia tree that I don't see often, and a lot of wisteria in fruit. I was pleased to see they had cut the vines, but all that fruit is likely viable.
12-18-18. Somerset Co. open space, Old Stirling Rd., Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 414.25 miles total
Category: fruit
My youngest, Katie, missed the bus this morning so I dropped her off and then walked just after dawn along an edge of the park across the street that I had not explored yet. The big surprise was a hazel (I rarely see them). There was also a fair amount of greenbriar with fruit. Also in fruit were privet, rose, bittersweet, poison ivy, barberry, and honeysuckle. And amazingly there was a forsythia still in bloom (granted only a dozen or so flowers on the whole thing, but still....)
12-19-18, Bridgewater Twp. Yard Waste Dump, Bridgewater, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 414.5 miles total.
Category: unintentional plants.
I needed a gift from GameStop (when you have 4 nerdy teens and almost-teens you need a lot of gifts from GameStop), but I decided to walk along the woods behind the store and see what was growing there. I found an abandoned looking road leading into the woods and followed it, accidentally happening upon the back side of the town's yard waste dump. Woops. Not much unusual here, just a catalpa and a not-white pine, both of which were likely planted.
12/9/18. Adamant, VT. 1.6 miles today, 1789.4 miles total.
Categories: birds
This morning I went for a bird walk through downtown Adamant. The temperature was hovering around 10F and the ponds were frozen solid. There were birds out, but I managed to catch several chickadees, several blue jays, a hairy woodpecker, and a red squirrel.
12/10/18. Montpelier, VT, 2.7 miles today, 1792.1 miles total.
Categories: recognizable after dark
I was busy today, so I put my walk off until late afternoon when I had plans to drive into town. I didn’t start my walk until 4:30, but I forgot that it would be nearly entirely dark by then. I had to use my on-camera flash to catch anything. I managed to find an evening primrose (long gone to seed). I also shot some reindeer, but they were just Christmas lights so I didn’t post them here.
12/11/18. Montpelier, VT, 2.7 miles today, 1794.8 miles total.
Categories: birds, fruits
I made a point of starting my walk a little earlier this afternoon so that I could take a few photos before dark. Much more success! I found a chickadee in a bush, a tufted titmouse on the side of a feed dish, some gray squirrels (one raiding a bird feeder), some grapes, and some burdock in fruit. I also found a goat in a residential neighborhood near downtown Montpelier that I had never noticed before. It was inside a fence, so I didn’t post it here.
12/13/18. Adamant, VT, 3 miles today, 1797.8 miles total.
Categories: fruits, tracks
I took a walk up Sodom Pond Rd this afternoon. I paused to examine what I thought was a caterpillar on a snow bank. But it wasn’t a caterpillar—it was a birch catkin blown down by the wind. Further up the road I found a deer track in the snow and a hairy woodpecker in a tree.
12/14/18. Montpelier, VT, 3.4 miles today
Categories: birds, tracks
I took my walk after yoga this morning—plenty of light! I found some pigeons hanging out by the Catholic Church as always, and a large flock of mallards on the river ice. I found a gray squirrel and a buckthorn whose bark had been chewed up. Who would chew buckthorn bark? In search of new territory, I headed up to Hubbard Park, where I found a white-breasted nuthatch and a chickadee, as well as a magnificent outhouse, small but a gorgeous architectural specimen. I also found a very well used deer trail. On the way back to the State House, I caught another gray squirrel, some crows, and more pigeons.
12/15/18. Calais, VT. 10 miles today, 1807.8 miles total.
Categories: birds, tracks, arthropods
This morning I met up with 2 other birders for the annual Christmas bird count. I have walked with this couple for 4 years, and last year they did the route without me since I was in France. We had a good time searching for birds while catching up with each other—we only meet during this annual bird count. Fortunately, the weather was quite a bit warmer than in past years, nearly 30F all day. We found deer tracks, rodent tracks, coyote tracks beside a bloody kill site in the snow, bird wing marks on the snow, and turkey tracks. It was also warm enough for the first time in a while to find some snow arthropods. We found a harvestman spider, and some rove beetles. For birds we found some chickadees, a golden crowned kinglet (their first!), a hairy woodpecker, a white-breasted nuthatch, a crow, and a blue jay. I also spotted a new patch of Japanese knotweed at the edge of a road work site.
In the afternoon I headed back out by myself to do a second route through the woods for the bird count. As soon as I turned off the road, I came to a thick patch of grouse tracks, then flushed 2 grouse. I found some possible coyote tracks, then tufts of raccoon fur in the snow. There weren’t many birds in the woods, but I did eventually find a chickadee. Then up in a farm field I spotted 3 tom turkeys. And lost my glove, but didn’t notice until 1.5 miles later. And then when I retraced my steps, I never found the glove. I was just very grateful that the weather was cooperative, and it was a great day for a walk. Up by one of the town’s larger farms I found some pigeons and a large flock of starlings. On my way back home I spotted another chickadee and some more turkeys.
12/16/18. Adamant, VT. 1.6 miles today, 1809.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, hoar frost
This morning I took a bird walk through downtown Adamant. The air had cooled a bit since yesterday, so there was hoar frost over everything this morning. I shot some Joe Pye weed in frost, as well as some alders. I caught a chickadee, a blue jay, and a red squirrel at feeders. I also saw some bittersweet nightshade in fruit by the frozen Adamant waterfall. I found a single spider frozen in some snow, and also another rove beetle.
12/17/18. Calais, VT. 4.2 miles today, 1813.6 miles total.
Categories: tracks, arthropods
I took a hike this afternoon up the trail from Saturday, trying to find that lost glove. It hadn’t snowed since Saturday, so I hoped it might still be lying out on the snow somewhere. When I first headed up the road, I found some turkey tracks, but no grouse tracks today. I came across several kinds of snow spiders and a snow flea, a rove beetle, a winter firefly, and a small green caterpillar. I walked up the trail as far as the tom turkey field. The turkeys were there, but no glove, so I turned around and headed back down the trail towards home. On the way back I began feeling weak. I’ve been dealing with abdominal pains that come and go for over a month now. Today was pretty bad, though. I stumbled back down the trail very slowly and then down the road towards home. It took all my strength to climb up the driveway. Once I made it home, I sat on the couch without moving for 2 hours. Later I checked my fitness tracker and found my pulse was running at over 180 for the final 6 minute climb up the driveway. I guess I’m going to have to cut back on my walks for a while, at least until we figure out what’s going on. I’ll be sticking to flat city streets where there are people around, not hiking through the woods alone.
So sorry to hear you are not feeling well. Walking in town seems like a good idea. I was talking to various iNat folk the other day who say they've taught their spouses how to check the map and they make a point of uploading something every little way, so that if they don't come back from a walk, someone can figure out where they last posted from. But being on the rescue end of it, it could be hours. Far better to stay where there are more often people if you are not at 100%.
I love the reindeer and goat. I've never seen grouse in person, and had my first kinglet last month.
12-20-18. Lenape Park, Kenilworth, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 416 miles total
Categories: fruit, leaves
I walked from a parking lot to a little-used (but mowed) bit of trail by a bridge that is out, and back today. I was not looking for insects but found an evergreen bagworm case, a bald hornet nest, and a Chinese mantis ootheca. There were also several interesting mosses, some lichen, one fungus, some geese and pigeons (which I don't actually see all that often) and a winged (I'm pretty sure) sumac in fruit, which was unusual for me.
12-22-18 Mt. Vernon Rd. section of Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, 1.25 miles today, 417.25 miles total
Categories: fruit, moss, lichen
I walked through wet woods and then a wet meadow into a section of trail (in wet woods) that I'd never been on here before. I found a turkey vulture, a lot of different lichen, and lots of fruit: winterberry and wild yam were the most interesting of these.
12-24-18. East County Park, Warren, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 419 miles total
Categories: whatever caught my eye
I walked on Christmas Eve with my parents, my sister, and my youngest (Katie, who was riding a bike) through this county park. Katie, my dad, and I explored a ruined house and an abandoned farm. The only pictures I took which came out were of a moss and an extremely twisted set of old bittersweet vines.
12-26-18. Exchange Field, Somerville, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 420.75 miles total.
Categories: fruit. leaves, buds
I walked through downtown Somerville to this strip of a park along a brook. No real surprises here, though I don't often see rose of sharon.
12-29-18 Ash Brook Park, Scotch Plains, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 421.25 miles total
Categories: unintentional plants
These were very wet woods behind a police academy (of all things). So swampy that I was very glad to be wearing boots, and a couple times I worried the mud would overtop them.
I found a clubmoss. I see them so rarely I'm not even sure which it was, ground cedar, maybe? I'll have to look it up. There was also an interesting purple jelly type fungus and a bright orange gilled fungus both growing out of dead logs. otherwise, just standard wet wood species, a lot of red maple and rose.
12-30-18 Great Swamp, Harding Twp., NJ. 0.5 miles today, 421.75 miles total.
Categories: unintentional plants.
It's been really wet here lately so I chose to walk a section of paved road here through the swamp that I'd never walked before. The swamp is a national wildlife refuge, so the visitor's center was closed (because of the government shutdown) but you were still allowed to walk the trails.
I found some willow herb, which I don't see often, monkey flower, seedbox, steeplebush. The day was cloudy but at one point the sun broke through to light up the distant hills, and it was quite lovely.
12-31-18. Watchung Lake, Watchung, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 422 miles total.
Categories: things Molly could ID
I walked the edge of this pond in the sprinkling rain with my oldest daughter, Molly, the camp counselor, while she practiced identifying things. She found ring billed gulls and Canada geese, tree of heaven, black locust, ground ivy, black knot, several lichen, a dogwood, mugwort, cattails, norway spruce (with galls), bittercress, a pair of mosses, queen anne's lace, aster, roses, a clam shell, a snail shell, a ton of poop of various types, Indian strawberry, evening primrose, alder, smooth rush, bull rush, willow, black eyed Susan, privet, and goldenrod.
In my virtual walk I've visited my sister (in Arlington, MA) and my parents (in Dublin, NH) and now I'm roughly in between Sharon and Royalton, VT on I-89 on my way to Calais to "visit" you (Erika). I walked just over 240 miles this year.
Great to read about your end of December walks! Even at this time of year, there is always something new to find. It's always interesting to compare notes--rose of sharon? Not in Vermont. But clubmosses and willow herbs are a dime a dozen in Vermont. Glad Molly is a poop finder! Great stuff! And congratulations on 240 miles for the year!
12/19/18. Montpelier, VT. 3.3 miles today, 1816.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, fruits
This afternoon I walked out Elm St and explored some roads to the west of Elm St across from the municipal ball fields. I had good luck with birds today, finding pigeons, chickadees, mourning doves, and a junco. I also found some sumac and Arctium lappa in fruit. And a big old paper wasp hive in view now that the leaves are down.
12/20/18. Montpelier, VT. 2.5 miles today, 1819.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, fruits
This afternoon I parked at Hunger Mountain food co-op, crossed the river, and took a hike up Pleasant View St, a quiet road that runs parallel to the main road to the mall and hospital. I found house sparrows, house finches, a yellow-rumped warbler, some mourning doves, a raven, some chickadees, a tufted titmouse, and then a couple of common mergansers on the river on my walk back to the car. For fruit today I found sumac, Japanese knotweed, Arctium lappa, and box elder.
12/21/18. Montpelier, VT. 0.5 miles today, 1819.9 miles total.
Categories: life
Today I squeezed in a short walk downtown between errands. I managed to find some dandelion greens growing in the pavement where some snow had melted.
12/22/18. Longmeadow Hill, Calais, VT. 1.3 miles today, 1821.2 miles total.
Categories: epiphytes
This morning I met up with 5 other members of our Saturday hiking group for a stroll down the Longmeadow Hill trail. There was enough snow that we several of us decided to use snowshoes today. I finally got to try out the snowshoes that I had inherited from aunt several years ago. I couldn't use them last year since we missed winter, and I couldn't use them the year before because there wasn't enough snow. Plenty of snow this year. But as we walked downhill, I slowly began to lose energy. I finally had to announce to the group that I thought I should head back. That was a first for me--until now, it's always been someone else who says they've had enough. On the way back up the hill, I was slow and just got slower. It took a lot of effort to get back to the car. So I guess I won't be doing woods walks for a while, not even in a group. While we hiked, I managed to shoot a couple of mosses including some Thuidium delicatulum and a spider. We also all stopped to admire a standing paper birch that seemed to have a fungal infection popping out through its lenticels.
12/26/18. Medford, MA. 1.9 miles, 1823.1 miles total.
Categories: fruits, birds
This afternoon I took a walk around my sister's neighborhood, making a circuit along the Mystic River. I found Japanese knotweed, wild cucumber, milkweed, Japanese yew, evening primrose, Oriental bittersweet, crabapple, and multiflora rose in fruit. There were plenty of birds along the river. I managed to catch some Canada geese, some mallards, some hooded mergansers, some blue jays, a tufted titmouse, a house sparrow and a hawk. I also found an oak apple gall in the leaf litter.
12/31/18. Anse Noire, 0.1 miles today, 1823.2 miles total.
Categories: moths
Today was our first full day in Martinique. I laid low since we're in a remote location and far from medical care in case I get in trouble so I just have to be extra cautious and not get in trouble. I went for a swim with my husband this afternoon but decided not to take my camera. Too bad because we saw a big octopus in the water. In the evening, I did some mothing in our bungalow (the insect screens don't work, good for mothing, not so good for mosquito protection). For moths, I got 3 kinds of micros: a grass veneer, an Acrolophus, and a Eucosmini. Plus a beanleaf webworm moth.
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