Warm November Sun

Like so many recent Autumns, our weather has continued to be mild, or even above average temperature-wise. This Sunday was a particularly nice and sunny day to walk around the park. I have noticed a sharp decline in the variety of birds though as the month of October has passed. From here on out, "birding" can be a bit more tedious. However, as in every season there are still things to look forward to. One thing that come to mind is, soon it will simply be much easier to spot birds due to the lack of leaves. Another is raptors. I tend to spot many more raptors such as Eagles, Hawks and Owls in the late Fall and Winter months than in other times of the year. One bird that seems to be more active than normal this time of year are Black-capped Chickadees. Though so common in our area, they are still fun to watch and photograph. This one landed in a tree right above my head as I was making a squeaking whistle call. They are quite curious birds indeed. Aside from Chickadees I really didn't see a lot of other birds today. But it was just warm enough yet to find a live Grasshopper out on the paved path. I was kind of surprised to see this and figured most of them had frozen by now. But I touched him and he hopped away. I imagine this might be the last Grasshopper I see for the year. I think it was somewhere on the south end of the park that I noticed these bright orange mushrooms peeking out of a knot at the base of a tree. I've really not studied mushrooms/fungi so I have no idea what they are called but I do they are fairly common whatever they are. It looked like one had been eaten on just a bit by something. Whatever it was must not have liked them too much as the others were untouched.

There is a Season Turn, Turn, Turn

October is one of my favorite months -although you can never be quite sure what the weather will bring. Our first snow of the season can be as early as the first week in October! So far though, the month is full of sun and warmth. If it stays this way for a while it might just make up for the blasted hot summer we had. Other than a lot of busy squirrels, the first thing of interest today was this sign on the north side notifying park-goers of an archery deer hunt going on. I knew the city has organized these in the past but this was the first time I'd seen signs posted about it. It's a bit of a catch-22 for deer living in an urban area like this. Though it's probably a somewhat safe and sheltered habitat, they're unlikely to ever stray too far from it as there's just too much city streets to navigate before reaching another habitable area. With such a small and defined habitat, they're subject to intensive control when their population grows even just a bit too large. It will be interesting to see what the results are at the end of the hunt in mid December. The park doesn't really have a lot of great "fall color" trees, except for a few maples on the outlying areas surrounding the baseball fields and tennis courts. Still, it's apparent that the drastically wet summer, followed by an extremely dry Fall has had some unusual effects on the foliage. Some trees that were beautifully red this time last year have already dropped their leaves, while other trees haven't even started to turn yet. Amazingly you can find extreme variation on the same tree or plant like the one pictured here -which I think is a grapevine. With all the warm sun on the trail this time of year you have to watch your step just like you do in the Spring time. Only now it's not snails but grasshoppers that pepper the pavement in hopes of soaking up some warmth. These particular ones can get pretty big. This was my 3rd or 4th attempt at a photo -as they can move just a bit faster than a snail!

Touch-Me-Nots

I remember being shown Touch-Me-Not plants as a kid where we used to go camping up north. Palmer Lake is INFESTED with them. Since July they've been growing like mad and some of the plants are over 6 feet tall. Only recently have the seed pods come out so I figured I'd try to capture a movie of their infamous "exploding" seeds.
An interesting phrase from Wikipedia: These plants derives their scientific name Impatiens (Latin for "impatient") and the common name "touch-me-not" in reference to their seed capsules. When the capsules mature, they "explode" when touched, sending seeds several meters away. This mechanism is also known as "explosive dehiscence"; see also Rapid plant movement. Other than that, starting to see a few large grasshoppers here and there. Also, in the same place as always the wild vines are starting to take over the underbrush and even the trees. Every year they create these cool looking sloped walls or "tents" that you could probably camp right under if you could stand the mosquitos.