Today was Sunday, September 11th and the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 attack. I honestly can't believe it's been that long. In retrospect I think about all the time that's gone by and all the outdoor activities I've enjoyed since -hiking, biking, kayaking, snowshoeing etc and I'm thankful for every minute of it. Today you could feel the pending seasonal change in the air, even though it was a bright, sunny day. Small hints of autumn such as an occasional discolored tree or a Woolly-bear caterpillar could be found if you were on the lookout for them.
As I passed along the north corner, I noticed a huge hoard of nymph Boxelder Bugs on -you guessed it- a Boxelder tree. I've seen these every year, around the same time, on the very same tree in fact, and I'm always amazed at the swarming mass of bugs. Only just a few hundred feet later I came upon what I call "Hummingbird Heaven," where the trail begins a long, straight shot north. There I was lucky enough to catch another few -possibly last- glimpses of Hummingbirds this season.
They are likely "fueling up" now for their long, long migratory trip back to Central America. I'm amazed that these little birds, weighing 2-3 grams can travel such long distances. My later sights included some Mallards on the creek, a Hawk, Cardinal and some unknown, large beetle crossing the paved path. I tried to get photos of this large beetle but he was moving at a pace faster than the average Wal-mart shopper and my camera couldn't focus in time.
I did spot a Bald Eagle not too much later but my final photo-pick of the day was luckily not moving at all. This colorful leaf -from I don't know what kind of plant- was sporting some amazingly contrasting color with stripes of solid white in between it's blended veins of yellow and green. I though it was a perfect summary of what out season is like right now, with balanced signs of summer and autumn.
The deer have been pretty scarce lately but today I spotted 5 or 6 of them. Two were definitely fawns with a Doe, but I couldn't tell the age of the others. This last one gave me some close photo opps as I watched it voraciously eating all sorts of greenery. I don't want to think about the fact that a lot of this green could be covered by snow in just over a month. On the north side I saw something that made me kind of laugh. 
Two snails were heading in the exact same direction across the path, side by side -only one was trailing behind about 12 inches or so. It looked like a race that would take a few hours. I tried getting a photo with both of them in it, but the one that was 12 inches behind looked like he was a full mile behind and just showed up as a blurry spot. It also won't be too much longer before these little Gastropods disappear too. The one sure sign I did see of things to come was an overturned Maple leaf with some nice dewdrops on it. 
There aren't really that many Maples in the park -only on the outskirts of the trail. Many of them have prematurely started to turn colors already due to the colder than usual temperatures.
