23 October

A chilly but very rewarding visit to the Forest and Wetlands.




Fungi are still abundant.  Many of those we saw last week have grown and changed their shapes.

The white spindles, or fairy fingers, have grown longer and increased in numbers.










Stems can grow to position the cap of the mushroom into light.



The stump on which we've been tracking woodpecker work continues to shrink but has acquired more fungi this past week.


I'd never appreciated the beauty of mushrooms until now, but the abundance and variety that appeared here this season is remarkable and often quite lovely.


This photo is a bit larger than life-size.  These two  tiny mushrooms struck us with their delicate lavender shading.   

In addition to fungi, the forest luxuriates in mosses.




The marsh has changed this past week.  After the past week's rains, there are now expanses of open water.






Last week, we saw many long filaments of cobweb blowing about--nothing I could photograph.  This week the cobwebs appeared to have settled on the marsh's sedges.


At a distance, they looked like pennants blowing in the breeze.

A closer view showed that they were effective traps for the marsh's insect life.


Most of them drew their host sedges into this graceful curve.  

A flight of about fifteen mallards flew over and settled in the water at the south end of the marsh.  They were apparently undisturbed when a bald eagle circled above.


A wooly bear caterpillar strolled across the dock.


According to folklore, the amount of black on this critter predicts the severity and timing of the winter.  This one has a relatively narrow band of orange and a large black area at his back end.  If folklore holds true, we are due for a harsh winter, with the end of the season more severe than its beginning.  


As we left the marsh,  five trumpeter swans flew past.


As far as we could see, they continued  to the south, past the marsh.  During the winter months there are often flocks of swans in the fields near Errington, and further south by Duncan, but these were the first we've seen this year.  There is a fine magic in seeing and hearing flights of swans,  especially when they first arrive. 

As the season advances, the marsh will continue to host migratory waterfowl.  New visitors are always a delight.

















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