Zooming in on Early Autumn

Early Autumn. A visual definition!

The spectacular bloom of goldenrods and asters fades as plants age to drooping stalks and earth tones.Cool nights give rise to morning dew…. and wet feet. The once daily encounters with cold blooded creatures – bugs, snakes, toads and the like – gradually disappear. Birds and mammals take center stage, competing for nature’s bounty as they instinctively prepare for winter.

Nutritious acorns and other “hard mast” are wildlife magnets and a critical food source for winter health and survival.

Wild turkey hen and her young foraging for seeds and bugs in a hay field.

Antlers free of velvet and polished, this mature whitetail will soon reach his peak weight and be ready for the physical challenges of the rut, the hunting seasons … and winter

Fungi thrive in the warm, wet weather of September. Fruiting bodies are everywhere, appearing quickly and unpredictably in the moist, organic habitats of woodlands.

Happy Autumn!!!

Photos by NB Hunter (September, 2018). © All rights reserved.

The Great Outdoors in September, 2018

There are seasons, and then there are seasons within seasons. The final three weeks of summer that define the month of September provide vivid proof of the latter.

Banded Woolly Bear caterpillar, the larval stage of a tiger moth

Sulphur butterflies probing for nutrients in the wet, trampled soil of a cow pasture

Chicken of the Woods fruiting body (fried in butter by the landowner after I captured it alive!)

Monarch caterpillar feeding on Common Milkweed

A “fresh” Monarch nectaring on New England Aster (a September staple) in a weedy meadow

A good crop of Red Oak acorns has this squirrel busy all day long!

A young cottontail, now about half the size of its parents

Gray Dogwood, a favorite fuel of migrating birds like robins and catbirds

Most bucks rub their antlers free of dried velvet during the first three weeks of September, an event triggered by decreasing day length and increased testosterone

Foraging wildlife in a hay field in fading light (September 18 – the same date and location as the previous image)

Lastly, a message from my friend’s milk house kittens: Thanks for visiting!!!

Photos by NB Hunter (September, 2018). © All rights reserved.

October Memories

Wisps of clouds and soft colors defined a warm and peaceful sunrise

Natural rhythms were interrupted by unusually warm, dry and erratic weather patterns

Early leaf drop and muted colors in woodlands shifted attention to the landscape underfoot

The Harvest Moon reminded all of the landscape overhead

Harvested fields were crowded with hungry geese

Gulls as well as geese foraged in dense, low fog on cold mornings

Searches for fall landscapes led to familiar haunts, like the old mill pond

Driven more by photoperiod than the tricky warm weather, a mature male beaver prepared for winter by harvesting an aspen tree and stashing branches at the family lodge

Staghorn Sumac was on fire!

A large ash tree, dead for many years, returned to life. An impressive mass of “Chicken-of-the woods” fungus fruited on the base of the snag and lit up a drab woodland scene.

October reflections

Photos by NB Hunter (October 2017). © All Rights Reserved.

 

Fruiting Bodies!

Woodlands come alive in late summer as fungi and related plants respond to warm, moist growing conditions with visible forms of their life cycles. Fruiting bodies of myriad shapes, sizes and colors appear, sometimes overnight (they thrive in darkness!). The show can be every bit as rewarding as the spring flush of wildflowers…and just as fleeting too.

Mushrooms emerging through a layer of spruce needles

 

Coral Fungus

The Ghost Plant (Indian Pipe) made its way into this series on fungi because it lacks chlorophyll and can grow in the dark. In reality, it is a non-photosynthetic flowering plant that parasitizes the beneficial mycorrhizal fungi associated with tree roots.

The Ghost Plant (Indian Pipe)

Spindle Fungus

Photos by NB Hunter. © All Rights Reserved.

Wildflower Practice!?

Despite the warm, moist conditions, my woodlot is devoid of wildflowers. It’s too early, and the cold, snowy weather moving in this direction will hold things up a bit longer.  Under the circumstances, I was ecstatic over this brightly colored macro opportunity, discovered while working in the woods:

Cup fungus on a fallen branch

Photo by NB Hunter. © All Rights Reserved.

Super Cold, Super Cooled

The erratic weather of March helps explain why the definition of “snow” isn’t as simple as one might think. Yesterday morning I discovered a light coating of “graupel”, one of the many types of snow.

The morning temperature at ground level was in the low teens. Cold!!! That night, super-cooled water droplets in the cloud layer had coated snowflakes, which then fell as tiny white balls called graupel (also soft hail, snow pellets).

Graupel and frost on Turkey Tail mushroom

Graupel and frost on moss and leaves

Graupel and frost on a moss-covered log

Photos by NB Hunter 19March2016. © All Rights Reserved.

 

Autumn Macros: Fungi

Many types of fungi flourish in the warm, damp conditions that accompany early autumn. I don’t know their taxonomy as well as I should, but love to photograph them. 

Hollow trees, especially the large, old survivors, are woodland magnets that rarely escape my attention. This old growth sugar maple, a boundary line tree, is one that I always approach with great anticipation – perhaps a fisher, raccoon or owl has taken up residence? I discovered something quite different and unexpected on this trip: mushrooms, growing in the damp, dark recesses of the cavity. The last images in my post are a small sampling of this intriguing microsite.

Photos by NB Hunter. © All Rights Reserved.

A Close Look at Early Fall

Good weather and daily trail walks in a quiet natural area give me the opportunity to capture unusual images of ordinary things.

These photos from last week must be shared:

The fruit of Cranberrybush Viburnum; these will persist into the winter

A maple leaf suspended in mid-air by a strand of spider web; a challenging subject, as it was swaying and spinning in a slight breeze and the background was constantly changing.

A bee on Aster

Red-panicle Dogwood ( also called Gray-stemmed or Gray Dogwood)

Slug feeding on a puffball

Photos by NB Hunter. © All Rights Reserved.

Fun with Fungi – Finale

A major goal of this blog is to provide personal images and text that encompass a wide array of environmental subjects. Deer and foxes are in my radar now, as are the increasingly rich landscapes of autumn. I’m ending the series on fungi with no specific theme, other than beauty. The images cover several of the major taxonomic groups of fungi, including the shelf/bracket, teeth, puffball and cup fungi. These are all late summer – early fall photos taken in Central New York, and are among my favorites.

Hericium, in the teeth fungi group; Lion’s Mane (unofficially, I call it the icicle fungus!)

A Varnish Shelf Fungus on a rotting log (hemlock I believe)

Unidentified mushroom or bolete

Shelf/bracket fungus

Puffball

Shelf/bracket fungus on a rotting log

Yellow Fairy Cups. This tiny cup fungus has colonized the end of a 15-year-old, 12-inch diameter log (aspen).

Yellow Fairy Cups — macro.

Photos by NB Hunter. ©  All Rights Reserved.

Fun with Fungi – II

I was invited to join a hiking group for a day on the Finger Lakes Trail in Central New York and promised to post some trip highlights. I’m not a regular distance hiker so, with a 5-hour hike ahead of me, I decided to travel light. I regretted that decision about 5 minutes into the adventure. There was a photo opportunity at every bend in the trail, but the forecast for a bright, clear day was dead wrong. It was overcast and misty and I really regretted not having my good macro and a real tripod in my pack.

Red Eft, land form of the Red-spotted Newt

The group, including the Outdoor Recreation Club from Morrisville State College and the Bullthistle Hiking Club, was interested in all things natural, but the theme of the hike was the overwhelming variety and abundance of fruiting bodies!

Jelly Fungus

Coral Fungus (Crown-tipped)

Coral Fungus (Orange Spindle)

Mushroom, unidentified

Chicken-of-the-woods

Chicken-of-the-woods

Coral Fungus (Crested)

I’ll finish the post with this image because it was new to me, the color is quite unusual, and — the common name begs to be published!

Green-headed Jelly Club

Photos by NB Hunter. © All Rights Reserved.