Eco-Diary: Day 46

Here's how the creek looked on October 15:

It's pretty amazing how far upstream I can see now that the leaves have dropped.

The water level doesn't seem to be fluctuating much (but, admittedly, I'm not being very scientific about how I measure this). 

And just when I didn't think there was much of anything new to take into account, I noticed this little wildflower:

I think this is wood avens (Geum urbanum), a non-native plant that is highly invasive. It looks remarkably similar to yellow avens (Geum aleppicum), its native cousin, but the leaves are different. I'm surprised at how late its flowering — even most of the asters are done by now.

Its sort of interesting that wood avens' species name is "urbanum" when its common name places it in the forest. Then again, it was growing right by my feet at the edge of the path:

A parting shot of my trusty steed!

Eco-Diary: Day 42

Here's what the creek looked like on October 11:

A lot more leaves have fallen from the trees, opening up the view upstream.

The cattail area is looking more and more trampled. Is it unreasonable to think something must be sleeping there at night?

I noticed this shrub at the very beginning of this eco-diary, but I'm still not sure what it is:

And there's this juvenile tree. I'm guessing it's some kind of ash?:

There are still some asters hanging on in the background if this photo, but the goldenrod is totally spent:

Eco-Diary: Day 39

Here's what the creek looked like on October 8:

It's starting to get really colourful, but it's still surprisingly green compared to the rest of the trail, which is festooned with scarlet sumacs dancing all along its length like a burlesque carnival of wanton shrubs. 

Compared to their showiness, the subtle colours of the creek leave room to catch one's breath. 

Here's the colour change beginning in the mystery tree on the north side of the creek:

This is, or was, the turtlehead:

It seems that it has become deer browse after all.