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!