Eco-Diary: Day 8

Here's how the creek looked on September 7: 

On the left, you can see a few cattail flowers starting to ripen. Here's a close-up:

We're well into September. The goldenrod is in full swing and the New England asters are opening, making for some nice displays of complementary colours:

There are lots of insects taking advantage of both flowers:

I didn't notice the little spider web around this aster until I was looking at the photo later:

Here's another flower that has opened in the last few days. I haven't been able to identify it yet:

Update: This is probably burr marigold (Bidens cernua).  

The damselflies were out again today, so I got some identifying shots of what I'm fairly certain now is a female ebony darkwing (C. maculata):

And here's a closer look at the water plant I noticed the other day. The leaves aren't long enough for Peltandra virginica, so I'm going to say it's Sagittaria latifolia (common arrowhead or wapato).

There are some really sharp grasses in the boggy area around the cattails that have left me with some injuries. Will have to figure out what type of grass it is. (Update: Turns out it's Leersia lenticularis, or rice cut grass.)