Blue October Sunday

After all the excitement of our new grandson, Dick and I needed some quiet time together, and Sunday morning was the perfect opportunity. The temperature was chill, and heavy dew on the rooftops looked like frost. We bundled up and headed for nearby Anchorage Trail, a favorite among local birders.

The people who come up with names for paint colors need to call one October Sky Blue - if they can match this sky at all! I can't think of any other time all year with such a shade of blue.

Enough talk, though. Just enjoy the beauty of our fall walk.

Yes, now we have the peace and serenity for another week.

Harvest Moon

Each month has a name for the full moon. The skies have been clear, and I see the moon will soon be full again. The Full Harvest Moon is the full Moon that occurs closest to the autumn equinox. In two years out of three, the Harvest Moon comes in September, but in some years it occurs in October. At the peak of harvest, farmers can work late into the night by the light of this Moon. Usually the full Moon rises an average of 50 minutes later each night, but for the few nights around the Harvest Moon, the Moon seems to rise at nearly the same time each night. I'll have to try for a photo of it this year.

Although many birds have migrated out of our area, others are coming here to spend the winter. The Ky. Bird Listserv has reported the last of the Hummingbirds (almost) and the first of the Juncos and White Throated Sparrows arriving. Our Red Shouldered Hawks will stay around as long as they can find food. Red leaves indicate that the cholorphyll factories have shut down for the winter, so the red colors are now visible. I love seeing leaves backlit by the sun....

...or outlined against the blue October sky. I think October has the bluest sky of the entire year. Don't you? I notice that it gets dark much earlier already, part of Autumn that I don't enjoy. Now that I'm retired, I don't have to get up and go to work in the dark any more, thank heavens!

Of course, orange is a favorite fall color too, and not only in leaves and pumpkins! I'm not seeing as many butterflies as a few weeks ago though. Our garden is about bloomed out for the season, and we put the netting over the creek to keep out dead leaves and pine needles which are falling rapidly now. Sometimes the leaves sound like rain when they fall. Raptor Rehab took some birds to Bernheim's ColorFest this weekend. Brewster here wasn't impressed at all, and slept most of the day. He did thank us for perching him in the shade though. Click on his picture for an enlargement. His facial feathers look almost like hair around his eyes.

Wonder if he would have been interested in this little mole we found on the ground? It seemed undamaged, but it was dead already. The Vultures appreciate food that is already dead. I came upon this group of Black Vultures cleaning up a deer carcass along the road to Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve.

Children think Vultures are nasty because they eat dead stuff. We always remind them that they eat dead stuff too, it's just wrapped in plastic and comes from Kroger's instead of the roadside! In fact, if we offered them live meat to eat, they would be even more grossed out!

Blue Skies

Although I spent a three-day weekend at Cumberland Gap National Historic Park, not once did I get to walk on a trail, or enjoy nature's fall gifts. Tavia called while I drove to Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve for my regular Tuesday shift. "We need some new photos of the trails. Would you be able to get some this morning while the light is good?" she asked. She may have thought she was giving me a work assignment, but it was really soul food!

Doctors tell you to get exercise, but if all you want is to burn calories, you can get on the elliptical at the YMCA and watch TV while you sweat. Only one spring fed creek has any water, so it is very important to all the wildlife in the area.

Walking under the cobalt blue, cornflower blue, cyan, electric blue, indigo, lapis lazuli, Prussian blue, royal blue, sapphire, saxe blue, sky blue sky lifts your spirit as well as your heart rate.

All the plants that I watched bloom last spring now have fruit and berries. This crab apple was planted by people. It would take an awful lot of these tiny apples to make jelly, but the birds love them.

Invasive plants such as this multiflora rose bear attractive rose hips, and again the birds like to eat them and spread them around. It's no wonder we have trouble trying to control invasives.

Porcelain vine completely covers and smothers any plant it uses for support. At the county park headquarters you couldn't even tell what kind of tree or bush should have been visible for all the porcelain vine. The berries are attractive ranging from white to blue to purple, but you don't want them growing in your garden. Poison ivy is a native plant at least. Tavia told a story about some folks who moved to Kentucky from a location that has no poison ivy, and they made door wreaths from the autumn leaves and berries. Well, they'll never try that again!

Poke berries never give up. You will find flowers at the tip of the stem which also has the dark purple berries.

The birds are chowing down on any berries they find. This Lincoln's Sparrow is one of the best finds for me this autumn!

He perched on a branch in the sun watching me while I stooped over to take his picture.

Cardinals not only cheep to tell you where they are, they grin while you take their pictures. So many of the migrating birds are busy chasing little insects, and there's no time to focus before they fly off.

A Black and White Warbler slowed down just enough to pose before darting off for a bug on the bark.

I didn't see the Red Shouldered Hawk that lives at the Preserve, but the Black Vultures circled serenely. I think they do it because flying is just fun!

Not all trees turn bright colors in the fall. This fall, very few of them will do so since it's been so dry. But see how this beech tree is losing green between the veins of the leaves. When the green is gone they will be yellow before falling to the ground to crunch under the feet of other people out for some Soul Food.

Is it Autumn Yet?

The most enjoyable part of spending the night at Bernheim Forest is dawn and dark. We sat down by Mac's Lake, and the full moon was so bright we didn't need a flashlight to return to the lodge. When the sun started to rise we went for a pre-breakfast walk, just to enjoy the fresh light and cooler temperatures.

This summer has been dreadfully hot and dry. Two more record high temperatures were set while we were at Bernheim this week. The rainfall is 2 inches below normal for September and another 1.5 inches below normal for August. Have you ever noticed all the yellow flowers that bloom in the fall? Why are they all the same color? Tavia, my wildflower expert, says yellow attracts the butterflies and other pollinators. There are also ultraviolet colors in the flowers that we can't see, but the insects can.

Goldenrod is the state flower of Kentucky, and there are more than 30 species found here. Goldenrood pollen does not make you sneeze though. It's too heavy and sticky to blow in the wind. Ragweed is the primary source of allergies.

Trees are affected by the drought too. Walnut, sycamore, and tulip poplar normally lose their leaves earlier than other trees, but they also turn yellow before falling off. This year, I fear there may not be many colors for the fall festivals. As we walked down the trail, the dry blowing leaves sounded almost like rain as they tumbled to the ground.

When we hike in the country, I start to think about what life was like in the pioneer days, 200 years ago. I'm very much a city girl, I'm afraid, and I have trouble imagining what it would be like to live away from other people. Look at this picture of Harrison Fork, in Nelson County. You can see many small valleys that look like this - the stream is up against the side of the valley, and the rest is broad and available for raising a crop. The pioneers straightened the streams, removing the bends and meanders, to increase their acreage. This particular creek is down to bedrock, which is hard enough to be used as a road. In fact, it looks like wagon wheel tracks in several places. An endeavor like this must have taken a community effort to dig a channel, then move the stream and fill in the old bed. Now Bernheim has several projects to put the meanders back into the streams to improve wildlife habitat.

Nuts and berries are flourishing. This sawtooth oak was a real head scratcher, until we found a nametag on one of the trees.

Butterflies, beetles and bees don't seem too troubled by the dry weather. Dick took a net to practice catching butterflies, and they all seemed aged with drab colors and tears in their wings.

How many insects can you find on this thistle...

...or this wingstem? You won't see the chiggers, but they see you. I'm going to be scratching my ankles for another week at least!