An Autumn Picture Tour of the Nature Preserve

Some good vivid colors developed at the preserve this fall

It's high time for a look around the nature preserve. Too much is happening at the same time! Lots of leaves changing, birds migrating and animals preparing for winter. Despite a few heavy frosts, we still have some flowers blooming. Also, there are some excellent berries and mushrooms being encountered in the woods. Here is the sample pack of what has been happening:

White Ash trees deserve credit for their color contributions to the fall landscape

This particular White Ash turns violet almost every fall

Yellow-green Wild Grape leaves mingle with the orange leaves of  a cherry tree

This White Ash's trunk is sheathed by a red Virginia Creeper vine

Our remote boggy swamp was lit up by orange and red clad maple trees

Leaves of one of the Pin Oak Trees

The colorful stem of a Pokeweed plant in fall

Crooked-stem Aster is still blooming in the woods

A White-tailed Deer bounds through the goldenrod in our big field

A migrant Tennessee Warbler searches for aphids between the goldenrod blossoms

Monarch Butterflies continue their southward migration - only a few trickle through the nature preserve this year

Jack-in-the-Pulpit Berries - ripe and inviting

White Baneberry (also called Dolls-eyes) keep watch in the forest

A few migrant Scarlet Tanagers (in fall plumage) are still passing through

The spiny seedpods of the American Chestnut open and release their contents to the ground

A migrant Swamp Sparrow adopts its full alert posture

A migrant Lincoln's Sparrow peeks out of the dense cover

The Wingstem plants have gone to seed

Puffballs colonize an old mossy tree stump

Smooth-stemmed Aster is still bloom in the meadow

A few migrant Nashville Warblers are being seen and heard almost daily

A female Rufous-sided Towhee is skulking though the bushes near a feeding station 

A not particularly shy Barred Owl gazes at the 2 intruders walking through her domain

A Barred Owl in a mosaic of Beech leaves