Take A Walk, Eh

Nature article Earl Plato

Do you agree with this statement? “The sequence of the falling of the leaves is like the sequence of the blooming of wild flowers.” Why? It repeats itself each year. The different times that leaves-fall in Greater Fort Erie is a characteristic of the various trees found in our communities. Ash first - maple - oak last.
Take a walk with me in the last of the October days of 2006. Near the Friendship Trail first of all we see “those elongated leaves with delicate
tintings of yellow and salmon and purple that begin descending from the White ash trees.” The wind whips down the Trail and there is a sudden leaf shower.
Next morning near Buffalo Road there is an initial layer of fallen wet ash leaves on the Trail. I read in Ed teale’s nature diary the following: “The slender (ash) leaves are like the first deliberate flakes of a snowstorm.”
***
What a view from the Friendship Trail on the Lakeshore Road segment! Have you walked it from Historic Fort Erie to Bardol Street?
Open vistas of Lake Erie and the Buffalo skyline greets the eye. Ring-billed gulls and yes, those Cormorants dot the sky. Two pairs of Mallards bobble on the water near a rocky outcrop.
This cool morning the waves are rolling in and crashing continuously on the shoreline. I like the repeated sound as the waves dash on the rocky beach. I pause to give thanks for family and friends on this beginning of Fall.
Do you like the new lights? They add to the uniqueness of the Trail.
We drove to Helena Street and the Town park. We walked to the beach. The shore was completely clear from algae and debris. Here there was hardly any wave action. It was very peaceful. I sat on the bench and watched some of my grandchildren skip flat rocks. We look forward to seeing the Trail go through old Erie Beach. The plans for this connecting stretch will be outstanding when completed. You should be most pleasantly surprised. Thank you Town for seeing that the Friendship Trail meets the needs of many people.
***
After all it’s October - Some leaves are falling as a result of the overly dry summer and the inevitable increasing times of colder weather and frost.
Into Shagbark Trail this cool morning and I notice something. Is there a perceptible increase in my view in the woods? I think so. The fallen leaves are the clue. “New vistas are opening up.” Secret places are revealed to me. I see a nest to my right where the Bloodroots flower each year. Hidden to me last week I examine its finely woven nest. Nestled in the ‘V’ notch of a young ash now almost denuded I believe that it is an exquisite Goldfinch nest.
Like the opening pages of a new novel, Shagbark Woods is spreading out. As November approaches I will learn progressively something new about something old about this place. Keep searching in nature.