Past October

Past October Earl Plato

October is the month when summer trees become autumn trees and autumn trees become winter trees. With the exception of the black and red oaks with their heavy russet leaves and the beech trees with their fluttering tan foliage - both hanging on into the winter - the month ends, usually with foliage gone. November will arrive soon in Marcy Woods with our deciduous trees entirely stripped of leaves. It’s a great time to see the naked landscape of Marcy Woods as you walk Little Hemlock Trail and the Roller Coaster Hills Trail. On a brisk Fall morning.
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Leaf-fall in these October days represents one of the major natural landmarks of the year. It marks the end of the time of growth - the end fo the deciduous trees of chloro phyll-making at the end of the green months. It is the coming of
The great change to he predominantly gray and white months. As we walk the ridge trail of Little Hemlock Trail we have the feeling of walking between seasons. Appreciate natural creation once more.
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Took two walks this past week - one through Fort Erie Sportsman Club Trails a nd the other the Lower Trail at Marcy Woods. Both were enjoyable.
Bud, Ed and I took more than an hour to walk through Sportsman Club trails. Plenty of good-sized deciduous trees along the paths. And there they were to the right of the west side trail - several little white buttons! Could they be the amanitas? I took my little knife and sliced one cap p all white gills! The deadly Destroying angel? Then a memory returned of ten years ago in this approximate spot. Ernie Giles, former local naturalist, and I found a fully developed Death angel mushroom. We photographed it and I sketched the white gilled fungi. I now crushed the growths.
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Wife, Elaine, and daughter, Allison, and I drove out to the base of the steps to the Upper Trail at Marcy Woods. It was mid-morning. Allison checked the site of the fallen maple that had crushed the railings of the upper path. The owners, the DiCienzos, had cleared the fallen tree on the path in previous weeks. Thanks Dino. The three of us walked on along the Lower Trail. We stopped to view the Witch’s Broom high up in the Hemlock Tree. Allison said, “Come over here. It looks like the broom has grown larger.” We thought so too. We went as far as Twin Oak hill. Here were red berries high on a bush that sill had green leaves. Were they The fruit of the Spicebush? We took a leaf and crushed it, No aromatic smell. The red berry wasn’t that of our spice bush in a beautiful part of Marcy Woods. Be curious in nature, eh. ***
Out to check tree damage at Marcy Woods, What a freak storm!