Day 354: December 20th – Last day of fall

Beautiful sunshine, crisp 35 degrees, and light breezes

       It is a picture perfect last day of fall (hopefully not of the world as those who subscribe to the expiration of the Mayan calendar and of the world coinciding would have you believe).  I for one am still going ahead with my plans for a Merry Christmas in five days. 

       I took advantage of this glorious day by hiking down through the upper section of Manitou Point Nature Reserve in Garrison.  I had visited the lower part of the park down by the Hudson last week and promised to check out the rest of the park in the future.  The park is easily accessible and hiking through the area can be done by several well marked trails or by the roadway (closed to vehicular traffic).  I hiked down by the trails and returned by road.  I tend to spend a lot of the time during this time of year down near the river and local ponds, so it was nice to get back into the forest. 

       Speaking of the ponds, I did stop off at Brooks Lake in Fort Montgomery for a quick look on the way to Manitou and was happy to see that there was a drake Hooded merganser in the company of 6 females on the water.  A half dozen Canada geese and a similar number of mallards rounded out those on the pond today.

       Back to the forest…..as I hiked along the roadway, it was hard not to notice the length of the shadows crossing my path.  Tonight is the longest night of the year, and with the sun so low in the sky, the shadows are at their longest.  The low angle of sunlight also makes for nice lighting when capturing images with the camera.

       The birds were around in small numbers here and there.  Juncos, a few house sparrows, chickadees, titmice and one lone Downy woodpecker joined me on the walk in the woods.  At this time of year, they are all pretty quiet with only  occasional chatter from the chickadees and the woodpecker breaking the silence of the morning.  There is one exception, however.  The Carolina wren seems to be insistent on singing at any time of year and at any time of day.  Sure enough, I came across this handsome fellow calling his little heart out.  They seem to be pretty common right now, but I never tire of hearing and seeing them.  They can really  put out a lot of decibels for such a little bird.

       While most of these woodlands are hardwoods, there are still small stands of pines and a number of hemlocks which have succumbed to the wooly adelgids’ handiwork.  As noted earlier this year here in this blog, the hemlocks have really taken a beating from this tiny aphid-like insect.  Now we see many more dead than live hemlocks….what a shame.

       Well, good Lord willing, we’ll be back tomorrow to see what the first day of winter will bring.  See you back here then.