Leaves Fall. Mornings now mean a 42 Degrees bike ride to school. Dogwood fruit, Acorns, and Pine Needles rain from the sky. I see chipmunks and squirrels daily, bombarding the mess of crushed acorns on my street. Sugar Maples and Red Maples turn orange, then red.
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Sugar Maple leaf in road. Anthocyanin production is caused by a surplus of Sugar in a leaf as it dies. Yellows, browns, and oranges are caused by a combination of Anthocyanins and Chlorophyll.
The same family of four Mute Swans I saw at the beginning of the summer is still alive and healthy. I guess cygnets take a really long time to mature into adults.
Above is a Marsh I saw on the highway, going to Saco. Common Reeds (Phragmites) cover the ground and the trees are red and silver maples. Silver Maples in the wild are almost exclusively found in muddy wetland environments. Soon, the Reeds will wither and turn pale. The Trees will be bare, and the mud that all these plants are growing on will freeze solid.
Below are pictures of animal tracks I found in the soft mud under Wickford Bridge.
Muskrat
Common Raccoon
Canada Goose
These animals are scrambling to get fat before the first snow. When the ground freezes, gets covered in a foot of snow, and all the food is covered up and dead, these animals will barely eat. Insects are doing the same thing. During the winter, a nest of Western Yellow Jackets (underground) will be covered with a layer of ice and snow. Like Carpenter ants, bees, termites, and any other social insect, Western Yellow Jackets go into a four month long state of torpor.
During this time, they will bunch up in clusters to conserve body heat, and will not move, defacate or eat for this whole time. Their heartbeat will slow down, they will hardly breath, and they will stay dormant until the ice melts. Some of the colony, including eggs, pupae and larvae will freeze and die, or starve.
Here is a Western Yellow Jacket Worker trying to collect some well needed sugar for the colony. Sugar in the form of a fallen Kousa Dogwood fruit.
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