A different idea for a post had this time slot but I realized it had been so long since I had walked along the Ashuelot River in Keene I couldn’t remember when the last time was, so off I went. This is a favorite trail; one I’ve been walking for almost 60 years now. Still, every time I walk it I see something I hadn’t seen before. We’re going upriver.
There was a breeze so the water wasn’t completely still but it was still enough for reflections, and it wasn’t too hot for a change. We’ve been having some brutally hot days lately.
Forget me nots grew here and there right at the edge of the river. They like lots of water, and they find it here.
Blueberries are coming along. Lots and lots of blueberries in fact, so it looks like it might be a good year for them. Those berries feed a lot of birds and animals.
I’m seeing lots of vetch and that’s good, because I always like coming upon it unexpectedly, beautifully twining its way up the tall grasses. It’s like an exclamation point on the word beautiful that is always in my mind when I’m outside.
Hay scented fern is a magic thing that can make a hot day seem cool. I like that about it and luckily I see it just about everywhere I go.
For the first time though, on this day I saw fern balls on the tips of the hay scented fern fronds. Fern balls are common on cinnamon ferns but until this day that was the only fern I had seen them on. Fern balls are created by an insect called a fern leaf roller, also called the fern leaf tier. The rolled up leaves appear at the tip of a fern frond and look like a ball, and inside the ball are the caterpillars of a moth. A web like material holds the ball together, as can be seen here. The caterpillars then feed on the innermost fronds inside the ball. I think each fern has an insect dedicated to its particular species but I haven’t ever been able to prove that.
An electric blue damselfly perched on a deer tongue leaf. It was a beautiful little thing; a common blue damselfly, according to Google lens. Not common enough in my opinion; I’d like to see more of them. If you walk through some tall grasses near water and see them flying around it’s because you’ve stirred them up. Just stand still and watch and they’ll settle all around you on plant leaves, just as this one did. I don’t think it’s that they’re afraid, exactly. I think they just want to be left alone to do their own thing, and you’ve interrupted them. Once they see you’ve stopped moving they’ll forget about you and will perch right up close to you for what can sometimes be several minutes.
This shot is for those who don’t know what poison ivy looks like. If you are going to spend time in nature, you should know it well.
When I was getting shots of the poison ivy I heard a loud cry and a kind of clacking sound coming from the far side of the river. The clacking almost sounded like the sound a bamboo wind chime makes, except louder. As I peeked through the bushes I saw a green heron hunting the shore, and as I watched it caught what I’d guess was a frog or a salamander.
According to Northern Woodlands Magazine (an excellent read) green herons “Will use objects – twigs, feathers, crusts of bread – to lure fish within reach. They are one of only a handful of North American bird species that are known to use tools to capture food.” So these are smart birds.
Whatever this one caught, it went down easy and the bird was clicking its bill together when I took this shot. I was surprised how loud it could be. What I and a few color sighted people I know don’t understand about the bird is why it is called a “green” heron when there isn’t any green on it. Even my color finding software can’t find a single bit of green. I found this online at birdersjourney.org: Audubon.org even implies that the ‘green’ is questionable: “The ‘green’ on this bird’s back is an iridescent color, and often looks dull bluish or simply dark.”
I’ve seen common grackles which are black, in bright sunlight. In the right light they have beautiful glowing iridescent purple and gold head and neck feathers, yet we don’t call them purple grackles. I’m not suggesting that we rename birds; I’m just alerting people who may have never seen one to the fact that a green heron doesn’t necessarily have to have any green on it.
This is one of the few straight stretches of river in this area, as you look upriver. The river is old and winding and has formed ox-bows and setbacks in many places. Viewing the river on Google maps is a good way to see this.
In a dark, still spot a light shined, and how very beautiful it was. When such a scene holds our attention to the point of silencing the mind, we can learn much about our own peace. A lesson in silence, stillness, and peace being taught right here by the river and yet everyone rushes right by, neither looking nor seeing.
Every time I walk this trail I feel that I’m walking in a place where humans have walked for thousands of years, because it isn’t hard to imagine it being originally laid out by Native American fishermen. Archeological digs have shown they were here at least 12,000 years ago and lived along rivers and lakes. Personally, I believe they were here long before that. People still fish all along this trail today, just as I started doing at about ten years old.
I’m starting to see mushrooms appearing here and there. I’d say despite the occasional hot days, temperature and rainfall amounts had returned to just about normal now, so maybe it will be a good year for them. I’d love to find enough to put together another mushroom post.
A slaty skimmer dragonfly perched on a pickerel weed leaf, probably resting what was left of its wings. There was a big piece gone out of the one on the lower left and it’s lucky the bird missed that time. I’m seeing a lot of smaller butterflies with shredded wings now too.
I saw lots of target canker on the red maples out here. It doesn’t harm the tree but causes its bark to grow in circular patterns of narrow plates which helps protect it from the canker. According to Cornell university: “A fungus invades healthy bark, killing it. During the following growing season, the tree responds with a new layer of bark and undifferentiated wood (callus) to contain the pathogen. However, in the next dormant season the pathogen breaches that barrier and kills additional bark. Over the years, this seasonal alternation of pathogen invasion and host defense response leads to development of a ‘canker’ with concentric ridges of callus tissue—a ‘target canker.’” Apparently the fungal attacker gives up after a while, because as the tree ages the patterns disappear and the tree seems to be fine.
I saw a few starter holes made by woodpeckers as well. There is at least one pileated woodpecker out here, easily known by its more or less rectangular holes.
Deer tongue grass grows all along the trail and I saw many plants ready to flower. These are its spikelets, which are what its flowers will emerge from, seen here. Each spikelet is about one sixteenth of an inch in diameter.
And here are the brushy flowers, called stigmata, of the deer tongue grass. The flowers are so small when I took this shot a few years ago I had to put a white card behind them so my camera, on “microscope mode” could find them. I think they must be the smallest things I’ve ever tried to photograph. Deer tongue grass gets its name from its leaves, which can indeed resemble a deer’s tongue.
This bridge is my turn around point, for no particular reason other than knowing what is beyond it.
Daisy fleabane was being taken over by Virginia creeper here and there.
Before I went to the river that day I took a walk along a road to see if I could find some milkweed in bloom. Suddenly up ahead there was a lot of fluttering going on in the grass and when I got closer I found the biggest moth I’ve seen being blown this way and that by a strong gusty wind. It was bigger than even a Luna moth.
A wind gust revealed the underside of a wing and I clicked the shutter before it fell back. Other than a moth I had no idea what it was but I could see that it was beautiful. I could also see that it must have just emerged from the chrysalis before I got there because its wings hadn’t yet hardened. There were many birds to be heard and I wondered if it would be eaten but I decided to leave nature to itself, and I moved on. I admired its feathery antennae before I left. Later I learned that the male moth detects the pheromones emitted by the female with those antennae, and it is said that he will fly for miles to meet her.
When I got home I looked up the moth and found that it was a giant silk moth (Antheraea polyphemus) which has a wingspan of 6 inches and large eyespots on them. I found this photo of the adult male moth on Wikipedia, taken by someone who goes by the name Kadoka1. It is said to be native and widespread in North America but I had never seen it. I read that the caterpillar can eat 86,000 times its weight at emergence in a little less than two months. I hope it doesn’t like vegetable crops!
If you have a river, then you should share it with everyone. ~Chen Guangbiao
Thanks for coming by. Stay cool.
New Hampshire Garden Solutions 