A Year in the Forest

  Here is the picture looking down into the stream bed as I have been showing the past few days.  You should start to notice how there are fewer leaves.  You can even see the sky in the background a little.  All the paths are noticeably covered with leaves now and there are more coming down all the time.

I fully expected all the mushrooms to be gone today but was surprised to see that not only were some new ones coming up but a log that had a few sprouting yesterday is covered today.    The picture only shows a small portion of the mushrooms.  I plan on harvesting a big batch tonight and having them for supper.

The squirrels are still very busy and I saw them on the ground again today.  I have not seen or heard a deer in a couple of days.

A few days ago I found the front leg of a deer.  Today I found part of the backbone of a deer, I assume the same one.  It was quite a ways away from the leg on the other side of a ravine.  I have looked and tried to follow my nose in vane searching for any other sign of the deer.  No Luck.  No smells. Nothing but the front leg and partial backbone.

Walking through the forest my nose did alert me to something, however.  I smelled something very sweet and looking around found a ripe pawpaw under some rose bushes.  Few things smell as sweet.  It seems the walnuts that have been falling the past week or so have finished.  I did not hear one fall today.  I did see several squirrels on the ground today.  They had been keeping themselves in the trees.

The leaves continue to fall and cover what were bare dirt paths that I use.  If I didn’t know where to go, it would be hard to follow the paths in some places.  There is not really much color, mostly yellows.

The only mushrooms, growing at the moment and not being immediately eaten are some honey mushrooms covering a large log.  I don’t expect them to last long.

  As promised here is the view down into the valley today.  I noticed today that in some areas of the forest, especially under the aspen the forest floor is covered with fallen leaves.  In other areas, dominated by other trees the forest is almost bare – the leaves have not fallen there yet.  Looking down into the stream bed you can see an area where the leaves have not fallen very much.  You can see a little color starting to show.  The most color is the maple and sumac on the edges of the forest.

Yesterday, I saw lots of mushrooms coming up and it was still moist.  Today it is dry and the animals have harvested most of the mushrooms.  I was able to gather enough of various varieties for dinner tonight though.  There was not enough of any one kind left.  I don’t have anything to base it on but my gut feeling, but the efficiency of the animals in harvesting the mushrooms and other edibles in the forest makes me feel this is going to be a harsh winter.

I started out the day by going a different route.  I went down the ravine to harvest a Bear’s Tooth Mushroom I have been eyeing from the ridge top.  While going down the ravine I spotted something I have been looking for for quite a while, a fox den.  We have several foxes and I have always seen them going toward one area.  That is where I spotted the den.  Here is a couple of pictures of it.  One from afar.    And another closer up.    Foxes usually have several dens that they wander between.  This one looks active right now because of the well worn path going to it.

Going further down the ravine I did find the Bear’s Tooth Mushroom.     I also found a ripe paw-paw.  The only one this season.  A paw-paw tastes like a super sweet banana.  The black walnuts are falling with so much rapidity that I almost got hit twice. 

It is getting to be more fall every day.  The aspen trees have lost almost all their leaves.  The other trees are starting to turn and should start loosing their leaves also.  To document the transformation, I plan on taking a picture looking down into the stream bed everyday for a while.  Here is the first.    As you can see most of the leaves are still on the trees, but it shouldn’t be long.  A couple weeks ago I mentioned that I seldom saw birds down in the woods.  I don’t know what has changed, but I have started seeing birds flying around and in the lower branches.  Different seasons bring out different things.  I saw another Box Turtle today.  It was making quite a bit of noise pushing through the leaves.    As usual he was not very happy with being discovered and disturbed.

I was expecting the last rain to make the mushrooms pop out again, but it didn’t.