Highlights

September 2019 - SMB Hike, Monarch Butterflies,Mushrooms

ACTIVITY ALERT - September's Exploring the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve Walk

You've probably had sleepless nights wondering:

Why is it that no one can see Fighting Rock?
What is a Siney Oak?
Is there a bridge on Break Bridge Trail? Is it broken?
What line is on East Line Trail?
What is an Esker? 
Where is Mystery Stone III and can I see it?

Inquiring minds that want to know can join us September 14, Saturday, 8 a.m. We will meet at Fighting Rock Corner, east end of Wilson Road, Fall River, MA.

Length of walk approximately 3 1/2 miles. Wear appropriate clothing and footwear for walking uneven forest trails. Insect repellent containing DEET and/or picaridin suggested until the first frost in October.
-----------------------

A vanishing natural spectacle? Maybe not.

 Tiny, fragile creatures preparing to fly 2,845+- miles to spend the winter in Mexico. How do they do it?


They are starting to gather. In our neck of the woods monarch flights leave Gooseberry Island/Horseneck Beach, Westport, MA; Sachuest Point, Middletown, RI and other coastal jumping off points from mid-September to early October when temperature and wind conditions are right for flight. In good years we've watched hundreds depart Westport in early October. If you stop by to see them off, don't forget to wave goodbye.

                                                                                                                             Photo- Wikimedia Commons

 
Have you noticed more monarch butterflies around here this summer than in past summers? We have. After the lowest population numbers ever recorded last summer and  being considered as a candidate for listing on the US Endangered Species List, an unexpected number of monarchs made it back to the United States this year. 
 
The monarch population has been in rapid decline for the past 30 years. Monarchs need milkweed plants. No milkweed, no monarchs. They need milkweed all the way from here to Mexico and back again. Milkweed and monarchs face a host of problems, most caused by us. Some of the reasons for the monarch decline:
Increase in human population, https://www.census.gov/popclock/, and urban/suburban sprawl of housing, business/industrial development and roads over large areas of land.
Intensive agriculture, where milkweed used to grow, to get maximum crop yield for everything from food to textile fiber to ethanol.
Conversion of old unused fields and farmland to solar arrays.
Use of herbicides in "clean" farming eliminating milkweed.
Insecticides applied everywhere from suburban lawns and gardens to local aerial spraying for dubious mosquito control.
Climate change effects, extreme weather, that may alter milkweed production and /or the monarchs internal clock that tells them when to stay and when to go.
Logging of forests, land development and increasing human disturbance to traditional Mexican monarch wintering sites.
 
Good things happening for monarchs and why we may be seeing more around this year:
Monarch education programs in the U.S. and in Mexico. Google "monarch butterfly education programs" and you'll find dozens.
Instead of going on the same vacation to Florida or on a possible norovirus, oh no!,cruise this winter, why not go visit the monarchs? https://www.tripsavvy.com/mexicos-monarch-butterfly-reserves-1588943 and https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/monarch-butterfly-migration-mexico  You might see one that you saw sipping nectar from a flower in your flower garden back in July.
Increased interest in folks planting milkweed in their flower gardens and some that sow milkweed seeds in vacant lots and along roadsides. Milkweed seed pods are easy to gather in October. If you don't have a free source and want to plant some milkweed seeds there are sources on the Internet. Google "buy milkweed seeds".
Both Lowes and Home Depot are phasing out or have already phased out selling plants treated with neonicotinoid pesticides. Hopefully more will follow as folks realize that herbicides and pesticides are harmful to all life, including butterfly and human. Pesti-cide, herbi-cide, fungi-cide, homi-cide, infanti-cide, geno-cide. That Latin suffix "cide" means "killer."  Not good, wise to stay away from such things.
 
More on the plight of the monarch here in our November, 2014 newsletter; http://www.greenfutures.org/?content=SeItQL00irt0ufzz
-----------------------------------------------------

INFO ALERT -  Fecund fall fungi fruiting fantastically in the forest

September is National Mushroom Month
 
Country music's Luke Bryan sings that down on the farm, "Rain makes corn." Well, that may be so in the summer, but out in the forest in the fall, rain makes mushrooms.
 
Although some mushrooms may be found in any season, autumn is he best time of the year for quantity and variety. Take a walk in the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve or on local land trust property in your home town and see what you can find. Fall mushrooms come in an amazing array of colors and shapes. They are the easiest forest residents to observe, photograph, draw or paint ...because they don't run away.
 
If interested in gathering mushrooms for dinner the first thing you have to know is caution. If a novice, go slow and start with an easily identifiable species such as the chicken mushroom or the hen of the woods. Learn one species at a time. You don't want to make an identification error so the best and safest thing to do is proceed cautiously and always remember that when in doubt, throw it out, or better yet, leave it where you found it. The learning process can be speeded up by finding a knowledgeable mentor who will let you tag along on hunts, or join a mushroom club and take a mushroom identification class and go on their forays and field trips.
 
In our neck of the woods the Boston Mycological Club, the oldest "mushroom club" in the country, occasionally offers classes for beginners and runs forays where members hunt up mushrooms and other fungi and at the end of the foray, return to have them identified. Check them out here: http://www.bostonmycologicalclub.org/ 
 
Mushroom hunting equipment, gifts, etc.: https://fungi.com/collections/gifts-gear
 
 
 
Mushroom magazine: https://www.fungimag.com/
 
 
Mushroom Internet identification: https://mushroomexpert.com/

------------

Rainy day mushroom hunter bags a cauliflower mushroom:

Hunting the Hen of the Woods:

Oyster Mushroom:

Chicken Mushroom:

Lion's Mane Mushroom:

Amanita muscaria:

Hen of the Woods:

Horn of Plenty Mushroom:

------------------------------------------

ACTIVITY ALERT - September's Exploring the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve Walk 

This past Saturday morning at 8 a.m. ...and a chilly 46 degrees ...found us at Fighting Rock Corner ready to start September's exploratory walk through a section of the Watuppa Reservation, a part of the greater Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve.
 
Meteorological fall begins September 1 and we noted some leaves, especially those of red maple and tupelo beginning to change color and we saw many species of fall fungi all along the route of our 3 1/2 mile walk. 
 
October's Exploring the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve Walk will be October 12. Watch for an email "walk alert" around the first of October.
 
Our monthly meeting will be September 19, this Thursday, 6:30 p.m., Fall River Public Library, Nagle Room, 104 North Main Street, Fall River, MA. All are invited.
 
Here are a few photos from September's walk:
 
Talking about the history of East Line Trail, Hec's Spring, Siney Oak, old stone foundations off in the woods and Queen Gutter.
 
 
On top of the esker viewing Mystery Stone III.
 
Mushrooms were popping up everywhere. From green russulas (Russula virescens) and honey mushrooms (Armillaria mellea) to this just past its prime common stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus). Just as bees are attracted to sweet smelling flowers to pollinate them, flies are attracted to carrion and excrement smelling stinkhorns to spread their spores. You can find more on stinkhorns, view a fresher specimen and learn how they function, here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phallus_impudicus

-------------------------------

INFO ALERT - Autumn! One of the best things about living in New England. You don't want to miss it.

Peak fall foliage color in far northern Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont may occur as early as late September, but in our neck of the woods peak foliage color is normally between October 12 and October 24. Now, before Boreas arrives and blows all the leaves down, is the perfect time to explore area fields and forests.

The following fall photos are from the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve or area land trust properties. Get out and enjoy your natural environment.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 


October's Party by Charles Cooper 

October gave a party,
The leaves by hundreds came;
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.

The Chestnuts came in yellow,
The Oaks in crimson dressed;
The lovely Misses Maple
In scarlet looked their best;
All balanced to their partners,
And gaily fluttered by;
The sight was like a rainbow
New fallen from the sky.

Then, in the rustic hollow,
At hide-and-seek they played,
The party closed at sundown,
And everybody stayed.
Professor Wind played louder;
They flew along the ground;
And then the party ended
In jolly "hands around."

<Back