Fall leaf colors have been subdued this year, but still colorful.  There’s been enough wind every few days to blow the leaves off the trees, so none of the colors have lasted very long.

The Cabin Road – from the last day of September when the landscape was still very green

 

Path to the Knife Edge in mid-October – with more colors in the leaves.

 

Indian Grass in Buffalo Ridge Prairie with Round-headed Bushclover

 

Song Sparrow on Canada Goldenrod

 

The Narrows Prairie

 

Evening light in Center Valley

 

My  favorite name for this plant is Tinker’s Weed.  It has many other names including Wild Coffee, Fever-wort and Late horse Gentian.

 

Deer watching us walk by.

 

Hidden Oaks Savanna

 

Aromatic Aster is still blooming in Buffalo Ridge Prairie.  This photo was taken a few weeks ago, but I checked yesterday, and that plant still has flowers.

 

Now there are Butterfly Milkweed seeds mixed in with the aster flowers.

 

Field Thistle flowers also bloom late into the fall, and they attract late bumble bees.  These are Common Eastern Bumble Bees – several males and a new queen that’s mating with one of the males.  I think there also may be a honeybee below the mated bumble bee pair.

 

Until a few days ago we were still seeing butterflies.  Most were Sulphurs – like this Clouded Sulphur blending in with the fall colors of Common Agrimony.

 

Painted Lady – one of the few I’ve seen this year.

 

Sometimes when I scan through old photos I find scenes that I’d forgotten.  I didn’t remember all the birches that had been taking over the prairies on Indian Grass Point.  Over the years we’ve cut and removed most of the birches.

 

Here’s another old photo from Twisted Oak Savanna – just after I’d girdled the aspen trees that were taking over the savanna.   After the aspens died we cut and removed them, and cleared out the brush that had grown up around the trees.

 

More bird photos – including some migrants heading south.

Hermit Thrush

 

Fox Sparrow

 

Field Sparrow

 

Red-tailed Hawk

 

The camera we’re using for the birds also has a setting for taking moon pictures.  Here’s our best one so far.

 

The eastern part of the Knife Edge Prairie still has big sections that are overgrown with aspen sprouts, honeysuckle, buckthorn, sumac and Gray Dogwood.  I spent a few weeks cutting and treating brush and got a good sized section done.

 

The last big project of the year is always our ‘Fall Project’.  This year it’s in two parts – two sections of 3 Finger Valley.  The first part is cutting the buckthorn and honeysuckle that’s grown up in the western finger of the Valley.  We’ve been ignoring that area for years, so the shrubs have grown into trees.  Mike is working on clearing the trees.

 

I’m working on the edge, which is the bottom edge of Badger Point.  Badger Point has prairie and savanna areas that we plan to work on someday.  This shows the end of Badger Point after I’d already cleared most of the invasives from that edge.

 

Here’s the way the edge looked before removing the invasives.

 

And afterwards.  There’s still one more big buckthorn left to cut in this section.

 

Mike moving some of my piles

 

This is the other side of that valley – the bottom end of Hidden Oaks Point.  The second part of the Fall Project is to clear the invasives and the smaller trees on this side of the point.   Then the whole bottom of Hidden Oaks Point will be savanna.

 

Looking south down 3 Finger Valley with the morning light shining in.

 

Buffalo Ridge Prairie

 

Clouds over Buffalo Ridge

 

Cooler temperatures bring misty mornings to the wetland.

 

Willows in the wetland

 

Morning light at the creek

 

Hidden Oaks Point

 

Sunset clouds over Center Valley