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Chipmunks or deer?
New Monarch 
Resting deer 
Water droplets 
Bracket fungus (also a nice shelf for a nutshell) 
Squirrel Nutkin 
Lichen-covered stump 
Weird yellow fungus 
Bracket fungus 
Fall garter snake 
“Not in my back yard!” 
Sassafrass 
Tiny toad 
Dragonfly 
White-throated sparrow “What would you say?” I asked my daughter on our way out of the woods. “Was this walk mostly about chipmunks or deer?”
“Chipmunks, probably,” she answered.
But three deer, resting and grazing, were the first things we saw — after the monarch mudskipping in the parking lot. Later, we heard the snorty scream of a deer warning call, followed by some banging sounds, and then a young buck running through the woods across the creek from us. Could he have been clashing antlers with another deer? Or did he get stuck in a tight spot somewhere? Strange. We back tracked to see if we could get another look at him, and though we did see him we didn’t get any pics. Still another young deer bid us goodbye as we left the woods, too. They were surely out and about.
The chipmunks were definitely impossible to ignore, however! They scampered everywhere and chirped till the woods rang with it, warning everyone that we were intruding. The little guy pictured in the log was close enough to his safety zone to indulge his curiosity about us somewhat before disappearing inside.
The other story, for me, was the busyness and color of the woods. It shows up especially in the stream/bridge pictures. It’s difficult to find a single area of the scene that isn’t already brimfull of other outlines. It reminds me of those art class exercises where you are instructed to fill every space with a different pattern.
Not a ton of color this fall — mostly yellows and rust colors. It’s been dry. But it’s enough to tint the sunlight, giving it a beautiful burnished glow before it hits the ground.
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Polyphemus Moth
This is actually a picture from back in June that I didn’t get around to posting then. I saw it as I pulled into a grocery store parking lot one morning, sunning itself on the pavement in the exact center of the entry ramp. I stopped the car and got out. With encouragement from a man in a pickup truck who stopped to see what I was looking at, I let it walk onto my finger.We kept it in an aquarium for a day as it slept. Polyphemus moths live only a few days and don’t eat — don’t even have mouths! But when evening came it was ready to FLY. Hopefully it lived the rest of its short life to the fullest.
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Virescent Green Bee
This brilliant green fellow landed just as I was photographing this aster. I learned his name here. He’s just another example of how you can live in the same place for years and years before noticing something common and very beautiful. He adds a new dimension to the already rich fall colors.
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Prayer before meals
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Fall Marsh
“I’m not here.” 
“Too hungry. Truce.” 
“You STILL here?” 
Flicker 
Woodland sunflower 
Lilies 
Droplets 
Forget-me-not 
White wood aster 
Lady’s thumb 
Flicker foreground 
Ready to launch -
Creekside
There is a creek that runs along the edge of the church grounds where our homeschool co-op meets. I used my free period today to sit in the colorful, multitextured world of the stream. I wasn’t feeling antisocial — just quiet. It was a lovely diversion in an otherwise busy day.
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Even Better than Monarchs in the House
When I took a picture of this trail in the spring, I never would have guessed that it would bless me with a wonder in the fall: my first ever glimpse of a chrysalis in the wild.
I was so excited I came back later with my daughter, and we discovered another… sadly, it had been robbed. Monarchs are poisonous to birds, so the culprit must have regretted it.
But our spirits lifted at the sight of another. Ultimately we saw eight healthy ones!
#2 
#3 & #4 
#5 
#6 
#7 
#8 Not a single one was on a milkweed plant. Several chose goldenrod; #8 was on a stalk fallen nearly flat across the trail, and must have been that way almost the whole time. A few chose other plants that I didn’t recognize. One — #7 — chose a stalk of grass!
Several of them looked ready to hatch, so after lunch I went back. #5 had hatched!
#5 emerged I had been a little worried about #7. Rain was predicted, and that stalk of grass looked so fragile… But the chrysalis was looking ready to pop, so I set up my tripod to try and video its emergence. Amazingly, it came out just as a very gentle shower began.
#7 Emerged 
Growing 
Hanging around 
Larger still 
Wings almost ready I did video its emergence, and it’s amazing to watch! If I figure out how to make the file smaller I’ll post it. But these pictures tell the story of transformation.
It was a gift. I’ve looked before for chrysalises, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen any in the great outdoors, and it was a jackpot sighting. I woke this morning heavy-hearted over various things going on in our often messed up and confusing world, but this was a glimpse of something working marvelously right.
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Latest Monarchs
Only two chrysalises left. Today’s hatchling was the first to be greeted by a cool, rainy day. I hope he will make out all right!
Yesterday’s fluttered immediately up into a tall tree and spent the day there.
So far we’ve had 5 males and a female.
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Ted
Caterpillar #2 took flight yesterday. Adios, friend!
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First butterfly
