I bundled up for the cool blustery 40°F weather before journeying down to my place after my Monday morning chemistry lecture. This time I experimented with taking the bus which saved a lot of time but was not nearly as fun as walking. Along the way, I thought a lot about the diversity of habitats that the larger area surrounding my place provides. For instance, walking along North Beach I was struck by the number of squirrels that were diligently collecting acorns from the oaks along the beach. At the edge of the beach there was a flock of gulls looking out towards the Adirondacks across the lake. A small group of ducks floated by further out in the water.

The trail leading to the end of Lone Rock Point meanders past a meadow in which I heard and later saw many small birds. With help from bird identification guides I suspect that I saw a house sparrow, blue jay, black-capped chickadee and alder flycatcher while walking by.

Lone Rock Point is also characterized by both deciduous and coniferous forests. When I first entered the trail I was immediately surprised by how yellow everything was. On my earlier visit, the leaves were just beginning to change color and the forest was patterned with reds, yellows oranges and greens. Now however, the leaves we past peak, actively yellowing and falling off. As I walked the decomposing leaves were deep enough that they kicked up around my feet.

After learning about them in lecture, I was on the lookout for evidence of a red pileated woodpecker. I came across many trees that had deep woodpecker holes and on my walk back through the North Beach campground I found one!

 

Down at the edge of Lone Rock Point I returned to where I had sat last time and considered what had changed. The bright orange leaves on the northern white cedar that I observed on my last visit now had dulled in vibrancy and fallen off. The common buckthorn tree growing close by had also lost many of it’s leaves and was transitioning towards dormancy for the winter months.               

Before I left, I ventured down to the thrust fault. Once there, I sat mesmerized for a few minutes by the waves lapping up against the rocks. The blueish colored shale pebbles and rock outcropping stood out as a predominant feature of the rocky beach.

     

Once again, I would have loved to explore more of the niches of Lone Rock Point but homework pressured me back to campus. I am eager to return in a few weeks however and see what has changed!

(Original Photographs Copyright Colby Bosley-Smith, 2016)