At 11:00 on Sat, 2 Nov on an overcast but warmish day, John Snitzer, Miki Komlosh, Barb Brown, and I met at Violettes Lock for a spin on the river, now a couple of inches higher that it's been of late. Once launched, John suggested that we turn hard left and descend the Breaks, which we have seldom done on weekend trips. It was a pleasant level to noodle around the many rocks in the middle of the flow - all while keeping sight of each other as we tripped lightly down the river. At the bottom we encountered Dean Hawes and another paddler, and we mutually hauled our boats up to the Towpath at Blockhouse Point, seal launched into the Canal and returned, each at his own pace. Turtle count: 1 (getting chilly out there)
Field notes by John Snitzer
My forest is dominated by tulip poplars and spicebush so the view out my windows has been suffused with yellow this past month. We should have few reds in the mix but the black gum which are reliably scarlet defoliated early during the drought. The forest along the Potomac at Seneca Breaks today was a striking contrast. The overall effect was burnished gold but there were a few bright red oaks on the Maryland heights at Blockhouse Point and a few red maples along the edge of the canal that were actually red. The biggest change in the forest since my last paddle was that the evergreens are now more evident—the pines and junipers in the dry rocky soil on the steep slopes and the clusters of mountain laurels on the wetter sides of the hills.
Native and exotic plants differentiate themselves this time of year. The native vines: poison ivy, trumpet creeper, grape, and Virginia creeper have all turned and have lost most of their leaves and are just a tracery against rocks and tree trunks. While the exotic Japanese honeysuckle is still summer green. The Asian bush honeysuckles and a copse of Empress tree, Paulownia, still looked like September. That may be a key to their success here. While the natives schedule their affairs to fit our seasons, the exotics
flush out early and hold their leaves late and steal some extra time making sugar in the bright forest without leaves.
We were far from the Virginia shore but the overall effect was of clumps of golden sycamore seedlings growing on islands and sandbars in the river silhouetted against the yellow green willows on the shore. The sycamores along the canal on the Maryland side were bright white skeletons. It was amazing how autumn has taken forest which is a relatively uniform blend of subtly different shades of green in summer and made the differences of forest composition so evident.
We ran into a huge gathering of crows when we returned to Violettes Lock. Fish Crows, as identified by Cornell’s Merlin app. The ornithology people at Cornell also suggest that winter is the peak social season for both fish crows and American crows who aggregate for protection from predators, warmth, and socializing. These gatherings are apparently where juveniles find mates. There were hundreds, perhaps as many as a thousand.
Other wildlife is disappearing. I saw only one juvenile eagle. The katydids and crickets are almost gone.
Winter will soon be here.