Autumn in a Park

     I drove into a public, recreational park in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and spent two hours there in the afternoon of October 12, 2016 to see what was stirring in nature and to look for evidences of autumn.  I parked at an overgrown strip of trees, vines, grasses and other plants and watched to see what the birds and other creatures were doing.  There was a lot of life in that woodland edge and its surrounding, manicured habitats.
     A flock of handsome, post-breeding American robins were scattered across a lawn bordering the small woods.  There they were catching earthworms and other invertebrates in the soil and short grass.  But part of that robin congregation fluttered among and perched on bushy pokeweed plants to eat their dark, juicy fruits that ripen by fall.
     Meanwhile, I readily noticed several beautiful blue jays flying in and out of a couple of pin oak trees the whole time I was there.  They were harvesting acorns and burying them in the lawn near the robins or taking those nuts into the woods, perhaps to tree cavities or pushing them into the woodland floor.  The activity of those jays was a real act of autumn in preparing for the coming winter.
     There were some striking colored leaves on planted trees in the park.  Sugar maples had orange foliage while red maples had red leaves.  And Virginia creeper vines that had grown up some of the planted trees had red leaves.
     Planted white pine trees had many yellow needles, as they do every October.  Each bundle of five needles lives a year and a half.  Needles that grew in May of 2015 are now dying, turning yellow and carpeting the ground.  But needles that sprouted in May of 2016 will live and be green until October of 2017.  Hence white pines look forever green.
     Several black and rusty-red woolly bear caterpillars, the bristly larvae of small, beige Isabella moths, crossed the blacktop road in the park.  They were done feeding on grass and clover, were full grown and looking for sheltered places to spend the winter. 
     A few gray squirrels ran about carrying black walnut tree nuts and acorns in their mouths.  I suppose they were storing them either in tree hollows or little holes they dig in the soil themselves to be eaten during winter.  Their storing activities are a sign of autumn.
     Thickets in the woodland edge were loaded with small birds of several kinds, including the robins and jays.  And there was at least one each of permanent resident, woodland birds, including a few Carolina chickadees, a tufted titmouse, a white-breasted nuthatch, a downy woodpecker and a red-bellied woodpecker, flitting here and there among the trees.  The chickadees were occupied with harvesting seeds from Japanese hops vines and storing them somewhere in the woods.  They were back and forth between the vines and the woods the whole time I was there.  The jays and chicks were working hard to store food for the winter, which is an act of fall.
     I also saw a few species of small birds recently arrived here from farther north, where they nested.  These fall migrants included a brown creeper creeping up a large tree trunk, a ruby-crowned kinglet, an eastern phoebe that was catching flies in mid-air and two white-throated sparrows.
     Many insects were flying before the sunlight, which made them more visible.  Several clouded sulphur butterflies visited rooted bouquets of white aster flowers to sip nectar.  Asters in this area probably provide the last big source of nectar insects can get before winter sets in.     
     I saw much nature and signs of autumn in that park that afternoon.  As usual, one needn't go far to experience beautiful, wonderful nature in all its splendor.