Early December walk in the woods.
(Same woods as other "Walk In the Wood" PhotoStories)
The woods can look quite barren just before the snow comes to stay, but if you look around there is always something interesting.
The fresh ice on small puddles takes on interesting patterns after a night's light frost. While ice from the day before appears white as the water level has shrunk below.
The dampness in the forest floor creates ice crystals overnight.
The early morning backlight on the beech leaves makes them a standout. The beech leaves often fall after the maple leaves making a new top coat on the ground.
The pileated woodpeckers had been busy in several areas.
(The tree on the left, until a few months ago, had several large deep red bracket fungui in the area the woodpeckers attacked.)
There was lots of fungi around....
The last fungus is an orange jelly spot fungus.
The remains of a set of fungus that was fresh in October.
A long thick log was covered with small fungi
The moss was looking quite fresh despite the ice crystals.
Looking closely, a very few dried mushrooms were still there.
And looking even more closely, despite below zero temperatures and 10cm of snow having fallen (and melted) , there were two fresh looking mushrooms.
(Although the fresh appearance might have been due to moisture in the surrounding area.)
The wood fern seems to stay green year round, but the maiden hair fern dies back every fall
A few expired flower heads remain. Black-eye susan, Queen Anne's Lace and two possible golden rod.
The marsh/swamp certainly had gone all brown
The lack of leaves showed up burls, aged maple trees and a large dead pine.
Trees that started growing on top of rocks were more visible.
The clean up from last May's derecho windstorm is continuing and shows up more with the lack of leaves.
