PPL River And Wetlands. Summer's Last Hurrah?

            <![CDATA[It was hazy, hot and humid here in Northeastern Pennsylvania  today, it is still August, for one more day anyway, and it sure felt like Summer.  But I found plenty of  signs Fall is near during my hike in the PPL River and Wetlands this morning. <a href="https://www.keepyoureyespeeled.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/PPL-Wetlands-39-of-57.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-22893" src="https://www.keepyoureyespeeled.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/PPL-Wetlands-39-of-57-300x200.jpg" alt="PPL Wetlands (39 of 57)" width="300" height="200" /></a>

As some of you know the Wetlands and Riverlands consist of a number of ponds, swamps, wetlands and old canals along the Susquehanna River. I enjoy the abundance of wildlife, many species of plants and the ancient trees that were spared from lumbering along the river.

In the Spring there are turtles, frogs and snakes everywhere. Water fowl and song birds are plentiful and  I have observed chipmunks, beavers, muskrats, deer, fox and even a bear.  Not today. It seems the song birds have already started their southward migration.  I was able too see a few ducks and these two green herons.

I also heard the shrill call of this red tailed hawk but was only able to get this photographs. 

The irises, mayflowers, trout lilies of Spring and Summer gone. There were still some flowers in bloom but no where near the many varieties that bloom in Spring. . 

But now it is the nuts and berries that are plentiful on the plants and trees in the Wetlands. 

I was hoping to find some mushrooms on the ancient trees but no luck because of the dry weather we have been having. I was surprised to find these oyster mushrooms on a tree stump. They usually grow in May.  The have an anise flavor and they went  well with the chicken mushroom i found yesterday. 

I walked back to my car and got my macro lens hoping to find some smaller critters but even the insects  were hard to find. i was glad there were no mosquitoes and surprised to only see a few dragonflies. I was lucky to get a photograph of this one.

In the Spring there are hundreds of turtles sunning themselves on the logs, rocks and banks of the water. Today I only saw a few turtles. The water is so warm now they don’t have to leave it to get heat from the sun.  I only  saw  frogs and not a single snake. I was able to photograph a few of the green frogs including this one.The heat and humidity sure felt like Summer today but all signs show that Fall is fast approaching. I.m going to enjoy this nice weather while I can. Here is a link to  a few more photographs I took in the Wetlands this morning. https://www.keepyoureyespeeled.net/photographs-5/nggallery/blog-photos/ppl-wetlands-august-30-2015

no matter how complex or affluent, human societies are nothing but subsystems of the biosphere, the Earth’s thin veneer of life, which is ultimately run by bacteria, fungi and green plants.  Vaclav Smil

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