Some Perfect Late Summer Weather: No Mushrooms But Some Nice Hikes And A Big Furry Visitor.

We have had perfect late Summer weather here in Northeastern Pennsylvania the past few days. Bright sunshine, calm clear blue skies and warm temperatures. And it’s not just the humans enjoying it. A lot of the forest animals are taking advantage of the weather to fatten up for the upcoming Winter. And one of them, this big black bear made a visit to my yard to lay down and feast on the corn I put out for the deer and turkey. 

I came home from work to find him laying on the ground and licking up the corn kernels with his tongue.  What a beautiful creature.

This is a link to a video I took of the bear that I posted on my youtube channel. https://youtu.be/MT0riLX-9QQ

He roamed the yard for about  an hour making himself right at home. It is not good to have wild bears near humans and I try to discourage him  from visiting up at my backyard. But I took advantage of the situation to get a lot of photographs of this magnificent creature. Here is a link to some of those photos. https://keepyoureyespeeled.net/mammals-of-pennsylvania/nggallery/mammals-of-pennsylvania/black-bear-september-15-2015

After watching the bear I took a hike in the aspen/birch /pine woods in our area to look for aspen  scaber bolete mushrooms , or red tops as my dad called them. These mushrooms were my dads favorites and we  would dry them and use them to make mushroom soup on Christmas Eve as is the tradition of my  Polish heritage.  This is the peak season for them but, because of the very dry weather we’ve been having I didn’t find a single one. In fact I didn’t see one mushroom of any species. But i did find a lot of signs that Fall is only a week away. Many trees now have multi colored leaves. 

I also found a lot of spiders again, including this marbled orb spider. I think they thrive in the dry weather. 

I was surprised to see a few red spotted newts in the ponds and I took this guy out for a close up photograph. 

No mushrooms but it was a very pleasant hike. Here is a link to some more photographs I took on my hike. https://keepyoureyespeeled.net/photographs-5/nggallery/blog-photos/hike-september-15-2015

It was another nice day today. I didn’t get a visit from my bear friend but did get to take another hike after work. This time I headed to the oak/maple woods to look for the hen of the woods, chicken and honey mushrooms which also should be growing this time of year. And I  didn’t find a single one. The only mushroom I did find was the beautiful, but deadly, destroying angel.

It was a lot more quiet in the woods now, most of the songs birds had headed south, and the only sounds where the chirping of the chipmunks, some crows and blue jays and the occasional thud of an acorn falling to the ground.,

The leaves are changing and the multi colored leaves where beautiful in the sunlight. 

The air was filled with the fragrance of the dying sweet ferns and the fallen leaves on the ground. 

I sure wish I found some mushrooms but just to hike outside on such a beautiful day was good enough for me. here is a link to some photographs from my hike earlier today. It was such a relaxing night and looks like another beautiful day in store for us here tomorrow. https://keepyoureyespeeled.net/photographs-5/nggallery/blog-photos/hike-september-15-2015

“It would seem from this fact, that man is naturally a wild animal, and that when taken from the woods, he is never happy in his natural state, ’till he returns to them again.”
― Benjamin Rush,