Author Archives: Brenda Clements Jones

About Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.

Maple Leaves In Autumn

From today.

Red Maple (Acer rubrum) That common name, Red Maple. It’s one of many common names. So confusing. Why don’t we just learn the scientific name and avoid all the confusion. I wish it would happen, but dream on.

But that common name of Red Maple says a lot about the tree. It starts out in spring, sending out red leaves. Red leaves before the chlorophyl kicks in and turns the leaves green. Then it gets red flowers, red samaras (you might know them as helicopters), red twigs, and often but not always scarlet red leaves in autumn. Yes, the Red Maple doesn’t always turn red in autumn. Sometimes yellow, sometimes orange. Who would have thought!

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Abloom With Asters

The calendar says it is autumn and that means there are Asters blooming all along the trails up here in the mountains. They are ubiquitous. These, White Wood Asters (Eurybia divaricata). So many. It’s hard to get my head around them all. I’m working on it. Needle-like leaves. Heart shaped leaves. White, like these but with different leaves. Lavender. Bright purple. I’ve got a LOT of work to do to figure them all out.

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Still Seeing Them

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris). Gone are the summer days when I’d put out a half gallon of hummingbird syrup every single day. “My” many hummers are long gone but the little birds that summered further north are still coming through. Each traveling alone. That concept boggles my mind. Even the youngest, that just fledged this summer already magically know where they are going. WOW!

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Red Berries Red Leaves

Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida). Leaves that, in a subtle way, start to turn from green to red in late June. You have to look and be very aware. It is indeed quite a minuscule change at first. After all it takes months to reach this point of rich red. And those berries. The ultimate scarlet. Waiting for birds, squirrels, to come, to eat, to distribute their seeds.

Autumn. I love it.

Jack-O-Lantern Season

Jack-O-Lantern Mushroom (Omphalotus illudens)

Maybe not the Jack-O-Lantern that first comes to mind. This one is a fungus. And a mushroom that is toxic to humans whether they are eaten cooked or raw. This one can easily be confused with edible Chanterelles. Don’t eat the Jack-O-Lantern Mushrooms!

This mushroom has a faint glow in the dark, in the gills, while the fungus is young. In order to see that faint glow you must be sure your eyes are adapted to the dark, allowing 15 or 20 minutes for them to adjust. Researchers think this bioluminescence serves as a way to attract insects to the mushrooms. And those insects will provide spore dispersal.

These mushrooms are found in clusters on decaying stumps, and at the base of deciduous trees in eastern North America.

If you are into eating wild mushrooms, be certain you are not eating these Jack-O-Lantern Mushrooms.

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American Dagger Moth Caterpillar

American Dagger Moth Caterpillar (Acronicta americana). There is a long list of host plants of the American Dagger Moth, Box Elder, Maple, and Oak are three of many.

One of those caterpillars that can cause a skin irritation. No venom involved but it can cause that skin irritation. Unless you like a painful or itchy rash don’t pick this critter up.

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The Pumpkin Patch

There is a very important tradition in this family. Go to a pumpkin patch before Halloween to pick out a pumpkin.

A most difficult decision when there are so many to chose from. But nobody said just ONE!

Choosing one would be an impossible task. There are so many colors. And surely color is my thing. And then there are so many sizes and shapes. Ah! How many can I bring home? Surely a whole wagonload will do. Yes, let’s go with that. Not one, but a whole wagonload.

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Fat Bear Week

Fat Bear Week is celebrated in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska from October 4 to 10 in 2023. The competition is between the Brown Bears (Ursus arctos) that live in that park. And all Grizzly Bears are Brown Bears. But Grizzly Bears are considered to be a separate subspecies (Ursus arctos horribilis).

The bears that are here in Virginia are Black Bears (Ursus americanus) and generally weigh between 200 to 500 pounds. Brown Bears are considerably larger, averaging 500 to 900 pounds with exceptional older males possibly reaching 1,400 pounds.

I wanted to show you though, since it is Fat Bear Week, the fattest bear I’ve ever seen here. Not the largest bear, but certainly the fattest.

Whew! I’m glad the bears I have here are “little” ones!

October Is Pumpkin Month

Glad to see that October is National Pumpkin Month, otherwise I might have gone on a campaign to get the month set aside as such. After all they’re everywhere and in so many good things to eat. Flowers, seeds, and the flesh of the fruit itself, so nutritious. As well as, soon to be sitting on innumerable doorsteps, great for decorating.

The Pumpkin plant is native to Central America and Mexico. The oldest example of orange field pumpkin seeds were found in Oaxaca, Mexico, which have been dated to be 8,000 to 10,000 years old.

October, the month to go to the pumpkin patch to pick out the favorites of all the pumpkins. Such anticipation for that exciting excursion!

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Another Year Of Brown Marmorated Stink Bugs

The ubiquitous, Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys). Or simply the BMSB.

It is for sure ubiquitous around my cabin now. It is their season it seems. Certainly their season to try to enter homes to spend the winter. This photograph is just a few of the BMSBs on a window screen, waiting for an opportunity to sneak, to squeeze, to enter my cabin in any way possible. Many are successful, making them quite the invasive pest. They’re also an agricultural pest, an economic threat to farmers.

The Brown Marmorated Stink Bug is originally from East Asia, including China, Japan, and Korea. It hitched a ride somehow to the this continent but it isn’t known exactly how. It was first seen in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1996, and can now be found in many parts of North America.

There are some native creatures that will prey on BMSBs, including other insects, birds and spiders.

I was really pleased to witness an Orb Weaver that had captured this BMSB, wrapped it up in its silk and was proceeding to eat it. In this picture the Stink Bug is up-side-down and the Orb Weaver is underneath, on the left side of the image. I really hope the spiders that are spinning their webs to decorate my cabin for Halloween are eating many, many of these ubiquitous pests!

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