Dispatch From Petrie #172, September 2026
There weren’t many clouds in the sky to give a nice sunrise, but a few whisps caught some pink. The trees reflected the warm yellow light as the sun came above the horizon
It is always a matter of being in the right place at the right time…. This day I was not!
No beaver, no muskrats, no great blue herons. When I met some birders at the end of the Bill Holland trail, they told me of 14 egrets and 2 bald eagles being at the causeway when they came down (about an hour after me). The bald eagles were on the ground eating something
But I was greeted by many turtlehead flowers in full bloom, some right at the start of the Turtle Trail.
I always associate turtlehead flowers with Petrie. My initiation with them was at Petrie twenty-five plus years ago. Back then there were a few plants in one spot, now they are well spread over the islands, except at the place where I initially saw them!
Other flowers still blooming (click on photo to view full screen)
Dogwood (2nd blooming?), American asters, calico asters, flat topped asters
Arrowhead, snakeroot (was everywhere) a few Queen Anne’s lace hanging on
Nodding beggar-ticks, touch-me-nots/spotted jewelweed (2x) (their seed pods were getting ripe and ready to spring apart when touched), bread and butter
False foxglove (just finishing), a few remaining cardinal flower blooms, chicory
Highbush cranberries(2x) (Some apps ID these as gulda rose berries, but that seems to be the European variety), bittersweet, buckthorn, poison ivy, basswood
A variety of crabapple?, blue grapes
A brown stink bug was on a dogwood berry bunch
Autumn meadowhawk dragonfly and eastern forktail damselfly were both helping to keep the pesky flying insect population down.
An old fallen tree trunk showed the trails of bark beetle larva as they travelled under the bark of the tree when it was alive
With no beaver or muskrats (or voles or mink) to be seen I settled for a few black squirrels and a raccoon track
The (a?) cormorant is still working Turtle Pond, mallards enjoying the morning sun.
Unlike years ago, wood ducks are using Turtle Pond now. There were two juvenile males, two adult males and an adult female mixed in with the mallards on the logs.
As the sun rose above the horizon you could hear the Canada geese start to wake up. I didn’t see any that spent the night in Turtle Pond, but a number flew in, while the vast majority seemed to fly over on their way elsewhere.
One of the fourteen egrets was left when I got back to the causeway. Once home and editing the photos, I spotted the painted turtle enjoying a morning sun session behind the egret.
While a kingfisher hovered and then dove into the far side of Turtle Pond and a bat (not really a bird😊) flew right in front of my face when I first arrived, a curious eastern wood-peewee, was the only bird I had a decent look at.
A list of birds heard but not seen. With such dense growth this year, the birds are sometimes hard to see.
There was a stiff breeze blowing from the NW even before sunrise. It made for shoreline “waves” AND kept the mosquitos away at least in the open areas.
The Friends of Petrie volunteers have certainly done a good job on the Bill Holland Trail. Smoothing out many of the deep hollows and cutting the vegetation growth back. There has been a lot of growth with all the rain this year.
Towards the end of the Bill Holland Trail there is a small pond on the north side that is easy to miss. It was to be quite open in the “old” days, but the shrubs, trees etc are effectively hiding it now. It was covered with duckweed
Climbing false buckwheat, sensitive fern (2x), backlit fern
Early morning sunlight on the 2-2.5″ (5-7cm) grape (?) vine, bittersweet vine, Virginia creeper vine turn fall colours
The meadow-rue leaves have turned a mauve-purple
There used to be a deteriorating log that “hosted” what I called a bears paw fungus every fall. The bear’s paw is a dense “waterfall” of fine white strings.
That log has long since rotted away to nothing. But in almost the same spot, there is a newly fallen log hosting some crown-tipped coral fungus.
Left, fresh turkey tail fungus not far from the coral fungus. Right, the only mushroom I saw all morning. Other woods are full of mushrooms this year with all the rain.
A very few maples are starting to turn. Fall is around the corner!
