Mild Winter?

We observed this fuzzy woolly bear caterpillar today at Fort Stark in Newcastle, New Hampshire. According to the old wives' tale, the width of the brown mid-section of this caterpillar indicates the severity of the winter to come. The wider the brown, the milder the winter. This is the caterpillar stage of the Isabella tiger moth, Pyrrharctia isabella. It will hibernate as a caterpillar over the winter and then spin a cocoon in the spring.

The weather today was certainly mild; about 10 degrees above normal. We enjoyed being outside in the sunshine on the beautiful seacoast. In addition the the woolly bear, we found a neat a skeleton (probably a bird), broke open milkweed pods to watch the seeds fly, took a lot of pictures and wrote our names in the sand.

Autumn Days are Fleeting

Autumn Afternoon

Leaf Peeping

This afternoon, I took the little ones on a leaf peeping excursion across Route 101 to Keene, New Hampshire. On the way there, we stopped at Miller State Park and drove up the auto road to the summit of Pack Monadnock. The kids were absolutely thrilled!

They climbed the fire tower three times and then wandered around on the summit looking for trail blazes. We found the yellow triangles of the Wapack Trail, but then the red circles looked more intriguing, so we followed those instead. We made a short stop at the Raptor Migration Observatory and saw a turkey vulture from a distance. We were all happy to be in the mountains and are looking forward to going back.

Sweet September

Sand and Sun

"In summer, the song sings itself." ~ William Carlos Williams

Evening at the Shore