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Tree Bob

A Trip to Moonville

Althea and I checked out the Moonville Rail Trail yesterday. It’s been a while since I hiked there. Previously, you couldn’t hike far past the tunnel before you hit Raccoon Creek and had to turn back. New bridges now make it possible to get in a great hike along the sycamore-lined railbed. Someone asked recently what my favorite tree is, and I said white oak, mostly because my cabin is surrounded by them, but yesterday’s hike made me reconsider. The sycamores are shedding their bark, giving them a ghostly appearance that complements the haunted tunnel.

So for yesterday, at least, sycamores were my favorite tree.

There are several beaver ponds long the way. We found this evidence of their activity, but apparently they gave up or lost interest in this tree long ago.

Abandoned electric poles are interspersed among the sycamores, a testament to the days when coal towns provided stops along the rail line. Those towns are mostly gone now, like the bark the sycamore’s are shedding, leaving only hints of the past. Many have been reduced to clusters of shacks and mobile homes while others have simply faded into the forest.

This plaque in the tunnel is covered with graffiti done by morons who have no sense of the past, no pride of place. The idiots have even graffitied many of the trees along the way. I guess they weren’t smart enough to realize the sycamores would shed this stupidity once autumn came around …

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Assorted Bob Leaf Litter Tree Bob

Where in the world is Sydney the Cockatoo …

Can you spot the invasive species in this beech tree? It’s the umbrella cockatoo (Cacatua alba), also known as Sydney the escapee. His flight feathers came in, allowing him to soar off into the forest when Althea made a run at him last Sunday. He landed in a beech tree in a steep, difficult to access part of the forest, and he spent the night there. I finally managed to retrieve him the next morning. At some point during the night, he’d moved to a smaller tree, a young sugar maple, and I followed him as he went to a succession of small maples, eventually ending up on the forest floor. He was shivering in fear when I finally retrieved him and I think he was glad to view the forest through a large glass window again after his night on the lam …
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Dog Bob Leaf Litter MycoBob Tree Bob

Recent woodland rambles …

Photos from my foraging expeditions. Big rain revved up the forest and got the mycelium running and fruiting, though it still hasn’t been as lush as the riot of chanterelles that erupted earlier this summer …