Red maples are turning and leaves are beginning to fall. The recent lack of rainfall and drying winds from storm remnants like Hurricane Jose are causing some leaves to just turn brown and drop off prematurely. One of the first trees to turn color is to the left of the main bridge.
From the main bridge, the marsh is dotted with the yellow flowers of water-marigold, in the beggar-tick family. That family has seeds with little barbs. The seeds attached to animals, the legs of your pants and shoes. That’s why they are called beggar ticks.
In the forest mushrooms are popping out of the ground. These are the fruiting parts of vast underground networks of fine threadlike filaments called mycelium.
Rarities sometime appear at Broadmoor. This northern bobwhite quail was one of two photographed by Bennett Green early one morning. Staff and visitors have searched in the weeks since then but found no trace. Are they wild? Were they raised and released in the neighborhood? It’s hard to know. If you see them, please enter your sighting in the log at the Visitor Desk. We digitize these notes to keep as part of a long term record of sightings at Broadmoor. Over time they can help track changes.
