Bona Dea Update

Bona Dea has been sunny most days recently except the other day when it rained a little bit. We do need some rain around here. Flocks of various birds have been coming through this area. October seems to be the main month for migration heading south for the winter months. Still been feeding the Blue Gill Brim at the spillway but the catfish have disappeared since it has gotten cooler at night. Some Pileated and Downy woodpeckers have been active. Also the late summer and fall wildflowers are coming and going pretty fast. I suppose in anticipation of cold weather. Sorta wish it would hurry up and get here. I must have scared the Gator the last time I saw it as I have not seen it since. But the cooler weather at night may have moved it to its winter quarters away from where I mess with it. I recently saw a pretty male wood duck land right close to the spillway and then saw me and quickly started swimming towards some friends further out in the water as shown by the photo. Also saw a Great Blue Heron wading bird. This photo shows it was in a hole of water where the Alligator usually heads for at night in the summer time. It would make a pretty good supper don't you think. I took this photo of a very pretty bright red cardinal plant close to nightfall. This plant was very tall with some others like it nearby on Beaver Trail. Also on Waldon Way Trail there was a really pretty purple headed Trumpet weed or Joe-Pyed weed plant that I had to photo. Speaking of the spillway. There was a pretty small yellow single flower bloom of a Water Primrose wildflower that was actually growing in amount several tree roots in the very bottom of the dry spillway. These photos shows the bloom closeup and then the entire plant. Also on Waldon Way Trail I saw some Wild Rose Hips growing on the very sharp thorny limbs or stems of the rose plants. The red berry like hips are actually the seed pods for roses. On Swinging Bridge Trail I saw this Asiatic dayflower with the long seed pods. There were more of them in earlier stages on Waldon Way Trail by the Trumpet weed plant. They have very small and bright blue flowers that actually bloom only in the morning and are gone by the afternoon when I usually go to the park. Lazy me, I should go and take some picks of the blooms. Just google Asiatic dayflower and you can see the really pretty blooms.