Nathaniel Basch-Gould – Blog Entry #2 – Wall’s Pond – 10/2/09 – 10:15 am

It’s quite crisp this morning; autumn seems to be settling steadily in, one day at time. I’m sitting on the now-familiar west side of the pond, on a picnic table in order to avoid the dewy ground. The air is about 45 degrees F and there’s a slight breeze out of the north, about 1-5 mph. There is a tinge of cold in the breeze last week, and it’s certainly there right now. The difference is a general dryness, the beginning of the bite that New Englanders know is the mark of an autumn wind. The sun is just emerging through the pines at the south end of the pond, breaking the steely and uniform cloud cover and warming me as I sit.
The mallards are out in force! I count twelve and they seem more active than they have in the past two weeks. It’s as though they’ve finally shaken off the summer laziness that the college students are likewise trying to kick as the colder weather settles in. They dive occasionally and move among the dwindling lily pads on the east side of the pond.
Since my last visit, the water lilies have certainly diminished a bit. A few proud survivors are sticking it out, petals open, and it may simply be that today there is less sun than when last I was here, but the water lilies, which bloomed on the water’s surface last week are now mostly closed up or gone completely.
I see some new fauna today as well – namely two chipmunks at the base of the closest red maple on the southwest corner of the pond. I first notice them scurrying about the foot of the tree, diving in and out of several small holes thereabouts and nibbling on something white and fluffy. This gets me interested. Upon closer inspection, I discover twenty or thirty hunks of white bread scattered on the pond side of the maple’s base, left there, it looks like, by a human for the express purpose of feeding the local wildlife. This seems strange – the bread looks fresh and doesn’t feel stale. It certainly wasn’t there last week. I leave it, not knowing the impact it might have on animal at the site, but hoping it might attract some interesting visitors. Something will come by and eat it, I’m sure, and probably nothing that doesn’t already have business at the water’s edge. In addition to the chipmunks I catch a fleeting glimpse of a pair of small, black birds that swoop low across the pond one time and then disappear. I will keep and eye out for them next time, and will bring binoculars so as to hopefully record an identification.
The large maple at the north end of the pond wins the foliage prize this morning and gives away its true identity. In the week since my last visit 70% of its leaves have turned a fiery shade of red-orange (after double checking a leaf description online, I have at last identified this tree and those by the SW entrance as red maples). Only the lower branches on the western side remain green and not for long. It show, however, very few bare limbs so it must have another week or so before the mass exodus. The first-runner up in foliage is the smaller mountain maple by the water’s edge, just east of the red. Its leaves are a light orange and very few of them have fallen off as well. The rest are still green and well populated with leaves. I look forward to the coming weeks and the prospect of seeing them all go through their individual chromatic chaos.
It’s truly unfortunate that this week I happen to be sick and that my sickness is mainly a nasty nasal congestion because I would really have liked to smell Wall’s Pond this morning. The best I could get after many a labored sniff was the faint scent of woodsmoke from somewhere in town and a hint of mowed grass. For just two smells, though, these seem to be right for the kind of day it is; while the former pulls me irresistibly into the season of warm hearths and bundling up, the latter taunts me with memories of high summer and reminds me that the days when I can see green lawns and fields are indeed numbered.