October 25 and 28 , 2022 Maryville Greenway Nature Photo Walks
Here in East Tennessee we have had a very warm and dry October. I was getting out for short photography explorations several days a week. The Maryville Greenway section along Browns Creek and the Greenbelt Lake are just down the hill from where I live. I would grab my camera to spend a couple hours outdoors in the sunshine and see what animals and even a few flowers that were still in bloom on October 25, 2022. I also walked this same area 3 days later on 10/28/22.
Enjoy and get outside to be: Closer to Nature!
This Yellow Cosmos has been fun to see it blooming for several weeks from what I call a ragweed plant (WEED), that is growing in the gravel alongside the Parham Avenue Bridge over Browns Creek.
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There are also Invasive Morning Glory Vines but with pretty purple blooms on the non-mowed bridge area along the creek. Today I got this picture from this vine that had twisted and climbed up the Cosmos to create this beautiful arrangement of Cosmos dead flowers spikes, one bright yellow bloom, and a bright purple Morning Glory bloom all together.
I would see other Cosmos plants in bloom across the street and on the edge of a swampy bank next to the Greenbelt Lake. It has such pretty flowers for a weed.
I have been posting nature photos on Facebook 3-4 days a week since October 8, 2022. I was asked if I could put identifications on my pictures for some butterflies, flowers, and birds. I decided to also add location and dates and often a short statement about the photo.
Here are a few of my bird photo finds for my after lunch on the 25th stroll in this oasis of biodiversity where I live.
I have enjoyed my newer Canon EOS Rebel 7 Camera with its 70-300 mm lens as now I can get much better bird, turtle, and butterfly pictures to share.
I have been doing my iNaturalist Self-Bioblitz of the biodiversity of the Maryville and Alcoa, Tennessee 15 plus miles of Greenway Trails since last July and adding many species to my list of observations.
And yes I just mentioned turtles and as I have seen so many and gotten photographs of several species here in the Greenway trail along side the lake. They have such personalities and often pose for pictures on rocks and logs while catching some sunshine. These were observed and photographed on October 25, 2022.
I wandered down to the Greenbelt Lake area again on October 28, 2022 in the late afternoon. I feel I hit a jackpot when I was able to get some zoomed in clear and in-focus pictures of this Sachem Butterfly on some small flower blooms. This species, Atalopedes campestris, is a grass skipper butterfly found throughout most of the continental lower 48 states except for the Rocky Mountains.
Other Butterflies I saw and got pictures of were feeding on the flowers that were growing at different places on the bank leading down to the Greenbelt Lake. Always beautiful to see the colorful butterflies and the pretty flowers they were on.
I also added some pretty American Pokeweed berries, and flowers of Common Jewelweed, or Touch-Me-Nots. The beauty and biodiversity of this small urban oasis for Nature gets more impressive every day I go out and explore this Greenway system.
As I was heading back home up the hill from the lake I stepped off the street and along the bank of the lake to peer down to where Browns Creek passes under the street to enter the lake. An explosion of wings and different colors of this Green Heron took off from the shallow water and flew across this end of the water into the reeds.
My ability to focus so quickly was not enough to get clear photographs, but I am happy I got what I could in these 2 pictures of this less common bird for me to see here. I do love the reflection during flight as seen in the water below the Heron!
I was gathering these pictures and Nature sightings near the end of October and although several days were very warm, Fall observations were also seen.
This Box Elder was loaded with winged seeds getting ready to be released. Box Elders are in the Acer Genus which includes all the maples. I was unaware of this tree being a Maple until I started using iNaturalist to post and identify my Nature finds this past summer. Unlike many of the common maples that release their seeds earlier in the year, Box Elders do not drop their helicopter seeds until the fall. Sometimes they keep them long into the winter.
To close these warm Fall days post, I was playing with my camera as the wind picked up. Leaves were blowing off the American Sycamore trees that line the banks of Browns Creek as it empties into the lake. I was trying to capture a good photo just when a big leaf hit the water. I never got a splash with water drops spraying out, but this one at least shows the ripples moving away from impact in their tiny waves!
Enjoy and get outside to be: Closer to Nature!
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