assessing the damage from Irene

This morning was warm in a sub-tropical sort of way with a lot of haze but almost no dew and an almost unearthly quiet. That made it a good morning to work on the trails and do an assessment of Irene damage. We don't garden and we don't have isolated old trees standing in the midst of green lawns or other clearings -- the kind of trees that are usually the first to be toppled by storms. There were no trees down at all near the house and only a couple of big old Pitch Pines -- already leaning from winter storms of past years -- were serious casualties. One was just by the mouth of the pond in a lightly wooded area. The other was in a leafy glade near the head of the marsh, one of my favorite spots. Alas, this tree, covered with vines and surrounded by smaller trees of various denominations, took a lot of vegetation down along with it. What was a leafy glade is now an open spot near the edge of the woods.

Although a lot of branches and twigs snapped off, most of the damage came from salt water and salt spray. Where the storm tide rolled in on Sunday morning, the ground cover was nearly completely wiped out and the understory is now open with lines of debris marking the furthest advance of the waters. Otherwise, there is extensive browning of the oak, hickory and basswood leaves. Everything looks like the early arrival of fall. Hickory nuts are so widespread (it seems to have been a good year for them and most of them are now on the ground) that I expect new hickories to sprout everywhere. I did not attempt collect the hickory nuts even though there are some big ones lying around; it's a struggle to get the meat out and there is often very little of it. They don't call this tree Mockernut for nothing. However I didn't collect a pile of Black Walnuts. I'll try to crack them and get the meat out for Black Walnut Pie which, except for the little bits of shell that seem to be unavoidable, makes a formidable rival to Pecan Pie!

The one bird of note this morning was a Clapper Rail padding about in the open area in the middle of the marsh. Clapper Rails nest on the marshes on the opposite side of the bay from us but it is always special to spot one, especially when it's in your own back yard.

Eric Salzman