A Touch Of Local Color

Our recent trip to Illinois just about coincided with the peak of Fall colors, though this year's display was muted perhaps by the Summer's dry weather.  Still, it was outstanding to this desert dweller, where any seasonal color is non-existent other than Spring wildflowers and cacti blooms.

While we had a busy visit this trip, I got in a couple walks down the bike path to the Fox River, very near our house there.  While yellow and orange trees were common - the maple shown at left had an interesting display - the colors of a single branch transitioned smoothly from emerald green to red - it almost smoothly displays half the colors of a spectrum!  Looking back uphill along the bike path reveals a wide variety of colors from greens to reds, picture shown at right...

Walking all the way down the hill to the Fox River, there were quite a collection of waterfowl that were still hanging around.  While the sounds of Canada Geese overhead were frequently heard, I didn't see any wedge-shaped groups forming yet - it was still a bit early for heading south.  Yet in this picture, geese and a variety of ducks were feeding, and numerous barn swallows were in flight feeding on insects as well.

 

I'm always looking for new ways of looking at things, so capturing Fall foliage was no different.  At left a pair of tree trunks frame the leaves of a young oak tree.  And at right the colorful leaves of a sumac make a dramatic image.  I liked the effect that shooting into the sun makes too - the color of these pictures is lit through the leaves.

 

We had some muted colors around the house in some of our big trees, and the leaves were falling at a prodigious rate, requiring daily sweeping to keep the porch clear.  But out in front of the house we had what we think is a Buckthorn tree.  The reddish color seemed to grow stronger every day - the picture at left was taken the last day of this trip. 

 

 

A short walk up along the river less than 200 meters from our house brought me to another impossibly red bush.  About its only distinguishing features were "wings" along part of the stems...  Googling "red bush winged stems" brought up the ID - the appropriately-named "Burning Bush" (Euonymus Alatus), which it turns out is an Asian invasive species introduced 150 years ago.  It is interesting that the "fact sheets", one of which is referenced to the link above, gives hints both to cultivate it and to wipe it out...  Interesting!  Anyway, our dose of fall colors will have to hold us for another year - it was great we got to witness some this trip...