milkweed

This stretch of the Little Tonawanda was perhaps my favorite place in the world during my formative years. Here I stalked crayfish, hunted fossils, discovered water snakes and later, in my teen years, learned the place was teeming with creek chubs, suckers, shiners, and dace. Claudia was 16 years old the first time she helped me drag a 4' x 12' minnow seine through knee-deep water along this stretch of the creek! While taking this photo I couldn't help thinking, so much of our world has changed, but the riffles of the Little T still make the same sound they did in those early years.

These crab apples look as though they've been spit shined. Like every other apple tree, this year's crab apples were also laden with fruit.

I've seen abundant wildlife along the power line clear-cut over the years....even the critters like to travel the path of least resistance.

Maple leaves in tints of yellow, red and orange.....photo taken along the Little T where it flows past the old Judge Kone place, a favorite among pike fishermen in the '50s and '60s.

Day fades into night.....dusk along the power lines - diurnal creatures have foraged and retired; the nocturnal denizens are just beginning their watch. 

Their pods burst, these milkweed seeds will become windborne, the leaves of the new plants  providing food for next year's monarch butterfly caterpillars.