Open Lands in Andover

A friend of mine is on the Open Lands Commission in Andover.  She asked me to go on a hike and inspect a property owned by the people living in Andover.  She wanted to get my opinion on the natural resources of this property.  Daunted by my lack of knowledge I talked another Master Naturalist friend into coming along.  The three of us hiked this property for two hours on Saturday afternoon.  The first resource we found we princess pine.  I thought this stuff only grew in the big pine forests up north.

We hiked through forests, grassy fields and prairie.  It was a work out.

We found berries.  Are these high bush cranberries?  I don't know.

Mid October is not the best time of year to identify plants.  This one looks like a day lily to me but I know that is not right.

And then we found this magical place.  In the center of what used to be a corn field was a bare spot in a short grass prairie.  A round 30 foot diameter spot of mostly bare sand surrounds an oak tree. What is this? Some kind of ritual site?  Strange thing indeed but this is part of the reason the city of Andover was so smart to buy this property and keep it natural. 

Mushrooms push themselves up through the sand and cast long shadows in the fall afternoon light.  What is growing under this bare sand that would send up a mushroom?  This area seems so barren of life.

But the oak tree thrives.

What kind of track is this?  A snake?  Or a mouse with a long tail?

And what insect makes these patterns?  I remember seeing something like this in a movie about Walt Breckenridge but I can't remember what insect it was.

Those mushrooms push powerfully through the sand.

Here's a puffball next to another track - snake maybe?

We tried to identify the trees we saw.  White pine, blue spruce, apples and crabapples were planted. We saw only a very few buckthorn and we pulled those. We saw white oak, red oak, poplar, ironwood, chokecherry, and a few good sized tamarack.

I have no idea what this tall reed grass is.

I thought this was a goldenrod until I saw a fruity thing at the top.

This is a beautiful spot even though the entire time we were here we could hear the back up beeping of a bulldozer.  A local developer is in a hurry to get houses done this fall so they're working late on a Saturday..

Raspberry or blackberries encroaching from the side.

Shelf fungus.

This one is not a red oak or a white oak.  It's a bow oak.

I'm not sure if we were any help but we sure had a great adventure!