WALK AROUND HUNTLEY MEADOWS IN ALEXANDRIA

I have lost count of the times we have been to Huntley Meadows over the years, and I have shared it many times on my blog.  I can't even remember how we first discovered it.  If I had to guess I would say it was found online when looking for new places to walk.  It was and still is one of our most favorite places.  We were there at the beginning of the month, on September 1st, 2019.

It looked like someone had flipped a switch.  There were signs that the season was changing.

In the Fall Flowering Dogwood Trees are bright with red berries, and the birds love them.  In the spring I am always looking for the first blooms.  "George Washington planted dogwoods at Mount Vernon, which came from the surrounding forest.  Thomas Jefferson planted dogwoods at Monticello in the late 1770s, which inspired Virginia lawmakers to select the American Dogwood as the state flower in 1918."  I read all of this and more at the first link in red above.I am always on the look-out for wildflowers and these were still blooming.  They are called Panicled tickclover. also known as Panicled tick-trefoil, Panicledleaf ticktrefoil and Narrow-leaf tick-trefoil.

There have been Cardinal Flowers growing in this particular spot for as long as I can remember.New York Ironweed is another native wildflower.  Its purple flowers bloom for most of the month of September and attracts many butterflies.This is a Floating Primrose Willow.   In the photos above and below, we have Swamp Smartweed.  It is an aquatic plant and in these wetlands it grows everywhere.The following is a Sweetgum tree, such a beautiful color at this time of the year.  According to the website it is 'common in the southeast and has a gummy, aromatic sap from which it gets its name'.

So much to see at this park but I'll leave the rest for another time when I share the wildlife.