Figure 1 – October on the pond in a season of drought, Sudbury, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

I went walking at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge for the first time, in a long time, yesterday. There seems to be a disagreement about where we are in terms of fall foliage. One point is clear, that the color this year in New England are going to be pretty pathetic, because of the past summer’s drought. Still there are a few spots of dramatic color, as in Figure 1. The drought itself is clearly visible on the pond, where the water levels are dangerously low. In many places where there should be water there are only reflective pools of mud.The geese are irritable and the sluice-way where the path crosses the water and bisects the pond is dry and there is no reason the walk across the make-shift wooden bridge.

I met an enthusiastic young fellow, who was walking on an adventure with his mother and brothers. He was so excited about the ammunition bunkers and explained to me, barely able to contain himself, about how the bunkers were locked and how there were bullets inside but no dead bodies. I told him about the history of the place and he said, “wow you know a lot about it.”The only actual war being waged was by a battalion of rangers and volunteers clearing the path of branches and pulling up invasive plant species.

Canon T2i with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 100 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode at 1/2500th sec f/7.1 with -1 exposure compensation.