These late September days feature the many aster species at the pinnacle of their glory. White, pinks, blues and mauves are everywhere.

Here are some that we saw on this 18 degree, sun / cloud mixed morning:

Fleabane is easily confused with aster:

Other botany:

Species list: double-crested cormorant, mallard, Cooper’s hawk, belted kingfisher, northern flicker, blue jay, black-capped chickadee, gray catbird, American robin, northern cardinal, American goldfinch.  (11 species)

Park scenes:

This mornings group:

NATURE POETRY

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils. – William Wordsworth

Miles Hearn