Stick season is that interlude between colorful fall foliage and snow. Trees are mostly bare — leaving behind stems and branches that look like sticks — fields are dead and frosty, hunters are in the woods, kayaks are stowed, snowshoes have not yet been pulled from storage, and days are short, cool, mostly cloudy, and often steely gray. It is that gray stretch after the bright colors of autumn fade and before the pristine snow of winter arrives. It is the piedmont to the steep slopes of winter.
Our summer birds — warblers, bobolinks, orioles — have departed to parts south. Our winter birds — pine siskins, redpolls, tree sparrows — are just arriving. Our year-round residents — chickadees, titmice, goldfinch, nuthatches, woodpeckers — seem more prevalent as they cache food for the winter.
Stick season can be challenging to photograph, which makes it intellectually stimulating to me. Like cabin fever in the spring, one can spend too much time at home. But the bit of effort it might take to get outside and enjoy nature can pay considerable dividends.
This blog features the transition to that interlude between foliage and sticks. While stick season can be drawn with four crayons – gray, dull green, light brown, and dark brown — during the transition some spots in the Upper Valley can be quite colorful. I searched for color – mostly bright yellows and darker oranges — during the last three weeks, hoping to prolong the foliage season as much as I could.
Late Foliage
Roughly clockwise from Etna. Captions are under some of the photos.
Etna
Enfield
Lebanon
Reading, VT
West Windsor, VT
Woodstock, VT
Pomfret, VT
Quechee
Norwich
Fairlee from Orford
Lyme, at the mouth of Grant Brook
Daybreak
Jann and I are morning people. We are normally up before daybreak, even in summer. A favorite photography loop in fall is Mascoma Lakeside Park in Enfield for sailboats at sunrise, then back through Lebanon and Etna for some long views with early light.
Mascoma Lakeside Park
As of October 26 only two sailboats remained. Perhaps it was a passive-aggressive fight to see who would be last out of the lake. The one on the left won the battle.
On October 27 only one sailboat remained.
On November 2, that boat still was still in the lake, but I have not been enthused enough about the photos I took that morning to edit any.
Here is a slide show of 18 photos I took in late October from Lakeside Park.
Etna Views
I put many views from Etna earlier in this post. Here are two more taken before 7 a.m. November 2.
Hiking
Trails in Norwich
Five humans and a dog hiked a large network of trails in Norwich that included Newton Lane, Joshua Road, and the AT. I had hiked, snowshoed, and skied that part of the AT before, but I had never been on the other trails we traversed on this beautiful fall day. I was surprised at both the number of trails in this area and the number of other hikers we met.
We found several cellar holes.
And a very long stone structure, which was likely a log landing since the ground sloped up to it on the back side.
We found a huge area of invasive buckthorn.
We found some scat along the trail. It contained hair. Mary Holland feels it most likely is from a coyote or fox.
Here are more photos from this hike.
My Walden
Jason Berard of the Upper Valley Land Trust guided me around a spectacular area in Sharon called My Walden. Shiela and Steven Swett purchased these 236 acres in 1986 and cared for it, welcoming hikers, snowshoers and skiers. In October 2024 it was donated to the UVLT.
There was impressive cellar hole right at the parking area.
We hiked down along a stream that must be quite exciting in spring. Note to self — be sure to go back then.
Naturally the stream led to a pond. The Swetts built a charming cabin on the hill that you can see in the background of the second and third photo.
We hiked uphill through a large open field to the “Celebration” sculpture created by Bill Nutt and dedicated to the Swett’s granddaughter Rachel, who died in an accident skiing in New Zealand.
The views from the field, and especially from the cabin, were expansive to the west across Vermont to Killington.
In this photo we are looking from near the cabin at the field that is topped by the sculpture.
My Walden is a fabulous place. I definitely plan to return before, and likely after, it snows.
Bird Walk in Lyme
Holly Henderson of the UVLT led a bird walk November 8 at the Wilder WMA and Lyme Hill near the mouth of Grant Brook.
In the Wilder WMA, I photographed an American Robin …
… American Goldfinch …
… and Pine Siskin.
We hiked back past the mouth of Grant Brook to see the waning moon reflected in the quiet blue water.
There was an impressive line of hay bales in the field along the Grant Brook Trail.
A Red-tailed Hawk soared high overhead.
I stopped briefly on a bridge across the brook to take a photo with my iPhone looing straight down.
We looped back past an old cemetery. Along the way I photographed ferns and mushrooms that will be shown below.
Birds
Not many this time, but a few nice ones.
Song Sparrows have mostly departed, but I found some at Campbell Flat late October.
A very prevalent species this fall was the White-throated Sparrow. These two were also at Campbell Flat.
Except for the bird walk in Lyme, Campbell Flat was the only spot I birded these weeks. American Robins were there. Many robins seem to hang around all winter these warmer years.
While I was at Lakeside Park for sunrises, juvenile Common Loons swam by on several days. Their parents are already swimming happily in the Atlantic Ocean. Hopefully the young will join them before the lake freezes.
One morning in late October I was standing in my driveway when around 40 black birds flew in and perched for a few minutes on several trees in our yard. They turned out to be Common Grackles.
Plants
A few jumped in front of my lens while I was doing something else. This first photo is from near the Hopkins Center.
I found a large area of fan clubmoss during our hike in Norwich.
On Lyme Hill there was a very disorganized Christmas fern.
These intermediate wood ferns were in the same area. Quite a name! It comes from the fact that the position of the spore-producing dots are between the edge and mid-rib of the leaf.
Mushrooms
On a hike with Jann, we found what I believe is an inky cap mushroom. It had fallen on its side.
On another hike we saw this specimen which I have not bothered to identify.
These mock oyster mushrooms were on Lyme Hill.
Random Photos
Here are a few from VT and NH with captions below the images.
Top of the Hop
Late Addendum:
A subscriber to this blog sent me an email not long after it was published asking, “When did you first learn the term ‘Stick Season’? I’ve talked with a number of old Vermonters, and they think Noah Kahan made it up. Do you know different?”
I replied, “I can’t remember when I first heard the term, but I believe it was from a photographer perhaps 20 or 30 years ago. For many years I thought it was just a term used by photographers, but in recent years I have realized that it is much more widely used than that. I have no idea of its origins. Noah Kahan seems too young to have originated this old term, but I see he has a song ‘stick season’ and in his song he uses the term ‘season of the sticks’.”
The person who asked the question lives in Strafford VT and that is also the birthplace of Noah Kahan. In his song Noah speaks of his love of Vermont. HERE is a link to his song “Stick Season”. It has neat graphics.