Plenty in the midst of drought

As fall approaches, we are in the midst of a drought. The beaver pond is down about three feet. The ground is iron hard, the leaves are curling and browning, the woods are devoid of mushrooms, but despite this, the defiant plants are producing seeds and nuts. Some are ingenious, like these Yellow Avens, Geum aleppicum, seedheads, each seed a tiny hook that detaches from the plant and attaches to a passing animal (or human).

Some are hauntingly beautiful, like this ghostly Cottongrass, Eriophorum angustifolium, a sedge that likes open wetlands:

Many offer food to the birds and the animals. Some seeds have hard capsules, like these Witchhazel nuts, food for ruffed grouse, wild turkeys and squirrels:

Some are tucked into cones that attract seed-eating birds. These alder cones are hosting an American Alder Tongue Gall Fungus that creates that strange red tongue at lower left.

And of course some seeds are inside berries. The elderberries attract Gray Catbirds,

dull slate-grey birds

except for a brilliant chestnut under-tail:

They occasionally share with a passing American Robin:

But the robins mostly seem to prefer the wild American Black Cherry, Prunus serotina, where they forage 40 feet up in the crown:

Finally, a wren on a hawthorn, feeding either on the fruit or, more likely, on tiny insects:

PS While I was writing this we had the first rain for over a month, sadly just a short shower, but that is why the catbird looks rather scruffy.