
Late fall is an excellent time for cat-tail and cat-tail photos. These are very useful plants. The stalks were gathered by the Pacific Northwest native peoples and used extensively, including for weaving into mattresses.

The typical fall colors are red, yellow, orange and browns (more browns around the Pacific Northwest, I’m afraid). Once in a while there is a splash of color that is jarring. This image shows some pond scum (algae of some kind) at the Nisqually-Billy Frank Jr National Wildlife Refuge in one of the beaver dams. Quite dramatic.