Today’s journey included a brief trip to the shuttered town beach on the pond. On the road to the beach are utility poles with an abandoned osprey nest (left).

The foliage is past; the only swimmer was a solitary loon (not shown); someone left the swimming area demarcation buoys out, however.

At the Smithfield Plantation conservation trails, we traversed the vernal pool trail, where a newly repaired (by local boy scouts) bench sits quietly overlooking a dry pool. Along the way we found some pools with some fall moisture (last image).