We're now peak or just past peak in central NJ. 100% of trees are either full color or half bare; none are green.










Large gathering of turkey vultures feasting on dead deer

It depends on the trees you have . In my area almost all trees are still full and approaching or at peak. My backyard is stunning right now though deeply in the woods you can still see trees that are still mainly green. I have mainly white oaks, Beeches and a few maples on my property. the Kousa dogwoods I have are really gorgeous with deep orangy red color altough one is a burgundy red color. Kousa dogwoods have become my favorite tree.

Ice -- mainly red maples, silver maples, red oaks, and a scattering of beeches in my area. Not many white oak although there are a few nearby. I remember your backyward pics from last November and they were phenomenal. The white oaks tend to be more vibrant in color than the red oaks (the latter produces a golden yellow/brownish hue). However the maples are very nice in my area.

Storm,

Haven't taken any shots this year. These are from my backyard last year and were taken on November 14th. So now that I looked back at last year I'd have to say here we are still below peak by about 5-7 days in my immediate area. BTW - note the photo of the old logging trail that runs from my property all the way out to the road which is about 1500 feet away. You can see that many of the trees there were still green on 11/14/07! Those are the trees deeper in the woods that are still mainly green right now also. They are mainly white oak and Beech. The white oak is a royal pain when it comes to leaf fall. Great tree but the thing doesn't drop it's leaves till very late November and often the first week of December. They aren't kidding when they say that some oak families are almost evergreens. Note that I still had some begonias alive last year in mid November. This year I have about half that are dead and half, mainly high or deep in the waterfall area, that are still thriving despite a few mid 20 long hard freeze nights. Right now my trees still lack this full color and my Japanese red maples are still more burgundy in color as opposed to the more vivid red colors in these shots. Also - I don't think the colors this year are or will be as beautiful as last year - at least not right here. It's been so dry, with a lot of sub-freezing nights and because of that the leaves just seem to lack the vibrancy in color and texture of last year.

Again these are all last year pix;

Ice,

Excellent pics. The large white oak population in your immediate area probably accounts for the differential in color change.

I'm definitely full peak here as is most of Monmouth. Foliage network has all of NJ in peak color as of November 1st report. I'd say we're at least 10-15 days ahead of last year, due to the colder October. Most of the trees in my area should be bare by next weekend or shortly after (save for the red oaks which hang onto brown leaves most of December):

Here is last years map, deff a pretty big difference

Here's the comparison to recent years.

2006 was the closest to now (cold October).



2005 was only mod color in central NJ at this time:





2004 also behind 2008:





2003 also behind now:




2002 much different:





2001 coincidentially very close to this year:

That's a great multi-year comparo. 2007 was definitely a late year and one of the best foliage years I've seen here. It does seem the later the colors the more beautiful they are. Looking at last years photos vs what I am seeing today, this year will be no match to last year for beauty. It's pretty of course, but last year was just plain magnificent locally.

Storm, great photos. Usually you cant get too close to the turkey vultures. They must of been hungry. LOL

Storm - great pics!

Ice - i know those were last years but also great shots!

Last year was not good at all here. This year was fantastic. In fact, maybe one of the best since i've moved out of Sussex Cty. To me we actually had 2 peaks this year. We peaked for a few days and then it quickly went dull (maybe too much cold and too dry) and then we had the rain last w/e which really brightened up the leaves that were left. This lasted for a few days until Tuesday's snowstorm of course. Now most of the leaves are gone although some trees are still nice.

Nice pictures, those vultures are actually black vultures. A little different then the turkey vulture. (I forget the main difference though) There not as common up my, they are found more south. Turkey vultures are everywhere up this way though.

You're right. Those are black vultures as they don't have the red neck. I mainly see turkey vultures in my area so I assumed that's what they were when I made the post.