Trails
- The garden at the entrance to Gifford House on Rt. 44A was worthy of more than a drive-by.
- Indeed, in the back, a red-spotted purple slowly pumping its wings up and down caught my eye.
- I had successfully caught the purple side on the down stroke; but as I maneuvered to get the red-spotted side on the up stroke, it departed. However, that put me in position to notice an empty chrysalis; it had just emerged!
- With the first smile of the day, I rounded the corner to the back of Gifford, and there were the Japanese anemone in full bloom. I must photo them every year.
- The main gardens were just alive today. The monarch was easy to observe as she fed.
- The hummingbird was not...
- Standing on the board walk at the end of the Sedge Meadow, I was surrounded by robins, catbirds, towhees, and even an oven bird.
- In the tunnel around the corner I felt something on my head. Rather than swat, I gently ran my fingers once through my hair and came up with a mayfly.
- A tree was across the path through the Old Gravel Pit. Unfortunatly, it was small enough for me to lug to the side.
- Farther along was an absolutely brilliant mushroom looking smugly cool and comfortable in the dark green moss.
- I was envious.
In the Fern Glen
- Many of the early flowers have long been gone, but now their fruit and seeds were appearing.
- American spikenard has colorful berries.
- The green dragon is a relative of jack-in-the-pulpit with a very elongated pulpit.
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Birds
- 2 Black Vulture
- 1 Red-tailed Hawk
- 4 Mourning Dove
- 3 Ruby-throated Hummingbird
- 1 Downy Woodpecker
- 1 Northern Flicker
- 1 Eastern Wood-Pewee
- 5 Red-eyed Vireo
- 4 Blue Jay
- 1 American Crow
- 10 Black-capped Chickadee
- 1 Tufted Titmouse
- 2 White-breasted Nuthatch
- 1 House Wren
- 1 Eastern Bluebird
- 2 Wood Thrush
- 19 American Robin
- 8 Gray Catbird
- 5 Cedar Waxwing
- 2 Ovenbird
- 5 Louisiana Waterthrush
- 9 Eastern Towhee
- 1 Field Sparrow
- 1 Song Sparrow
- 1 Northern Cardinal
- 1 Common Grackle
- 1 Baltimore Oriole
- 5 American Goldfinch
Butterflies
- 3 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
- 38 Cabbage White
- 5 Clouded Sulphur
- 8 Orange Sulphur
- 2 American Copper
- 11 Eastern Tailed-Blue
- 1 Spring Azure
- 5 Great Spangled Fritillary
- 1 Eastern Comma
- 1 Red-spotted Purple
- 1 Northern Pearly-eye
- 6 Common Ringlet
- 19 Common Wood-Nymph
- 6 Monarch
- 3 Silver-spotted Skipper
- 4 Northern Broken-Dash
- 2 Dun Skipper
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