The Trails
- The redbud in front of Gifford House was beautiful today.
- But on the approach I noticed movement under the orange flags in the background.
- It was a ring-necked pheasant appearing to be seeking sanctuary under the flagging.
- His faith waned as I approached for another shot, but I got him as he bolted into the garden area.
- The Old Hayfields looked empty, but I decided to follow protocol and was rewarded with a snowberry clearwing moth sunning itself. Some authors refer to it - no surprise - as the bumblebee moth.
- Returning to the front most field I found a most obliging eastern towhee.
- Just above him was an eastern bluebird whacking a caterpillar.
- Field sparrows scattered as I made my way along the Sedge Meadow Trail and dropped down the tunnel to the boardwalk.
- The new bench in the Old Hayfield was inviting in the sun; I paused hoping for an early season skipper. Nope.
- Turned up leaves along the Wappinger Creek Trail suggested wild turkeys had been through. A casual search should have turned up an incriminating feather or two.
- From the sandbar in front of another bench, false hellebore errupted.
- A few steps beyond were the exposed roots of a sycamore; they bear the same cryptic bark as the trunk.
- Soon, I found a flotilla of 10 mallards keeping pace with me. I pretended to ignore them and they let me pass.
- I usually pass by the ubiquitous violets, but the profusion along the flood plain brought me to my knees; then the variety flattened me:
- There were blue violets, pale violets, yellow violets, and finally violet violets.
- While prone, I could hear the occasional trill of a brown creeper above me. I kept one eye up and one eye down as I continued toward the "Appendix" - as I like to call the area around trail post #10 - searching for the several varieties of toothwort that I knew to lurk there
- Although I only found one variety of toothwort, I did spot both male and female varieties of the common merganser.
- The female I've encountered several times here, but this was a first for the male.
- Canada mayflower, or wild lilly-of-the-valley, quietly carpeted the sides of the Cary Pines Trail. No raking, no mowing; I like it.
In the Fern Glen
- The little meadow above the Fern Glen was full of daffodils but devoid of pussytoes on which I'd hoped to find the eastern pine elfin.
- Just past its end, the crab apple was in full blossom.
- In the Glen proper, jack was in-the-pulpit.
- I always forget what this is; it's not native, but it is well mannered.
- Solomon's-seal was getting ready to bloom.
- Early meadow-rue always brings to mind tiny victorian lampshades.
- I didn't remember wild leek being anywhere in the Glen.
- Bluets are always at the head of the path around the pond.
- In the Roeller bed along the road, miterwort - or bishop's-cap - was blooming with its peculiar snowflake fringed blossom.
- And not far away was wild oats - one of the bellworts.
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Birds
- 10 Mallard
- 2 Common Merganser
- 2 Ring-necked Pheasant
- 1 Turkey Vulture
- 1 Red-tailed Hawk
- 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
- 1 Northern Flicker
- 2 Pileated Woodpecker
- 1 Eastern Phoebe
- 4 Blue Jay
- 3 American Crow
- 5 Black-capped Chickadee
- 1 Brown Creeper
- 2 Eastern Bluebird
- 4 American Robin
- 6 Eastern Towhee
- 1 Chipping Sparrow
- 5 Field Sparrow
- 1 Song Sparrow
- 1 Red-winged Blackbird
- 1 Common Grackle
- 2 American Goldfinch
Moths
Plants
- 1 Crabapple
- 1 Redbud
- 1 Early meadow-rue
- 1 Jack-in-the-pulpit
- 1 Miterwort
- 1 Wild oats
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