On the Trails of
The Cary Institute

The Trails

• Turtles - two painted and a snapper - were basking when I arrived for an early start in the Fern Glen today.
• In my position as caboose for a tour of the Glen, I noticed behind me a pair of chickadees going in and out of a dead tree to build a nest. "Cleaning up" the woods often means removing dead trees - and unwittingly the wild life they support.
• The pitcher plants that had started blooming last week in the poor fen are strange from top to bottom.
• The foliage is too similar, but the thin vs. thick flower/seed stalks easily distinguish red vs. white baneberry.
• Alumroot is related to coral bells and has a flower similar to our native miterwort.
• Easily overlooked in the sun baked end of the Scots Pine Alleé were lichens.
• In the Old Hayfields I found black swallowwort, an invasive, alien vine in the milkweed family. When monarch butterflies lay eggs on this the caterpillars do not survive.
• A well-fed woodchuck got me thinking of fanciful solutions.
• Returning with Judy to the Old Hayfields for a more focused walk, we (ok, she) spotted a turkey egg and a red-spotted purple (butterfly).
• At Gifford House the peonies were still going strong and the Kousa dogwood was laden with its showy blossoms.
• It was actually the end of the next day when I spotted the huge big poplar sphinx on the back door.
• So ends this walk along the trails and through time.

Butterflies

• 2 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
• 1 Cabbage White
• 2 Spring Azure
• 11 Pearl Crescent
• 2 Red Admiral
• 2 Red-spotted Purple
• 15 Little Wood-Satyr
• 21 Common Ringlet
• 1 Monarch
• 4 European Skipper

Moths

• 1 White-banded Black

Birds

• 1 Red-tailed Hawk
• 2 Mourning Dove
• 2 Chimney Swift
• 2 Ruby-throated Hummingbird
• 1 Downy Woodpecker
• 1 Northern Flicker
• 1 Pileated Woodpecker
• 1 Eastern Wood-Pewee
• 1 Eastern Phoebe
• 1 Great Crested Flycatcher
• 1 Yellow-throated Vireo
• 1 Warbling Vireo
• 2 Red-eyed Vireo
• 3 Blue Jay
• 3 Black-capped Chickadee
• 1 House Wren
• 4 Veery
• 1 Wood Thrush
• 3 American Robin
• 1 Gray Catbird
• 1 European Starling
• 1 Cedar Waxwing
• 1 Prairie Warbler
• 2 Black-and-white Warbler
• 2 Louisiana Waterthrush
• 1 Common Yellowthroat
• 1 Scarlet Tanager
• 3 Eastern Towhee
• 2 Chipping Sparrow
• 1 Field Sparrow
• 1 Song Sparrow
• 2 Northern Cardinal
• 1 Indigo Bunting
• 3 Red-winged Blackbird
• 2 Baltimore Oriole
• 1 American Goldfinch

Plants

• 1 Kousa Dogwood