Last Week
- Common wood-nymphs were abundant numbering in the 60s betweent the two Old Hayfields.
- One of the first cicadas I've heard this season was in the Fern Glen.
This Week
- Not knowing if the rain would pick up again, I raced through the Fern Glen - and the rest of the trails.
- But I had to get a shot of the bunchberry that I'd been admiring lately.
- I'd been trying for a while to get the rose twisted stalk, but it's in a dark area, and flash is so harsh. The next afternoon I found it under a tiny beam of sunlight.
- At the front of the pond, Joe-Pye weed was beginning to bloom in earnest.
- Coming right out of the water in full bloom, lizzard's tail was filling the air with sweet fragrance. Doesn't that make an interesting sentence?
- Wood nettle was starting to bloom behind the Roeller bed. The leaves aren't bad, but mind the stems.
- The more familiar stinging nettle was at the back side of the pond.
- This too was beginning to bloom.
- In front of the pond and in the fen, monkey flower could be found.
- Also in the fen, willow herb was coming into its own.
- I couldn't resist a photo of swamp milkweed with a great spangled fritillary - there had been two...
- Right near by, one of the first asters of the season was blooming.
- Continuing deeper beyond the fen, I came across horse balm.
- The leaves smell kind of skunky until it flowers bloom; then they both have a pleasant lemon fragrance.
- Not far at all from it, common arrowhead was beginning to bloom.
- Almost back by the kiosk, the first great lobelia was blooming.
- Back at the pond, wild mint was quitely residing along the edge.
- Nearby, a ladybug larva lurked on a leaf.
- Leaving the Glen on that rainy afternoon where this all started, and continuing on the Cary Pines Trail, my footsteps were silent - like most of the birds.
- At the "Appendix", I came across the hornet nest that I'd heard about. It appeared vacant...
- As I came up into the Old Pasture from the Wappinger Creek Trail I wondered how the red chanterelles were doing with all the rain. Not bad.
- I was amazed to find two butterflies out in this weather: an appalachian brown along the Sedge Meadow Trail and a common wood-nymph in the Little bluestem Meadow.
- That there were not more mosquitos was a surprise. Unfortunately, there is no reference for scale, but this one from a few days ago had to span 3/4" with it's legs.
- I did leave when I saw that.
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Butterflies
- 1 Appalachian Brown
- 42 Common Wood-Nymph
Birds
- 1 Chimney Swift
- 1 Eastern Wood-Pewee
- 1 Eastern Phoebe
- 4 Blue Jay
- 5 Black-capped Chickadee
- 6 American Robin
- 2 Gray Catbird
- 1 Louisiana Waterthrush
- 2 Eastern Towhee
- 1 Song Sparrow
- 1 Indigo Bunting
- 2 American Goldfinch
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