On the Trails of
The Cary Institute

Last Week

• Something scooted across the path as I started onto the Sedge Meadow Trail. "Kind of dark for a chipmonk," I mused, so I paused to watch... a house wren taking a dust bath!
• There were at least three taking turns, and I think a robin joined in as well.
• In the shady sections of the trail, the familiar white snakeroot was beginning to bloom.
• Nearby was Virginia knotweed.
• Its tiny flowers in a long slender spike produce little seeds that jump from the stalk giving the plant's other name, jumpseed.
• Searching the little meadow along the road above the Fern Glen, I spied something dark under a leaf up ahead: a monarch's chrysalis that had not completed its mission - well, not the monarch's, but perhaps some parasite's.
• A little earlier in the week, walking past the recently discovered hackberry tree in the Fern Glen, I noticed a fluttering amongst its leaves.
• "Must be one of our two hackberry butterflies," I thought.
• She had been going from leaf to leaf and finally settled on one, so I got a good look: yup, a tawny emperor.
• I had assumed she had been laying eggs and was now resting. Wrong. She'd been testing and had now chosen the "right" one.
• The whole event must have taken 45 minutes, and she left a monument to her efforts. We wish them better luck than the monarch's.
• By the Glen's pond groundnut of the pea family was in bloom.
• On the wetter side of the path, bottle gentian - or even more descriptive "closed gentian" was blooming.
• And towards the back, sneezeweed was also blooming. I dared to get a closer look and survived.

This Week

• Starting down the Scots Pine Alleé this time, I came across perhaps the easiest goldenrod for me to ID: silverrod. It's blossoms are not golden.
• I think I have a handle on zigzag goldenrod with its bottle brush bloom and broad, toothy leaf.
• I remember the white wood aster for its large, well toothed leaf.
• And the calico aster for its small leaves and flowers.
• In between I have a hard time.
• A single thistle was in the shade of the Sedge Meadow Trail.
• In the back Old Hayfield, I spotted a cabbage white suspended in an unnatural position.
• Closer inspection revealed a spider's web. For all the cabbage whites about, it's surprising how few are found in webs. Perhaps shedding scales from their wings allows butterflies in general to slip out and escape.
• I slipped away to beat the rain home.

Birds

• 1 Red-tailed Hawk
• 1 Belted Kingfisher
• 1 Downy Woodpecker
• 1 Red-eyed Vireo
• 3 Blue Jay
• 5 Tree Swallow
• 8 Black-capped Chickadee
• 3 Tufted Titmouse
• 1 White-breasted Nuthatch
• 2 Eastern Bluebird
• 1 Veery
• 1 American Robin
• 1 Gray Catbird
• 4 Cedar Waxwing
• 2 Ovenbird
• 1 Song Sparrow
• 3 Northern Cardinal
• 1 American Goldfinch

Butterflies

• 6 Cabbage White
• 1 Clouded Sulphur
• 1 Eastern Tailed-Blue
• 9 Great Spangled Fritillary
• 3 Pearl Crescent
• 2 Common Ringlet
• 4 Common Wood-Nymph
• 1 Monarch
• 7 Silver-spotted Skipper
• 2 Peck's Skipper

Moths

• 1 Hummingbird Clearwing

Plants

• 1 Calico aster
• 1 Silver-rod
• 1 Zigzag goldenrod