April 02, 2019

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 50°F, mostly cloudy and windy at 1:30 PM on April 2, 2019.
• The grounds reopened April 1; this is the first trail report for the 2019 season.
• It's been a long cool stretch, but it's beginning to feel and look like Spring.
• This trail report covers the whole of the trail system.

The Trails

• An American woodcock had been spotted in the Fern Glen, so here started this week's walk.
• A painted turtle was basking at the edge of the pond. Neither turtle nor bird was much concerned by people.
• At the back of the pond, coltsfoot had been blooming for a couple weeks.
• And even when there was still snow, skunk cabbage had started.
• But this was marsh marigold's first blossom.
• Water striders were on the pond and the calmer edges of the exiting waters.
• In and around the limestone cobble, Dutchman's-breeches were leafing out - indeed some had flower buds.
• By the parking lot, American hazelnut could be spotted.
• The male catkins hinted it's membership in the birch family.
• It's female flower suggested it came from another planet.
• The mottled leaves of trout-lily took some searching to find.
• Out on the trails leaving the Fern Glen, an eastern comma was basking in a patch of sun. This is one of the few butterflies we have that overwinter as adults.
• Another survivor of the winter was partridgeberry .
• A yellow cloud of a shrub was a first sign of spring behind the Carriage House.
• The flowers of Japanese cornelian cherry were just beginning to open.
• On the other side of the Carriage House, magnolia flower buds were only beginning to crack.
• The front Old Hayfield at Gifford House still looked like November.
• But along the edges, invasive honesuckle was flaunting its early leaves.
• The old Pump House - or Spring House - had been removed after its slow decline over the years. Just the concrete floor remained.
• At the edge of the back Old Hayfield, a palm warbler was flitting about.
• There were very slight changes to the favorite view of the Wappinger Creek from the bluff just in from the Old Hayfield.
• Brown creeper is another favorite thing to see.
• It may be easier to hear than to see with its bark-like camouflage.
• In the Wappinger Creek floodplain, a colony of snowdrops has persisted for some time.
• That concludes this first trail report of the season... until next time.