April 27, 2016

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 60°F, clear and breezy at 2:15 PM on April 27, 2016.
• More new spring flowers were blooming.
• Yellow lady's-slipper shoots were coming up.
• Juvinal's duskywing was back and spring azures were still abundant.

The Trails

• The mud puddles on the drive between Gifford and Carriage Houses had attracted our first skipper: Juvinal's duskywing.
• It was nice to get the view from below for the two (hard to see) diagnostic hindwing pale spots.
• At the end of the Scots Pine Alleé, an otherwise bare tree was host to an eastern tent caterpillar nest.
• Wondering if they had stripped it or if the leaves had even come out yet, I found the egg masses that they had come from.
• Little blue spring azures were common in the Old Gravel Pit. One paused to take nectar from garlic mustard, showing only its gray underside.
• Nearby, one of those fuzzy bee flies paused to take some sun. That long proboscis is used on flowers...
• Approaching the exit to the Fern Glen, I almost stepped on a wasp carying her paralysed spider to her den to lay eggs.
• Off the road to the Fern Glen, the pink of crabapple was barely visible.
• Zooming the lens in made the blossoms look more abundant.
• And it helped find the regular apple behind it.
• At the edge of the 'Glen, hobblebush, a viburnum, was looking very nice.
• Miterwort, or bishop's cap, with its bizzare, tiny blossoms, was beginning to carpet the area.
• Red trillium, barely budding last week, was full open now.
• One of Mrs. Cary's mystery flowers was blooming across from the limestone cobble.
• At the edge of the cobble, wild oats, one of our 3 species of uvularia, was blooming.
• Around the bend, nodding trillium was doing just that.
• Looking like some alien artifact, maidenhair fern was unfurling .
• Wild blue pholx looked much more friendly in its earlier stages.
• Deer adore Solomon's seal just before it blooms.
• Blue cohosh is a good sized plant, but with a small, obscure flower.
• Goldenseal has a very short-lived flower, if I recall.
• I knew Paris was nearby, but a rustle in the leaves distracted me: a garter snake.
• And there was Paris too. What a strange thing - another hold over from earlier times.
• Scaley Christmas fern fiddleheads were just off the side of the trail.
• Lo and behold! The trillium, toadshade had finally worked its way out from under a tree that came down several years ago.
• Here comes the yelow lady's-slipper. It may be the most popular plant in the 'Glen.
• Back around near the kiosk, mayapple was budding up.
• On the way out, I found last week's budding Jacob's ladder now starting to bloom.
• Just across was starry false Solomon's seal just budding up. Maybe next week?
• Out on the Wappinger Creek Trail, small-flowered crowfoot would have been easy to overlook if not for its abundance.
• In the back of the back Old Hayfield, Japanese barberry was in the air.
• Across at the other side, flowering dogwood was just barely starting to bloom.
• A pleasant last sight for the day was another spring azure, again taking nectar from garlic mustard, but this time showing off her sky blue upper side while catching some afternoon sun. The dark forewing margin indicated she was a she...