August 04, 2021

Great Golden Digger Wasp

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 75°F, cloudy and calm at 2:00 PM on August 4, 2021.
• After all the rain this season, a few mushrooms were showing up.
• Birds were a little quiet today.
• This week's trail report covers the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.

The Trails

• Finding goldenrod about to bloom last week was a little unsettling - this find by trail marker 10 was disturbing.
• On the Cary Pines Trail, mushrooms were finally showing up.
• This one looked familiar but it it usually bumpier.
• Fine hairs on the surface gave this one a satin sheen.
• Indian pipes seem hard to call plants without chlorophyll.
• Fruit was forming on maple-leaved viburnum.
• This monster mushroom was nearly a foot across.
• Sun came out for a moment on a snowberry clearwing in the Norway Spruce Glade - the little meadow above the Fern Glen.
• At the entrance to the limestone cobble, a tall spike was flowering.
• It was Culver's root.
• By the pond, sneezeweed was starting to bloom.
• Yellow stood out on the other side of the pond.
• That was green-headed coneflower.
• A strong, sweet scent was in the air behind the pond.
• It was coming from a single flower head of sweet pepperbush.
• On the other side of the pond, trillium fruit were ripening.
• Back in the fen, blue aster was open.
• Milkweed was being visited by great golden digger wasps.
• Also present were great black digger wasps. Both are said to supply their nest burrows with katydids and the like, but do not bother people.
• A carrot family member, water parsnip, was blooming in a little trickle of water.
• The umble was more sparse than say, Queen Anne's lace.
• And the leaves were almost fern-like.
• Common Indian tobacco was asking to be trampled.
• By its flowers it's recognizeable as a Lobelia.
• Off the side something looked a little like wood nettle...
• ... except for the flower, false nettle is pretty close.
• Mad-dog skullcap was sprawling across the wet stones.
• Tiny blue flowers were in the leaf axils.
• Spotted Joe-Pye weed was starting to bloom in front of the pond.
• One head was host to an ant, ambush bug, and bumble bee.
• Well hidden at the front of the pond, wild mint had been blooming for a week.
• It had gotten warmer and the air was close as today's walk was wrapping up along the Scots Pine Allée.
• A pair of house wrens scolded me as I passed through.
• Next week: the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.

Sightings