August 17, 2016

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 80°F, partly cloudy and breezy at 1:00 PM on August 17, 2016.
• This week's trail report covers the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.
• Yesterday's rains left the dirt roads with damp spots if not puddles: butterfly magnets.
• The gray hairstreak was officially recorded on a Trail Walk today.
• The trails were being mown this very day. Very nice.

The Trails

• After yesterday's rains, the dirt road between Gifford and the Carriage House was attractive to a number of butterflies including clouded sulphur.
• The eastern tailed-blue can be nearly invisible against the gravel.
• Hard to miss is the pearl crescent.
• Goldenrod in the front Old Hayfield had progressed since the last time.
• Pods of invasive black swallowwort along the side were not yet ripe. Beware if you are trying to control some: even much younger pods will mature off the vine.
• Golden rod ball galls were easy to spot today.
• The gray hairstreak was almost dismissed as an eastern tailed-blue, but the greater size was an immediate alert.
• It's not uncommon as hairstreaks go, but I hadn't seen it at Cary until last week in the Fern Glen. Always something new.
• Pokeweed berries were getting bigger along the Sedge Meadow Trail.
• Just up the hill, gray dogwood berries were ripening.
• A good size cherry branch had ripening fruit.
• Invasive bush type honeysuckle was full of ripe berries.
• The Sedge Meadow had a few turtlehead starting to bloom.
• In the back Old Hayfield, spicebush swallowtails were starting to look a bit worn, but there were several fresh least skippers.
• As the path leaves the Old Pasture for the view of the Wappinger Creek, a large red mushroom was hard to miss.
• A little looking around turned up an even bigger brown one.
• More careful study turned up a small red one and a fused yellow pair.
• Right in the middle of the path, in its usual place, was red chanterelle.
• And just across the aisle, in its usual place was plantain-leaved sedge.
• On the way down the hill was a tall, flat, white mushroom.
• At the bottom was a perfectly purple one.
• The base of the big maple at the bend sheltered a pair of classics.
• Just past the first foot bridge was Indian pipe - not a mushroom, but a saprophyte: a plant without chlorophyll that feeds on decaying organic matter.
• Farther along where the light was just right, brown trout were lounging in the shade.
• Next week: the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.