August 19, 2020

Mushroom

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 76°F, calm and partly cloudy 2:00 PM on August 19, 2020.
• The skys would range from clear to clouded over this afternoon.
• Mushrooms were the feature today.
• This week's trail report covers the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.

The Trails

• Goldenrods were starting to fill the Old Hayfield by Gifford House with color.
• A tiny blur in the path in front of me was a Peck's skipper.
• The air was a little cool and when it opened its wings to warm up, the spot pattern showed it to be a female.
• Several kinds of grasshopper were around, too.
• In spite of their bright yellow, American gold finch were able to disappear in the spotted knappweed.
• I lost the butterfly I was tracking and found a dragonfly instead.
• A female Zabulon skipper and several least skippers were back in the same corner.
• The shade in the corner with the Sedge Meadow Trail is largely due to a hickory.
• Its nuts would soon be under foot - if squirrles don't get them first.
• The hackberry emperors were still guarding the area from some 15 feet above.
• And the Zabulon skipper, lower down, actually drove away a passing clouded sulphur.
• Gray dogwood berries were ripening These used to be ammunition at the school bus stop.
• A giant swallowtail passed across the trail behind the Sedge Meadow.
• It got away without a photo, but the reliable Appalachian brown was still perching in the sun.
• If that one looked a little worn, an eastern tiger swallowtail in the back Old Hayfield was tattered.
• Virgin's bower, a clematis, was blooming along the edge of the field.
• Out in the middle, a great spangled fritillary stretched out for as much sun as a passing cloud would allow.
• A pair of mating pearl crescents was near the edge. Females have paler orange on the mid to marginal area of the forewing.
• With the entire forewing margin missing, an eastern tailed-blue was almost hard to recognize.
• The other side was mostly intact and settled any doubts.
• A large ant hill was a tempting higher vantage point... except for the ants.
• It was hard to pass up a gleaming dogbane beetle.
• A large, brown mushroom was just inside the woods on the Wappinger Creek Trail.
• Brilliant orange and yellow was the next one.
• A red one had been knocked over and chewed on.
• An even redder one had a distinctive stem.
• Salmon or peach, it was hard to call the next one.
• The sheer size of a plain white one was enough to make it outstanding.
• A shelf fungus was growing on the end of an oak log.
• Right below was something strange even among the mushrooms.
• A rather plain brown mushroom was perched on a creek bank.
• That provided the opportunity to get a good look at an alternative to gills.
• The floodplain of the Wappinger Creek was getting thick with invasive Japanese stilt grass.
• Along so many roadsides now, it can be separated from similar grasses by the shiny mid vein and the namesake roots. And it's kind of satisfying to pull.
• On the other side of the creek, a gray squirrel stretched out in the sun and watched.
• I watched the Creek flowing by the "Appendix" a while then was on my way.
• Next week: The Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.

Sightings