August 21, 2019

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 79°F, calm and cloudy at 10:30 AM on August 21, 2019.
• The sun would tease for a moment, only to be followed by a thunder shower later.
• A fair number of butterflies were out in spite of the weather.
• This week's trail report covers the Wappinger Creek side of the trail system.

The Trails

• First stop was the milkweed patch at the Gifford House trailhead.
• Small milkweed bugs tried to always be on the other side of the stalk from you.
• A well worn common wood-nymph looked like it had had a run in with a bird.
• Once in a while skies would brighten and the goldenrods would glow.
• One of the leaf-footed bugs was on a milkweed leaf in the weak sun.
• The large milkweed bug is similar to the small, but the black patches number 3 rather than 5.
• House wrens were in their usual haunt - 6 of them today.
• Tawny-edged skippers were out on the dirt roads and on low vegetation.
• Just a few common ringlets were in the fields.
• On the Sedge Meadow Trail, an eastern comma flew out and returned to its perch at eye level.
• The berries of gray dogwood were ripening to white.
• Back on the low part of that trail, jumpseed was along the sides.
• Just to be different, silky dogwood berries were ripening to blue.
• And that was when it started to rain in earnest.
• As soon as it stopped, a monarch flew by the autumn olive and continued across the field.
• Forage looper moths were up and down in the matted grass.
• Neither garden spiders nor their webs seemed disturbed by the rains.
• A few feather-legged flies appeared abruptly and departed.
• The Wappinger Creek Trail was dark and the sky rumbled again as the fungus, witch's butter stood out off the edge.
• Just past that, a pair of mushrooms was just emerging from the leaf litter.
• A little farther along, a sturdy red mushroom stood along the side of the trail.
• The sun started to illuminate the Wappinger Creek, but was gone in a moment.
• Next week: the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.