July 01, 2015

Notes and Changes since last report

  • This week's trail report covers the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.
  • It was 73°F and cloudy at 11:00 AM on July 1, 2015.
  • Sundew had returned to the Fern Glen.
  • New butterfly arrivals included coral hairstreak, and little glassy-wing was rising in numbers.
  • Special guest appearance was a mourning cloak.

The Trails

  • This must have been the 5th walk in a row where it was a nice day following rain.
  • I had barely rolled to a stop when something flew across into the milkweed at Gifford House parking lot.
  • It remained in stealth mode just perching for a while before creeping up the stalk revealing its amazing blue body.
  • It was a wary Virginia ctenucha, a day flying moth, coming to feed on everybody's favorite, milkweed.
  • Speaking of feeding, the black raspberries, or as we always called them, black caps were going to be abundant this year.
  • Behind the Carriage House was stewartia, the curious combination of big flowers and sycamore style exfoliating bark.
  • Hiding under a milkweed leaf in the Little Bluestem Meadow was a favorite: one of the plume moths.
  • The dogbane patch was active with great spangled fritillaries and the common wood-nymph among others.
  • At the bottom of the Old Gravel Pit, the sap run was no longer, but a fallen tree was still attractive to butterflies, at that moment two eastern commas and a red admiral.
  • By the Fern Glen pond, Turk's-cap lily was still fattening its buds - I thought they'd be open today.
  • red-spotted newts were lounging at the water's surface.
  • One clump set back off the path, of purple-flowering raspberry had survived the pillage of the deer.
  • Sundew, a carnivorous plant, had returned after several years' absence. Very nice.
  • Swamp milkweed was budding up to follow common milkweed's flowering period.
  • Around the limestone cobble, lopseed was starting to produce its tiny flowers.
  • Spikenard was easy to miss on the way out of the 'Glen.
  • On the approach to the Appendix, as I like to call the area round Trail Marker 10, was another surprise: a mourning cloak. Not that they're rare, but you just don't always see them.
  • And when the sun went behind a cloud, it opened its wings to show off that rich burgundy color.
  • Next week we'll see what's happening on the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.
Sightings