July 10, 2019

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 85°F and partly cloudy with light breezes at 2:00 PM on July 10, 2019.
• Canada lily, Spotted jewelweed, and Queen Anne's Lace were blooming.
• This week's trail report covers the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.

The Trails

• The common milkweed at the Gifford House trailhead looked the way I felt in today's heat: drooping.
• A northern broken-dash in the first Old Hayfield did not seem to mind the heat.
• Chicory and Queen Anne's lace were starting to bloom - that seemed early.
• Indigo buntings were in their usual places along the edges of the fields.
• The common wood-nymph usually has a large yellow patch around its eye-spots. The yellow, however, is variable and is sometimes almost non-existant.
• A large, white, rectangular spot distinguishes the female little glassywing.
• Something with a long tail followed some cedar waxwings across the Sedge Meadow Trail. It was a black-billed cuckoo.
• The distinctive under-tail spots were not visible, but the red "orbital ring" was. It called once; there was a distant answer; it was gone.
• Along the trail below, a caterpillar nest was active.
• It was of the fall webworm.
• Deeper in the shade, a large lace-border was trying to blend in.
• It looked like the first spotted jewelweed blossom of the season... except for the swelling seed pod next to it.
• Something orange rose from the edge of the back Old Hayfield and disappeared in the leaves above. It seemed a bit large and slow for an eastern comma. It was a question mark.
• In the middle of the field, an eastern kingbird seemed to be panting in the heat.
• It would repeatedly dash out to hawk insects and return to its post.
• A little patch of Canada lilies had quietly grown tall and blossomed.
• They range from yellow to red and bear spots on their nodding blooms.
• Back out in the sun, a little wad of bristles clung to a milkweed.
• It was one of the curious little plume moths.
• The tops of the dogbanes were occupied by numerous northern broken-dashes.
• A couple coral hairstreaks were out on the milkweeds.
• And dogbane beetles were on the dogbanes.
• As the path descended from the Old Pasture into the woods, something darted out, circled, then disappeared against a tree.
• It was a northern pearly-eye. Another came by and both tore down the path together.
• Farther ahead, Indian pipe was coming up through the leaf litter.
• Down along the Wappinger Creek, invasive Japanese spirea was beginning to bloom.
• Farther along, invasive Japanese stilt grass was getting big enough for the characteristic shiny mid-vein to be obvious.
• Next week: the Cary Pines side of the trail system.