July 13, 2016

• It was 85°F and mostly cloudy and windy at 11:00 AM on July 13, 2016.
• This week's trail report covers the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.
• The dogbane patch in the Little Bluestem Meadow was the butterfly hot spot today.
• One long running Fern Glen mystery has been solved while another has surfaced.
• The aphrodite fritillary made a rare appearance in the Fern Glen today.

The Trails

• The forecasted heat and humidity called for an early start, but there's no avoiding the peak, so what's the point?
• A cheerful yellow day lily variety was at one side of the Gifford trail head.
• On the other side was a tattered musk mallow.
• I'm quick to blame the deer, but it could well have been a ground hog. At least there were still blossoms left.
• Something large, black and blue worked the road past the Carriage House. We caught up on some wild basil off the Scots Pine Alleé - it was a female black swallowtail.
• The big patch of spreading dogbane at the back of the Little Bluestem Meadow was doing great.
• It hosted two eastern tiger swallowtails, a dozen each of great spangled fritillaries and silver-spotted skippers, half a dozen common wood-nymphs, and a smattering of various grass skippers.
• In the Fern Glen's Howard Roeller bed, great St. John'swort had started blooming.
• Likewise, the tall bellflower.
• Off the high side of the limestone cobble, at a point between flowering and fruiting, stood Valeriana alliariaefolia. This has been a mystery for my dozen years here. A little project - not mine - turned up its ID and source: Russia.
• On the bottom side of the cobble, familiar old daisy fleabane was blooming.
• In between, where the deer allowed, lopseed, with its minute, hinged blossoms was blooming.
• Towards the back of the pond, a lesser maple spanworm moth was just hanging out.
• Above, summer-sweet or clethra, was getting ready to bloom.
• Along the side of the pond, Culver's root was blooming.
• At the front, just a couple spotted jewelweed were open.
• The lizard's tail and wild mint were both going strong now.
• Back in the poor fen was a St. John'swort. I thought I had it figured out a couple years ago when it appeared, but now I don't know. The flowers are too large for one kind, with the pistil wrong for the other... a mystery.
• But then a different looking fritillary landed on swamp milkweed. It was so dark, the silver spots stood out with striking contrast when the sun was right.
• It was the aphrodite fritillary. Fortune allowed a side-by-side comparison with a great spangled.
• That made my day! 2010 was the last time I'd seen one here.
• Helleborine was up in a few places.
• It's a little, alien orchid with green blossoms.
• Our native spotted wintergreen is pretty strange too.
• A few spring azures, or summer azures, were flying around the deck.
• It's always cool at the deck, and an effort to leave on a day this warm...
• Next week: the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.