July 15, 2020

Common Wood-nymph

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 75°F mostly cloudy and calm at 1:15 PM on July 15, 2020.
• This week's trail report covers the Cary Pines Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.
• It cleared up and warmed up through the afternoon.
• In butterfly news, big satyrs were still around, and special skipper visitors were mulberry wing and black dash.

The Trails

• The Cary Pines Trail had been quiet, but the sun was out over the Norway Spruce Glade - the little hillside along the road above the Fern Glen.
• Wild basil was attracting small butterflies and the broad leaves of poison ivy were great perches for sun bathing for a variety of insects...
• ... including a bumble bee mimicking robber fly.
• A fresh common wood-nymph was a study in brown.
• Inside the Fern Glen proper, tall bellflower was in bloom.
• Great St. Johnswort had been blooming since last week and was on its way out.
• Lopseed flowers, when pollinated, hinge - or lop - down.
• ... unless deer browse - or lop - them off.
• The red lily leaf beetles have eaten holes in our Turk's cap lily.
• Repeated removal of said bugs may yet spare the flowers, still in bud.
• Culver's root, along the pond, has been on the brink of opening for at least a week.
• At the back of the pond, sweet pepperbush almost made a tunnel.
• These blossoms can remain on the brink of blooming for weeks too, as I recall.
• Out in the fen, swamp milkweed was blooming well while common milkweed had moved on to forming seed pods.
• Chewed leaves and a sleeping sawfly larva may well have a connection.
• And perhaps the face-like markings on the tail end are not coincidence.
• At the end of the observation platform was a hint of blue.
• It was our tiny colony of square-stemmed monkey flower - so called for another apparent face.
• Spotted wintergreen was definitely blooming today - there was some doubt last time.
• A good size oak came down near the new deck, fortunately falling in the other direction.
• The impressive root ball had not been deep but rather wide spread.
• It only took out one piece of railing but did flatten out quite an area where the tree tops landed.
• On the way out of the 'Glen, easy to miss daisy fleabane was blooming.
• Just past it, spikenard didn't seem as big as usual.
• None the less, it was blooming now.
• The rest of Cary Pines Trail was quiet until it let out into the Little Bluestem Meadow.
• In spite of the shade, the dogbane was active with an American copper out in the middle of it all.
• Along with countless skippers, a snowberry clearwing - one of the sphinx moths - was very busy probing for nectar.
• Up in one of the trees of the Scots Pine Allée, a juvenile male yellow-bellied sapsucker was just starting to show some red throat feathers.
• Next week: The Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.

Sightings