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Notes and Changes since last report It was mostly clear, a little breezy and a bit humid with 70°F at 2:00 PM on June 3, 2015. This was quite welcome following several days of rain with highs maybe in the 50s. Butterfly arrivals continued including cobweb skipper, which I've seen here but 3 times previously. New plants in bloom included twinflower, which I've never seen before. Oh, another first of the season was deer fly... The Trails The biggest Gifford House lilac attracted a number of "leps" allowing comparisons between hummingbird- and snowberry- clearwings. With side views of each, the snowberry's stripe from the eye down the front could be compared to the hummingbird's lacking . The damp dirt road was a magnet for least and European skippers. Among them was the cranberry looper moth . I must have had them before, but I have no record... In the front Old Hayfield, mouse-eared chickweed was blooming. A Juvinal's duskywing was watching me from a perch. A rabbit was watching me from the ground. I was watching the swaying branches of yellowwood . Drooping clusters of white, pea-like flowers had a sweet, kind of funky scent. In the back Old Hayfield, the strange fruit of ironwood was forming. A little bit of blue went by... the first eastern tailed-blue of the season. Who is that in the background? I had to look it up at home: a seldom seen cobweb skipper ! Scanning sunny patches along the Wappinger Creek Trail turned up an eastern comma in typical posture. In the Fern Glen, a gypsy moth caterpillar was resting next to its recently shed "skin". By the limestone cobble, the alien, but well behaved vancouveria was blooming . Not far away Bowman's root was blooming in a new location. Farther along the edge was maple-leaved viburnum . Back in the poor fen, pitcher plant was open . New last year, Virginia waterleaf was blooming again. I've always had the label, but I had never seen twinflower . That it is so tiny may have had something to do with it. At the back of the pond, invasive yellow iris was gaining a foothold. By the main kiosk, a native honeysuckle, diervilla was blooming . On the way to the deck, Indian cucumber root was recognizable as a tiny lily . Fast forward to the Little Bluestem meadow where I could hear an eastern kingbird before I was even out of the woods. And right there, the spreading dogbane had started to bloom. This is a good butterfly magnet... when the sun is still on it. Next time. Along the Scots Pine Alleé, a forest tent caterpillar was on the side of a tree. I should have gotten the regular eastern tent caterpillar for comparison. Next time. Dewberry has been in all the dry, open places. That always attracts hobomok skippers - where are they?...Next time.
