June 05, 2013

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 70°F, and mostly clear with light winds at 11:30 AM on June 30, 2013.
• I had the pleasure of company on the trails today.
• Skippers were challenging in the Old Hayfields.
• Early bloomers were now beginning to produce their fruit.
• One 17 year cicada was calling in front of Gifford House.

The Trails

• I was surprised to see all the color on the Carriage House drive.
• Beauty bush, kolkwitzia, of course - I must have missed its budding last week.
• And just past it was sweet shrub. This has been flowering for several weeks.
• At the end of the line was rhododendron.
• Behind these shrubs was a sunny pocket with several zabulon skippers.
• At the end of the Scotch Pine Alleé was a spittle bug on a young Scotch pine.
• Just past the end was a small stand of arrow-wood in bloom.
• Leaf damage from the viburnum leaf beetle, that has been invading the area, reminded me that arrow-wood is a viburnum: Viburnum dentatum.
• Resting in the patch of hay-scented fern in the Old Gravel Pit was a red-headed inchworm moth.
• In the Norway Spruce Glade - the little meadow above the Fern Glen - a pair of damselflies was on an oak leaf. Possibly the aurora damsel?
• Beardtongue had been blooming and was wrapping up.
• Along the Roeller Bed, bishop's cap was forming interesting little cups of seeds.
• Blooming at the top of the bed, was a lone bunchberry - our smallest dogwood.
• By the bench facing the cobble, one of our mystery plants was forming its peculiar, rectangular flower heads.
• Finally, white and red baneberries were becoming distinct with thin and thick flower/seed stems.
• In the Limestone Cobble a little beetle seemed to be contemplating a leap from the tip of a fern.
• Ostrich fern often have a ball of leaflets pulled together.
• We found that a caterpillar was the responsible party.
• Another viburnum, maple-leaved viburnum was in bloom.
• Beetles, and wasps were some of the pollinators visiting.
• Pitcher plants are strange - I'm not sure I ever looked inside the flower.
• In the back of the 'Glen, wild sasparilla seemed to be having a good year for seed making .
• Just in from the kiosk, bowman's root took me by surprise.
• I hadn't noticed this one getting ready to flower either.
• One can't help but notice the angelica by the pond.
• That flower should open any day now.
• On the way out of the 'Glen I noticed those screaming red leaves on the river birch, produced by the velvet erineum gall mite, as I learned last year.
• Out on the Wappinger Creek Trail was a rather placid garter snake.
• I was surprized I could get so close.
• It was in the Old Pasture when unusual skippers started to show up. The only photo I could get was a great blue dragonfly.
• Hawkweed was blooming along the Sedge Meadow Trail as well as other sunny locations.
• The front Old Hayfield had a well placed blue-eyed grass - a tiny lily, actually.
• Several more odd skippers were in the two Old Hayfields. They may all have been the Indian skipper - males and females. Maybe this weekend I can look again.