June 05, 2019

• It was 77°F, mostly cloudy with a light breeze at 1:00 PM on June 5, 2019. It would start raining around 4PM.
• Common ringlet and zabulon skipper had returned.
• This week's trail report covers the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.

The Trails

• The grounds behind Gifford House had been mowed.
• From back along the drive to the Carriage House, beauty bush looked like sprawling multiflora rose.
• Up close it looked and smelled quite different.
• The Little Blustem Meadow had also been mowed.
• A very large American copper had me wondering for a while about its identity.
• And the first Zabulon skipper of the season was the cryptically marked female. The white hindwing edge gave it away.
• Along the road to the Fern Glen, several of the very different looking males were feeding or perched in the sun.
• The penstemon also there was having a good year, too.
• A week earlier in the fen, pitcher plant had started to flower.
• New this week was sheep laurel.
• In the shrub swamp, limber honeysuckle was already forming berries.
• The high bush blueberries were following suit.
• A lone wooly aphid was clinging to an alder.
• On a neighboring branch, gregarious beetle larvae were messy eaters.
• Abundant this year was water speedwell, a tiny but pretty thing.
• I'd never noticed one of the low bush blueberries before.
• Invasive garden escapee forget-me-not was filling the wet areas in the back of the 'Glen.
• The pale-marked angle was a familiar inch worm moth.
• Last week, Indian cucumber root, a tiny lily, had started blooming.
• Near the kiosk, diervilla, a native honeysuckle family member, had just started blooming.
• Deeper along the path, swamp azalea was still going after several weeks.
• Some of the branches bore large, irregular galls.
• Back at the beginning of the path around the pond, golden Alexanders were still blooming.
• At the back of the pond, angelica had grown to a great size in a short time.
• Carrion flower was sprawling along the railing and would be blooming by next week.
• Dragonflies had been back for a while and a female common whitetail was sunning on the railing.
• Out on the Cary Pines Trail, maple-leaved viburnum was in full bloom. It still had a way to go in the 'Glen
• Next week: the Wappinger Creek side of the trail system.