... was again raining in the morning, but 75°, partly cloudy and windy at 2:15 PM on June 13.
I was hoping the butterflies would be out and hungry after a few gray, wet days, but activity seemed low.
The Trails
On the other hand, as I strolled back towards the Carriage House I glanced at the nettle patch along the way; the tops were all chewed up.
When were all those red admirals laying eggs here - a couple weeks ago, right? Yup, I uncurled a nettle leaf (carefully) and there was a baby red admiral. I had seen dozens crossing the road earlier in the week.
The warm, moist afternoon air was wonderful today. On the way to the Fern Glen Japanese honeysuckle was adding it's sweet perfume to the mix of grasses and bedstraws.
An examination of its milky sap and almost black blossoms reveals its kinship with common milkweed, which was blooming in stands at Gifford House.
Monarchs recognize that kinship and will lay their eggs on it, but it is poisonous to the caterpillars. The roots persist, the seeds fly far, the plant tolerates a wide range of light and soil conditions, and deer don't eat it...
Now is a good time (flowers, NO pods) to give it some of its own medicine if you don't mind herbicides. It can, with great care and patience, be dug out. But that can quickly change one's position on herbicides...
As I headed back to the trails, I found a caterpillar blocking my way. "Radcliff's dagger moth" I later found in Wagner's great guide.
Our most common pyrola, shinleaf, was all around the base of the watershead poster on the Wappinger Creek trail. Compare its whiter blossom to that of the other species above.
In the back Old Hayfield, black-eyed Susan was beginning to open.
In the back of the back Old Hayfield, foxglove was back again.
There's always some interesting insect lurking in the blossoms - this day a tiny looper.
I almost left without noting the ubiquitous field and roadside inhabitant, hop clover.
And another, birdfoot trefoil, I confess, I did photograph the following day.
