Notes and Changes since last report
- This week's trail report covers 1/2 the trail system - the Cary Pines Trail side. Next week will be the Wappinger Creek Trail side.
- It was 76°F and partly cloudy at 1:00 PM on June 17, 2015.
- Again a nice day after a few with rain.
- Common milkweed will be blooming soon.
The Trails
- At the Gifford House parking lot, invasive crown vetch was blooming.
- Birdsfoot trefoil may have started last week...
- My favorite butterfly food, common milkweed, will be blooming any day.
- Milkweed beetles are happy to eat the leaves.
- Although the pot holes in the road to the Carriage House had been filled, the road was still attractive to butterflies.
- That little dark triangle was a great spangled fritillary... in just about the same spot as last week.
- On the side of the road, an already well worn silver-spotted skipper was soaking up the sun.
- The dogbane patch in the Little Bluestem Meadow was peaking and great spangleds were there in number.
- A pileated woodpecker burst into the scene calling with yet another back in the woods of the Old Gravel Pit.
- There and elsewhere, partridgeberry was blooming. It's tiny, furry flower is a delight.
- Walking down the road to the Fern Glen, I felt something on my leg... again. I always look before I swat. It was not a tick; it was not a mosquito; I don't know what it was... maybe something in orthoptera? - grasshoppers, crickets, mantids.
- Next to the grape leaf I set it on, was another bristling with galls of some sort.
- In the back of the 'Glen - in the fen - tiny water speedwell was blooming.
- Along the paths, white and red baneberry were getting easier to tell apart.
- Something zoomed into a sunny spot; it looked like one of the robber flies.
- One more bright spot stood out as I headed back for the day: common wood sorrel, it's shadow falling on a violet leaf rather than it's own clover-like leaves.