May 02, 2018

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 85°F, partly cloudy and windy at 1:00 PM on May 2, 2018.
• This week's trail report covers the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.
• Two suddenly summer-like days in a row brought out a couple butterflies: cabbage whites and spring azures.
• The Fern Glen was racing to catch up, but was still a week behind last year. See the trail report archive.

The Trails

• The view from the Gifford House trail head may have been just a little greener than last week.
• But the view of the Carriage House was distinctly different.
• The magnolia was now in full blossom.
• With the cold we'd been having, it was risky but it worked out and flowers were abundant and largely undamaged.
• Underneath, a pair of robins was oblivious to the recent drama above and only concerned with more immediate robin business.
• As the trail through the Old Gravel Pit comes out above the Fern Glen, I was sure I had come about the closest yet to a bear.
• Myrtle, attended by small bees, was blooming on the Norway Spruce Glade - that hillside above the 'Glen.
• One of the first finds in the Fern Glen proper was wild ginger.
• Always in the same spot above was that corydalis species.
• I'm not sure I remember even buds on the twinleaf last week.
• Large-flowered bellowort flowers last longer that twinleaf's.
• Rue anemone! It took a while to remember the common name.
• But then it's always a toss up between bishop's cap and miterwort.
• Fen shrubs always need a refresher: leatherleaf would do for today.
• Leatherwood is not easily confused. Its buds and blossoms are equally charming.
• In the pond was my first bullfrog of the season.
• Painted turtle has been around a few weeks now.
• So too the red-spotted newt.
• Behind the pond, wetland invader, Japanese primrose was bolting.
• The attractive flower explains how it got here.
• Large-flowered trillium seemed to be having a good year.
• Red trillium was just starting to open.
• There's one little patch of false rue-anemone.
• On the way out, little, long-nosed fuzz balls seemed to be lapping the damp soil as some butterfies do for minerals. They were one of the bee flies.
• Not far along the Cary Pines Trail, an insect was hovering about head high in the dappled light. A small subject floating in the air and never staying in one position too long, it was a photographic challenge. It looked like the bee fly again.
• Out at the ":Appendix" (trail marker 10) was an easier subject: mallards preening in the sun.
• Next week: the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.