May 04, 2013

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 70°F and mostly clear with light winds at 12:30 PM on May 4, 2013.
• About a dozen new plants were blooming in the Fern Glen.
• Spring azures were plentiful and the first clouded sulphur was back.
• Gray tree frogs were calling all about.

The Trails

• Redbud was blooming in front of Gifford House.
• And Lilacs were budding up at the parking lot.
• Arch enemy, garlic mustard was flowering everywhere.
• Behind the Carriage House, buckeye and fothergilla were getting ready to bloom.
• At the end of the Scotch Pine Alleé, dwarf cinquefoil, with strawberry-like leaves, was blooming.
• Along the path through the Old Gravel Pit, starflower and Canada mayflower were getting ready.
• That hermit thrush was still lurking at this end of the trail system.
• Brand new maple leaves were bright against the dark conifers.
• Above the road to the Fern Glen, crabapple was looking fine.
• I'd been waiting to see the hobble-bush in the Fern Glen - it was not a disappointment.
• Bishop's cap was starting up.
• Its tiny flowerswere giving the camera's autofocus a headache.
• False rue-anemone and wild oats were in the Roeller bed along the road.
• Golden ragwort would soon be opening.
• A Jack-in-the-pulpit was coming up under Dutchman's breeches, now going to seed.
• One of our faithful mystery plants was blooming by the cobble bench.
• Right next to said bench, the giant Solomon's-seal had buds even while the leaves were still unfurling.
• Twinleaf seemed to be in a hurry forming seed pods before all the flower parts had been shed.
• Maidenhair fern fiddleheads looked so delicate.
• Little Victorian lampshades - that's what early meadow-rue reminds me of.
• The first nodding trillium had opened up - or perhaps down.
• We have just a very few goldenseal in the Glen.
• But plenty of wood anemone - especially near the kiosk.
• That's a good spot to find toothwort, too.
• The path to the right of the kiosk takes one to a nice colony of mayapple.
• Deeper in behind the kiosk, false hellebore was getting big.
• Back in the shrub swamp, shadbush was opening its thin-petaled flowers.
• Around the bend was spreading globe flower. The "petals" are actually sepals; the true petals are minute.
• Out of the Glen and on the Cary Pines Trail, I found bracken spreading out its fronds.
• On the Wappinger Creek Trail, violets. were scattered along the sandy flood plain.
• Japanese barberry.
was everwhere in that area.
• Several magnificent patches of wood anemone crept down the banks of the creek.
• The sun was warm enough that a Juvinals's duskywing held its wings up to expose the diagnostic spots at the hindwing apex.
• Tussock sedge was blooming in the namesake Sedge Meadow.
• All the way around in the front Old Hayfield, an old apple was in bloom.
• And that was the trails today.