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May 12, 2021


Foamflower

Notes and Changes since last report

  • It was 58°F, partly cloudy and breezy at 1:00 PM on May 12, 2021.
  • This week's trail report covers the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.
  • Not much butterfly news, but more birds were back including warbling vireo and scarlet tanager.
  • Yellow lady's slipper had some buds today; they could open later this week, certainly by next week.

The Trails

  • Starting up the Cary Pines from Trail Marker 10, one would encounter starflower blooming close to the ground.
  • It was scattered among the Canada mayflower, also just starting to open.
  • Something dropped into the middle of the trail: a scarab beetle beetle of some kind.
  • Bracken was getting tall and was reaching into the trail from the side.
  • That tiny point of purple in the background was gaywings. That was doing well now.
  • Off the corner of the Fern Glen parking lot stood a pink shrub: an azalea.
  • The blossoms were just right in the afternoon sun.
  • That and striped maple had started last week.
  • At the bottom of the Roeller Bed, starry false Solomon's-seal was doing well this year.
  • Jacob's ladder could be found in a number of locations.
  • In the limestone cobble, nodding trillium could be compared with the neighboring pale form of red trillium.
  • And our three Uvularia species were all blooming: large-flowered bellwort was still going pretty well.
  • The smaller, paler bellwort, or perfoliate bellwort, had started later and is always less abundant here.
  • Smallest is wild oats, or sessile-leaved bellwort. Its leave does not surround the flower stalk.
  • Nothing looks like foamflower.
  • Large-flowered trillium looks like a different plant as it turns pink with age.
  • It was nice to see Solomon's seal in action - the deer like it very much, too.
  • Nothing bothers red baneberry; that must be the "bane".
  • Out in the poor fen, last week's first rhodora had been joined by more today.
  • Behind it, bog rosemary had finally opened. It was just buds for weeks, but the buds were just fine, really...
  • Blueberry also had had handsome, long lasting buds that were new open.
  • Strange royal fern fiddleheads are hard to miss.
  • Back on the trail along the edge, Canada violets were blooming.
  • In the back of the 'Glen, yellow lady's slipper was promising flowers soon.
  • Scattered behind them, dainty oak fern was nice to find again.
  • Up front, towards the kiosk, chokecherry was attracting several insects.
  • Along the pond, golden ragwort was bright and cheery.
  • Hidden at the back of the pond was an unassuming little tree.
  • The little bell like flowers will become little boxes rattling with seeds.
  • A bald-faced hornet was not hiding on a fern below.
  • Next week: the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.

Sightings

Birds
  • 2 Canada Goose
  • 1 Wild Turkey
  • 1 Mourning Dove
  • 1 Northern Flicker
  • 2 Eastern Phoebe
  • 2 Great Crested Flycatcher
  • 1 Warbling Vireo
  • 1 Blue Jay
  • 3 Eastern Bluebird
  • 1 Veery
  • 1 American Robin
  • 1 Yellow Warbler
  • 1 Pine Warbler
  • 1 Prairie Warbler
  • 1 Ovenbird
  • 2 Scarlet Tanager
  • 3 Eastern Towhee
  • 4 Chipping Sparrow
  • 2 Red-winged Blackbird
  • 3 Baltimore Oriole
  • 5 American Goldfinch
Butterflies
  • 1 Cabbage White
  • 1 Spring Azure
Plants
  • 1 American bladdernut
  • 1 Blueberry
  • 1 Bog rosemary
  • 1 Canada violet
  • 1 Choke cherry
  • 1 Solomon's-seal