A fresh, female Juvenal's duskywing allowed a photo on the way to the Old Gravel Pit.
Crane flies are the largest family of flies. Unfortunately they can be mistaken for giant mosquitos, but they do not bite.
On the hill approaching the Fern Glen, penstemon was beginnig to bloom.
It was surrounded by the noxious black swallow-wort, just beginning to bud.
The first white-striped black was in the 'Glen! This normally constantly moving day-flying moth even allowed a photo!
A little bit of Labrador tea was actually looking good in the fen.
The unmistakeable royal fern was coming up along the boardwalk through the fen.
And cinnamon fern's fertile frond was beginning to make this one easy to ID.
The 'Glen's single pink lady's-slipper was back again this year; last year was its debut.
In the back of the 'Glen, the cluster of yellows had bounced back from being stomped by deer. Better than being eaten by deer.
Red baneberry was now easy to ID by the long, thin seed stalks.
I could smell it before I could see it: the swamp azalea, or perhaps more delicately put, "pinxter" was blooming and filling the air with it's fragrance.
Along the edge of the pond was NOT multiflora rose. I'll have to work on this one.
I'd been wondering what was growing up around the foot bridge at the Appendix; it was a buttercup.
Coming up through the sandy Wappinger Creek Trail soil was the alien star-of-Bethlehem.
Nearby was another narrow-leaved bitter cress beginning to flower. A big plant like this can spew hundreds of seeds that persist in the soil for years.
