May 22, 2019

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 70°F, partly cloudy and breezy at 2:15 PM on May 22, 2019.
• The yellow lady's-slipper was blooming.
• This week's trail report covers the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.

The Trails

• First stop was the flowering shrubs behind the Carriage House.
• The buckeye had started blooming.
• A watchful American robin was not happy with my being there.
• Just beyond, the rhododendron was blooming. I did not linger long.
• In the Fern Glen, black haw hung over the entrance to the limestone cobble.
• Just inside, golden ragwort was a little out of its usual pondside location.
• The little geranium, Herb-Robert, was everywhere.
• A bug was clinging to a fern frond.
• Another wanderer was wild columbine .
• That strange holdover from earlier times, Paris, was quietly blooming along a slope.
• Red baneberry was starting to form fruit.
• In the fen, Labrador tea was starting up.
• Right next to it were just a few blossoms of bog rosemary.
• Climbing above the boardwalk was limber honeysuckle.
• Everybody's favorite, yellow lady's-slipper, was putting on a great show this year.
• Farther in the back, the lone pink lady's-slipper was blooming as well.
• In the seep above the deck, wild stonecrop had started.
• I hadn't notice the low blueberry before.
• The fragrant swamp azalea could be smelled before being seen.
• False Solomon's seal could be found throughout the 'Glen.
• Wild geranium was well distributed as well.
• On the other hand, Golden Alexanders was restricted to the front of the pond.
• Choke cherry didn't seem as abundant as usual.
• Silly sweetflag was at the front of the pond, too.
• A glimpse of red from deep in the shrub swamp was Japanese primrose - a prolific invasive.
• Another invasive, dame's rocket, was out there. Know it from phlox by its four rather than five petals.
• Out on the Cary Pines Trail, something flew around my head. My stepping back and being still encouraged it to return to the sun on the trail: a red admiral .
• A quiet pause on the bench at the "Appendix" (as I like to call the area at Trail Marker 10) didn't bother a feeding mallard at all.
• Two normally skittish common mergansers joined the party.
• Next week: the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.