May 23, 2018

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 79°F, clear and breezy at 1:00 PM on May 23, 2018.
• This week's trail report covers the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.
• It really felt like spring - almost summer.
• Butterflies were up to 6, maybe 7, species today.

The Trails

• The lilacs at Gifford House parking lot were beginning to decline.
• Recent rains made the dirt road to the Carriage House attractive to pearl crescents.
• There were enough to get a below shot as well.
• A tiny blur turned out to be the tiny .
• The trail head was looking very spring like today - shade was nice to find.
• Buttercups had come up during the past week.
• And spittlebugs were showing up on the bedstraws.
• At the corner of the Old Hayfield, hickory buds were in various stages of progress.
• Our two most common invasive honeysuckles were at about the same stage: tartarian honeysuckle...
• ...and Morrow's honeysuckle.
• Wild geranium was poking up.
• Only in the "darkroom" did I notice how popular it was.
• The faithful old Nannyberry by the Spring House was in bloom.
• Bird's-eye speedwell was in the usual places.
• Purple dead-nettle is a common weed.
• So too is mouse-ear chickweed.
• A dark moth faked me out when it flew by in a butterfly manner.
• I wonder about the name of that little buttercup: cursed crowfoot.
• No wonder about cinnamon fern coming up in the Sedge Meadow.
• Nearby was angelica.
• In the back Old Hayfield, invasive Russian olive was filling the air with its almost too sweet scent.
• The patch of Golden Alexanders seemed to have grown.
• Up close, they look like yellow queen-Anne's lace.
• The flower of burning bush is not why it was brought here...
• A surprise back on the Sedge Meadow Trail was a silver-spotted skipper.
• On the Wappinger Creek Trail, a mayfly was on my arm for a short while.
• Half way down the hill, the plantain-leaved pussy toes colony was up again.
• By the Watershed kiosk, the big fungus had continued to get bigger.
• And right up the little tributary, a Lousiana water thrush posed quite a while for a few shots.
• Next week: the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.