September 13, 2017

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 75°F, calm, and mostly clear at 2:00 PM on September 13, 2017.
• This week's trail report covers the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.
• It was a quiet day for butterflies and birds both.
• Caterpillars were on the move.

The Trails

• It was a beautiful late summer afternoon on the way to the Carriage House behind Gifford House.
• Dark red leaves in the shrubs were calling attention to the blue-black berries of Virginia creeper.
• Just a little farther along was an empty nest of perhaps fall webworm.
• Along the Scots Pine Allée, a banded tussock moth caterpillar was climbing one of the pines.
• Out in the Little Bluestem Meadow white fluff was rising and drifting in the air.
• A closer look ruled out milkweed.
• Thistle was the next thought but that didn't seem right either... maybe a lettuce?
• No doubt about silverrod. There's always a patch at the end of the pines.
• Something flew by that wasn't a wasp: an American copper.
• There was a blue glow around the body, seemingly from dense hairs. Interesting...
• Around the corner milkweed tussock moth caterpillars could be found on a number of milkweeds.
• A scan of the meadow back towards Gifford House turned up little more than a few cabbage whites and orange sulphurs, but it's always a favorite view.
• In the Fern Glen, a woolly bear was eating swamp milkweed.
• In the back of the 'Glen, spikenard berries were ripening.
• Even burried in the wetland, Jack-in-the-pulpit was hard to miss.
• Back above the deck, the usual colony of whorled aster was in bloom.
• Closer to the deck, tall white lettuce was flowering.
• It's a strange little flower that the lettuces have.
• Ah, there was a whole Jack-in-the-pulpit, leaves and all still intact.
• Speckled alder was in the shrub swamp and already looking forward to spring.
• Its female cones...
• and male catkins were formed and ready for win... I won't say it.
• Next week: the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.