September 15, 2016

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 83°F, cloudy and breezy at 12:00 PM on September 14, 2016.
• This week's trail report covers the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.
• Invasive Japanese stilt grass was starting to flower.
• Some of the fields had been mowed to keep down the woody plants so they stay fields.

The Trails

• The field between Gifford House and the Carriage House had been mowed.
• Cabbage whites are fairly easy to pick out - bright white with a black apex and one or two little black dots; the flight is fairly leisurely.
• Faster flying sulphurs, by this time of season, out numbered the cabbages with clouded and orange being the two common species around here.
• Clouded sulphur is plain yellow while the orange sulphur has a varying amount of orange.
• That can be tricky when it is just a blush of orange.
• To make things interesting, some of the female sulphers occur in a white form; by their flight speed they are easily separated from cabbages but between clouded and orange... oh well.
• The back Old Hayfield had also been mowed, but the field between that and Gifford was left as refuge for the wildlife.
• A bird flew across the field to the top of the highest tree - I thought maybe a cedar waxwing, but it was an eastern phoebe.
• A bird flew overhead in the Old Pasture - I thought maybe a raven, but it was a turkey vulture.
• The Wappinger Creek looked pretty low from the bluff after the Old Pasture.
• I wondered how the 2nd generation fungus by the foot bridge was.
• It had indeed grown since last time.
• At the little tributary, flower stalks of invasive Japanese stilt grass stood out in the sunlight.
• That it blooms late helps in spotting it among other grasses. Then the shiny mid rib of the leaf clinches the ID.
• Stilt like roots also separate it from similar native grasses.
• The sprawling growth habit can make it confusing where to start pulling.
• But following one flower stalk down gets you to the mark.
• bigger clumps can be cleared or thinned with just a garden rake.
• String trimmers do well in larger areas, but if it is flowering, flame weeding could save having to collect the trimmings to deal with the possibility of seeds - and that is a fun way to weed!
• The trail through the flood plain had been conventionally trimmed.
• Along the sides, zigzag goldenrod was doing well this year, but I've seen almost zero wreath goldenrod - a narrow leaved woodland goldenrod.
• Also along the sides, wood nettle was going to seed. Mind your elbows when going by...
• Next week: the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.