September 19, 2018

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 76°F, partly cloudy and windy at 12:30 PM on September 19, 2018.
• Things were still wet from heavy rains the day before.
• With the Fern Glen still closed, this week's trail report again covers the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.
• The Fern Glen will remain closed while the deck is being replaced.

The Trails

• About 75 male clouded sulphurs were mining minerals on the Carriage House driveway.
• A couple pearl crescents and a lone eastern comma kept to the edge of the mob.
• It was a bit early for milkweed pods to open, but these looked like they were getting ready.
• A telltale sign of caterpillar activity was "frass" laying on a leaf.
• On the leaf above was a monarch caterpillar that would soon be getting ready to pupate.
• On one of the pods a small milkweed bug was hanging out.
• Nearby, pokeweed berries were ripening.
• Farther along the path, an aster species was blooming.
• Goldenrod bunch galls looked like silly feather hats.
• One old, well worn great spangled fritillary was lounging in the sun.
• A white form female sulphur dropped into the vegetation and almost disappeared.
• An eastern tailed-blue was doing a face plant in some spotted knappweed.
• On a hickory were shiny black caterpillars with long, but sparse hairs.
• A little more distinctive was that of the banded tussock moth.
• The hickory tussock moth was very familiar.
• May as well note the ubiquitous fall webworm.
• On an oak was a firefly relative - actually a beetle.
• In the same tree was an empty Gypsy moth pupa.
• Here the path opened into the back Old Hayfield.
• A banded garden spider had a well placed web.
• Dogbane pods were well formed by now.
• It was quiet in the Old Pasture, but leaves had been slowly collecting on the ground.
• On the Wappinger Creek Trail was another patch of rattlesnake plantain.
• Along the banks of the Creek, wreath goldenrod was blooming.
• And that one dead tree was sprouting the big shelf fungus again.
• Another small, orange fungus was on smaller sticks contrasting with the dark green partridgeberry.
• At the "Appendix", witch's butter was just getting started.
• Next week: probably the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system again.