June 08, 2016

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 60°F and cloudy with light breezes at 11:00 AM on June 8, 2016. It sprinkled for a good part of the walk.
• This week's trail report covers the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.
• Great spangled fritillary and European skipper were seen earlier during the week, but not today...

The Trails

• The front Old Hayfield at Gifford House was frothy white with bedstraw.
• That's a lot of tiny white flowers.
• White campion was off to the side here and there.
• Half way along the field, yarrow was blooming.
• Right at the edge, birdfoot trefoil was just starting up.
• Every once in a while, yellow goatsbeard would stand out like a giant dandelion.
• The giant seed head continued the trend.
• A frightful sight was black swallowwort in bloom.
• This viney relative of milkweed is recognized as such by monarchs and they will lay eggs on it, but it is fatal to the caterpillars.
• The spot, near the junction of the Sedge Meadow and Wappinger Creek Trails, was marked with some green flagging for your perusal... and its eventual removal.
• Oxeye daisy was out in clumps.
• Masses of multiflora rose blooms were along the shrubby side of the trail.
• Privet was thick along there too.
• Butterflies aren't very active on cool, gray days, but that can work both ways for the butterfly watcher: a little wood-satyr was trying catch some sun sideways and from above.
• A robber fly was just hanging out on a milkweed leaf.
• My favorite butterfly magnet, milkweed, was just starting to bud up.
• In the back of the field, a young bluebird was watching me watching it.
• At my feet was a tiny vetch that I hadn't noticed before.
• It's narrow leaves and little blue blossoms suggest slender vetch.
• Another study in tiny was a chickweed or a stitchwort.
• A bumblebee was pretty lethargic today too.
• Tower mustard was standing above everything, but with only tiny flowers at the top.
• A little spring moth went from spot to spot before settling down long enough for one shot. In the sun, metalic sparkles glitter in the dark margins.
• The familiar cow vetch bore unfamilar bugs.
• The view back down the Sedge Meadow Trail was of blooming gray dogwood.
• Its small blossoms fill the air with a funkiness.
• In the Sedge Meadow were several heads of Angelica.
• Indigo buntings seem to sing from high in trees, but often feed low in fields where they "chip" sort of like a cardinal.
• An Appalachian brown in the back Old Hayfield was a surprise until considering that water runs on 3 of the 4 sides.
• All the way in the back, ironwood fruit were developing. Did I miss the flower?
• I think it was a hickory sporting little round galls on some leaves.
• Keeping distance and moving slowly paid off while following a white-spotted sable moth.
• A pair of crane flies was well hidden in last year's dogbane pods.
• I knew the "other rose" would be in the Old Pasture. I forget what, but it's not multiflora.
• By the watershed kiosk on the Wappinger Creek Trail, shinleaf was getting ready to bloom.
• Down in the floodplane, nearing the Appendix, invasive narrow-leaved bitter cress pods were swelling with seed. Can't just pull and leave them now; they should be removed.
• Next time: the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.