May 1, 2018: Describe your walk by adding a comment below
Each time you go out and make observations for this project, describe your walk by adding a comment to this post. Include the date, distance walked, and categories that you used for this walk.
Suggested format:
Date. Place. Distance walked today. Total distance for this project.
Categories.
Brief description of the area, what you saw, what you learned, who was with you, or any other details you care to share.
Comentários
5/1/18. Lightening Ridge Rd, Calais VT. 3 miles today, 1181.7 miles total.
Categories: birds, alternate leaves
I headed up the road towards Chickering Bog this morning, although I knew I wouldn't get all the way to the Bog since it's beyond the 1.5 mile radius limit from my house. Also, I hear there are nesting goshawks near the boardwalk, so the boardwalk area is off limits for the summer. There were still several clumps of snow on the driveway, so this is indeed a record year for snow here. We've never had snow on the ground on May 1 in the 20 years we've lived here. It wasn't raining this morning, so there was quite a bit more bird action than yesterday morning. Along the way up the hill I saw ruby-throated kinglets, chickadees, and lots of robins. I also saw lots of phoebes, 8 today. Up at the intersection of Lightening Ridge Rd I expected to see some American goldfinches at the bird feeder that's been hanging by the old schoolhouse. This morning there was no feeder hanging and the post on which the feeder used to hang was tipped over. Bird feeding stopped by a bear, no doubt, but the crooked post is probably not enough evidence of bear to post here. Further up the Chickering Bog trail I started hearing woodland species, like hermit thrush and blue-headed vireos. I also saw 4 yellow-rumped warblers in the stream just before I turned around. For alternate-leaved plants today, I photographed a beech with leaves hanging on, a yellow birch with a large cracked limb hanging over a neighbor's driveway (sans leaves), and a black cherry that tipped up into the road due to yesterday's wetness (also no leaves, but plenty of black knot fungus).
Great work on the Bioblitz! Amazing seeing turkeys and brants within the City! What a fun and productive walk along the seashore! And congrats on finding your keys! That reminds me that I should print a stack of the paper rulers that I downloaded, so that I can always have a ruler in my pocket...
5-2-18. Torpey Park, Somerville, NJ. 0.75 mile today, 264.75 miles total.
Categories: blooming, leafing out, bark
I walked this grassland park (a US Corps of Engineers Wetlands Mitigation Project, I've since learned) , looking for spring flowers. Mostly it was dandelions and Whitlow grass (and mugwort). But it was a beautiful, hot, sunny day and nice just to be out and about.
5-3-18. Elizabeth River Park, Hillside, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 265.25 miles total.
Categories: blooming, birds
This is mostly a mowed field with specimen trees at the edges, but it follows a small river, and the banks are left a bit wild (and mostly covered in Japanese knotweed). A pretty urban area, but in IDing for the City Nature Challenge I've seen how many species can show up even in urban settings. There were frogs that were all too fast for my camera, lots of minnows that made me wish I'd brought a net (though it would have needed a long handle), and just basic birds: red winged blackbird, robin, starling, goose. It's really too hot for me out there; we hit 91 today (and the upstairs half of our air conditioner is broken, luckily the main part of the house is still cool). But it's wonderfully sunny and everything is blooming. Today that was lesser celandine, ground ivy, chickweed, shepherd's purse, a Kwanzan cherry and a flowering dogwood.
5-2-18. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT and Fuller St, Montpelier, VT. 3.7 miles today, 1185.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, epiphytes, green leaves
I took my morning walk up Peck Hill this morning. They still have their hand painted sign at the bottom of the really rough part saying "No thru traffic up". Peck Hill is a class 4 road heading towards class 5 (if there were such a thing), but very scenic. On the lower part of the road I saw a beaver swimming up stream. Either it didn't see me, or it didn't care, even though it was quite close. eBird tells me I saw 27 species along my walk, including a yellow-bellied sapsucker, a hairy woodpecker, a northern flicker, and a pileated woodpecker. I also saw some phoebes and caught a blue-headed vireo on camera for the first time this year. My random category for the day was epiphytes, but I forgot my clip-on lens for my camera, so I couldn't do much with bryophytes. Instead, I shot a tree lungwort, a Flavoparmelia caperata, and one moss, maybe Orthotricum.
Later in the morning, I met a friend and we walked the woods behind her house. Prime tick territory--hardwoods with dry leaf litter between residential houses, and lots of barberry scattered about. I wore my full tick gear, but my friend insisted she would be fine in shorts. We didn't see any ticks, but they may have been out there. My friend had wanted me to identify spring wildflowers for her in the woods, but there was hardly anything green to see at all. We saw some leaves just beginning to break on the barberries, and found some escaped scilla and other spring cultivated flower bulbs. One bright patch of green that we spotted turned out to be some marginal wood fern when we got close enough to see it. No sprouts of any flowers visible from beneath the leaf litter yet at all, not even spring beauty.
5-3-18. George Rd, Calais VT. 2.6 miles today, 1188 miles total.
Categories: birds, fruit
I didn't have much time this morning, so I just made a quick dash to the top of George Rd and back. My eBird list for the walk had 25 species, most of which I heard rather than saw, although I did manage to catch a few birds with the camera, including some yellow-bellied sapsuckers, phoebes, chickadees and robins. Up in the field at the top of the road I heard a new call and eventually decided it must be a savannah sparrow. It was very buzzy. Back near our driveway again, I finally caught the winter wren who has been singing so loudly this week. What a thrill--that's only the second time I've seen a winter wren. Their song is so loud and so ubiquitous this time of year, but the birds are so hard to see! For fruit, I found some sumac berries, some yellow birch cones (last year's), and some white pine cones. I really had to look up for fruit--there's not so much visible on the ground these days.
5-3-18. Hubbard Park, Montpelier, VT. 0.8 miles today, 1188.8 miles total.
Categories: birds, compound leaves
This morning I attended the Friday morning bird walk led by Chip Darmstadt from the North Branch Nature Center, along with 20 other birders. What a large group to go meandering with! Even so, we were still able to get some good looks at some interesting birds. Apparently, there had been a fall out of warblers overnight since there were warblers all around us who had not been there yesterday. Just as we started the walk, we heard some northern parulas. We also got some long looks at an oven bird singing. We paused to listen to some black-throated green warblers and watch some Blackburnian warblers. Later in the walk, we saw a crow mobbing a broad-winged hawk. At first, I though I wasn't going to see any compound leaves at all. I found a white ash tree (sans leaves) and photographed the bark. Then I found some bishop's weed coming up, and some black raspberry leaves breaking. I found trout lily, toothwort, and fly honeysuckle budded up ready to flower. Amazing--none of these plants were visible 1 mile away at my friend's house two days ago. I think the warm weather really gave them a nudge.
5-4-18. Chickering Bog, Calais, VT and Mallory Brook, East Montpelier, VT. 3.9 miles today, 1192.7 miles total.
Categories: birds, landscapes, phenology
I walked out the access trail towards Chickering Bog this morning, but then took the side trail labeled Eagle Cliff down to the Chickering farmstead. There have been reports of nesting goshawks at the Bog this spring, so the bog is off limits until August. Goshawks can be very aggressive when defending a nest, so poking around the bog simply wouldn't be pleasant or safe. Still, I had to check on the spring ephemerals along the access trail. I found Dutchman's breeches in bloom and trillium budded up, also toothwort budded. No other flowers open. I had a grand time birding by ear, but only caught a few glimpses of birds that I could photograph. One notable bird in a bush was a dark-eyed junco, who scolded me from a downed white pine tree for several minutes while I watched. There were other juncos at the first wetlands on the trail. I also noted that the pine tree that has been slowly tipping over and raising a section of the trail by the first wetlands was finally cut down this winter.
After breakfast I met my Saturday morning hiking group on Cherry Tree Rd to hike the Mallory Brook trail. Today we were three all together, since our fourth member was out of town. We walked the Mallory loop trail this morning, which starts off in a lovely hemlock woods, but then moves into some disturbed territory with lots of invasives. We even found a common barberry and Japanese barberry growing side by side. It was a great chance for some detailed comparisons between the two. We noted the spikey stipules on the common barberry, and how the Japanese barberry is leafing out first. Along the route, we kept our ears open for birds, and found a black-throated green, some oven birds, and plenty of chickadees.
5-5-18. Whitenack Woods, Liberty Corner, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 265.75 miles total
Categories: spring flowers, leafing out , insects
I visited these woods last Thanksgiving and came back to see the spring ephemerals. Lots of things were blooming: spring beauty, dandelions, wood rush, golden ragwort, common blue violet, kidney leaved buttercup, daffodils someone must have planted long ago, wintercress, apple, flowering dogwood, several sedges, Japanese barberry, a single Jack in the pulpit, wood anemone, garlic mustard, rue anemone, dwarf cinquefoil, and autumn olive (the last I smelled before I saw it). Trout lilies were in fruit already. I also found ants gathered at ash leaf scars. Are there extrafloral nectaries on ash? I had no idea.
5-6-18. Dead River, Lyons, NJ and Warren, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 267.25 miles total
Categories: blooming, leafing out, insects.
I've walked these wet woods and power-line cut in every season except spring, so I figured it was time. It's very damp here but we've been dry recently and the muck was not too bad. This is not a particularly well-used trail, and it's blazed in white circles, but many of the trees have big white circles of script lichen (one of the only spots I've seen script lichen) and the ground was absolutely carpeted in spring beauty and wood anemone, so I managed to get myself a bit turned around and had to break out the map on my phone to get back out. Luckily I was aiming for the power lines which were easy to see (if blocked by brush).
Other things blooming here included sweet birch, dandelions, blackhaw (budding), several sedges, woodrush, common blue violet, dwarf ginseng (I don't see that often), Canada mayflower (budding), highbush blueberry, barberry, golden ragwort, wintercress, either a Lepidium or a Thlaspi (I always have trouble without fruit), some Cardamine I'm not sure of, wild geranium, one last trout lily, ground ivy, and a red oak. Whew. Spring is in full force here, and it's stunning.
I came home and walked around the yard. Tons of things are blooming: Korean spice viburnum, thyme leaved speedwell, bluebells (that I didn't know I had), dwarf cinquefoil, mouse ear chickweed, ground ivy, common blue violet, hairy bittercress, redbud, flowering dogwood, lilac, garlic mustard, pin oak, chokeberry (budding), the neighbor's wisteria (which I loathe), a sedge I'd never seen here before, yellow archangel, forget me nots, bleeding hearts, apple, bugleweed, sweet vernal grass, white mulberry, swamp white oak, kidney leaved buttercup, spring beauty, the only toothwort I've seen in bloom all spring, black cherry (budding), white oak, red oak, dandelion, and lily of the valley (budding).
The front lawn is absolutely covered in sugar maple seedlings; it must have been a mast year. There is a robin nesting next to my front door, right outside my bedroom window. They are very loud and a little threatening whenever we go by. Something big has dug a hole in the compost heap out back: groundhog, skunk or fox I guess. I'm hoping for fox, as a groundhog decimated our garden a decade ago (and we haven't had one since), and who really wants a skunk? Or do coyotes dig holes? I know there are coyotes around.
5-6-18. Berlin Pond; Coburn Rd, East Montpelier; Bailey Pond Rd, Marshfield; Horn of the Moon Rd, East Montpelier, VT. 1 mile today, 1193.7 miles total.
Categories: birds, entire leaves
I went birding this morning with Zac Cota and 10 other birders in my beginner birding class. We gathered in Montpelier at 6 AM, then headed up to Berlin Pond for the first stop in our birding marathon. At the pond we were greeted by common mergansers, song sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, and common grackles. Zac walked us down the lane to watch a northern waterthrush sing. Overhead, an osprey and a bald-eagle had an altercation. On the way back to the car, a pair of American bitterns flew slowly past. In all, we had over 30 bird species at this stop. For entire leaves, I found willow (spp.) leafing out, and sweet gale. I also found American beech still wearing last year's leaves. From the Pond, we drove to Plainfield to look for field bird species. We heard but did not see brown thrasher, calling at the same time as an American robin (very confusing!). We also saw a gaggle of yellow-rumped warblers. Next on our agenda was a visit to Marshfield Pond to try and find some forest bird species and maybe see a peregrine falcon. We found some northern parulas and a brown creeper by the pond, but didn't walk down the forest far enough to see the falcons who are apparently nesting on the cliff overlooking the pond. Along the way, we passed a roadside puddle with some greenfrogs and a bullfrog. Zac pulled up some wet plywood by the road and found 3 red-backed salamanders hiding underneath. A green comma also alighted on one of our cars when we parked along the road. Our last stop of the day was along some farm fields back in East Montpelier. This time we heard some snipes calling, but we never got a glimpse of them. In bloom today were beaked hazelnuts and red maples. When I got home, I was greeted by a dead woodchuck in the yard. My husband had dispatched it since it was eying the garden. Last summer we got no produce at all from the garden because the woodchucks ate everything. I hope your lawn hole is not occupied by a pest!
5-7-18. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais VT. 2.4 miles today, 1196.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, fruit
I slept in this morning, so I settled for a short walk through the neighborhood. We are entering warbler season here, so the birds were out in force; my eBird list for the walk has 33 species (most of which I simply heard and never saw). Still, I saw some Canada geese, a common merganser, a belted kingfisher, some bluejays, a crow, some chickadees, robins, and song sparrows. I stopped by a tree where a yellow bird was singing long and loud. I watched and looked and tried to guess what kind of warbler it was. Finally, I managed to find a place where the light wasn't shining right in my eyes so I could finally see the bird--an American goldfinch. Who woulda guessed? For fruit, I found a greater burdock, a meadowsweet (just starting to leaf out), and a balsam fir with cones at the top. Blooming today were wild ginger, red trillium, beaked hazelnut, box elder, and red maple. Red, red, red! I guess this is the red part of the season. I wonder why red, deep dark red, is so common now.
5-8-18. Tucker Rd, Calais VT and St. Augustine Cemetery, Montpelier VT. 5.1 miles today, 1201.2 miles total.
Categories: birds, landscapes, flowers
I walked out to Tucker Rd this morning in search of spring ephemerals and hit the jackpot. On the way there, on George Rd, I found blue cohosh and red trillium flowering. The south facing slope on Tucker was covered with Dutchman's breeches, squirrel corn, red trillium, hepatica, bellwort, and miterwort, with toothwort all budded up. Meanwhile, it's all peak season for warblers, since many of them have returned, yet the trees haven't leafed out yet. Leaf buds are breaking, so now is the time to spot the warblers. My eBird list for today had 33 species, including a pair of flyover wood ducks, and a slew of warblers. I saw black-and-white warblers, American redstarts, common yellowthroats, yellow warblers, northern parulas, black-throated green warblers, and yellow-rumped warblers. For landscapes, I shot a white ash tree in a field, a sugar maple framing a barn scene, and another sugar maple with dramatic limbs.
Later in the morning, I went on a walk in Montpelier with a friend. We walked from her house to the St. Augustine cemetery and then back through the woods that we explored last week. We found violets, dandelions, and ground ivy in bloom, along with some red trillium. We found a nice patch of germander speedwell blooming in the cemetery and some pussy toes all budded up. We spotted some daphne blooming in the woods. We also came across a nice patch of ostrich fern fiddleheads, but they were a little long for harvesting (and also on private land). We also found some Japanese knotweed at the perfect stage for eating, but we didn't harvest any of that either. In the city, we saw lots of tufted titmice and northern cardinals. We also heard a hawk that I couldn't identify. It had a repeated scream rather than the single clear call of a broad-wing. Maybe it was a sharp-shinned hawk.
Sounds like spring finally made it up to the Northern Kingdom! You have so many things that I rarely (if ever) see. I've never knowingly seen (even in a garden) squirrel corn, sweet gale, or beaked hazel. And trilliums, wild ginger, and daphne are only in gardens here. I've seen miterwort once or twice and hepatica maybe every three years. And the birds! I've always wanted to see a creeper or a snipe (I like the name), waterthrushes, bitterns... I may have heard them, but I never knew it.
I head out tomorrow to drive my 10-year-old daughter to Louisville, KY (12 hours away) for the NASP archery national tournament. So no walk today as I was finishing up all the stuff that needs to happen before I go. May not do a lot of official nature walks, but I fully intend to get photographs of something in each of 4 states (maybe 5; I'll be very near Indiana). We're taking the trip in stages, 4 hours tomorrow, 8 the next day, so we can stop and see stuff along the way. Not sure if the internet situation will be up to handling all my photos, so I may not post until I get back, on Sunday.
5-9-18. Kaercher Creek Park, Hamburg, PA. 0.75 miles today, 268 miles total.
Categories: blooming, fish
My daughter and I stopped at this stocked trout pond before eating dinner on our way through Pennsylvania tonight. There were a lot of fishemen out both on the shores and on boats. I noticed when the end of the year stats came out last December that I virtually never photograph fish, so I've been making a point of doing so whenever possible. I got some that I think are sunfish this time, and minnows.
Blooming were violets, garlic mustard, dandelions, chickweed, bulbous buttercup, sheep sorrel, mouse ear chickweed, shepherds purse, spicebush, white mulberry, morrow's (?) honeysuckle, kidney leaved buttercup., tons of strawberries (not a common site for me), wintercress, common cinquefoil, the tail end of purple deadnettle and bittercress, redbud, peppergrass, pennycress, mock strawberry, thyme leaved speedwell, several oaks, and a phildelphia fleabane. Autumn olive was in bud.
I also had a catbird and a frog of some kind pose nicely for me. Frogs never do that for me. And on the interstate, a whole lot of dead raccoons, deer and a groundhog. (none of which I photographed).
5-9-18. Peck Hill Rd, Calais VT. 2.4 miles today, 1203.6 miles total.
Categories: birds, buds, flowers
I headed up Peck Hill Rd this morning to check out the flowers along Fifer's Run Rd, a very back dead end road through the woods. On the way up the hill, I met Eric Sorenson coming down the hill. He's a community ecologist for the state. When I told him I was going up to check for the wild flowers on Fifer's Run, he said that Charlotte planted them. Charlotte who? Charlotte, the native plant lover, I'm assuming. She must be the one who planted all the spectacular ferns along the road, the ones with tags in case you can't recognize them on sight. Anyway, by the time I got up to the intersection with Fifer's Run, I had lost interest in the flowers and decided to check out a favorite barn on Peck Hill Rd instead. It happened to have a lot of warblers flying around it, so that was fun. Also, right by the barn was a thrush. I called it a hermit thrush on ebird. But it was really red and had a very white belly. After studying the photos, I think it was more likely a veery. On the way back down the hill I saw another one. And just after that I saw a hawk that I think was a northern harrier. I'm terrible at guessing hawks. But what made me think this was a harrier was it was flying low across the fields instead of soaring, and it had a long tail relative to the rest of its body. I found red trillium, blue cohosh and colt's foot in bloom on Peck Hill, but no Dutchman's breeches or squirrel corn. I guess those flowers are more restricted to certain rich soils than I had noticed before. I'm used to seeing them a lot, but I guess that's because of where I choose to walk.
5-10-18. Lightening Ridge Rd, Calais VT. 2.8 miles today, 1206.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooming
I walked up George Rd this morning with the intention of checking the flowers on the Chickering Bog access trail, but when I got up to Lightening Ridge I didn't feel like the extra walk up the hill to the wild flower area. The warblers along Lightening Ridge provided plenty of interest. I think maybe yesterday and today were the best warbler days of the season here. The leaf buds are starting to break and we're starting to see small leaves. Very soon, the leaves will provide plenty of cover for the warblers, so it will be much harder to see them. Meanwhile, I forgot to check my camera card before I left the house, and it was just about full already when I left the house. I guess it's been a while since I've found time to download photos. I had to be very choosy about which warblers to shoot, and wait until the light was perfect before pressing the shutter. Like the "good old days" of shooting with film, I guess, when every shot cost an arm and a leg to develop. I think maybe one of my precious shots captured a Nashville warbler. I guess I'll find out in a few weeks when I get to look at the card. Since the card was full, I used my phone to take plant photos, and the roadkill of the day, a red eft. With all the blooms popping up in the woods, I've decided to drop my random category of the day and just concentrate on phenology for a while. In bloom today was marsh marigold, cutleaf toothwort, colt's foot, red trillium, blue cohosh, box elder, and red maple.
I'm looking forward to seeing your trip from Kentucky. It sounds like you and your daughter have a great adventure planned, with lots of plants sightings possible. And fish! And roadkill!
5-10-18. Good Zoo, Oglebay Park, WV. 1.0 mile today, 269 miles total.
I made a point of taking pictures just about every time we stopped today, in PA, WV, OH and KY, but the only real "nature walk" I took was through the Good Zoo at Oglebay. There is a huge resort here where my husband's family (the descendants of his great-great-grandfather) had family reunions every four years until 2000, which meant I went three times. But the zoo itself is a fun little zoo where they let my daughter feed lorakeets that landed right on her arm. I stopped here the last time I went to KY, three years ago with my now-14-year-old. I found the fragrant sumac and pawpaw blossoms that were both new to me back then, but had forgotten all the lovely buckeyes, both red and yellow and in full bloom. There was also what I think might be cucumber tree. And the coltsfoot here is in fruit and has half-sized leaves already. My aunt teases me about the way I take pictures at zoos: weed, weed, weed, weed, kid, weed, weed, weed zoo animal, weed, weed weed.
At the hotel this morning someone was growing rhubarb out back. There was a new-to-me Cardamine sp. and the first blooming pineappleweed of the season. Plus a chipping sparrow that posed very nicely for me.
At a rest area there was a mustard I will have to key out, and sulfur cinquefoil, which my daughter liked (as it looks like marijuana). She wanted some to tease her friends with, but it quickly wilted.
Another rest area had a lovely tiger beetle that posed nicely for me.
And our hotel in Kentucky has a new-to-me Packera sp. that I'm pretty sure is butterweed.
There were enormous amounts of road kill, about half deer and half raccoon, but there were unidentified brown blobs as well, and one huge snapping turtle. No photos, though as once again I was driving.
5-10-18. Mega Cavern, Louisville, KY. 0.5 miles today, 269.5 miles total.
categories: blooming
My daughter did her tournament (and did fairly well) and then we went with the group from her school over to do the "underground ropes course" in this converted limestone strip mine. She did the course, I went out and photographed weeds. Lots of things were blooming: Amur honeysuckle, fleabane, black locust, violets, dandelion, mock strawberry, groundsel (might not be common groundsel for once; I'll need to key it out), garlic mustard, curly dock, multiflora rose, ox eye daisies, English plantain. I was expecting something interesting, either southern or limestone-y , but no. But they are way ahead of us at home. There was an aggressive goose guarding a side entrance, and a very nice (non-barn) swallow posed for a while on a fence for me. I'll have to look it up as well.
In the morning I'd walked around the hotel and then around a Subway restaurant. I found the usual weeds in enormous abundance, plus the butterweed from yesterday and something big with cups like cup-plant but very deeply toothed (lobed?) leaves. (Now looking on iNat, I think it might be the first record of Dipsacus lacinatus in KY). There was also some bipinnate-looking, shiny and toothy vine that might have been peppervine? but I'm too far north for it, so I guess I'll have to key that one, too, when I get home. There were several interesting bugs and a slug for me to work on, and finally a little white flower that was all about pairs that turned out to be Valerianella.
5-11-18. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier VT & Sterling Falls Gorge, Stowe, VT. 3.3 miles today, 1209.7 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooming
I attended the weekly birdwalk at the Nature Center this morning with Sean Beckett and 26 other birders. What a huge group! Nevertheless, we managed to see a few birds, including some song sparrows, yellow warblers, and broad-winged hawk (that was perched on a tree until flushed by some walk members who went on ahead, tsk, tsk). We only covered about half the usual walk route, so I continued on my own after the regular walk down warbler alley near the community gardens. I found some chestnut sided and yellow warblers there, and more song sparrows in the gardens. Blooms today included purple trillium and perhaps the last of the Dutchman's breeches by the gardens.
In the afternoon, I explored Sterling Falls Gorge trail with two friends. It's a lovely trail in a privately owned trail system that is open for public use in the northwest corner of Stowe. The Gorge is a spectacular rock formation, but it has very little plant diversity--basically mainly hemlock forest with little ground cover. After the gorge walk, we went down one of the other trails, which was also quite nice. This trail was bounded by trout lily on both sides in glorious full bloom, acres and acres of trout lily. At one point, there was a large patch of trout lily mixed with spring beauty. All 3 of us decided we needed to return to this place to hike more of the trails. Apparently, Sterling was a village at one point, but is defunct now. The woods along the trails are dotted with old house foundations.
5-12-18. Mississquoi National Bird Refuge, Swanton VT. 8.8 miles today, 1218.5 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooming
This morning I joined a paddling trip at the Missisquoi National Bird Refuge organized by the North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier. The trip was led by Sean Beckett, and there were about 14 other birders on the trip in about 8 boats (canoes and kayaks). We paddled up the river a short ways, then floated downstream for about 3 miles. Along the way we passed orioles, warbling vireos, yellow warblers, and chestnut sided warblers. We also had some purple martins and tree swallows fly overhead. Near the turnaround point we saw a bald eagle and some ospreys on nests. On our way back upriver, we saw some great egrets in the distance. We also saw some bank swallows harassing a kingfisher in its hole-in-the-riverbank nest. The purple martins and bank swallows were life birds for me, and the great egrets were a first-in-Vermont for me. I saw them in Martinique but never thought of them as a possible carry-over bird here in Vermont. There wasn't much blooming along the river banks, not much variety of plant life visible at all. The trees were mostly silver maple, with some box elder, white ash, and green ash mixed in. The understory was mainly ostrich fern, acres and acres of it. Visible along the banks were the roots of ground nut, so I guess later in the season there are a few more plants in the understory.
After the paddle, I walked a little ways down the Maquam Creek Trail at the refuge for a picnic lunch. I couldn't go far on the trail since it was flooded out. Still, it was a scenic place to spend a little time listening to the birds. In the forest, the bird of the day was rose-breasted grosbeak--they were everywhere! There were also a lot of yellow-bellied sapsuckers. Deep in the forest I found some trout lilies blooming and some Canada anemone.
5-13-18. Sodom Pond, Adamant Vt. 4 miles today, 1222.5 miles total.
My husband joined me this morning for a walk around Sodom Pond. We started from downtown Adamant, where the blackflies were so thick that my husband returned home to get our bug jackets. Once we had our jackets on, the bugs left us alone, so we got to enjoy all the warblers at the north end of the pond. We saw lots and lots of yellow-rumped warblers, as well as yellow warblers and chestnut-sided warblers. On the pond we saw a pair of geese and 3 mallards. Further down the road, we heard a Virginia rail clicking in the marshes. After the halfway point, my husband walked on ahead so he could make it to the Adamant store before it closed. Just after he rounded the corner out of sight, 2 cyclists came riding by. As they rode past, I saw a black lump in the field to the left. I checked with my binoculars to see if the lump was more geese gleaning in the corn field. No, it was a large black bear, standing up, watching the bike riders. Eventually, the bear saw me, 100' away, and harumphed off into the woods. We didn't see much blooming around the pond, but up on Center Rd, which borders a sugarwoods, I saw spring beauty, a crowfoot buttercup, blue cohosh, and plenty of ramps.
Wow, I've only seen a bear once, from my car. And I think I'd like it to stay that way!
5-14-18. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT. 2.5 miles today, 1225 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms
I slept in this morning, so I went for a quick walk in the neighborhood before breakfast. I decided to walk Pekin Brook Rd since it is relatively flat and I thought might have fewer birds than the upper part of George Rd where I found all the warblers on Friday. I was wrong about the birds--Pekin Brook Rd winds around the brook, with plenty of shrubby cover for birds. My eBird list for the walk had 39 species including a scarlet tanager and a wood thrush. I don't usually hear very many wood thrushes here. I think of them more as southern birds, while we tend to hear more hermit thrushes here in Central VT. But this one was clearly singing echo-echo-lay instead of the clear tones of the hermit thrush. I didn't get photos of either the tanager or the wood thrush since they were in the woods on a distant hillside. But I did get a photo of a rock pigeon, the first I've seen in Calais. It was hanging out in the barn at the end of George Rd. Blooming today were box elder (still), red trillium, Dutchman's breeches, and willows. The coltsfoot blooms are mostly gone by, and the fruit is starting to appear in fluffy heads.
5-15-18. Leonard Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 1227 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms
I hiked up Leonard Rd today since I haven't been up there since we got back in town. I had forgotten how wet Leonard Rd can be. It's actually more stream bed than road, with lots of soft mud. I had remembered finding cutleaf toothwort up there, and I wanted to check whether it was blooming. No, not yet, and the broadleaf toothwort was also not blooming yet either. What I did find blooming was some spring beauty, crowfoot, and bellwort, as well as red trillium and some purple violets. I heard a turkey gobbling frequently far off in the farm field. As I was almost back to the beginning of Leonard Rd, I met up with a neighbor in full hunting camo carrying a turkey caller. Whoops--I had forgotten that it is turkey season and that Leonard "Road" is a popular hunting trail. Fortunately, the neighbor was not carrying a rifle. He hadn't heard the turkey that I had been listening to, but he said he hadn't been using his caller either, so the turkey I heard may well have been a real one. I also heard lots of warblers during the walk, including black-and-white, Blackburnian, Nashville, yellow-rumped, black-throated blue, and even managed to shoot a black-throated green.
5-16-18. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT. 3.2 miles today, 1230.2 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms
I chose to walk the Pekin Brook Rd today because it's flat enough to walk fast on and I was hoping to get some aerobic exercise. Back in my running days, I jogged this stretch of road 3 times a week. I thought I had seen it all--but today I found something new, American plum, several trees, near the intersection with route 14. Some folks say that American plum was extirpated from Vermont, but I don't think so. I think there are more plum plants out there than people ever notice. I know of at least 4 other wild plum trees within a 10 mile radius, just from my roadside walks. I'd call them uncommon, but not quite rare. Right now is the time to find them, since they and Amelanchier are in full bloom, while cherries won't be blooming until next week. From a distance, they look a lot like Amelanchier, but they have acuminate leaf tips and thorns on the stems, and always round petals. Amelanchier often/usually has rectangularish petals and certainly no thorns. I also found golden Alexanders in bloom for the first time today. Other plants blooming today were red trillium, wild ginger, dandelion, and colts foot. I got more practice with my birding by ear this morning, with 10 kinds of warblers, including chestnut-sided, black-throated blue, black-throated green, and yellow-rumped. A hairy woodpecker came and posed for me, so I got to shoot at least one bird.
5-15-18. Lubas Field, Belle Mead; Hobler Park, Skillman; and Watershed Preserve, Pennington, NJ. 0.5 miles today. 270 miles total
Categories: flowering, weeds
I drove down to pack my daughter up and bring her home for the end of her second semester. I had about 45 extra minutes so popped into each of three parks I'd not visited along the way.
The first, Lubas, is a ball field against the woods, but its circular parking lot had a ton of deep tire tracks like trucks were driving in circle in it. I soon found out why: it has about the only porta-potty around, in a rural area with no restaurants or gas stations, and in the 10 minutes I was there two separate commercial trucks drove in to use it. Plants-wise there was what I think may be Lactuca canadensis (something I see so rarely that the last time I found one, Lena Struwe, who is an ecology professor at Rutgers, went out to the site to check it out). Flowering were blackhaw, probably Morrow's honeysuckle, field peppergrass, common dewberry, common cinquefoil, dandelions, several sedges, pineapple weed, common peppergrass, wintercress, and thyme leaved speedwell.
Next stop was a lovely park that I would love to go back to, with paths through a wood. I had no time so barely ventured in. Blooming here was more field peppergrass, some straggling purple deadnettle, more wintercress, more honeysuckle, some speedwell with linear leaves and dark blue flowers, thyme leaved speedwell, spring beauty, sweet vernal grass, yellow woodsorrel, more sedges, mock strawberry, and spring vetch.
Finally, I stopped by a woods with a pond. Here there were both white flowered and pink flowered bush honeysuckles (so Morrow's and tatarian?), bulbous buttercup, cleavers, common chickweed, garlic mustard, what I'm pretty sure is nodding mouse ear chickweed, spring beauty, orchard grass, autumn olive, common cinquefoil, purple deadnettle, greater celandine, wintercress, thyme leaves sandwort, more of the skinny leaved Veronica, spike rush, thyme leaved speedwell, amur honeysuckle, and more sedges. And there were tiny goslings that couldn't have been more than a day or two old.
5-16-18. Doughty Ave., Somerville, NJ. 0.25 miles today 270.25 miles total
category: weeds
I had a few minutes before an appointment and could see two fenced off, but not mowed, lots where construction was going on. So I checked them out. Blooming were thyme leaved speedwell, sticky mouse ear chickweed, dandelion, yellow wood sorrel, ground ivy, wintercress, some other mouse-ear chickweed, black medic, herb robert (which I don't see often), common peppergrass, what might be slender speedwell (of which you, Erika, are apparently the top observer; I'll have to tag you when i post it), common groundsel, English plantain, and henbit. And there were ground ivy leaf galls (I'm very fond of galls). Not bad for 15 minutes in the "city".
5-17-18. Number 10 Pond, Calais, VT. 3 miles today, 1233.2 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms
I woke up early enough this morning to be able to drive somewhere, get a 3 mile hike in, and still have breakfast at a reasonable hour. I chose #10 Pond, a favorite scenic route that goes along both #10 Pond and Nelson's Pond and a short stretch of deep woods in between. Blooming today were red trillium, golden Alexanders, marsh marigold, broadleaf toothwort, Amelanchier and another pair of wild plums. I think there really are a lot of wild plums out there, many more than people realize. On the lakes I got to see my first loons of the year, one pair on each of the 2 lakes. The first pair was sleeping with their heads under their wings. I never saw the second pair, but they were calling loudly across the lake. I heard several wood thrush in the deep woods section of the road, and even a couple veery calls, my first of the season. I heard plenty of warblers, including black-throated green, black-throated blue, black-and-white, yellow, common yellowthroat, and chestnut sided. Plenty of dead herps for road kill today. The road between the two ponds must be quite popular with the frog and salamander types.
I loved your weed collections! It's great that you're able to find so many interesting plants in urban locations and parks!
I think it's neat that not one of the things you listed in your most recent post have I (knowingly) seen so far this year. I may not recognize plums. I'm terrible at birds, so some of them may be here. I know we have several of the flowers you listed but I've not gotten rural enough for them this month, I guess.
5-17-18. Passaic River Park, Millington, NJ. 0.25 miles today. 270.5 miles total
categories: blooming
I took a little walk with my oldest daughter in this tiny park along the banks of the Passaic River. It has rained an awful lot lately (though it was not raining right then) and everything was very muddy, gnat-y and mosquito-y. Blooming were bulbous buttercup, common wintercress, both a white and a pink (so Morrow's and tatarian?) invasive shrub honeysuckle, ground ivy, sweet vernal grass, several sedges, autumn olive, spring beauty, Philadelphia fleabane, flowering dogwood, black haw, burning bush, kidney leaved buttercup, dwarf cinquefoil, Canada mayflower, common blue violet, wild geranium, and spring avens. And we found black cherry finger galls and a lot of round galls on shagbark hickory leaves.
I also got stuck, earlier in the day, in stopped traffic on a highway entrance ramp which was blocked by an accident. So I took pictures of the highway weeds out the windows of my car. Then I did that again at two long red lights. It made being stuck a lot more interesting, even though the only things blooming there were red clover and wintercress.
5/18/18. Sodom Pond, Adamant, VT and Barre, VT. 0.7 miles today, 1233.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms
I attended the regular Friday morning North Branch Nature Center birdwalk this morning with Chip Darmstadt and 21 other birders. Today's walk was along the north edge of Sodom Pond, practically in my own backyard. We had plenty of room to spread out along the pond, so despite the large number of folks in the group, we all got to see and hear quite well. The sight of the day was a blue-winged teal, which Chip said he had not seen in Washington County before. I don't have any photos of blue-winged teals in my catalog, so that was a lifer for me. We saw a swarm of swallows, including tree swallows (our usual), barn swallows, a cliff swallow, and a northern rough-winged swallow. They were zooming over our heads and over the pond, eating insects, hopefully blackflies. Another birding highlight of the morning was when a group of 4 great blue herons flew over. No one in the group had ever seen 4 flying together like that before. Blooming in downtown Adamant today were marsh marigold, wild strawberry, golden alexanders, and dandelions.
From Adamant I drove to Barre to run an errand, but I got there 10 minutes early, so I wandered between the parking lot margin and the river looking for things to shoot. Wouldn't you know it, I found another plum. Round petals, acuminate leaves, thorns on the stems. They're everywhere. This one (or perhaps 2--I couldn't get close enough to confirm a possible second one) were on the river bank, which is apparently a usual place for plums. I also found a fuzzy honeysuckle budded up, probably Tatarian, grapes budded, and pin cherry in full bloom. And some Barbarea vulgaris and violets blooming. I heard a song sparrow and a gold finch, but the only bird I caught on film was a crow.
I don't think I've ever captured observations from the window of my car, certainly not when I was in the driver's seat. What a way to pass the time in traffic!
It's interesting to read your list of plants from the southlands. You are so far ahead of us in blooms--Philadelphia fleabane won't bloom here for weeks. But spring beauty still in bloom? Is that the Virginia spring beauty? Does it bloom late? Our Carolina spring beauty is one of the very first flowers to bloom in spring. By the time Canada mayflower blooms here, spring beauty will be long gone.
You've got me wondering about overlooked plums. But our Amelanchier is done blooming, so they probably are, too.
I remember reading that Lonicera tatarica is never fuzzy but L. x bella always is and L. morrowii can be. These three give me so much trouble! Interesting that the pin cherry is blooming. We don't see it much at all here, but our black cherries just opened yesterday; it must be the earlier species.
My spring beauties are Virginia; we don't have any Carolina at all in NJ, even though it's both north (mostly) and south of us. This was late for them and there were lots making fruit, but they linger. The trout lilies and lesser celandine that bloomed with them are long gone.
I do make a point of only taking photos from the driver's seat when we are at a full stop! There are an awful lot of red lights around town. When I moved here 25 years ago there were two lights in town, now there are 24.
I didn't walk yesterday due to a busy day on rescue squad duty, but in between calls, my 14-year-old daughter looked out the window and told me there was a blue bird under the feeder. I said it's probably a jay but she was insistent it was not. And she was right: it was my first ever indigo bunting! I don't know how I've managed to miss them; eBird has them all over the state and very recently as well, and they are so obvious, but I've never encountered one before. Very exciting.
We also have a robin nesting outside our bedroom window. She's been brooding for about a week and a half now; we are eagerly awaiting babies.
5-19-18. Cranberry Meadow Rd, Woodbury VT and Sparrow Farm Rd, East Montpelier, VT. 5.7 miles today, 1239.6 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooming
I drove up to Nelson's Pond this morning to walk up Cranberry Meadow Rd. I remembered seeing a lot of Amelanchier/wild plums along Cranberry Meadow, so I wanted to check them out. Indeed, I found one patch of wild plums amidst dozens of Amelanchier. Also I found a good sized patch of trailing arbutus, but the flowers were mostly gone by. And some wild columbine just opening, and a small white flower that I didn't recognize. I talked to a friend about it later, and she suggested it might be early small-flowered saxifrage, which is a good match. Apparently, I found some in town last year, but I didn't remember it at all until I checked my catalog. My friend also pointed out that there are 2 kinds of wild plums in Vermont, the Canada plum and American plum. Probably what I've been seeing along the roads is the Canada plum, Prunus nigra. It's still fun hunting for plums, though. Also blooming today were red trillium, marsh marigold, golden Alexanders, hobblebush, dwarf raspberry, strawberry, Barbarea vulgaris, broadleaf toothwort, goldthread, glossy buckthorn, and dandelions. The birding was great along Cranberry Meadow, with lots of geese, including 2 parents with 6 goslings, wood ducks, mallards, a spotted sandpiper, several alder flycatchers, and lots of warblers.
After breakfast, I met up with my Saturday morning hike friends and we toured a perennial garden, walked down the road a mile, toured another garden, and walked back. Along the way we admired the Amelanchier and plums in bloom, saw some forget-me-nots and bluets, some sweet vernal grass, and some wood horsetail with fertile spike tops. There were lots of chestnut sided warblers along the way as well.
Indigo buntings! What a treat! Start listening for them now that you've seen one up close. They say "Fire fire!" Or something like that. The main clue is that they sing in short double bursts. If you hear double, look up along the telephone line or tree top and maybe you'll see a bunting.
5-20-18. Lawrenceville-Hopewell Trail, Pennigton, NJ and Sunset Park, Blawenburg, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 271.5 miles total
Categories: flowers, insects, leaves.
I helped my daughter move into a new dorm room for a 3-week course. This time she gets to keep her car (but she still needed a hand with her stuff). On the way home I stopped first at a paved bike and hike trail along a rural road. Blooming were daisy fleabane, a mouse ear chickweed, Oriental bittersweet, common dewberry, garlic mustard, black raspberry, several sedges, some cultivated columbine, ground ivy, doublefile viburnum, a blackberry, spring vetch, mock strawberry, purple deadnettle, black locust, sweet vernal grass, orchard grass, yellow wood sorrel, white mulberry, kousa dogwood, morrow's honeysuckle, thyme leaved speedwell, dwarf cinquefoil, spring beauty, autumn olive, flowering dogwood, golden ragwort, wintercress, and smooth tare. Budding were poison ivy, maple leaved viburnum, multiflora rose, grapes, king devil, and Canada thistle. Fruiting were cleavers, may apple, garlic pennycress, common blue violet, and dandelion. Insects included a Rumex miner, black cherry finger galls, "camelbacked" treehoppers, mating thistle tortoise beetles, a flea beetle, meadow spittlebugs, ground ivy galls, and mating thistle bud weevils.
Next stop was at a little park with a stand of eastern red cedar. A blazed trail ran through it, with about a half dozen aging sculptures! I was delighted! Blooming here but not at the other site were: Amur honeysuckle, bulbous buttercup, king devil, kidney leaved buttercup, and some large-flowered speedwell I need to look up. There were a fly, a beetle, and a red winged blackbird as well.
Thank you for the bunting-spotting advice. I hope to work on bird songs in general this summer. There's an excellent walk every Saturday at 8 am at the Audubon Society about 30 minutes from home; I hope to get there again soon.
5-20-18. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, VT. 2.6 miles today, 1242.2 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooming, amphibians
This morning I attended a beginner birding class with Zac Cota and 7 other birders. Zac showed us how to do a forest bird monitoring plot following the standard protocol. This involved hiking into the forest near the Nature Center, then hiking off the trails a short distance to 5 different plots that the Nature Center has been monitoring for years. At each plot, we listened for a total of 10 minutes. We also watched for birds while we listened, but we saw very few at the plots. It was a great exercise in listening closely and comparing what we heard with other group members. I found out my aural direction finding is way off. Every time I heard a bird, the other 3 people in my group all agreed it was in the exact opposite direction. No wonder I have such a hard time finding birds! We practiced using birding shorthand, all sorts of special abbreviations and symbols that allow you to capture birding behavior and lots of information with a minimum of writing. Zac and one of the class participants are also both very interested in amphibians, so no stone was left unturned. We saw an ailing spotted salamander and lots of red efts. While walking to the bird plots, we saw an American redstart, a black-throated green warbler, a bluebird, and a chickadee. Blooming in the woods were forget-me-not, wild strawberry, jack-in-the-pulpit, a crowfoot, broadleaf toothwort, foamflower, red trillium, Japanese barberry (lots of it!), and bluets. I caught a wasp (with my camera) pollinating the Japanese barberry, but I don't think I got enough of him for ID.
5/21/18. Tucker Rd, Calais, VT. 3.7 miles today, 1245.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms
I walked up to Tucker Rd this morning to check on the spring ephemerals. I found that some, like squirrel corn and Dutchman's breeches, have gone by, but others are taking their place. I think this road has the best collection of wildflowers that I have seen along any of the town roads, and most of the town trails, for that matter. This morning flowering along Tucker were white ash, red elder, bellwort, miterwort, wild ginger, jack-in-the-pulpit, wild strawberry, a wild current, downy yellow violet, and red trillium. Also blooming along my route beyond Tucker Rd were a crowfoot, foamflower, cutleaf toothwort, blue cohosh, broadleaf toothwort, dwarf raspberry, marsh marigold, some purple violets, Canada plum, and a baneberry. And garlic mustard. Budded were false Solomon's seal and Virginia waterleaf. It was a great day for birds as well--my eBird list has 41 species. Of those, I got to see robins, chickadees, song sparrows, a northern parula, goldfinches, common yellowthroats, barn swallows and a starling. Road crossers today were a red eft and a millipede. Just at the intersection of Tucker Rd, I heard a soft "Bob White". A few years back, before I knew anything about birds, we had a flock of bob whites living on the margin of our yard for a season. One of them even showed up on the Christmas birdcount day, so I took a picture and duely counted it. That raised some eyebrows with the local birding crowd because I guess the nearest wild bobwhites are supposed to be in CT. They all decided that the one I counted was a vagrant from a domestic flock, which it probably was. So what did I hear this morning, if not another vagrant bobwhite? That's my mystery of the day. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos. The call was very quiet, so I don't know if it will be audible on my recording.
Glad to hear you got some more additions to your mating collection! What lucky finds!
5-21-18. Coddington Farm, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 272 miles total.
Categories: blooming, insects.
I didn't have much time but realized I'd never hiked this local park in May. Star of Bethlehem was blooming all over it, the first I've seen this year. I also found Arabdopsis, which I rarely see. Cardamine impatiens has just started blooming and there was some here. I saw my first skipper of the year, and a common beefly (I love their fuzziness), and I heard a bubbly, complicated song and was very proud of myself for figuring out it was a wren before I managed to spot the house wren on a low branch. A very pleasant walk on the first sunny day in what feels like weeks.
5/22/18. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT, and Hubbard Park, Montpelier VT. 4.8 miles today, 1250.7 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooming
I slept in this morning, so I took my morning walk close to home down Pekin Brook Rd. The birds seemed oddly subdued this morning, at least compared to the cacophonous jumble I've been getting used to lately. Nevertheless, I still managed to tally 36 species on eBird. There seemed to be lots of white-throated sparrows calling, and some red-eyed vireos, and a couple of cat birds; sometimes it was hard to get beyond these calls since they made such a constant background. Birds that I actually saw included: eastern phoebe, eastern kingbird, chickadee, catbird, song sparrow, northern flicker, robin, bluejay, mallard, and a chestnut-sided warbler. Blooming were: red trillium, red elder, wild strawberry, golden Alexanders, apple, common barberry, marsh marigold, dandelions, coltsfoot, blue cohosh, violets, serviceberries, ground ivy, dwarf raspberry, garlic mustard, Barbarea vulgaris, and broadleaf toothwort. The road crossers were a millipede and a porcupine. The porcupine was headed straight up a friend's driveway, and they have a wonderful dog. I sure hope the dog was inside when the porcupine arrived at their house!
Later in the morning I went for a walk in Montpelier with a friend. We started at the State House and took the legislators' trail up to Hubbard Park. Although other routes through the park are fairly well covered here on iNaturalist, the trail from the State House only has a few observations that I made a couple of years ago. Today we wandered off the main trail onto some side trails and came out into a private yard past a sign that said hikers allowed, walked a bit on some city streets, then re-entered the park from a public entrance. Along the way, we found Morrow's honeysuckle (probably), for-get-me-nots, violets, jack-in-the-pulpit, wild columbine, Solomon's seal, wild sarsaparilla, Canada mayflower, moosewood, star flower, crowfoot, baneberry, choke cherry, Japanese barberry, and lowbush blueberries in bloom. We had a fun time chasing squirrels, and managed to catch red squirrels, gray squirrels, and chipmunks on camera. We also caught a catbird on camera and a chestnut-sided warbler.
Congrats on figuring out the house wren by its song! They are really noisy and confusing! Your mention of Arabdopsis and Cardamine impatiens reminds me that there is a new weed growing along the trail to my garden that I haven't shot yet. Perhaps it's one of those...maybe Cardamine.
5-23-18. Duke Island Park, Bridgewater, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 273.25 miles total.
Categories: flowering, insects, galls
I'd intended to walk a bike path here, along the Raritan River, but a dirt path along the canal caught my eye and I started there. As I was about ready to turn around I realized I was near a road that connected over to the bike path and took then, and ended up passing a motorcycle club tucked away in the middle of this county park. Odd.
Tons of things were blooming: black locust, dame's rocket, buttercups, sedges, brambles, cinquefoils, a stitchwort I rarely see, several grasses, mouse ear chickweeds, burning bush, pussy toes, narrowleaved bittercress, woodland stonecrop (I've never caught it blooming before), philadelphia fleabane, morrow's honeysuckle, virginia waterleaf (which I only see blooming every few years), hickories, dandelions, star of Bethlehem, shepherd's purse, garlic mustard.
Galls included hickory, poison ivy, black cherry.
5-24-18. Route 206, Somerville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 273.5 miles total
Categories: weeds
My husband had an endoscopy today (all is well) and while he was in surgery I went for a walk. I passed a cemetary (the anesthesiologist had warned me about the "huge gophers" here, by which he meant groundhogs, but I didn't see any). There was an abandoned field in front of a power substation, though, that had lots of nice plants.
Blooming were yellow wood sorrel, black locust, black medic, ground ivy, garlic mustard, blackberries,purple deadnettle, bird's eye speedwell, red clover, buttercups, the first alsike clover, first yellow sweet clover, first mouse ear hawkweed, and the first knawel of the year. There was also a mustard I'm not sure about and several types of caterpillars, including a big , fat eastern tent caterpillar (and a very denuded black cherry tree).
5-26-18. Island Beach State Park, Seaside Park, NJ 1.0 mile today, 274.5 miles total
Categories: flowers, shells
I took my 19 year old and my 11 year old daughters to the beach today, which is an hour and a half away. We walked in the dune woods, then hiked over a dune to the main beach.
In the woods we found lots of interesting things blooming including cat's ear, dwarf dandelion, beach heather, and blue toadflax, none of which I've photographed before (well, maybe the Krigia). There were also starflower, my first blue eyed grass of the year, prickly pears, black cherry, rugosa rose, bayberry, beach peas, and northern dewberry, all blooming. And I found an interesting script lichen and some ground Cladonia lichen. There is a comprehensive list of the plants of the park, but I found crown vetch (not blooming) which they didn't list, and tons of sheep sorrel (blooming) which they called "few".
On the beach there were a lot of fairly familiar but interesting items, and one thing I'd never seen before: a chestnut Astarte clam. Surf clams, quohogs, scallops, oysters, lots of dead sand crabs, Donax, jingles, mussles, waved Astarte, a slipper shell, a bit of a shark eye shell, a skate case "mermaid purse", a fish head, and, oddly, a water chestnut fruit.
5-28-18. Round Valley and Cushtunk Mt., Lebanon, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 276.25 miles total
Categories: blooming, identifiable, insects
When I was at Island Beach I bought a season state park pass, so I figured I'd use it today. Round Valley is the closest state park to my house, and this was a section I'd not walked in before. It's a heavily used park and the reservoir itself was built in the 60s. I walked a field, the lake edge, and some woods (and I wore shorts and had an unfortunate encounter with some rosebushes). Much of the shoreline was a bush clover that wasn't in bloom and I haven't figured out yet (probably just round-headed). I found invasive Asian clams, a little wood satyr butterfly, and a nesting tree swallow (I think). Actually blooming were: prostrate knotweed, least hop clover, knawel, corn speedwell, at least two hawkweeds, orchard grass, reed canary grass, sweet vernal grass, bird's foot trefoil, blue scorpion grass, heath speedwell, sheep sorrel, sand spurry, dog rose, white and bladder campions, smooth rush, wintercress (still!) and garlic mustard, a yellow wood sorrel, several sedges, a fleabane, tulip trees, bulbous buttercup, ground ivy, dandelion, multiflora rose (I hate the way it smells), and nodding (I think) mouse ear chickweed.
Next I drove over to Cushtunk Mountain, on the other side of the lake. This is a very nice natural area, the best part of which is closed December to August to protect the rare wildflowers (unfortunately). You walk in and out along a powerline cut but the rest is thick woods. Here I saw my first ever blooming violet woodsorrel. Lots of wild geranium were blooming as well. There are showy orchis here and I found several, but the flowers were just about gone, not nearly so pretty as they would have been a week or two ago. There was lots of red clover in the field, and some pussy toes. There was false solomon's seal blooming in the woods, the first I've seen this year. The main thing blooming there, though was maple leaved viburnum. I've never been here in the fall but I bet it's beautiful. I think I found robin-plantain on the way in, but it might have been another Erigeron. There was Philadelphia fleabane as well. There were my first sweet cicely and sarsaparilla of the year, and there was white rattlesnake root.
On the way there I stopped in front of a No Parking Any Time sign to take photos of a hairy beardtongue on a cliff, and on the way home I was stuck at a light and took weed pictures out the window again, thinking of you.
5-30-18. East County Park, Warren, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 277 miles total
Categories: blooming, insects, identifiable, galls
I walked the east end of this park today, mostly around the perimeter of the football field. I remember, 25 years ago, when this section was farmed, now the saplings that have grown up are too large for my two hands to meet around their trunks. Makes me feel old. But I had never walked into the stand of trees before and today I did, a bit (it's hickory and red maple).
Nearly every weed I commonly see was present here. The most common bloom was arrowwood. I saw the first blooming bittersweet nightshade of the year, a ton of different sedges, lots of blooming poison ivy, oriental bittersweet, and grapes. I thought I found a new (to me) insect on some Canada thistle, but it turned out to be individual black walnut flowers that had broken off the catkin in the tree above it. Though I did see a number of interesting insects: a lot of flies including golden-backed snipe flies, the first four lined plant bugs of the year, and a number of skippers, including a mating pair.
I think I found hazel (it's rare for me, and I have trouble when there are no catkins or fruit) and swamp chestnut oak. I found lots of galls, and the first blooming foxglove beardtongue of the year. And in the porta-john there were moth flies! (which was particularly awkward, as just as I'd finished and was taking photos of said flies someone knocked on the door. Did he hear my camera clicking in the john? very awkward)
5-31-18. Clay Pit Ponds and Sharrotts Shore, Staten Island, NY. 1.0 mile today, 278 miles total
Categories: blooming, insects, shells
I drove over to Staten Island today, as I had a meeting over in that direction this morning. First I stopped at Clay Pit Ponds State Park, and parked at the nature center. A school group was just letting out, so I skirted the building and headed for the woods. A ranger dashed out and asked if I needed a map, but I said I'd be fine. I didn't go far, as the woods are absolutely overrun with deer, worse than even here in Jersey. Aside from Japanese stiltgrass and some garlic mustard, there is not a green thing growing below shoulder height, and most of the trees were invasive as well (black locust, with sweetgum and some oak). On the way back to the car I heard a loud, whistling bird call and looked up to see a lovely male oriole right above my head in a tree. Interestingly, this park has a bridle trail running through it, right in New York City. There were even elaborate entrances to the park trails with fences designed to let pedestrians in but exclude horses and bikes.
I drove about a mile away to another state-owned but not developed parcel of land. I had to bush whack here. I heard a bird making the most awful honking noise and took quite a while to find the source: a flock of guinea fowl. Go figure. There was a goose with a clutch of young goslings. I found about half a dozen types of shells, a lot of different sedge species, and a ton of insects. And blue toadflax and germander speedwell were both flowering, and I think they are lovely.
I'm back on line after a week of adventure traveling. But just briefly since I'm triple-booked for tomorrow, with a dragonfly workshop, a Blackfly parade, and visiting family in NH. Then I'm off to Bomoseen VT to do an iNaturalist workshop for state park interpreters for a few days. If I can grab a few minutes, I'll try to catch up on my journal entries and process some photos. I loved your story about the the moth flies in the porta-john! Thanks so much for the updates on what's blooming and flying. I shot a lot of sage galls in WY, thinking of you!
I used to drive by Lake Bomoseen on the way to and from college and was always amazed at how long it took to thaw in the spring. But I've never been to the state park.
5-23-18. Peck Hill Rd. 3.1 miles today, 1253.8 miles total.
Categories: blooms, birds, roadkill
I went for a stroll up Peck Hill Rd this morning. I found bunchberry, dandelions, blue cohosh, wild strawberry, marsh marigold, red trillium, baneberry, violet, currant, broadleaf toothwort, Barbarea vulgaris, wild columbine, , crowfoot, and wild plum in bloom, coltsfoot just about finished, but still showing some yellow petals, and foam flower, blue bead lily, and
Solomon's seal budding. Road crossers were an Arion slug and 2 red efts. Road kill were 2 garter snakes, and a Canada warbler. The Canada warbler was especially sad since they are rather uncommon. I found a new-to-me snail on a burdock leaf and 2 ground beetles making more beetles in the road. My eBird list had 39 species, but the only ones I got photos of were a chickadee, some robins, an eastern phoebe, and my first eastern kingbird of the year.
5-25-18. Cache Creek Dr., Jackson, Jackson Hole Airport, Dornan’s Pizza, Schwabacher’s Landing, Grand Teton Science Schools, Grand Teton National Park, WY, 3.5 miles today, 1257.3 miles total.
Categories: blooms, birds, bugs, mammals
My husband and I started off our first morning in Wyoming with a walk around the Snow King Lodge where we were staying, then continued on up Cache Creek Dr. a ways. Along the way, we found Amelanchier, forsythia, phlox, and star-flowered false Solomon’s seal in bloom and lilacs and red elderberries budding. We saw some violet-green swallows and a Brewer’s blackbird.
At noon we went to the airport to meet the rest of our tour group. While the newly arriving group members waited for their bags, I went out to the field in front of the airport to inventory the wildflowers. I found phlox, pussy toes, a yellow lily, a sunflower, a blue flower, a flower that looked like Lepidium, some lupine, several kinds of mustards, 2 kinds of sage, and small-flowered woodland star.
With our tour group of 8 Vermonters and Sean Beckett, our leader, we headed out to Dornan’s Pizza in Grand Teton National Park for lunch. While waiting for the pizza, I walked down the trail and found a yellow violet. A group of 3 American pelicans flew overhead, and we were entertained by a broad-tailed hummingbird and some purple finches. Meanwhile, several brown-headed cowbirds were scavenging under the tables on the deck.
From the pizza place, Sean took us to Schwabacher’s Landing, where we found familiar birds like Canada geese, a mallard, a yellow-rumped warbler, a killdeer, a yellow warbler, a belted kingfisher, some robins, a northern flicker, some red-winged blackbirds, and a raven. We also watched some Barrow’s goldeneye ducks feeding in the water. Insect hunting was great there—I found a lady-bug-looking beetle with 4 spots, a blue butterfly, a mayfly, a tricolored bumblebee, and some sage galls. The strawberries, blue-eyed grass, and purple violets were in bloom.
We spent the night on the campus of the Grand Teton Science School, where right after dinner we saw a red fox and some Uinta ground squirrels. We went for a short ride in the evening and watched a moose near the Gros Ventre River. We also saw mule deer and an elk. Evening birds included mountain bluebirds, western meadowlarks, a great blue heron, and an American kestrel.
5-26-18. Grand Teton National Park, Grand Teton Science Schools, WY. 5.9 miles today, 1263.2 miles total.
Categories: birds, mammals, flowers
Sean got us out early this morning to watch the western meadowlarks near the Science School campus, and then we watched a group of about 20 sage grouse on a lek. Then we drove down the road a ways to watch black bears eating spring beauty bulbs on a hill side. After breakfast with the bears, we walked down a nearby road and came across a moose feeding in a wetlands. We also saw a herd of mule deer and pronghorns. Birds this morning included American robins, bluebirds, a sandhill crane, Canada geese, a chipping sparrow, a yellow-rumped warbler, Barrow’s goldeneye ducks, a raven, a great blue heron, a yellow warbler, Brewer’s blackbirds, gray catbirds, and a black-headed grosbeak. Flowers were small-flowered woodland star, yellow violet, lupine, Oregon grape, Heart-leaved arnica, arrow-leaved balsa root, biscuit root, and phlox.
In the afternoon, Sean took us up the hill behind campus for some views. On our little hike, we found buffalo berry, western meadow rue, lady's trellis, prairie smoke, hairy clematis, green gentian, spring beauty, and strawberries. As we climbed the hill, the weather became more and more threatening, and by the time we came out onto the bare rocky hilltop, there was active lightning all around us. We skedaddled down the hill again as fast as we could, not pausing to breath until we at least had some trees above us again. As the weather started to lift, we found a dusky flycatcher and a western tanager.
In the evening, we went for a short drive to a pond filled with giant goldfish, released by locals. On the pond was a common merganser. And around the pond were some Eleocharis, Carex, and Juncus, as well as some Equisetum, and star-flowered Solomon’s seal. Across the road from the pond was an elk carcass with some fresh wolf tracks beside it.
How cool to see bear and moose ans pronghorns and mule deer so easily. And so many interesting flowers and birds! I went to the Tetons once as a teen and hiked up the mountains there for a week in 1991, but I didn't know much of anything about the wildlife and was lucky to figure out the mammals. We puzzled over the flowers with our single field guide but never were terribly confident. So much has changed. But I remember the sunsets were spectacular.
We were extremely fortunate to have such an incredible guide. Sean has guided nature tours in the area for years and knew exactly where to see which animals, and how to simple observe them peacefully. It was a magnificent trip!
5-27-18 Cattleman's Bridge, Christian Pond, Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, WY. 4 miles today, 1267.2 miles total.
Categories: birds, mammals, blooms
We started off this morning with a drive up to Cattleman’s Bridge for a little birding. On the way, we saw a mule deer and our first glimpses of a bison close up and a bison herd. We also saw a coyote in the field with the bison, and a brown-headed cowbird perched on a bison, exactly where they belong! Once at Cattleman’s Bridge, we saw a mallard, some Canada geese, a yellow warbler, a white-crowned sparrow, and some American pelicans. I also found some pretty shooting stars (Dodecatheon pulchellum), small-flowered woodland stars (Lithophragma parviflorum), lupine (budded), a geranium, black cherry (budded), Oregon grape, Poisonous larkspur, and Narrow leaf cottonwood.
Since the birding was a little thin at Cattleman’s Bridge, we stopped at Christian Pond for some serious birding. This is a wetland with a pond that collects quite a variety of birds. This morning we were entertained by a green-tailed towhee singing in a tree overlooking the pond. Meanwhile, in the water was a mixture of pied-billed grebes, western grebes, a trumpeter swan, Canada geese, some green-winged teals, mallards, blue-winged teals, cinnamon teals, gadwalls, American wigeons, ring-necked ducks, lesser scaup, harlequin ducks, Barrow's goldeneyes, buffleheads, ruddy ducks, and American coots. On the trail, we also saw a white-crowned sparrow, and a song sparrow, as well as a sun flower, pretty shooting star (Dodecatheon pulchellum), and Amelanchier.
Next we drove up the main road towards Yellowstone. Along the way, we made several stops, where we saw a western tanager, a bald eagle, a dusky flycatcher, brown-headed cowbirds, and a raven. We also came across famous Grizzly #399 and her cubs. This grizzly has figured out that the road seems to be a safe place to raise her cubs, since the male bears, who often kill cubs, don’t often venture near the roads. And the food sources near the roads aren’t as picked over as elsewhere since there aren’t many bears there. Just tourists. #399 was in the process of crossing the road, and had created a large bear jam (traffic jam caused by a bear sighting). We hopped out of our van to get a few views from a safe distance.
In the evening, we arrived at Old Faithful and took the trail around the geysers. We saw elk and marmot along the trail, as well as lupine, yarrow (budded), forget-me-not, pussytoes, Yellow monkey flower , and Sysirynchium montanum. We also paused to admire the Ephydrid flies breeding in the warm muck at the outflow of the geysers.
5-28-18. Fountain Paint Pot Trail, Firehole River, Grand Loop Rd, Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park, Cooke City, MT. 3 miles today, 1270.2 miles total
Categories: birds, mammals, blooms
This morning we explored some more geysers along the Fountain Paint Pot Trail near Old Faithful. One of the surprises of the day was finding a volunteer peach tree hanging on to life beside the Fountain Paint Pot in what would otherwise be a Zone 3 locale. The year-round heat from the steam seems to be enough to keep it going, although it gets cut back frequently by park personnel and probably by grazing wildlife as well. We had to pause by the Fountain Paint Pot as a bison crossed the boardwalk at a very close distance (maybe 15 feet away). On our return to the parking lot, we were entertained by several western bluebirds in dead trees along the boardwalk. And a large raven was hanging out on the roof of the outhouse.
Next we took a scenic hike to the Grand Prismatic Spring overlook. Along the trail were plenty of pretty shooting stars and what appeared to be a native honeysuckle of some sort in bloom. A bison was grazing very near the trail and wasn’t moving, so we formed a very tight group and walked past it quickly, being careful not to look at it as we passed. Later, a pair of more foolhardy tourists tried to approach the bison for some extreme close-ups. The bison raised its tail and snorted at them. Sean told us that bisons raise their tail for two reasons: to signal they are going to charge, or to signal they are going to discharge. This one was not discharging, so we tried to stay back as far as possible. Eventually, the bison calmed down when the folks back away, and we were able to slip by it again. While we were up admiring the Grand Prismatic Spring, we were distracted by a two-lined chipmunk scolding us from a fallen log. It was hard to figure out what to look at, the incredible landscape or the lifer mammal. Birds we saw on this stop included red-winged blackbirds, cowbirds, and American robins.
We had lunch at a picnic area off of Grand Loop Rd where we watched several yellow-headed blackbirds in the reeds of a small pond. Then we started our long drive up the Grand Loop Rd over the pass to the Lamar Valley. There was snow along the pass, and the road had just been opened for the season a few days before. We came across a bison jam heading our way, with hundreds of female bison and their very cute babies. We were extremely lucky that we were headed north while they were moving south along the road. We got to see the herd close up as they passed by our van windows, and then we drove on. The cars in the other direction were lined up for miles, perhaps 10 miles, and barely creeping along since they were following the herd. A park vehicle was approaching with some rangers blaring their siren, hoping to encourage the herd to move along or move to the edge of the road. A little ways down the road we came to a small flock of big-horned sheep that were crossing the road. We got out of the van to watch them jump from rock to rock across a small stream. Blooms along the way included Oregon grape, yellow violets, purple violets, Rubus (spp.), yarrow (budded), forget-me-nots, bluets, and phlox. Birds included Canada geese, a white-crowned sparrow, a red-tailed hawk, Barrow’s goldeneyes, magpies, and Brewer’s blackbirds.
We reached Cooke City, MT in time for dinner. After dinner, we went back out for a drive and found a moose just a little ways down the road, then scanned the distant rocky cliff faces for mountain goats. We lucked out—there was a mother mountain goat and with a very young kid, and we watched them for nearly an hour. The kid was very tiny and nursing frequently. Just as we returned to Cooke City, we saw a red fox scrambling across a yard on the edge of town.
5-29-18. Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park, WY. 2 miles today, 1272.2 miles total.
Categories: birds, mammals
Sean got us out early this morning for breakfast with wildlife in the Lamar Valley. We left Cooke City at 5:30 AM and claimed a spot on a hillside where we could watch the Soda Butte wolf pack about a mile away across the valley. While we waited for the wolves to emerge from their den we watched a bald eagle and some sandhill cranes in the valley, as well as some mule deer and pronghorned sheep. There were also plenty of bisons to watch, including several who walked right through the area where some fellow wolf watchers had set up their scopes. As if on cue, while we were eating breakfast, a wolf came out of the den and moved about on the hillside. A bison pair wandering up the road then came right through our picnic area, but peacefully moved on by without tipping over our table or spotting scopes.
After the wolf and bisons moved off and we finished breakfast, we drove to see a petrified tree, then paused for lunch at a picnic area with a Williamson’s sapsucker, chipping sparrows, a white-breasted nuthatch, yellow-rumped warblers, and a house wren. Along the road we got out for a short hike and saw a coyote up close, walking past a bison. Then we came across a large herd of bison with babies watering at a pond. A kid in the crowd watching the bison kept asking his parents, “What’s in bison poop?” He and his sister tried to go over and poke a bison patty with a stick, but their parents swept them up and into the car. The parents looked like they’d been subjected to just a bit too much curiosity that week. I wanted to give the kids a medal!
In the afternoon, we went for a walk across the sage brush to see an abandoned wolf den and more bits of petrified wood. Some of the group lay down for a nap in the sage brush, but I went on inventorying wild flowers and watching some mountain bluebirds and a northern flicker in a dead tree. I also had fun examining bison patties, many of which had white mushrooms growing out of them—some sort of bison patty fungal specialist, by the looks.
On our way back to Cooke City, we came across several male bison who had their tails raised in aggressive stances toward each other. We pulled over at a safe distance to watch. Two of the bison tussled a bit, then one started attacking a sage bush, tearing it to shreds. A little ways down the road, one member of our group spotted a pair of American avocets swimming in a tiny pond beside the road, so we parked for a while to get out and watch them. Then a little further up the road, we came across a group of ravens on an elk carcass along the river. Just before arriving back in Cooke City, we stopped to watch some mountain goats far up in the hills.
Wow, so many mammals! So very cool. Now I'm dying to go!
5-29-18. Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park, WY. 2 miles today, 1274.2 miles total.
We got another early (5:30 AM) start this morning with hopes of seeing some more wolves. However, the big news amongst the wolf watchers was that trouble was brewing with the Soda Butte wolf pack. Some young males had taken the pups from the den overnight and abandoned them on the hill. Then the female wolf had left the den, perhaps for good. So we may have watched the last activity from the Soda Butte pack at that den yesterday. So, with no wolves to watch, we had breakfast with our spotting scopes aimed at a golden eagle in her nest. We also stopped by a rest area with dozens of active cliff swallow nests just under the eaves of the outhouse. We returned to our lunch spot from yesterday for more birding, and found a northern flicker, a ruby-crowned kinglet, a Williamson’s sapsucker, a house wren, and some chipping sparrows.
We then began the long drive back to Jackson, but soon stopped to watch a black bear sow along the road with a cub. Next stop was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, where we took a great hike to some scenic vistas, and I found a cool orange fungus that looked like brain coral. Our hike was cut short by an incoming thunderstorm, which fortunately cleared off quickly so that we could have a picnic lunch. During our lunch, we got to watch mute swans, Canada geese, and were visited by a gray jay. Then we drove off to the Mud Volcano where we saw brown-headed cowbirds and a mallard. On our drive back to Jackson we stopped along the road for a close-up encounter with an elk. We made one final stop before Jackson to gaze on the Grand Teton range one last time, and a bald eagle obligingly posed for us with the mountains in the background.
5-30-18. Jackson Hole Airport, WY. 4 miles today, 1278.2 miles total.
Categories: birds
Sean dropped us off at the airport at 5:30 AM for our flights home to Vermont. After the sun finally rose, I watched for birds out the window of the terminal and came up with a violet-green swallow and a house sparrow. When we arrived at Dulles Airport, I walked the entire length of the airport several times looking for indoor birds, but had no luck. No outdoor birds either. Or any identifiable greenery in sight. I had plenty of time to look for birds and plants since our flight was delayed for hours. And then cancelled. We eventually made it from Dulles to Newark where we met up with some other folks from our trip who had chosen a different itinerary. Fortunately for us, the Newark flight to Burlington was delayed long enough that we were able to catch that one, and arrived back home at 3:30 AM. No birds then, either.
You likely flew right over our house; we're under the standard holding/approach pattern for most Newark flights.
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