March 2022: 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
3/1/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3871.2 miles total
Categories: arthropods on snow
This afternoon was overcast with snow when I went out. The air temperature was about 25F, with the snow surface temperature a little cooler. I found 2 dead bees at the bee tree, but no live arthropods today.
3/2/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3873.2 miles total
Categories: bingo
Once again, the temperature was around 25F today, but under sunny skies with a blustery wind. There was no sign of any arthropods, not even dead bees, so I played bingo with the new March card. I found all my trees: white pine, hemlock, box elder and speckled alder. I also got Japanese knotweed, lesser burdock, and Flavoparmelia caperata. To get any more, I'll need to actually go somewhere in the car. Off to a good start, anyway.
Here's the link about the bingo game where people have been reporting wins: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/inaturalist-bingo-a-monthly-observation-quest/29046/76
3/3/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 1.5 miles today, 3874.7 miles total
Categories: tracks
The temperature was back down to 18F today when I went out with a very blustery wind. It was actually one of the least comfortable days for walking of the season. There were no arthropods on the snow, and the turkeys in the years were complaining loudly. I was looking for some white tailed deer tracks for my bingo card, but even tracks were in short supply. I managed to find some snowshoe hare tracks finally. I skipped walking up the hill beyond the field on Peck Hill because I fell there yesterday. Too much ice with too little snow on top and not even secure footing on the edge of the road.
3/4/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 1.5 miles today, 3876.2 miles total
Categories: arthropods on snow
Today the air temperature was back up to 25F when I went out, although the snow surface temperature was still about 18F and there was a strong wind. There was nothing crawling on the snow, but I did find a single dead bee under the bee tree. Once again, I stopped at the bottom of the steep part of Peck Hill to avoid the ice.
3/5/22. Sodom Pond Rd, Calais, VT. 2.5 miles today, 3878.7 miles total
Categories: bingo
This morning I met up in Adamant with 4 friends for our weekly Saturday morning walk. We walked along the edge of Sodom Pond, which is still quite, quite covered with ice and lots of snow. One of my friends has taken up bingo, so we had fun trying to find items to fill our card. We found white-tailed deer tracks, birch polypore, pussy willow, sheep laurel, and common buckthorn. I just reloaded my cards and found that the state card has changed a lot, but fortunately, I didn't lose many finds. The new items on the card look reasonable.
3/6/22. Phillips Beach, Swampscott, MA. 3 miles today, 3881.7 miles total
Categories: quick snaps
This afternoon we drove down to Swampscott to stay with some friends for a few days. Our host took us for a walk along the beach as soon as we arrived. I managed to shoot some Japanese knotweed, multiflora rose, and a whelk shell as we walked briskly along the beach. I hope to return tomorrow to see what else I can find.
3/7/22. Atlantic Ave, Swampscott, MA. 0.1 miles today, 3881.8 miles total
Categories: birds
We hung around the house today, so I wasn't able to slip away for a walk. Instead, I spent some time in the yard looking for birds. I found a gull, several grackles, a group of 7 geese flying overhead, and an exotic southern gray squirrel.
3/9/22. The Fells, Medford, MA. 2 miles today, 3883.8 miles total
Categories: fun finds
This morning we drove to Medford for a quick walk with my sister before heading back to Vermont. My sister took us to the Fells, one of her favorite parks in the area, wild woods overlooking I93 and Boston. She showed us an old quarry, and we scrambled over some lesser traveled trails through the woods. I found some leaf galls on red oak, and some stem galls on a mystery woody shrub. I think the galls may be Euura, but I didn't recognize the shrub at all. I also found some Polytrichum piliferum moss, some fox scat, and some white-tailed deer tracks. On top of a granite hill top we found some scrub oak, a first-in-person sighting for me.
3/10/22. Peck Hill, Calais, VT. 1.5 miles today, 3885.3 miles total
Categories: tracks
I enjoyed the sunny and warm (45F) weather when I went out today, but there is still a lot of snow on the ground. The shady part of our driveway was still a little icy. I was disappointed to find no bugs on snow, not even any stoneflies. There were also no dead honeybees under the bee tree, perhaps because it was warm enough for their activity. When I looked up, I saw plenty of live bees flying around a hole in the tree. There's no sign of plant life of any kind yet, so I wonder what they're doing for fuel. Living off of stored honey? Searching for maple sap leaks? The steep wooded part of Peck Hill was impassable with sleek thick ice, so I turned around at the bottom of that section. Just so I didn't come home empty handed, I shot some turkey tracks in the driveway on my way back.
3/11/22. Peck Hill, Calais, VT. 1.5 miles today, 3886.8 miles total
Categories: birds
We've had good sugaring weather lately, with temperatures in the 40sF in the daytime and below freezing at night. This afternoon was cloudy but in the 40sF when I went out. There were still no insects, though. And the upper part of Peck Hill was still impassable due to ice, although it appears to be thinning a little. Just in time for the snow storm forecast for tomorrow. I shot the turkeys who came down to watch me use my weather equipment at the beginning of my walk.
3/12/22. Peck Hill, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3888.8 miles total
Categories: arthropods on snow
We finally got a decent snowstorm today with temperatures about 26F. The snow was falling heavily around 2 PM when I went out, about 1-2" an hour. I was quite excited to find a green tetragnatha spider, and another and another. By the end of the walk, I had several dozen spiders, all tetragnathas, some green, some brown. I also found 5 stoneflies, a small caterpillar, and a Diamesa fly. Hurray! This was the biggest hunt of the season so far, at least in terms of raw numbers.
3/13/22. Cranberry Meadow, Woodbury, VT. 3.2 miles today, 3892.0 miles total
Categories: bingo
This morning I met up with 2 friends at Nelson's pond for a walk up Cranberry Meadow. This was our Saturday morning hike, but postponed until today due to yesterday's storm. Two other friends intended to join us, but missed the memo about the time change, although one of them met us on our way back from the walk, completely unaware that the clocks had changed. We were looking for bingo observations today, and managed to find American elm and rough horsetail. One of my friends is also playing, and found the trailing arbutus that had brought us to this location. Somehow, she spotted a few leaves poking through the snow on the steep hillside beside the road. I also shot a few stem galls, some on willow and some on poplar.
3/14/22. Peck Hill, Calais, VT. 1.5 miles today, 3893.5 miles total
Categories: arthropods on snow
This afternoon felt like spring when I went out, even though we still have about a foot of snow on the ground. The air temperature was up to 45F and the sun was shining brightly. I found 10 stoneflies along the road just below our driveway, including a copulating pair. There were no dead bees on Peck Hill, but there were some live ones flying around the tree. I started up the wooded section of Peck Hill but turned back since it had been plowed and the ice was poking through again.
3/15/22. Peck Hill, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3895.5 miles total
Categories: bingo
The temperature was above 40 again this afternoon under mostly cloudy skies when I went out. There were still no arthropods on the snow, so I was looking for Evernia mesomorpha and Flavoparmellia caperata for my bingo card, and found both. The ice on the upper reaches of Peck Hill had turned soft and slushy, so I was able to make it to the top today.
3/16/22. Peck Hill, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3897.5 miles total
Categories: arthropods
Today was warm (50F) and sunny, although we still have 12" of snow on the ground. I found 2 ruby tiger moth caterpillars crawling in the road and a single dead bee under the bee tree. There were lots of bees buzzing loudly around the bee tree, but there is absolutely nothing for them to eat yet, at least, no flowers. Perhaps they can get sap from broken maple branches. The ice on Peck Hill was as soft as yesterday, so it was a little treacherous, but still manageable.
3/17/22. Peck Hill, Calais, VT. 9 miles today, 3906.5 miles total
Categories: bingo
This afternoon was warm (60+F) and sunny, so we decided to declare it a holiday and work on Saturday instead when it is supposed to rain. We drove into Montpelier where my husband rode his unicycle on the bike path and I tried out my new electric scooter. I checked out the bingo card for Montpelier before we left, and collected goldenrod stem gall, northern red oak, mullein, and red osier dogwood along the path. I also left the path for a short excursion up to Vermont College to check the hill climbing abilities of the scooter. I was impressed--I made it all the way to the top of the hill. On the way back down, however, the scooter suddenly stopped and I didn't so I ended up with bit of road rash on my elbow. When I got back to the car I found my husband had also crashed and got road rash on his lip. We were quite a pair!
3/19/22. Peck Hill, Calais, VT. 5.2 miles today, 3911.75 miles total
Categories: bingo
This morning my friends and I had planned to meet to walk Peck Hill for our regular Saturday morning outing. We had been planning a different hike, but my husband had to work and my car won't start, so that's why we shifted to Peck Hill, so that I wouldn't need to drive to get to the meeting point. However, mud season is well underway, and the roads are as bad as I have ever seen them. To save folks having to drive through the mud, we decided to meet at the far end of Peck Hill, where it meets the highway. For me, it was a 2 mile walk to get to the start. One section of the far side of Peck Hill was quite muddy, so even the residents were parking at the bottom of the hill and walking up. We didn't have to share the road with any cars this morning, although the mail Jeep came by on my way to the meetup. We managed to find Christmas fern emerging from the snow for our bingo cards. I also shot some Pleurozeum schreberi moss and some goldenrod galls.
3-1-22 Wagner Farm, Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1200.75 miles total
Today was the first day of the Personal Bioblitz. This was the only place I took an official walk, though I took photos of some weed each time I drove somewhere to run an errand. Interesting finds included little nest polypore, winterberry with a few fruit left, moth mullein, and a great big hornet's nest.
3-2-22. Six Mile Run, Franklin, NJ 0.5 miles today, 1201.25 miles total
I mostly walked the edge of the parking lot and field today as my knee was still sore. While I was walking I talked on my phone to my mother who was recovering from surgery. Interesting finds included cocklebur, a big Persicaria, a song sparrow, jimsonweed, spotted lanterfly eggs, a blue jay, a vulture, turtlehead, steeplebush, some basilica orbweaver egg sacs, and a robin.
3-3-22. Jenny Jump state forest, 0.75 miles today, 1202 miles total
I had never been to most of this large state park (though as it turned out, the section I had done was the most interesting). So I stopped at most of the remaining parking areas and had a look around. My favorite was Lake Just-It, where I had a lovely picnic lunch on a relatively dry stump, despite the lake being half-frozen. Interesting finds included beaked willow gall, round bullet gall, a red-winged blackbird, cinnamon willow herb, lots of emerald ash borer damage, and the first NJ observation of a dogwood stem gall (Neolasioptera cornicola).
Glad that you mentioned the personal bioblitz. Now that the snow is beginning to recede, I should start looking more closely. Great find on the dogwood stem gall!
3/20/22. Montpelier bike path, Montpelier, VT. 5.2 miles today, 3916.9 miles total
Categories: bingo
This afternoon my husband and I drove into town so he could ride his unicycle on the bike path and I could continue testing my new scooter. This time, fortunately, neither of us crashed. He just needed a little more practice for his first time out after the winter hiatus. I noted that the scooter's high degree of rolling resistance means that if your thumb gets knocked off the throttle by going over a bump, even downhill, the scooter suddenly changes speed. In that respect I think I prefer my old scooter better. With its low rolling resistance, it stays at a constant speed without constant pressure on the throttle, which is much more predictable and safer. In any case, I whizzed along today at a speed a bit too fast to notice many plants, except for when I noticed something turning green in a ditch. I stopped and found it was the basal leaves of a bull thistle--just what I needed for my bingo card!
3-6-22. Morris County, NJ. 1.0 miles today, 1203 miles total
I noticed I had a hole in my observation map in central Morris County, so today I drove up through Mendham, Randolph, Dover, Wharton, and Denville and stopped at 11 different spots, including a park that was so new there was no sign of it on the Google satellite image from January of 2020, (though they took a street image in 2021 showing the park). There I saw possibly the most interesting find of the day: caper spurge, a new invasive.
It was raining when I started, but toward the middle the sun came out and it was a beautiful day. At one park with a pond, lots of people were out in the sunshine, including a family with two boys around age 6 and the parents were just standing by, watching, as the boys threw rocks at a pair of mallards! was appalled!
This is a little bit north of where I usually go, with more basic soil, and I saw yellow birch, sweet fern, mountain laurel, and the most interesting insect of the day: Glischrochilus confluentus, a NJ first.
3-7-22. Watchung Lake, Watchung, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1203.5 miles total
I was intending to head to another park entirely, but noticed a big flock of what might be ring necked ducks on this local pond. It turned out I was right, and also that they've never been recorded here on either iNat or eBird (though I'd seen them in this pond once before, years ago). There were also alders with moldy aphid corpses (ick?) plus some American bugleweed, and swamp milkweed, relatively unusual plants for me. And the usual ring billed gulls, Canada geese, and black and turkey vultures.
3-8-21 Lord Stirling Park, Basking Ridge, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1204 miles total
I walked from the canoe launch north along the little river here today, checking out a new-to-me part of this park. Not a lot of surprises here. I found maleberry, an oak wasp gall, ash flower galls. The blueberry buds look like they may have just started to crack open.
3-9-22. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville. 0.25 miles today, 1204.25 miles total
It was raining today, and I parked in a new parking spot created when they adjusted the line of sight on a bad curve in the road here. It created a short cut to a section of park I don't often visit. Not many surprises here. I wish I were better at mosses and fungi (and lichen, for that matter). Some day. I did find an interesting Cladonia: C. peziziformis
3-10-22. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville. 0.75 miles today, 12.05 miles total
Much nicer weather today, so I went back to the same spot as the day before and walked the upper trail. I was looking for a shortcut to a patch of saxifrage, but no luck. I will have to climb the mountain (I've been asked to collect a little for someone doing research in NC). I took a funny photo of a deer leaping a log and running from me. Lots of emerald ash borer damage here and I found pennyroyal, something I don't see often.
A hole in your map - what fun! It is such fun to find a new area to explore. The caper spurge was a real find, as was the Glischrochilus confluentus. And the ring-necked ducks as well. Next time I get down to Adamant, I'll check to see if there's any open water there yet. I can't imagine blueberry buds showing signs of life in early March. We are at least 6 weeks away from that. We don't have any signs of snowdrops in the yard yet, just lots of snow. It's great to hear you'll be searching for saxifrage for the research project in NC! Good luck with your hunting!
3/21/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3918.9 miles total
Categories: trees
I decided to get started on the Personal Bioblitz today by collecting some trees along my Peck Hill route. I found red maple, sugar maple, box elder, mountain maple, yellow birch, white birch, gray birch, beech, apple, a hybrid weeping willow (planted) hemlock, white pine, red pine (planted), fir, and red spruce. The snow is receding enough that I don't think I'll find any more arthropods on it anymore, not unless we get a fresh layer.
3-13-22. Gateway Nat'l Recreation Area, Sandy Hook, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1205.5 miles total
Molly and I drove out to the beach here mostly because I wanted more species for the Rutgers bioblitz (and a change of scenery). It was rather windy and the beach is wider than usual in March. we saw an interesting sponge, a Fosser coquina, a transverse ark shell, and a mussel covered in tubeworms. On the bay side I found buffleheads, black ducks, and red breasted mergansers.
3-15-22. Glenhurst Park, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1206 miles total
Molly and I took a brief walk in this swampy park. Mostly we found lichens and some fungi, but also purple gerardia fruit.
3-16-22 Washington Valley Park, Warren, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 1207 miles total
Today I wanted to see if the wood frogs were out yet and I needed to collect some saxifrage for a study in North Carolina. That involved a hike to the top of the mountain, the biggest walk I've done in quite a while. On the way in, I ran across a group of about 2 dozen folks who turned out to be a hiking group. One of them said they'd seen ducks but no frogs. But as I was only one person (and a whole lot more quiet) I did hear both wood frogs and peepers, and even photographed some of the frogs. Then there were wood ducks, a nice surprise. I also had a fox sparrow fly by and land nicely in a tree for me. I saw the first blooming lesser celandine, and the skunk cabbage was in full bloom. Up on the ridge there was woodland sunflower fruit, Carolina rose, and moss phlox without visible buds. And, yes, I was able to find a nice, big patch of saxifrage to collect from.
3-17-22 Schermann-Hoffman Reserve, Bernardsville, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1207.5 miles total
Molly and I walked at this Audubon Reserve. I was looking for (and found) coltsfoot that was just beginning to bloom, and their "frog pond" was chock full of wood frogs. I also found a beech with aphids covered in black sooty mold. I found a patch of Fissidens moss. There was wild yam in fruit, and beechdrops.
What a fun idea, walking along the beach looking for shells! When we were down in Swampscott 2 weeks ago, I had no idea that our stroll down the beach when we first arrived would be our only chance to get outdoors. Looking back, I wish I had taken "bird walk" each morning before the day began so that I could get outdoors. Your frog hunts also sound found. I haven't heard any frogs here yet, but they may start singing soon. Congrats on the fox sparrow, and the saxifrage!
3/22/22. Montpelier bike path, Montpelier, VT. 2.2 miles today, 3921.1 miles total
Categories: trees, birds, and bingo
This afternoon my husband and I drove into Montpelier so he could ride the bike path on his unicycle. Today I walked, looking for more trees to add to my Bioblitz list. I found Norway maple (planted), Norway spruce (planted), Scotch pine (planted), crabapple (escaped), buckthorn, black locust, black willow, cottonwood, sycamore (planted), white cedar (planted), mugo pine (planted), black ash, white ash, silver maple (in bloom), Amelanchier, red oak, white oak (planted), slippery elm (I think), and yew (escaped). I also found a tree with orange bark and buds, dotted with round lenticles that I think may be some kind of chestnut. Birds today were cedar waxwing, turkey vulture (first of the season), chickadee, and robin. I also found 2 stoneflies and some broad-leaved dock. It was a great exercise just looking at trees for the Bioblitz. I certainly noticed some species I had never seen on this stretch of the trail before.
When I got back, I found I had struck bingo on both the Montpelier and Washington County cards.
silver maple blooming; you're not far behind us even up there. Congrats on the bingo. Funny how often I find new things like trees that I know I've walked by before but never actually looked at.
3/23/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3923.1 miles total
Categories: woody plants
Today I expanded my bioblitz search to all woody plants, not just trees. I added speckled alder, hazelnut, round-leaved dogwood, alternate-leaved dogwood, tamarack, red raspberry, black raspberry, blackberry, thimbleberry, Morrow's honeysuckle, fox grape, other grape, Virginia creeper, clematis, hawthorn, meadowsweet, steeplebush, red elder, black elder, highbush blueberry (planted), and pipsissewa to my list. I also greeted a neighbor who said she's had a bad cold for a month. Tested negative twice, but still...
I hope the neighbor just has a "regular" cold. The pediatrician here said they were seeing some flu, even. At least in my part of NJ, I've not heard about a positive case in several weeks.
I almost never see round-leaved or alternate-leaved dogwood, tamarack, thimbleberry or meadowsweet, and I don't think I've ever seen pipsissiwa.
3-19-22. Ferguson Rd., Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1207.75 miles total
I checked out a new park in town, on a former farm with a pond. Much of it is still very tame and mowed, but I found blackberry knot galls and lots of skunk cabbage, some bugleweed, some water purslane. I saw my first honeybee of the year, flying into a skunk cabbage flower. I'd always been told they were pollinated by beetles.
3-20-22. Helmetta, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1208.5 miles total
Molly and I walked in this, the most northern section of the Pine Barrens today, mostly so I could get a few more species for the bioblitz. Sarah Kelsey and I are neck and neck, species-wise.
I was not disappointed and managed to add sphagnum moss, glaucous greenbriar, blackjack oak, Potentilla rust, Virginia pine, spatterdock, Smilax leaf midge, two kinds of bush clover, pinweed, sheep laurel, gallberry, teaberry, fetterbush (the Eubotrys one), thoroughwort, a Dendrolycopodium, leatherleaf, celophane bees, gouty oak gall, oak club gall, and spongy oak apple gall to my list.
3-22-22. River Rd. Park, Bedminster, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1209 miles total
I walked in this old farm and pond preserve which had been thoroughly mowed in the fall. The entrance was lined with blooming Cornus mas, which was very pretty, and there were some Callory pear just starting to bloom. But the best part was lots of random boards that had been left in the underbrush, nearly all of which were small enough for me to lift and check beneath. I found three kinds of isopods, at least 4 kinds of beetles, two kinds of millepedes, stone centipedes, a snail, a slug, and a springtail. Plus the sign with the map was covered in some kind of Muscoid fly.
It's great to hear about your bioblitz efforts. The galls are terrific additions to the bioblitz project! And what a find with those boards to check under!
3/24/22. East Montpelier Trails, Cherry Tree Hill, East Montpelier, VT. 1.2 miles today, 3924.3 miles total
Categories: bioblitz
I stopped by the East Montpelier trails on Cherry Tree Hill Rd today on my way back from running errands in Montpelier. I intended to walk the Mallory Brook trail to the broken bridge, but found I had been a bit optimistic. The trail through the woods was still covered with large patches of snow and ice, and I was wearing tennies. The temperature was also quite raw and damp, so I didn't last long. I had intended on searching for some more woody plants, but I only found one I hadn't seen yesterday, pussy willow, which is just barely starting to bloom. However, I did manage to find some more items for my bingo card, including selfheal, intermediate wood fern, and Pleurozium schreberi moss.
3-23-22. Ireland Brook, East Brunswick, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1209.75 miles total
Someone in the bioblitz had posted a tree with bear scratches on it (turns out it's actually bear bite marks) in a park I'd never visited that was only 35 minutes from home. So this evening I drove down to see if I could find it. The GPS sent me to the wrong parking lot but then I got that straightened out. But I couldn't find the tree. Nevertheless, I did find whitlow grass, blooming pear trees, my first garlic pennycress of the year, a blooming red maple, more fasciated Chinese bush clover, highbush blueberry that's thinking about blooming but not there yet, fan clubmoss, and a juniper apple thinking about forming its great big orange tentacles (I think I have 1 or two more rainstorms before we're actually there, though)
3-24-22. Sayreville, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1210.5 miles total
I noticed a bit of a gap in my observations here along the Raritan River, so I figured I'd see what is there. I found two parks, one quite developed, along the riverside. In the first there was sweet Annie, blooming American elm, and thyme leaved sandwort, plus fish crows, mallards, ring billed gulls, geese, and the highlight of the day bird-wise: an osprey working on its nest.
The second park had round headed bush clover, two unusual Cladonia lichens, gouty oak galls, a surprise short-horned (I think green-striped) grasshopper and an old, abandoned car. But the highlight was my first ever patch of hydroscopic earthstars. Over a dozen of them, and wide-open. Very cool.
The earthstars are such a cool find! I checked out the photos of the bear bites. That was an odd sight. We just moved our bird feeder up for the season after we heard reports of bear activity resuming. We have a summer "birdie buffet" that is 30' above the ground, well out of reach of the bears. Still, if the bears do start coming in the yard, we'll have to let it go dry.
3/25/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3926.3 miles total
Categories: ferns
Today I kept an eye out for ferns as I walked the Peck Hill route. I found bracken fern, sensitive fern, ostrich fern, Polypody fern, and marginal wood fern. I also found 2 woolly bears crawling along the road and heard a large flock of robins.
3/26/22. Taylor Farm Rd, Marshfield, VT. 2.9 miles today, 3929.2 miles total
Categories: woody plants, ferns, birds
This morning I met up with 3 friends for our regular Saturday morning walk. We met at the old art building on the Goddard College campus, which is conveniently close to the paved Route 214. Mud season is still in full swing here, the worst in 40 years from what people are saying. Taylor Farm Rd was in good condition, though. We found leatherwood, Japanese barberry, and burning bush. Also mullein and maidenhair fern. The birds were quite active, and I shot some house sparrows, a pigeon, a red-winged blackbird, a song sparrow, and a bluebird. We also heard some killdeers, but never caught a glimpse of them.
3/27/22. Adamant, VT. 1.5 miles today, 3930.7 miles total
Categories: woody plants, birds
This morning I headed down to Adamant for an early spring bird walk around the pond. There is just a sliver of open water showing along the edge of Sodom Pond. The beaver ponds below Adamant Pond is open, but Adamant Pond itself is still frozen solid. The electric company crew has been through downtown Adamant, clearing brush from under the lines. I guess that had to be done, and it's a good time of year to do it, but what they cleared was prime bird habitat. Fortunately, it's too early yet for many birds to be in town. I heard some song sparrows and red-wings, but that was it for spring birds. I also saw some chickadees, some crows, and a blue jay, plus geese overhead and a pair of geese walking on the pond ice. I also found some more woody plants and some weeds for the personal bioblitz, including highbush cranberry, sweetgale, wild raisin, checkerberry, hydrangea (planted), ironwood (planted), blue spruce (planted), swamp white oak (planted), sweet fern (planted), fireweed, and Joe Pye weed.
3/28/22. Chickering Bog. 1.7 miles today, 3932.2 miles total
Categories: woody plants, mosses, club mosses, dead weeds
This morning I stopped off at Chickering Bog on my way home from town after running some errands. The temperature was about 15F with blustery winds, while the trails was covered most of the way with packed ice from foot and snow mobile traffic. I had to shuffle along slowly on the ice to keep my footing. For my woody plant list, I added hop hornbeam, Rosa palustris, fuzzy lowbush blueberry, and partridgeberry, plus some more pipsissewa. I wandered through the boreal section of the woods and added prickly clubmoss, fan club moss, staghorn clubmoss, a rattlesnake fern, ostrich plume moss, pin cushion moss, New York fern, hayscent fern, a sphagnum, and Bazzania trilobata. I also began looking at some dead weeds, and found St. Johnswort, Solidago rugosa, wild lettuce, and milkweed, and also a few chunks of frozen coyote scat.
3/29/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3934.2 miles total
Categories: dead weeds
Today was a little warmer, near 28F, but still blustery. Peck Hill only had 2 short patches where the entire road surface was covered with ice. There was a light layer of fresh snow, making tracking conditions quite good. I found some snowshoe hare tracks on our driveway and a woolly bear in the road. Plants for the day were calico aster, New England aster, flat-topped aster, great burdock, common burdock, evening primrose, willow herb, cattails, and plantain. I also found a nice stem gall on blackberry.
3/30/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3936.2 miles total
Categories: bryophytes
This afternoon was pleasantly warm, about 40F, with bright sun when I went out. I decided to look for some bryophytes to complete some holes in my bingo card, although I didn't actually find any of the ones that were on the card. I found Radula complanatum, Polytrichum juniperinum, Neckera pennata, Anomodon attenuatus, Orthotrichum anomalum, Plagiomnium cuspidatum, Atrichum altecristatum, Hylocomium splendens, Atrichum angustatum, Frullania eboracensis, Calypogeja muelleriana, Hypnum curvifolium, and Pogonatum pensylvanicum. Most of the mosses were extremely crispy and dry since frozen water doesn't expand the leaves, so they were a challenge to recognize in the field, and I didn't have the patience to bring samples home to rehydrate.
3/31/22. Montpelier Bike trail, Montpelier, VT. 1.5 miles today, 3937.7 miles total
Categories: woody plants, winter weeds
This afternoon my husband and I drove into Montpelier so that he could ride the bike path on this unicycle while I looked for more woody plants and winter weeds for the personal bioblitz. I found poison ivy, soapwort, mugwort, a sunflower, and a few weeds I couldn't recognize in their winter garb. I also found fresh evidence of beaver chewing, a stonefly, and lots of robins.
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