April 2021: 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.
Comentarios
4/1/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3166.9 miles total.
Categories: animals and phenology
This afternoon was blustery and near 30F with steady snow showers when I went out. No insects in the compost, but I managed to shoot a red squirrel, a chickadee, a hairy woodpecker, and a turkey. I also photographed some red elder buds showing that they aren't even thinking of opening yet. By evening when I went out for mothing, there was an inch of fresh snow on the deck. There were no bugs at all at the lights, not even some Diamesa flies. But I found a ground beetle on the living room carpet, so that was fun.
4/2/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3167.0 miles total.
Categories: animals
We had another cold snowy day on the mountain. When I went out for my walk after lunch, even the squirrels had taken shelter. I shot a chickadee from the porch, then as I rounded the corner of the house, I heard an unfamiliar squawking in the yard. I turned to see that there were a pair of copulating turkeys near the bird bath. But this year the dominant males of the flock are all jakes and they haven't yet sorted out who is top dog. In the midst of the preliminary backrub stage of the copulation, a jilted jake was mercilessly pecking the neck of the poor female. There was nothing she could do--she was firmly held by the male on her back. The male on her back was too busy trying to get the job done that he wouldn't stop to defend her. So that was what the squawking was all about. Every time the jealous jake connected with the female's neck she shrieked. Fortunately, the male on her back finished relatively quickly, although as he did, the jealous jake dashed under his erect wings. Then the female got up, shook herself off, and the troop resumed their milling about and preening.
4/3/21. Fuller St, Montpelier, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3167.1 miles total.
Categories: eye-catching
This afternoon was bright and sunny and almost 50F. My husband and I made our monthly trip into town to gas up the car. We stopped at a friend's house to wish her a happy birthday in person. While we were sitting out on the front lawn, I shot a fly on a planter, a gray city squirrel, and some black tar spot on of last year's Norway maple leaves in the lawn.
4/4/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3167.2 miles total.
Categories: animals, phenology
This afternoon was bright and sunny again and around 50F. I found a chickadee, a turkey, and a chipmunk in the yard (the first time I've seen the chipmunk since winter came back). And the compost was full of flies, some cluster flies, a bottle fly, and several other kinds of flies, plus some odorous house ants. I found a tiny fly on some beech leaves, and a white-margined burrowing beetle. The red maple buds are still tightly closed, but a few red elder buds are starting to break.
4/5/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3167.3 miles total.
Categories: animals
This afternoon was bright and sunny again, and still around 50F with a stiff breeze. I found a chickadee and a nuthatch in the yard, and a Muscoid fly on the house. In the evening I did some mothing on the porch and had much better luck. I found several Noctuid moths, a bog bibbarembla, a white-lined leafroller, spring cankerworm, several other micro moths, a Diamesa fly, and a caddisfly.
4/6/21. Adamant, VT. 0.2 miles today, 3167.5 miles total.
Categories: animals, phenology
This afternoon I had to go down to Adamant for some provisions, so I took a short bug walk around the church and over to Adamant Pond, being very mindful that I shouldn't walk far. I found a winter firefly, a leafhopper, some Diamesa flies, a running crab spider, a Nordmann's orbweaver, a wolf spider, a green immigrant weevil, some carpenter ants, a cellophane bee, and a fungus gnat, plus a crow, and a pair of song sparrows competing for territory by the pond. Next I drove down to the Adamant store and found a dark paper wasp, some cluster flies, and Lordy, Lordy! colt's foot in bloom, plus pussy willow and speckled alder open.
In the evening I did some mothing on the porch and had great luck. I found a Bennett's laceweaver spider, a Nordmann's orbweaver, a Diamesa fly, a tiny beetle with very long antennae, a caddisfly, several half-wing moths, a nameless pinion, a Grote's sallow, an Agonopterix, and an olethreutine leafroller.
4/7/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3167.6 miles total.
Categories: animals
This afternoon was in the 60sF and partly sunny when I went out. The turkeys were all over the yard, strutting and fighting. They were too close for my birding lens, so I had to settle for some portraits. I also shot a chickadee, a junco, and a red squirrel. I have been experimenting with the settings on my camera and decided that with the birding lens, the minimum hand-held speed is 1/800. I shot several flies in the compost.
In the evening, I had good luck again with mothing. I found several Agonopterix including a mating pair, several Noctuids, a Diamesa fly, a Callobius bennetti spider, and another spider.
4/8/21. Adamant Pond, Adamant, VT, and Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1 mile today, 3168.6 miles total.
Categories: wetlands and arthropods
This afternoon was sunny and warm so my husband and I took our canoe out to Adamant Pond to explore the far reaches of the pond. Very soon the pond will be covered with lily pads and quite difficult to navigate. But now in the narrow window between ice out and lily pad fill in, we can reach every part of the pond in our canoe. We explored some of the beaver ponds surrounding the main pond, all trickling water into the pond. I photographed cat tails, sweet gale, swamp milkweed, speckled alder in bloom and leatherleaf. We also came across a pair of geese and a pair of ducks, and there were turkey vultures circling overhead riding the thermals. And there were spring peepers in all the small beaver ponds, just out of sight.
In the evening when I went mothing on the porch, I found a half-wing, spring canker worm, nameless pinion, bicolored woodgrain, another Noctuid, an Agonopterix, a Diamesa fly, a Trichocera fly, an Ichneumon wasp, and a barn funnel weaver spider.
Wow, so very many insects already! I've reached the time of year where I'll turn one up in photos of flowers that I never noticed when I took the photo. And so many turkeys as well. We have them here, but I don't even see them every year.
Coltsfoot may be invasive, but I'm always thrilled to find it, so cheerful in early spring. And I would love to get out on a pond in a boat, really any pond anywhere but especially one like yours. I did get out on a dock the other day, at least.
4-1-21. Mt. Horeb Rd. and Dock Watch Hollow Rd., Warren and Westbrook Trail, Bridgewater, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 987.25 miles total
Categories: blooming, new.
This afternoon I just wanted to get out of the house, but my foot was bothering me so I just walked around the parking lot at a local park (it was absolutely sopping with mud as it was; not appealing). Blooming here were red maple and skunk cabbage. On the way home I stopped and walked in a little bit of woods along a brook in what used to be a hemlock ravine (now nearly all dead to adelgids). The goutweed has come up here (though it's not blooming). In fact the only thing blooming was an elm.
In the evening after dinner Chuck, Carl, and I walked the trail that goes sort of behind our church, past a couple of tiny ponds. Red maple and elm were blooming. Blackhaw buds are expanding, and trout lily leaves are up (but no flowers yet).
4-2-21. Gilbride Rd., Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today 987.5 miles total
Categories; blooming, new
Duty today, so I didn't stray far from my car. But I wanted to check the "cliff" here for saxifrage. It was out and budding but not yet in flower. Also up were ramps, trout lily leaves, daisy leaves, and toothwort leaves. Blooming was Pennsylvania sedge and lesser celandine, plus elm and bittercress. The lowbush blueberry buds are swelling, too. Back home I found a headless dove in the driveway. hmmm....
4-3-21. Mountain View Park, Middlesex, NJ. 0.75 miles today. 988.25 miles total
Categories: blooming, new
I went down to this neglected park along a river today, looking for winter buds of Boston ivy (to compare with Virginia creeper) as I knew it grew all over a maintenance shed here. I also wanted to see if I could find the crested Elsholtzia here (and did). Other than that, there was blooming ash, box elder, mock strawberry, deadnettle, henbit, ground ivy, bittercress, spring beauty, celandine, my first violet of the year, maple, elm and whitlow grass. There was a flicker in a tree and a tachinid fly as well. At home there was a moth that's been flitting from room to room which I think is a pale mottled willow moth.
4-4-21. Delaware-Raritan Canal, Rocky Hill, NJ. 1 mile today, 989.25 miles total
Categories: blooming, animals
Katie, Molly, and I drove down and walked by the Millstone River today, looking for giant river mussels (found them). We also found a lovely deer carcass with a few insects: margined burying beetles and waltz flies. Celandine, groundsel, bittercress, spring beauty, violets, speedwell, chickweed, and box elder were blooming. But then I found a patch of Dutchman's breeches (very unusual here). But the highlight of the trip as far as the girls were concerned was a headless statue of a toddler that was lodged in a tree. Very odd.
4-5-21. Raritan Valley Park, Raritan, NJ. 1 mile today, 990.25 miles total
Categories: blooming, animals
My foot was sore after scrambling over rocks the day before, so I chose a nice, flat, paved bike path to walk today. It's the wooded edge of a river, with a bit of mown field as well. I found an American hoverfly, a big cranefly, a wolf spider, mosquito larvae in a puddle, and a robin. Blooming were bittercress, whitlowgrass, celandine, garlic pennycress (a relatively new invasive in our area), ground ivy, and spring beauty. I found budding Virginia bluebells and I figured out what the first true leaves of stinging nettle look like.
4-6-21. Whitenack Woods, Sons of Liberty Farm, and the Devil's Tree, all in Liberty Corner, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 992 miles total.
Categories: blooming, animals.
Today I drove up to Whitenack in search of golden ragwort. I found the basal leaves, but no flowers yet. But instead I found the first wide-open bloodroot of the year. I had no idea it was here, and it was stunning, nearly a dozen of them. Also blooming were bittercress and spring beauty. There were several galls here: round oak, blackberry knot, and clavulate oak galls. Plus spotted lanternfly eggs.
The next spot I stopped is an old farm, now wooded, with a pond that's rapidly filling in. Here I found a robin and some tachinid flies. Blooming were bittercress, ground ivy, and lots of spicebush.
Last stop was by the Devil's tree (an old white oak that's supposed to be haunted and has been so thoroughly attacked by generations of teens that it's on its last legs). This is a very recently abandoned farm (maybe 10 years?). Blackhaw and pear were almost blooming here, but not quite. I also saw a pair of geese and a blubottle fly.
4-7-21. Cross Estate Bernardsville and Chimney Rock Park, Martinsville, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 993.5 miles total.
Categories: blooming, animals
This morning I took my friend Laura to see the gardens at this preserved mansion. They were not yet at their best but still cheerful. We saw spicebush, andromeda, glory of the snow, moss phlox, violets, bloodroot, lungwort, twinleaf, celandine poppy, lots of hellebores and narcissus, and a wintersweet that was stunning. Then we walked through the woods and met a deer that let us get nearly close enough to pet it. We saw a spring azure. And I got lucky with a great shot of a flying black-shouldered drone fly.
After dinner, Molly and I did a quick walk round the best wildflower trail near us. It's not quite all up yet, but we found Dutchman's breeches, rue anemone, Pennsylvania sedge, a (closed) bloodroot, celandine, and spring beauty.
4-8-21. Delaware-Raritan Canal, Somerset, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 994.25 miles total.
Categories: animals, blooming
Walked the very farthest end of the canal this morning. I've never seen anyone else on this section but today there were three people (one of whom was a lost bicyclist asking for directions). I found a snail, Asian clams, river mussels, midges, Adrena bees, the first cabbage white of the year, a wolf spider, a bumble bee, two kinds of ants, a song sparrow, a mallard, and a whole flock of cormorants in the top of a tree.
Blooming were whitlowgrass, groundsel, box elder, mouse-ear chickweed, red deadnettle, garlic pennycress, speedwell, henbit, celandine, ash, ground ivy, winter honeysuckle, forsythia, violets, spring beauty, and weeping cherry.
4-9-21. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 994.75 miles total.
Categories: blooming, animals.
Duty today so I didn't go far from the car (or the squad building). I was looking for field horsetail but didn't see it. Blooming was celandine, spring beauty, bittercress, pear, and Pennsylvania sedge. Animal-wise all I saw was a turkey vulture (behind the trees, so I couldn't get a shot) and one other bird, but for me it was an unusual one: a phoebe.
We don't have skunk cabbage around here, so I didn't know that red maple and skunk cabbage might bloom together. Thanks for that info! A petting deer, a flock of cormorants, and a headless dove--it's been quite a week! We just had a phoebe show up in our yard yesterday. What a joy! He will probably be here all summer. This morning he was checking out our front porch. Fingers crossed that he decides to nest there.
4/9/21. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, VT, #10 Pond, Calais, VT, and Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1.6 miles today, 3170.2 miles total.
Categories: animals, phenology
I met up with @emendela and @edlintonvt at noon today at the Nature Center for a bug safari. Ed brought a large wolf spider in a jar that their neighbor had wanted to share with them. We found a lot of bees in one clump of rushes. We also paused to enjoy listening to and watching a group of wood frogs quacking from the damp spot in the field. Arthropods today included loads of Cuerna leafhoppers, a jumping spider, a goldenrod leafroller moth, some orbweavers, a ground beetle, and a Lygus beetle. We caught a stonefly and put it into a container to photograph it, but it promptly laid eggs and expired, so I will be sending it to Canada for ID. I also shot a song sparrow and a tree swallow.
Later in the afternoon, my husband and I took the canoe out to #10 Pond to try out my new underwater drone. At the pond I photographed some disembodied crayfish claws, a red eft, and a snail shell. Then we tried out the drone, which worked well, but has a steep learning curve. And then we managed to break the drone when we were storing it, so that may be it for drone adventures.
In the evening, the mothing was good for early April. I found a half wing, a joker, a bicolored wood grain, a Canadian aganopterix, a goldenrod leafroller, a spring cankerworm, a nameless pinion, and a geometer moth. I also found a Diamesa fly, an Ichneumon wasp, and a sexton beetle covered with mites.
4/10/21. Marshfield Pond, Marshfield, VT, and Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3172.2 miles total.
Categories: animals, phenology
This afternoon my husband and I drove up to Marshfield Pond. He unicycled down to Kettle Pond and back. Meanwhile, I paddled around Marshfield Pond in my kayak. If my foot continues to prevent me from walking, I may be doing quite a bit of kayaking this summer. I guess it makes up for 2019 when I couldn't take my kayak out at all due my sore belly. I am quite grateful that my belly is behaving so at least kayaking is a possibility.
Marshfield Pond is surrounded by mainly boreal forest with some hardwood patches mixed in. The edges of the pond don't have a lot of diversity, at least not at this time of year. I found sweet gale, leatherleaf, meadowsweet, royal fern, sheep laurel, mountain holly, Aronia, speckled alder, red osier dogwood, checkerberyy and a native rose. Trees were red spruce, balsam fir, tamarack, white birch, yellow birch, hemlock, white pine, and a patch of red pine (probably planted or escaped). I found a bud gall on alder, some perch?, a newt, and mussel shells in the water, a painted turtle, also a fishing spider, a wolf spider, and an orbweaver. Birds were mallards, ring-necked ducks, and a turkey vulture. As I was pulling the kayak out, I found mating bees in the parking lot.
In the evening on the porch I found a half wing, a joker, a variable carpet, a Lithophane, a goldenrod leafroller, another Agonopterix, and several more micro moths. Plus, a western conifer seed bug, a tiny brown beetle, an Ichneumon wasp, a Diamesa fly, a Trichocera fly, and a burying beetle.
4/11/21. Fiddlehead Pond, Marshfield, VT, and Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1 miles today, 3173.2 miles total.
Categories: animals, phenology
This afternoon my husband and I returned to Marshfield for more unicycling and kayaking. I took my kayak out onto Fiddlehead Pond, which is a small pond just below Marshfield Pond. Like Adamant Pond, it's a very shallow pond, and usually it is completely choked with lilypads all summer. So now is a fine opportunity to explore the pond before the lilypads grow in. Although this pond is very close to Marshfield Pond, the plants around it are quite different. The pond is surrounded by grasses, sedges, and rushes, and just behind it, a narrow strip of conifers. Behind that is all hardwoods, managed as a commercial sugaring operation, with lots of birches since they make birch as well as maple syrup. As I floated around the pond, I noted quite a few red pines and Norway spruces, so there must have been some commercial logging in the land history as well. Today I found leatherleaf, cattails, yellow birch, hemlock, daphne (in bloom), sensitive fern, white pine, pitcher plant, beech, steeplebush, red maple, black elder, sweet gale, milkweed, and hazelnut. On the pond were a painted turtle, some geese, and a pair of common mergansers, and overhead were 6 turkey vultures. I also found a cellophane bee, a fishing spider, a winter firefly, and a sumo mite.
In the evening I had good mothing, with quite a few reddish speckled darts, a scribbler (first of the season), a Grote's sallow, lots of jokers, a nameless pinion, a gray, several Agonopterix, a micro moth, a Say's burying beetle, a Diamesa fly, and a spider.
Sorry to hear about the demise of your drone. I keep trying to moth at night and end up falling asleep before anything shows up, and my husband just turns off the light. I actually have more success in the morning under a light that's left on all night at the rescue squad than I do lately at home.
4-10-21. Seven Presidents Park, Long Branch, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 995.5 miles total.
Categories: animals, blooming.
Katie, Chuck, and I drove "down the shore" today and walked at this beach with a bit of dune vegetation and a little pond by the parking lot. Katie is my birder, and we spotted brown headed cowbirds, starlings, red winged blackbirds, common grackle, Canada goose, mallard, robin, mockingbird, pigeon, and some gulls we couldn't ID in the heavy fog.
I was looking for shells, and beside the usual species I found chestnut astartes and transverse arks, plus two sand dollars.
Interesting plants included small flowered geranium, some white clover with large red marks on the leaves, Erodium, cocklebur, an unusual privet, beach plum, silver cinquefoil, and slender speedwell.
4-11-21. Washington Twp. Park, Washington Twp., NJ. 0.5 miles today, 996 miles total
Category; blooming
I had to drive Becca (who's 17 but volunteers on the rescue squad with me) all the way down here to south Jersey to get her COVID vaccine, as very few places do under-18-year-olds yet. But we got it (and my son got his the day before, Molly is next week). I made her stop on the way home so I could check out this park with a little pond and weedy lawns. Blooming were chickweed, dandelion, corn speedwell, purple deadnettle, American field pansy (a new one for me; both white and blue), Arabidopsis, Erodium, grape hyacinth, henbit, pear. Unusual for me (but not blooming) were cut leaved evening primrose, bladder moss, and parsely-pert. And at the KFC on the way home I found a huge patch of field madder.
Wow! So much blooming near you. We don't have much blooming at all yet, just red maple, daphne, and colt's foot. Our grass is just starting to turn green. Congrats on getting the rest of the family vaccinated!
4/12/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3173.3 miles total.
Categories: animals
I had a just a short walk around the house today since I had to go to the mall for my vaccine appointment. There wasn't much flying since it was overcast, but of course I shot one turkey. In the evening I had good luck with the mothing. I found a scribbler, a joker, a reddish speckled dart, a variable carpet, a Grote's sallow, several other Noctuids, an Agonopterix, an Acleris, a Diamesa fly, a Trichocera fly, another fly, a Say's burying beetle (with mites), a caddisfly, a sac spider, and a tiny black spider.
I have my lights on a timer so they go on automatically at dusk and off again at bed time. That ensures I don't stay up late on the computer--or I'll miss my moths!
4-12-21. Hoffheimer Trail, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 996.5 miles total.
Category: blooming.
Pouring rain today, but I took my umbrella and went to look for horsetails (and found them, but not the fertile stalks). Blooming was whitlow-grass, bittercress, Norway maple, trout lily (closed), wood rush, spring beauty (closed), Pennsylvania sedge, wood anemone (closed), garlic pennycress, hornbeam, and an ash.
I can't even remember the last time it rained. We had a few sprinkles on Saturday. But I don't think it has rained here yet this month. The drought continues.
4-13-21. Dead River, Lyons, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 997.25 miles total.
Category: blooming.
Sunny today, but the ground is very wet in this swampy woods with a powerline clearing, and it was hard to find a safe place to park my car on the dirt shoulder (where I wouldn't get stuck in the mud). On the way there I stopped to photograph a bird cherry (which I'd never caught in bloom before) and snapped a few photos of a nearby hackberry, breaking bud. When I got home I realized that nearly every hackberry bud had a little insect standing on it, that looked a lot like like a psyllid.
Blooming in the Dead River floodplain itself were Pennsylvania sedge, wood rush, spring beauty, trout lily, Juneberry (very unusual in the wild here), wintercress, and ground ivy. But the exciting things for me were some unusual wetland plants: Pennsylvania bittercress, water parsnip, and especially low spearwort. I also saw a lovely, fresh set of Auricularia fungi, several Gonia flies, and a fat wolf spider.
4/13/21. Adamant Pond, Adamant, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1.8 miles today, 3175.1 miles total.
Categories: animals, eye-catching
My husband wanted to do a little birding this afternoon, so we took our canoe back to Adamant Pond to see a little more of the margins. We saw a song sparrow, several red-winged blackbirds, 2 great blue herons (first of the season), a belted kingfisher (first of the season), and accidentally flushed a goose off her nest. We never saw her until she flew. After she flew, we approached the nest to see the eggs. She had at least 9 eggs in there. Then I took my husband for a short tour of the "secret" quarries, that are only accessible through a hidden trail or by boat. And now the trail head to the hidden trail is in a posted area, so the secret quarries are only accessible by boat. We found several fir trees that were gnawed by porcupines and one that was perforated by a pileated woodpecker. We found a beech tree that was completed denuded of bark by a porcupine. Other finds were a blooming red maple, a currant that was leafing out, a blueberry with rust, a spiny clubmoss, some goldthread leaves, some Pleurozium schreberi and Ptilium crista-castrensis, a wood fern, some stringy lichens (Usnea and Evernia), some bunchberry, and leatherleaf starting to bud. We also found some ants and a tricolored bumblebee queen (first of the season).
In the evening, I had about 20 species visit the moth light, including the joker, half wing, unadorned carpet, reddish speckled dart, spring moth, major sallow, nameless pinion, bicolored woodgrain, and several micro moths. I also found an Ophion wasp, a Diamesa fly, a Tricocera fly, a caddisfly, and a sac spider.
4-14-21. Grekoski Park, South River, NJ. 1 mile today, 998.25 miles total
Categories: blooming, animals
Drove down to this park along a river with several ponds and woods because no one had ever posted from here in the spring. Lots of interesting stuff. Animal-wise, I found painted turtles and a slider, I heard peepers and scared a lot of bullfrogs (but didn't photgraph them). A great blue heron let me get almost close enough to touch it, plus there were geese, mallards, robins, mourning doves, and I heard red winged blackbirds and Carolina wrens. Insects included my first ever buttercup oil beetle (huge!), my first ever bronze tiger beetle (when I shot it I thought it was a fly, and was very surprised at home when I looked at the photos), several dead fish with green and black blowflies and waltzing flies, several tachinid flies, an unknown bee, and an oak apple gall, plus some unidentified minnows.
Blooming were whitlow grass, dandelion, scorpion grass, mouse ear chickweed, medic, Erodium, deadnettle, henbit, bittercress, Pennsylvania sedge, highbush blueberry, and pear.
It sounds like a wonderful trip to the park! Between the heron, the tiger beetle, and the buttercup oil beetle, you saw some great creatures!
4/14/21. Dodge Rd, East Montpelier, VT, Ricker Pond, Groton, VT, & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1.2 miles today, 3176.3 miles total.
Categories: arthropods, blooming, trees
This afternoon I met up with @emendela and @edlintonvt for a bug safari on the Dodge Rd trail. In our insect photography course last Monday night, the instructor had enthused about leaf litter in the spring as a good place to hunt bugs, so the Dodge Rd trail seemed like a good place to look. Especially since Eve is taking an online course about spring ephemerals, and there are plenty along the trail in the leaf litter. We found a trash line spider, some wolf spiders, and some other spiders, a legless fly larva, a winter lightning bug, an Argyrotaenia micro moth, some nomad bees, a solitary bee, some Ichneumon wasps and some other wasps, a click beetle, a centipede in a spider's nest, and a variety of flies. But the best insect of the day was a common dung fly, bright yellow, guarding its patch of fresh dog poop. We marveled at it for quite some time. Good thing there was no one else around to see us taking numerous macro photos of the dog poop. Blooming today were spring beauty and early blue cohosh. We also saw some trout lily, Canada mayflower, herb Robert, and dandelion not in bloom, plus hop hornbeam and Canada yew.
After lunch I went with my husband to Ricker Pond so I could float in my kayak while he rode his unicycle up and down the trail. I don't know if this pond is natural or not, but it's much bigger than the other 2 that I've paddled this week or Adamant Pond. It has a cement dam at one end so maybe it was created, but some time ago. The shores of this pond are lined with sweet gale, great rhododendron, wild raisin, native rose, and mountain holly, with patches of boreal and hardwood forest around it. Blooming were speckled alder, sweet gale, and colt's foot. Other finds were some Riboulia liverwort and rhodora. Arthropods included a Tetragnatha spider, a Philodromus spider and an orbweaver, a leafminer in bunchberry, a winter stonefly, a bug, and an Asian ladybug that I pulled out of the water. Vertebrates were lots of painted turtles, a song sparrow, a phoebe, a loon, and some ring-necked ducks.
In the evening, mothing conditions were great with a very light sprinkle and 60F temperatures. I found about 20 species, including the scribbler, spring moth, reddish speckled dart, mottled gray carpet, half wing, Grote's sallow, curve-toothed geometer, variable carpet, and several micro moths. Plus a Diamesa fly, some fungus gnats, an Ophion wasp, a black beetle, and a caddisfly.
Neat idea about leaf litter, I'll have to try sorting through some. I like to turn stones and logs, but hadn't thought about leaves.
We have no natural ponds or lakes in our area. If it's not running water or salt, it's man-made. Also means no swamps or bogs, just floodplain wetlands. Though there are glacial lakes and ponds just a little north of me.
4-15-21. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 998.75 miles total
Category: blooming
I took a brief walk today as my foot is bothering me. Blooming were spring beauty, common blue violet, the first cut leaved toothwort of the year, hophornbeam, an oak, callery pear, Pennsylvania sedge, garlic mustard, sugar maple, rue anemone, spicebush, and flowering dogwood (sort of, it's bracts are open but still green, the flowers are closed).
4/15/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3176.4 miles total.
Categories: animals
It was cool (50F) and raining all day today, so I just took a short walk around the house. I only found a pair of tufted titmouse. Which was actually quite a find since they are city birds and don't usually make it out here into the woods. In the evening I checked my moth lights, but it was still raining hard and cooler still, so I didn't find a single bug.
4/16/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3176.5 miles total.
Categories: animals
It snowed all day today, but for the most part melted as fast as it came down. When I went out for my walk around the house, I found some goldfinches, a red squirrel, a mourning dove, a hairy woodpecker, a purple finch, a chickadee, and a red-breasted nuthatch, all around the bird feeders. I searched for arthropods on snow since it may be the last chance of the season to find any, but no luck. In the evening I trudged through snow crossing our deck to check the moth lights, but there were no moths or other arthropods.
4-16-21. Martinsville Rescue Squad and Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 999 miles total.
Categories: blooming, in spiderwebs
1 mile to go to 1000!
Duty today, so I walked the grounds of the squad and then a little bit around a different parking area at the big local park. Blooming I found: deadnettle, bittercress, two different Cerastium spp., ground ivy, celandine, thyme leaved speedwell, myrtle, pear, kidney leaved buttercup, spring beauty. I also took a tour of the windowsills in the ambulance bay (that get dusted about once every three years or so) to look for dead bugs, and found an asian lady beetle, several crane flies, several planthoppers, a least skipper, some blowflies, lots of bits and pieces of other things, and one of the triangulate spiders (and eggs) that's mostly responsible.
4-17-21. Duke Island Park, Bradley Gardens, NJ. 1.5 miles today, for a total of.....1000.5 miles!!
After 3 years, 2 months, and 20 days I finally completed my Journey of 1000 miles!!
Katie and I walked along the river here to see the Virginia bluebells. And they were in full bloom. Not just the traditional ones, but also pink and white. Surrounded by thousands of lesser celandine. Also blooming were spring beauty, trout lily, garlic mustard, sugar and Norway maples and box elder, spicebush, pin oak, some planted cherries, pear, and my first ever patch of wild blue cohosh.
And then the birds: Katie learned to post bird songs, and she recorded robin, jay, blackbird and redbellied woodpecker. But we also found an osprey and my first ever greater yellowlegs!
And while we were walking, we came upon a group of people crouched down, looking at something. As we got closer I realized they were all holding copies of Newcomb's Wildflowers. I asked, and they were a field ecology class. I asked if they do iNaturalist, and the teacher looked at me and said, wait, are you "srall'? LOL, I'm famous!
At any rate, a fantastic day to "finish" my journey!
@sadawolk, @susanhewitt @charlie
Congratulations, Sara! Very impressive, indeed! And, yes, you are famous! Do you remember when you got out of your car about three years ago at Highland Hills in Leonia? Daniel Atha organized the event. And, I looked at you, and said, "You look familiar to me! You look just like, Sara Rall!!" And you said, "I am!" Big hug!
DING DING DING DING DING DING! Way to go! A thousand miles of plants, bugs, birds, fungi, and more! It has been so great to join you on all these walks along the way! What a way to earn notoriety, but chasing buttercups. Who woulda thunk!
4/17/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3176.6 miles total.
Categories: animals
Most of the snow had melted today when I went out for my walk, but it was still a bit chilly (40sF). The compost pile was silent, no bugs. But by the bird feeder I found a squirrel, a chickadee, a mourning dove, a blue jay, a dark-eyed junco, a white-throated sparrow, and a brown creeper. And a turkey strutting, of course. By evening, all the snow was gone from the deck when I went out to check my moth lights. Although the temperature was barely 40F, I found a micromoth at the light.
yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy @srall :D
So, are you and Erika headed for Journey of two thousand miles?
Well, I actually see that Erika is over 3,000 miles. Wow!
4/18/21. Groton State Park, Groton, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 7.6 miles today, 3184.2 miles total.
Categories: blooming, budding
This afternoon my husband and I drove to Ricker Pond for an outing on the Groton trails. It was rather chilly for kayaking and I still am not walking, so I took my mountain bike to ride while my husband rode his unicycle. I began by exploring Ricker campground, which is not yet open for the season. There is a marshy area there near the swimming beach that I always thought would make a good place for spring bird watching. But I guess that's not the case in the middle of the afternoon on a cool day since the only birds there were some brown creepers (heard, not seen). But I did find some alders, hazelnuts, and willows in bloom, and a lovely fly honeysuckle plus some strawberries and hobblebush in bud. And a flock of march flies by the shore and a robin. Next I rode up to the dam at the bottom of Lake Groton where I found a great blue heron and a wolf spider, as well as a red maple in bloom. Then I rode up the bike trail nearly to the Boulder Beach Rd. It's amazing how much further you can get on a bike than on foot! Along the trail I found marsh marigold sprouted (not yet budding), and red trillium and red elder budding. I also found some false morels and some Bartramia pomiformis moss. And I heard my first hermit thrushes of the year but never saw them.
In the evening when I checked my moth lights the temperature was near 50F. I found an American lappet and pug moth, but none of the species that were so common last week.
4/19/21. Morrisville, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.2 miles today, 3184.4 miles total.
Categories: blooming, budding, arthropods
This afternoon my husband and I drove up to Morrisville so he could get his second vaccine shot. While he was in the drugstore getting his shot, I walked the perimeter of the parking lot again. Like last time, it was chilly and windy with some sprinkles, so I walked briskly. This time I walked along the sidewalk rather than the rim of the parking lot, and I found a few more weeds. Blooming were shepherd's purse, ground ivy, violets, and dandelion. Budding were yellow rocket and Morrow's honeysuckle. Visible were Queen Anne's lace, English plantain, bedstraw, and St Johnswort.
In the evening I had 3 moths, an American lappet, a reddish speckled dart, and another new-this-season noctuid.
4/20/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3184.5 miles total.
Categories: animals
This afternoon was a bit chilly when I went out for my walk around the house, about 40F, and overcast. I found a turkey, a purple finch, and a chickadee. In the evening when I checked my moth lights I didn't find anything.
4/21/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3184.6 miles total.
Categories: animals
The temperature was a little lower today than yesterday when I went out. The sky was spitting grauple, and we had several inches of snow on the ground. I found a turkey, a purple finch, a chickadee, a white-throated sparrow, and a red squirrel. There was nothing happening at the compost. In the evening I had to put on my snow boots to go check the moth lights on my deck. No insects there, just snow.
Wow, we had a frost last night, but I sure hope we're done with snow. My parents in NH had the snow as well. Just feels so wrong this time of year.
4-18-21. East Jersey Old Town and Cornelius Low House both Piscataway, and Roebling Park, Hamilton, NJ. 2.25 miles today, 1002.75 miles total
Categories: birds, insects, blooming.
I spent the morning doing paperwork I'd been putting off, so I rewarded myself in the afternoon with a long trip to go walking. I'd been asked to check out Roebling Park, as it's under-surveyed, and I stopped at an historical site in Piscataway in each direction.
At Old Town, I ignored the historical buildings and walked the edge of the mowed lawn and looked for weeds among the old farm equipment. For birds there was a pair of brown headed cowbirds (relatively uncommon for me) and a robin. Insects were a nomad bee, a Formica ant, and a honey bee. Blooming I found bittercress, chickweed, dandelion, deadnettle, garlic mustard, violet, spring beauty, celandine, ash, boxelder, henbit, speedwell, Erodium, and groundsel.
Down in Roebling Park it was a beautiful day, and I parked in three different spots and took brief walks. Apparently the thing to do on a lovely Sunday afternoon in Trenton is to go to the park, sit in your car with the windows open, and smoke weed. There were well over half a dozen such cars. I was playing around with the sound recorder in the iNat app, so I got a lot of birds singing: blackbird, robin, cardinal, wren, and white-throated sparrow. I also saw a possible oriole nest, and pigeon, cardinal, robin, and starling.
Insect-wise I saw honey bee, bumble bee (eastern and 2-spot), a spotted lady bottle, a sawfly, carpenter ant, silver-spotted skipper, waterlily plant hopper, and some unidentified flies plus a bowl and doily spider. Blooming were bluets (I never see these), spring beauty, cinquefoil, speedwell, buttercups, violets, chickweed, spicebush, deadnettle, bugle, barberry, bittercress, pennycress, bulbous cress (rare for me), pin oak, boxelder, apple, and Dutchman's breeches. Plus lots of red-seeded dandelion in fruit (also very uncommon for me).
Back up at Low House there was just groundsel, deadnettle, ground ivy, sorrel, mock strawberry, and more red-seeded dandelions.
4-19-21. Mountain Park, Liberty Corner, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 1004.25 miles total.
Categories: blooming. insects
I intended to go for a short walk to look for bugs on flowers here, but there were not many flowers, and I kept going "just a little further" until I found a path I'd never been on before. In the end the only insect I photographed was a little unknown moth. Blooming, though, were bittercress, wintercress, garlic mustard, sassafras, pear, violets (both blue and long-spurred), barberry, rue-anemone, spring beauty, and shepherd's purse. I was surprised to see both bloodroot and blue cohosh leaves, as well.
4-20-21. Hacklebarney State Park, Chester, NJ. 2 miles today, 1006.25 miles total.
Category: native
This used to be a hemlock ravine, but I could not find a single hemlock (and I can remember when the canopy was dominated by them here). At any rate, it's been preserved for a long time, and there were lots of wildflowers. I found: blackhaw, black cherry, flowering dogwood, sassafras, red cedar, spicebush, boxelder, beech, avens, hophornbeam, tulip tree, sanicle, downy yellow and common blue violets, spring beauty, trout lily, skunk cabbage, Christmas fern, hairy Solomon's seal, what might be goldthread, slippery elm, jumpseed, wood anemone, dwarf ginseng, hornbeam, black cohosh, shagbark hickory, ramps, false hellebore, mayflower, Pyrola, maple leaved viburnum, and rue anemone. But the highlight for me was leatherwood, a new species for me, and only the second record on iNat in NJ.
4-21-21. Whittemore, Lebanon, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 1007.75 miles total.
Categories: blooming, critters
I picked this set of low woods on the theory that it would be uncrowded. And in the end I only passed two people on the trails. But when I pulled in an outdoor exercise class was taking place, and pretty much blocking the entire parking lot. I think moving gyms outside is excellent, but please don't block the road!
The trails were kind of annoyingly muddy, but it was a lovely day. Critter-wise, I found lots of kinds of flies: Eudasyphora, Bombylius, Epalpus, Empidinae, and Gonia, plus an eastern bumble bee, emerald ash borer holes, and a Polystepha oak leaf gall. And on the way to the park, a road-killed raccoon.
Blooming were bittercress, violet, dandelion, ground ivy, garlic mustard, barberry, trout lily, toothwort, spring beauty, celandine, woodrush, downy yellow violets, spicebush, pussytoes, bird cherry. But the highlight of the trip was rattlesnake hawkweed, which I've only seen twice before.
Welcome to your second thousand miles! (I wonder how many thousand you walked before you started keeping count.) Funny that the weed other people were enjoying at Roebling park wasn't the one you were looking for. But so many red-seeded dandelions, that's a find! And it was interesting to read what happens in succession after hemlocks. Perhaps that's a new science, documenting novel patterns of succession when late succession organisms are permanently removed. The outdoor gym sounds great. That movement hasn't reached Vermont yet. They would have to plow first, and I don't think folks would want to work out in the cold. Leatherwood is currently in bloom around here, but I haven't been able to get to some to photograph it yet. I should make a real effort to see some soon before it's done. And congrats on the rattlesnake hawkweed!
4/22/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3184.7 miles total.
Categories: animals
This afternoon was very blustery with frequent white outs and about 3-4" of snow on the ground when I went out. I found a turkey and a chickadee near the bird feeders. Then I went around the yard to service the game cameras. There were lots of flies in the snow, which I was delighted to find. They weren't my usual snow tolerant flies, but more likely some that got blown down by the white outs. They weren't moving! I found lots of black flies, some Diamesa flies, some other midges, and a fungus gnat, plus a tiny filmy dome spider and Xysticus crab spider. Just after I returned, a hermit thrush crashed into our kitchen window. I went out and gently brought it up onto the porch out of reach of the squirrels and other predators. After about 20 minutes of sitting it recovered enough to fly away. In the evening, I put on my snow boots again to check the moth lights on the porch. Again, no comers. I checked the snow on the porch as well, and there were no insects there.
4-22-21. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1008.5 miles total
Category: blooming.
I walked here to see if I could find the "odd" toothwort I'd seen other years. It was not where I'd remembered, but I did find it. In fact, it seems there's both Cardamine angustatum and the hybrid between that and C. concantenata (and of course, the "regular" toothwort, the C. concantenata). I also found Virginia saxifrage in full bloom and long-spurred violets, as well as all the "regular" stuff now: spring beauty, trout lily, rue anemone, wood anemone, garlic mustard, celandine, bugle, ground ivy, and dandelion.
4-23-21. Tullo Rd., Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1008.75 miles total
Category: blooming
Just a short walk as I'm on duty today. I looked only for what was blooming and was surprised to find both wood anemone and toothwort here. Also wintercress, garlic mustard, dandelion, spring beauty, a trout lily, several sedges, and then the trees: beech, hornbeam, hophornbeam, pin oak, sugar maple, an ash, pear, sassafras, and apple.
Great collection of toothworts!
4/23/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3184.8 miles total.
Categories: animals
Today was warmer and as soon as the sun got strong, the snow simply evaporated. When I went out after lunch, the temperature was about 50F with bright sun and very strong winds. The only snow remaining was a few patches here and there in the shade. I found a pair of tufted titmice at our feeder and a hairy woodpecker. I also found our patch of coltsfoot in full bloom. In the evening when I went out to check my moth lights, I was happy to find a scribbler, a speckled green fruitworm moth, a sac spider, and a cloud of tiny Chironomid flies.
4/24/21. Wrightsville Dam, Middlesex, VT, & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2.5 miles today, 3187.3 miles total.
Categories: animals, phenology
This afternoon my husband and I decided to take advantage of the return of the warm weather by heading down to Wrightsville Reservoir with our canoe. But first, I stopped in the yard to shoot a Ceratina bee in our bloodroot. The reservoir was crowded on a Vermont scale. That is, we had to get within 50' of people while putting the canoe in. But once on the water we had plenty of room. We shared the water with few kayaks now and then, but none were close. The reservoir is an impoundment of the North Branch of the Winooski River for making electric power. It's owned and managed by our electric company, Washington Electric Coop. We headed upstream and eventually into the inlet from Martin's Brook, which was quite silted up so we had to choose our path carefully. We eventually got to a spot on Martin's Brook where we couldn't go upstream any longer. We hopped out onto a sand bank and took a look around. That's where I found a bronze tiger beetle, several wolf spiders, and a tiny beetle, plus deer and racoon tracks. The edge of the reservoir is mostly dominated by red osier dogwood, willows, meadowsweet and steeplebush. Blooming were yellow birch, red maple, and willow. Other trees included hemlock and white pine. We found common mergansers and mallards on the water, plus a flock of Canada geese overhead.
In the evening, I found a few moths on the porch, including reddish speckled dart, speckled green fruitworm, bluish spring moth, another Noctuid moth, my cloud of Chironomid midges, and a colorful Tetragnatha spider.
4-23-21. Cranberry Lake, West Harrison, NY. 0.25 miles today, 1009 miles total.
Categories; blooming, critters
I stopped, on my way to Boston to visit my sister, at this little park by a wooded pond (and timed it terribly as it then took me over an hour to get into Connecticut, thanks to traffic on 684). A couple of sedges I can't ID were the only things blooming, and two flies (one crane, one not) that I also can't ID were the only bugs. But the weather was beautiful and it was nice to stretch my legs.
4-24-21. Sutherland Woods, Lexington, MA, and Ponemah Bog, Amherst, NH. 1.5 miles today, 1010.5 miles total
Categories: blooming, critters, unusual
In the morning I walked with my sister and her dog through these local woods where I found garlic mustard and Arabdopsis blooming, saw no critters (other than dogs) at all, but found dwarf raspberry and European mountain ash, both new species to me, so I was quite satisfied.
In the afternoon we drove to NH to have lunch with my parents and on the way home stopped in this bog owned by the Audubon Society. It has about 3/4 mile of boardwalks and lots of interesting-to-me plants. The only thing I caught blooming was leatherleaf, and the only "animals" were an oak apple gall, blueberry knot galls, and a clubbed oak gall, but as for unusual plants: wintergreen, a rhododendron that might be rhodora (a first for me if so), sphagnum, sheep laurel, purple pitcher plants, my first black spruce, maleberry, something that might have been Myrica gale (another first if so), wild rosemary (a first), bog cranberry (a first), and what might be wild raisin. Very exciting.
Wow--what a trip to New Hampshire! It must be so exciting to have family together! We have not been out of state in over a year now. We're contemplating maybe making a trip in June. And my mother may make it to New Hampshire in July and we would visit her then. If so, I need to check out the Ponemah Bog. It's hard to imagine Myrica gale being a first for you. That's one I see at every pond I visit. Meanwhile, I've never seen maleberry in person.
4/25/21. Plainfield Rail Trail, Plainfield, VT, & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 4.8 miles today, 3192.1 miles total.
Categories: animals, phenology
This afternoon was overcast, sprinkling, and about 50F. My husband and I went out to Plainfield to ride the rail trail, he on his unicycle and me on my bike. I recalled seeing some spring ephemerals along the trail there in previous years, so I was hoping this might be a place to catch some without having to walk on foot. But I guess it its still a bit early in the season to find them. Blooming were colts foot, daphne, fly honeysuckle, hazelnut, and at long last, a single plant of red trillium. Other finds included wintergreen, ramps, white ash, old and dried up Indian pipes, Porella platyphyloidea liverwort, horsetails, Christmas fern, last year's fertile fronds of ostrich fern, and a fuzzy sprout that I'm still trying to ID.
In the evening, the sky was still spitting, but I found a few moths on the porch, the scribbler, several bluish spring moths, and a speckled green fruit moth.
4/26/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3192.2 miles total.
Categories: animals
This afternoon was sunny but cool (49F) and windy when I went out. There were very few animals around, just "our" turkeys and a red squirrel who scolded me from a tree the entire time I walked around the yard. I also found a dead purple finch under our dining room window. In the evening when I checked the moth lights, I didn't find a single insect. I guess they didn't like the dry cool wind with no clouds.
4/27/21. Hubbard Park, Montpelier, VT, & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.4 miles today, 3192.6 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
This morning I met up with @emendela and @edlintonvt for a bug walk in Hubbard Park. Eve recalled that last spring she found lots of ground bees flying low above a rec field, so she led us back there to search for bees. When we got there a little before 11 the temperature was still coolish (52F) but there was bright sun. Nothing was flying. But we found sandy holes in the short grass. We got down on the ground and started peering into the holes and sure enough, bees were starting to come out. We spent the next 2 hours squatting, sitting, or lying prone on the ground with our cameras pointed down the holes catching unequal cellophane bees coming out to sun. By noon there were quite a few flying low over the ground, just as Eve had promised. In addition to the bees, I found some fungus gnats, muscoid flies, Dolerus sawflies, Chaetocnema flea beetles, Amara sun beetles, some Citronella ants, a tiny wasp, a leaf beetle, a tiny red spider, a Melanotus castanipes click beetle, some spider wasps, and my favorite non-bee of the day, a warty leaf beetle ("Hey Eve, is this a piece of dung or a beetle?"). Plants in the park included a blooming strawberry, some common cinquefoil, and some bishop's weed.
In the evening at the porch lights I found a toothed brown carpet, a gray spring moth, a Canadian Agonopterix, a spring cankerworm, a sac spider, and a cloud of tiny midges.
4-25-21. Arlington Reservoir, Arlington; and Great Meadows Wildlife Reserve, Concord, MA. 2.0 miles today, 1012.5 miles total
Category: unusual
In the morning, my sister and I walked at two parks together. First we took her dog around the reservoir, where I saw ring necked ducks, celandine poppy, cursed crowfoot, tansy, killdeers, rugosa, rose, mountain holly, and the most interesting one: milk parsley. We looked that one up when we got home and found it was common at Great Meadows, so next we headed over there, to walk across the dike (never mind that it was sprinkling rain). There we saw pussy willow, cuckoo flower, bluets, serviceberries, the milk parsley, barn swallows, and a great blue heron.
4-25-21. Rocky Point State Park, Warwick, RI; Dawley Memorial State Park, Richmond, RI; Welcome Center, North Stonington, CT; and Cuomo Bridge Path, Tarrytown, NY. 1. 5 miles today, 1014 miles total
Category: unusual.
After lunch I headed for home, planning to make several stops along the way. First was Rocky Point where I walked down a huge lawn full of weeds to the bay then back up through a bit of shrubbery. Here I found mouse ear cress, a rust on silver cinquefoil, blue scorpiongrass, a black backed gull, periwinkle snails, Turkish towel (a new one for me), and all three juniper rusts in full, gloppy-orange glory (apple, hawthorn, and quince).
Next I stopped at a rest area located in Dawley Park. There I found tons of corn spurrey and shepherd's cress, but also script lichen, rock tripe (a first for me), and toadskin lichen.
Even the Connecticut Welcome Center had interesting species: bulbous meadow grass, wood rush, and Usnea strigosa.
Finally I spotted signs for the new hike and bike path along the edge of the Mario Cuomo (Tappan Zee) bridge. There were no unusual plants here, but all the weeds were absolutely enormous. I don't know what kind of fertilizer they used, but, wow.
4-26-21. Washington Ave., Green Brook, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 1015 miles total
Category: blooming
I took Molly down to the walk in clinic tonight. Turns out she has "COVID arm" (a topical allergic reaction to the shot). While she was seeing the doctor I walked down the street to a wild area near a brook. Blooming were dandelion, violet, garlic mustard, grape hyacinth, thyme leaved speedwell, penny cress, henbit, ground ivy, bird's eye speedwell, celandine, cuckooflower, spring beauty, maple, burning bush, and spring vetch.
4-27-21. Peter's Brook, Somerville, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 1016 miles total.
Category: blooming
I walked these woods stuck in between highways, shopping malls and apartment complexes, along a bit of a ravine carved by a brook. Blooming I found a honeysuckle that's probably Bell's, wintercress, English plantain, speedwell, violets, spring beauty, dandelion, jack in the pulpit, garlic mustard, ash, cinquefoil, toothwort, celandine, apple, beech, barberry, whitlow grass, and cut-leaved geranium. But the highlight for me was a photo of a male yellow-rumped warbler. (I also got a robin, mourning dove, a phoebe, a mallard, some chipping sparrows, and a horrible shot of a bluebird-colored smudge).
I had to look up milk parsley. Cool! That's one for me to watch for if I go south this summer. I hope Molly's arm is doing better. Congrats on the yellow-rump!
4/28/21. Railroad Bed East, Marshfield, VT, & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 3.4 miles today, 3196 miles total.
Categories: trailside greenery, arthropods
This afternoon my husband and I drove up to Fiddlehead Pond in Marshfield to ride the rail trail, he on his unicycle and me on my bike. They just graded the trail, so it was covered with soft sand. I was fishtailing a bit on my bike. I don't know how my husband managed on his unicycle, but with his fat tire he managed to stay upright, mostly. He covered twice as much distance as I did. I was rolling as slowly as possible to try and find some green sprouts between the raindrops. I found red trillium, colt's foot, spring beauty, white violet, purple violet, wild oats, and fly honeysuckle in bloom. Other shoots were selfheal, creeping buttercup, field horsetail, cowvetch, broad-leaved dock, currants, rough cinquefoil, and solomon's seal. In the evening we had steady rain but the temperature was above 50F, so I had visitors at the moth lights: American lappet moth, lots of grayish spring moths, and a curved tooth geometer.
I watched celophane bees this year, too, and I love the beetle that looked like dung. I've ridden a bike only briefly in soft sand, and briefly was enough. I'm impressed at your persistence. And I haven't seen trilliums since I graduated from college (except a few in gardens) but I remember how pretty they were along the roadsides at the start of spring. Would love to see more.
4-28-21. Jenny Jump State Forest, Independence, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 1017 miles total
Category: unusual
This is a wooded pond on Shades of Death Road. Unusual things I saw included Atriplex, Nabalus, bladdernut in bloom, black current in bloom, smooth yellow violet, smooth rockcress, lady fern, perfoliate bellwort, rattlesnake fern, twoleaf miterwort, ramps, round lobed hepatica, Virginia saxifrage, a painted turtle, several kinds of sedge in flower. Then there was a beech bud with a small hole in it, full of ants. Next were an eastern yellow jacket, downy yellow violet in fruit, yellow birch, woodland stonecrop, wild columbine, pussytoes, curly pondweed, my first dragonfly of the year (I think a common green darner), spotted lady beetle, black huckleberry in flower, colt's foot, golden ragwort, and Canadian ginger. But the highlight of the day was hundreds of wood betony, a new plant for me.
4-29-21. Helmetta Pond, Helmetta and Jamesburg, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 1018 miles total
Categories: blooming and critters.
This is the most northern part of the Pine Barrens. I wanted to find trailing arbutus in blooom (I've never caught it flowering) but did not find it. However, I did find lots of things in flower, including lots of sedges, speedwells, garlic mustard, sassafras, honeysuckle, blue ridge and highbush blueberries, common blue violet, arrowleaf violet, primrose leaved violet, leatherleaf, scorpiongrass, sheep sorrel, sweet vernal grass, mock strawberry, some kind of violet with white petals spotted all over with purple, wood sorrel, thyme leaved sandwort, bittercress, and wintercress.
Animals included cherry finger galls, hemlock adelgids, hemlock scale, tent caterpillars, eastern bumble bee, at least one kind of duskyiwing, carpenter ants, a honeysuckle miner, a holly miner, a damselfly, a blue corporal, white throated sparrow, goose, robin, spotted lady beetle, the first catbird of the year, and a tick that must have ridden back with me, walking on my arm at home. Ugh.
Shades of Death road? Sounds goth. Congrats on the wood betony! And thanks for the reminder to check the trailing arbutus. I know a good patch I can reach on my bike, but I think it will be several weeks yet before it blooms.
4/29/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3196.1 miles total.
Categories: animals
It was overcast and spitting when I went out this afternoon. There was lots of action all day at the bird feeder, including a yearling bear in the morning. Fortunately, the feeder is WAYYYYY out of reach. But if the bear comes back, we'll have to take the feeder down. It picked through the marbles in the new bee waterer, checking to see if they were tasty. But lunch time birds included goldfinch, chickadee, purple finch, a flock of evening grosbeaks, a white-throated sparrow and a turkey. A mama red squirrel was guarding the wood pile, and I found a chipmunk in the woods.
We had steady rain all afternoon and into the evening. Nevertheless, it was warmish (55F), and I had 5 species of moth at the lights, including gray spring moth (at least a dozen), a brown-shaded carpet, an American lappet moth, a pug moth, and a dotted leaf tier, plus a sac spider.
Wow, I love the idea of a casual backyard bear; though I'm also glad I generally don't need to worry about them while walking alone in the woods! We get one in town about every 2 or 3 years but I've only ever seen a bear once and that well north of here.
I don't worry about seeing bears in the woods. Well, usually not. But walking at dawn can be tricky. A few years ago I found myself between a mother and a cub while walking along the road and the mother was quite agitated. But we've also had bears let themselves into the house. So now is the time of year when we have to remember to lock our doors. I'm just glad we don't have grizzlies.
4/30/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3196.2 miles total.
Categories: animals
It rained most of the day today with temperatures in the 50sF. When I went out for my walk, even the bird feeder was pretty quiet. I found a turkey, a chickadee, a chipmunk (where were the squirrels?), a mourning dove, and a hairy woodpecker. In the evening I found a ferruginous crane fly at the moth lights, which really made my day.
4-30-21. Long Pond and Mt. Loretto Unique Area, Staten Island, NY. 1.5 miles today, 1019.5 miles total
Category: everything
Today was the first day of the City Nature Challenge, but I was on duty all day. So at 6:30 Carl, Molly, Katie and I drove in to Staten Island and walked first through the woods to Long Pond and then drove down to Mt. Loretto, which is an open field. It had sprinkled on us on and off in the woods and got rather dark but then at the field there was once again enough light to see, at least for a while. Unusual (for me) things we saw included a hawk of some kind, a great egret, star of Bethlehem, and floating marsh pennywort.
Agregar un comentario