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Trail Reports
...
July 10, 2019
Notes and Changes since last report
It was 85°F and partly cloudy with light breezes at 2:00 PM on July 10, 2019.
Canada lily, Spotted jewelweed, and Queen Anne's Lace were blooming.
This week's trail report covers the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.
The Trails
The
common milkweed
at the Gifford House trailhead looked the way I felt in today's heat: drooping.
A
northern broken-dash
in the first Old Hayfield did not seem to mind the heat.
Chicory and
Queen Anne's lace
were starting to bloom - that seemed early.
Indigo buntings
were in their usual places along the edges of the fields.
The
common wood-nymph
usually has a large yellow patch around its eye-spots. The yellow, however, is variable and is sometimes almost non-existant.
A large, white, rectangular spot distinguishes the female
little glassywing
.
Something with a long tail followed some cedar waxwings across the Sedge Meadow Trail. It was a
black-billed cuckoo
.
The distinctive under-tail spots were not visible, but the
red "orbital ring"
was. It called once; there was a distant answer; it was gone.
Along the trail below, a
caterpillar nest
was active.
It was of the
fall webworm
.
Deeper in the shade, a
large lace-border
was trying to blend in.
It looked like the first
spotted jewelweed blossom
of the season... except for the swelling seed pod next to it.
Something orange rose from the edge of the back Old Hayfield and disappeared in the leaves above. It seemed a bit large and slow for an eastern comma. It was a
question mark
.
In the middle of the field, an
eastern kingbird
seemed to be panting in the heat.
It would repeatedly
dash out
to hawk insects and return to its post.
A little patch of
Canada lilies
had quietly grown tall and blossomed.
They range from yellow to red and bear
spots
on their nodding blooms.
Back out in the sun, a
little wad of bristles
clung to a milkweed.
It was one of the curious little
plume moths
.
The tops of the dogbanes were occupied by numerous
northern broken-dashes
.
A couple
coral hairstreaks
were out on the milkweeds.
And
dogbane beetles
were on the dogbanes.
As the path descended from the Old Pasture into the woods, something darted out, circled, then disappeared against a
tree
.
It was a
northern pearly-eye
. Another came by and both tore down the path together.
Farther ahead,
Indian pipe
was coming up through the leaf litter.
Down along the Wappinger Creek, invasive
Japanese spirea
was beginning to bloom.
Farther along, invasive
Japanese stilt grass
was getting big enough for the characteristic shiny mid-vein to be obvious.
Next week: the Cary Pines side of the trail system.
Sightings
Mammals
Birds
Butterflies
Moth
Insects
Caterpillars
Arthropods
Fungus
Herp
Plants
Other
1 Red-tailed Hawk
1 Cabbage White
1 Gypsy Moth
1 Fall webworm
1 Canada lily
2 Mourning Dove
2 Coral Hairstreak
1 Large lace-border
1 Indian pipe
2 Black-billed Cuckoo
3 Banded Hairstreak
1 Plume moth
1 Japanese spiraea
2 Chimney Swift
7 Great Spangled Fritillary
1 Queen Anne's lace
1 Belted Kingfisher
1 Pearl Crescent
1 Spotted jewelweed
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Question Mark
3 Downy Woodpecker
3 Eastern Comma
1 Northern Flicker
3 Northern Pearly-eye
1 Eastern Wood-Pewee
14 Little Wood-Satyr
1 Eastern Kingbird
1 Common Ringlet
2 Red-eyed Vireo
15 Common Wood-Nymph
2 Blue Jay
5 Monarch
1 Black-capped Chickadee
23 Silver-spotted Skipper
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 European Skipper
1 Carolina Wren
8 Northern Broken-Dash
3 House Wren
1 Little Glassywing
1 Eastern Bluebird
4 Veery
11 American Robin
4 Gray Catbird
7 Cedar Waxwing
1 Ovenbird
2 Common Yellowthroat
1 Scarlet Tanager
3 Eastern Towhee
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 Field Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
1 Northern Cardinal
6 Indigo Bunting
3 American Goldfinch
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