May 18, 2022

American Copper

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 65°F, mostly cloudy and windy on May 18, 2022.
• Sun earlier in the day was enough to bring out some returning butterflies.
• American copper, meadow fritillary, and pearl crescent were among todays arrivals.
• This week's trail report covers the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.

The Trails

• From across the road at Gifford House came the metallic, bubbling call of bobolink.
• It took a while to find - it was in the bare trees, not along the road, but way in back.
• Right in the parking lot, lilacs were as easy to spot as they were to smell.
• Varieties included white and a paler purple.
• The grass at the trailhead had grown considerably in a week.
• Bird's-eye speedwell was keeping its head up so far.
• Farther along, buttercup was keeping pace as well.
• Along the edge, bush honeysuckles were coming into their own.
• Lower along the edge, our native wild geranium was blooming.
• In the corner between fields the viburnum, nannyberry, was starting up.
• The flower heads were not many, but they were in their prime.
• Moths were rising from and dropping into the bedstraws along the path. They were the white-banded toothed carpet; the caterpiller feeds on bedstraws.
• A tiny bit of orange danced among the buttercups - an American copper.
• It obliged with a view from below as well.
• On the Sedge Meadow Trail, tower mustard reached up as high as one's knees.
• A dragonfly patrolled the hollow where the trail drops into the woods.
• I will hazard a guess at female common baskettail.
• There was no doubt about the surrounding burningbush with its plentiful flowers.
• The call of prairy warbler had come close, but only for a moment.
• Out in the Sedge Meadow, cinnamon fern could be seen rising.
• It is the spore producing "fertile frond" that the name comes from.
• Even before entering the back Old Hayfield, you could smell the too sweet scent of olive.
• Olives invade fields shading out competition. Autumn olive has red berries, Russian olive has green.
• From one back corner to the other, a flowering dogwood was plain to see.
• The white petals are actually bracts; the flowers are the little green structures in the center.
• Back on the Sedge Meadow Trail, another white-banded toothed carpet was blending in nicely on the trunk of a red cedar.
• Below, hooked crowfoot, a buttercup relative, was in a patch of sun.
• Finally a pearl crescent landed for just a moment in the Old Pasture - then it was gone.
• Rains again have kept the Wappinger Creek flowing well.
• A dozen mallards were feeding and preening.
• Sunny, open woods is where one would expect early woodland butterflies such as commas, but...
• ... a mayfly was what we found today.
• Nearby, a veery was very loud.
• Down below, starflower was starting to bloom.
• In the floodplain, several black-capped chickadees were foraging right along the edge of the path.
• The path was lined with invasive narrow-leaved bittercress. It is very satisfying to pull, but note there are other similar species.
• That brought us up to the "Appendix" and the bench at trail marker 10.
• An American robin was content with a branch over the water.
• Next week: the Cary Pines Trail the side of the trail system.

Sightings