Rockefeller State Park Preserve, near Pleasantville, NY

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I live in Manhattan, NYC. Yesterday a good friend of mine (@catverde) drove the two of us up to Rockefeller State Park Preserve, which is in the Hudson Valley near Pleasantville, about an hour's drive north of NYC. In the park during the afternoon, @pbuttercup was running a wildflower walk around Swan Lake, encouraging people to put their observations up on iNat.

I was kind of amazed once I got home again to find out that in about three hours on a Saturday afternoon, I had seen at least 26 lifers -- 26 species that I had never seen before.

That total of new things consisted of 18 vascular plant species, 6 arthropod species, and 2 fungi. And that total may quite likely increase, as people here on iNat check and improve my existing IDs, and also probably put a few IDs on things that don't yet have one.

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Out of the lifer arthropods I observed, the insects were:

Cordyligaster septentriodis, a bristle fly
Oulema sp., a handsome beetle
Spongy Oak Apple Gall Wasp
Bumelia Webworm Moth

Arachnid lifers were:

Eastern Harvestman
Aceria nyssae on Black Tupelo

Fungi lifers included:

Conifer mazegill -- growing out of a picnic bench

The vascular plants included:

Fox Grape
Shining Bedstraw
Wild Basil
Panicled Ticktrefoil
Round-headed Bush Clover
Deptford Pink
Bush's Sedge
Pointed Broom Sedge
Whorled Loosestrife
Meadow Buttercup
Meadow Rue
Sanicle
Pussytoes
American Lopseed
American Hog Peanut
Wild Sarsaparilla
Honewort
Sallow Sedge

I added all of my observations to the project "Rockefeller State Park Preserve", here:
https://inaturalist.ca/projects/rockefeller-state-park-preserve

And immediately I appeared in third place on their leaderboards for the most observations (155) and the most species observed (102). I seem to have added about 9 species to their iNat list for the preserve, so that's good.

I would love to go back there sometime, and my friend Caterina is interested in going back too. The park has many interesting areas to visit which are different from the areas around Swan Lake, and there are no doubt a lot more new-to-me species to be found in all those areas.

Posted on 19 June, 2022 19:09 by susanhewitt