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.
Comments
5-1-19. Mayflower Court, Martinsville, NJ. 0.5 miles today 492.5 miles total
Category: lawn weeds
With the road closed by me the traffic is much lighter. I am still swamped with identifications from the City Nature Challenge, so I wanted to walk somewhere I wouldn't take many photos, and ended up just going west form home.
I found some interesting Lepidiums, at least some of them are L. didymum, in flower, but there was a much taller one, too. There were fallen beech flowers in the road. I found henbit, which is such a cheerful color. And then I spotted a red seeded dandelion, just a quarter mile from home. So I picked a seed head and brought it home (what's one more dandelion patch in my yard, anyway. It was breezy, so I only ended up with about half the seeds and sowed them where a log pile had been until two weeks ago. We'll see if they take.
5-2-19. Morristown Rd., Bernardsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today 492.75 miles total
Category: spring
Molly and I had an appointment here but we were early, so we walked behind the office complex to check out the wooded brook and drainage basin pond. The highlight was a green heron that caught a little fish right in front of us. There were also geese. We worked on learning spring flowers like dogwood, viburnum, wintercress. I found an interesting mushroom, she found woodsorrel and Japanese angelica tree (which she insists on calling Japanese devil's walkingstick, and who am I to argue with a common name?). I got a Hedera leaf that was very new and the lighting was excellent, and so for the first time ever I was able to actually photograph the hairs that let me say definitively it was H. helix.
5-3-19. Crim Rd. Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 493 miles total
Category: nice photos of weeds
I took a break from sitting at the building waiting for rescue squad calls and went to this local soccer field with a brushy edge. I didn't stray far from my car, but worked on taking nice pictures of the weeds that were there. This mostly involved getting down on the ground, which was often wet, and I came home with dirty knees (but had a change of pants, so all was well). Blooming were garlic mustard, wintercress, barberry, violets, mock strawberry, thyme leaved speedwell, several sedges, a buttercup, dandelion (but closed as it was cloudy), olive, sugar maple, and jack in the pulpit. I also found a conifer mazegill fungus and a fish crow.
Great idea spreading red-seeded dandelion seeds--so cool!
5/1/19. Montpelier VT and Sucker Brook Park, Winooski, VT. 2.3 miles today, 1851.8 miles total
Categories: birds, mosses, invasives
I met up with the postponed bird walk at the food co-op today. Since I'm not able to walk very far, I took my electric scooter and had a grand time. We saw quite a few birds, but I was only carrying my point-and-shoot, which doesn't capture birds very well. Instead, I shot a dandelion that is showing signs of budding and some wild black cherry buds starting to form, plus some a garlic mustard sprout along the railroad tracks. I'm hoping they don't spray the tracks with herbicide this year--that's my favorite place for weed hunting.
After the bird walk, I met up with the photography group from the senior center. They were headed up a steep hill, making a straight shot over to house with a blooming magnolia. My scooter couldn't handle the hill, so I made a big detour through downtown to get to the other side of the hill. The scooter zips right along, though, so I had to wait 10 minutes for the group to arrive down the far side of the hill. That gave me plenty of time to examine some mosses in people's yards. The house with the magnolia had a lovely stone wall around a garden, and the stone wall had more mosses and some liverworts.
In the afternoon, I had to drop my camera lens off in Winooski for cleaning and repair, so I searched out a new park near the repair shop. I found myself at Sucker Brook Park, a small park with a trail in a residential area. But the trail was too steep for my scooter, so I took my stool and had a sit overlooking the brook. I could actually see down to the brook since the trees haven't leafed out yet. I bagged some more mosses, another garlic mustard sprout, and some dandelion greens.
5/2/19. Berlin Pond, Berlin, VT. 0.1 miles today, 1851.9 miles total
Categories: birds
Between appointments today I took a picnic lunch up to Berlin Pond to see what was about. Not much in the pouring rain. I managed to catch one of the yellow-rumped warblers that was bouncing around the shrubs at the water's edge. I wonder what they were chasing. Insects, no doubt. Insects that are eclosing at this season?
5/3/19. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier VT. 0.4 miles today, 1852.3 miles total
Categories: birds, blooms
This morning I went down to the Nature Center for their first bird walk of the year. I managed to do about half the walk from my electric scooter. But once they headed down the sodden grass trail, I had to turn back and take a sit up by the barn. The excitement of the day was some Dutchman's breeches, just opened, my first wildflower of the season. Also, bloodroot just opening. I saw a palm warbler, all bright yellow with an orange cap hopping about some goldenrod stems but couldn't reach it with my point and shoot. Instead, I had to settle for shooting a red-winged blackbird that perched overhead and drowned out all the other birds with his incessant calling.
When I was walking with a birder during the City Nature Challenge I must have asked three separate times what's that loud call? It was a red winged blackbird every time (I knew the konk la reee song, but not the calls). I did that years ago with cardinals, too. Apparently I'm focused on very loud birds.
I love the image of you racing the photographers around the hill on your scooter. Glad you are able to get out, and are finally getting some spring all the way up there!
5-4-19. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 493.75 miles total
categories: chest high leaves, blooming, ferns.
I went looking for linden viburnum as I'd spoken to someone during the challenge who is studying their polinators. i knew I'd seen one in here (the first I ever recognized) and so I went back to see if I could geoposition it. He was also interested in southern arrowwood and so I also stopped about 3/4 mile away to geoposition one of them. In the meantime I looked at everything at chest level, and kept my eye peeled for wildflowers, too, as I'm not wasting any spring if I can avoid it.
Among the chest-high leaves were: beech, red maple, wineberry (almost chest high), rose, a not-black cherry, barberry (almost chest high), bittersweet, hackberry, burning bush, privet, witch hazel, blackhaw, sassafras (a little above chest high), flowering dogwood (not flowering), a hickory, some oval leaf with double-toothed edges and somewhat loose bark that I don't know, red oak, sugar maple, black cherry, hornbeam, angelica tree, sweet birch, spicebush, and finally, linden viburnum. I was impressed at the variety as this area is highly deer-ridden and looks like it has no underbrush at all.
Blooming were: garlic mustard, rue anemone, dandelion, violet, jack in the pulpit, several sedges, a distant flowering dogwood, kidney leaved buttercup, spring beauty, and blackhaw
5-4-19. Washington Valley Rd Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 494 miles total
Categories: blooming, attracted to light
I was stuck at the squad building again Saturday night for my once every 6 weeks weekend shift. So I walked along the edge of the woods behind the building and over to the site where they are storing all the materials for the road project. This is a county park they've torn up with the constructions debris, but it was nearly all mugwort and black locust before they started, and they're mostly on what was mowed lawn anyway. No great loss.
That said I found a variety of things blooming: dogwood, dandelions, mouse ear chickweed (I think nodding), corn speedwell, garlic mustard, indian strawberry, actual strawberries (first of the year for me), ground ivy, wintercress, sweet vernal grass, white mulberry, what might be Kentucky bluegrass, a sedge, barberry, olive, violets, purslane speedwell, garlic pennycress, lesser celandine, buttercups.
There is a light that stays on 24 hours here and one moth and a cranefly were parked under it. There was a spider, a dead fly, a dead stinkbug. I checked back near midnight and the only new things that had arrived were mosquitoes and non-biting midges.
5-5-19 Stirling Rd., Warren, NJ 0.5 miles today, 494.5 miles total
Categories: shrubs, flowers
I was headed to a different grocery store to get gum and reading glasses for my husband (of all things) and realized this road was likely to have arrowwood. It certainly did, dozens of bushes, as well as blackhaw. So I got out in the drizzle and documented them. No linden viburnum, though. There was a very weird plant that I'm pretty sure was a carrion flower; I've never seen one just starting to leaf out before. I also saw a lot of common buckthorn, which despite the name is not very common here.
Blooming were the blackhaw, wild geranium, myrtle, cypress spurge, wintercress, what were probbly both Morrow's and Tartarian honeysuckles (but despite flower color differences could have been all one or the other, or Bell"s) , a buttercup, strawberries, peppergrass, and garlic mustard
and I found both cedar-apple rust and cedar-hawthorn rust both covered in huge slimy orange tentacles. My kids would have loved it.
5-6-19 near Routes 28 and 287, Bound Brook, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 495.25 miles total
Categories: viburnums, interesting to Molly
I walked with Molly today looking for the linden viburnums growing by arrowwood viburnums that I'd found two years ago. Well, first off I'd done the location very generally so started out at the wrong end of the area I'd walked, and secondly I'd misidentified one of the lindens as an arrowwood. But I did find lots of linden viburnum. And Molly and I got to look at spring flowers.
Interesting finds included fragrant sumac, leafy spurge, slippery elm, and two seaside species though we are nowhere near the seaside (but we were by a hilly highway onramp, so perhaps the salt was the issue here?): Seaside goldenrod and groundsel tree.
5-6-19 . Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 495.75 miles total
Categories: viburnums, blooming
I got to walk after dinner this evening. I was looking for arrowwood and found none. I also had my eye out for long spurred violets and was successful there. Also blooming were spring beauty, Virginia saxifrage, field peppergrass (I'm working on my Lepidiums), a probably red seeded dandelion (there were no fruit), blue ridge blueberry (which I rarely catch flowering), regular common blue violets, and solomon's seal. In the distance was a flowering blackhaw, and I found maple leaved viburnum, but not the one I was looking for. And lots of ferns.
5-7-19. Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 496.75 miles total
Category: whatever caught my eye
I was invited down to Lawrenceville because I've done a lot of the identifying for their school bioblitz. When I walked in some of the kids recognized me from my profile picture, which was kind of neat. I'm a little famous. We walked around a pond and through some woods on campus and talked about plants. I wish I'd brought my plant scavenger hunt with me. The kids are working on projects, one on moss, one on mustards, one on fungi, one on butterflies (they've only caught one so far).
I found lots of bugleweed, a little water-edge plant with leaves at very right angles to one another, and a tuft of something (flowers? I dont' think so) at the top, lots of linden viburnum, a wood ear fungus, Acer griseum, and a shrub I don't know with evenly toothed leaves and long tips. I was able to prove that at least all the Hedera ivy we looked at there was H. hibernica, when everyone had just been marking it H. helix.
As a gift for helping with the blitz, Dr. Clark gave me a book on fireflies I admired, which was very kind.
5-7-19. Mountain Lakes Preserve, Princeton, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 497 miles total.
category: blooming
I stopped very briefly on the way home at this park I'd not visited before. I found cuckoo flower (which I rarely see) and the first blooming dame's rocket of the year (as well as lots of more common stuff).
Cool idea about chest high leaves for a category! I'd never thought of using height before as an eye catcher. And what a great project chasing pollinators for science!
That's crazy that you only got one moth at your light! I wonder why so few? Not enough woods? Not enough insects? We are getting plenty of moths up here.
What a fun day you must have had at the school! So many new finds, and so many interested kids!
5/5/19. Sodom Pond, Adamant, VT. 0.1 miles today, 1852.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms
This morning I went down to Adamant to hunt birds. I sat for a while across from the store, then at the top of Sodom pond, then near the Calais/East Montpelier town line, and finally at the boat launch on Adamant Pond, driving in between to save steps. The sun was shining, and for the first time this year, I didn't need my down parka or gloves while I sat. There were plenty of birds, including a blue jay and a goldfinch at the feeder, a chickadee, plenty of geese, a robin, some song sparrows, tussling red-winged blackbirds (all males--I haven't seen any females yet), some hooded mergansers, a belted kingfisher, and a ruby-crowned kinglet, all along Sodom Pond. On Adamant pond there were lots of ducks, including some grackles and common mergansers and ... something else. I'm hoping someone can identify the something else for me because there were 17 of them and I couldn't make out what they were with my binoculars. And my long lens is in the shop, so I have some really bad photos of these mystery ducks.
Blooming today were red maple, sweet gale, and colt's foot. In bud were red trilliums. No signs of buds yet on the dandelions out here. But I found some fertile fronds of field horsetail at their prime.
5/6/19. Sodom Pond, Adamant VT. 0.1 miles today, 1852.5 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects
This afternoon I took a picnic lunch along the north shore of Sodom Pond. I was sitting beside a shrubby willow in bloom, which was covered with pollinators, including a tricolored bumblebee, a red admiral (?) butterfly, and a honeybee. Overhead were some osprey, a goose, and a grackle. And another goose sitting on a nest--she's been there all week. And I saw my first turtle of the season today, a painted turtle sunning in the marshy edges of the pond.
5/7/19. Berlin Pond, Berlin, VT. 0.1 miles today, 1852.6 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms
This afternoon I had a picnic lunch by the shore of Berlin Pond, a local birding hotspot. It was pouring, so I ate in the car, then sat for a while under my umbrella. The thrill of the day was seeing my first yellow warbler of the season, making the long sit in the cold rain well worth it. There were osprey overhead and about 8 swallows shooting back and forth over the water. And some mallards in the water, plus some grackles overhead. The only bloom I shot today was a cottonwood right beside the water. Not much else blooming close by (besides some shrubby willows).
5/8/19. Sodom Pond, Adamant, VT. 0.1 miles today, 1852.7 miles total.
Categories: birds, bees
This afternoon I took my lunch on the north end of Sodom Pond. It was very sunny, but chilly--down parka zipped up again. I counted 18 swallows zipping over the surface of the pond. I think they were tree swallows, but I'll let the experts decide. Also, at least 15 geese were floating on the pond, in addition to the goose who is sitting on a nest near the north shore. There were painted turtles in the marsh again today, and lots of bumblebees in the willows. No butterflies today, though--perhaps it was too chilly.
5/9/19. Montpelier Bike Trail and Berlin Pond, 1.3 miles today, 1854 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms
This afternoon my husband and I had a uni-date for lunch along the Montpelier Bike Path. He on his unicycle and me on my scooter. It was sunny and the birds were out in force. I saw my first warbling vireo of the year. There were several robins high in the trees. and we got some wonderful glimpses of a pair of black-and-white warblers that came by picking worms off the trees right above where we were eating lunch. Along the trail, I heard my first catbird of the year, but I didn't have my camera with me then to get a photo. Today for the first time the dandelions were blooming, and even a couple of violets. The Norway maples continue to bloom in all their scented glory. I was transported by their scent back to my childhood, eating maple blossoms on my way to first grade. So sweet!
After lunch I went up to Berlin Pond for a sit. By then, the clouds had started to gather and it was getting cooler. I saw some redwings, some geese crossing the road, and a yellow warbler in a willow bush. The willow flowers up here are starting to go by. Hope something else starts blooming soon to feed the pollinators!
5/10/19. Hubbard Park, Montpelier, VT. 0.1 miles today, 1854.1 miles total.
Categories: daily dandelion
This morning I went to Hubbard Park for a bird watch. The Nature Center folks had planned a bird walk for this morning, but with a forecast of heavy rain, they cancelled it. I showed up anyway in hopes of seeing some birds or hearing a hermit thrush or two. The rain was quite heavy, so I had a picnic breakfast in the New Shelter, listening for birds the whole time. I think I heard perhaps a robin, a chipping sparrow and maybe a yellow-rumped warbler. But none were very close, and I didn't see a single bird. Lots of dogs walking their people, though. The dandelions up here in the woods don't have buds yet, much less any blooms.
5-13-19. Great Swamp, Harding Twp., NJ. 0.75 mile today 497.75 miles total
Category: blooming
I walked in the rain with Molly at the swamp boardwalks today. It rained yesterday, too, and Saturday was very busy, plus I have a nasty case of shingles on the back of my thigh, so with one thing and another I'd not gotten out to walk in a while and missed it. So I dealt with the discomfort and wet and we went for a walk. Not surprisingly we were the only ones there.
Blooming we found: violet, spring beauty, ragwort, fleabane (Philadelphia), dogwood (flowering), wintercress, spatterdock, tussuck sedge, at least two other sedges, mayflower, starflower (the point of this trip), and buttercup (meadow). I also saw bracken and cinnamon ferns (and at least two others), a Dendrolycopodium, and three different orange or yellow fungi (one of which was hawthorn rust).
5-15-19. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.75 mile today, 498.5 miles total
Categories: blooming, chest-high, insects
I was looking for linden viburnum again, in a different part of the same park as last week (and found both it and arrowwood, as well as blackhaw). Blooming were rue anemone, jack in the pulpit, garlic mustard, three kinds of cinquefoil, narrow leaved bittercress, dandelion, kidney leaved buttercup, violet, 3 sedges, 2 grasses, myrtle, bugle, and mouse ear chickweed.
Also blooming, but at chest height, were black cherry, burning bush, flowering dogwood, and greenbriar.
Not blooming, not a viburnum, but still chest-high leaves were rose, angelica tree, 2 kinds of oak, beech, hophornbeam, sassafrass, tulip tree, japanese honeysuckle, bird cherry (I think), two kinds of grape, barberry, wineberry, black birch, spicebush, poison ivy (budding but not blooming), apple, and two kinds of maple.
I also found at least 9 kinds of insects.
The big excitement for the day, though, was back home on my feeder where we saw my first ever rose-breasted grossbeak. It hung around all afternoon. Also today, for the second day, was a juvenile indigo bunting (I've only seen one other, ever, and it was an adult).
5-16-19. Hoffheimer Estate, Warren, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 499.5 miles total
Category: in Never Say it's Just a Dandelion
Molly, Carl and I went for a walk by the "grotto" in town, as Carl had never seen it. The path here passes a pond and goes through the woods near the county golf course. Carl soon went on ahead, but Molly and I looked for things that are in the field guide she's reading, Never Say It's Just a Dandelion, which has lore about common Boston plants. She really enjoyed checking things off; I was fascinated by what I'd consider common that was NOT in the book.
She found: buttercups, maple (we found red, silver, Japanese, and Norway. They list red, sugar, and striped), red oaks, white oaks, poison ivy, garlic mustard, bittersweet, rose, barberry, virginia creeper, greenbriar, beech, cattail, grasses, sedges, and a rush, ferns (they list 11, we saw three of them), sassafras, viburnum (they have arrowwood, maple leaved, nannyberry and witherod; we saw linden, maple leaved, and blackhaw), witch hazel, black birch, shagbark hickory, aster (well, white wood aster), wood anemone, solomon's seal, blueberry, and dandelion.
But they did not list, and I would consider very common in my area: elm, chickweed, brambles (we saw wineberry), bittercress, onion grass (wild garlic), burning bush, honeysuckle, horsetail, dogwood, Pyrola, spring beauty, bedstraw, privet, mugwort, violet, may apple, hornbeam, holly, white snakeroot, linden, and tulip tree.
It was very interesting. I wonder how many are not common in Boston and how many were left out for some other reason.
5-17-19. Tullo Rd., Martinsville, 0.25 miles today, 499.75 miles total
Category: everything
I had duty again today and got out a bit for a walk near my car in this, one of the nearest parks to the squad building. I was practicing a new technique for the bioblitz the next day (working in order from largest to smallest organism, as I tend to ignore trees). It was stressful and I think I'll stick to what I usually do (and in the end I photographed far fewer trees than pretty much anything else at the actual bioblitz). There were not a lot of interesting species, as I'd just done this area a few weeks ago, but lots of grasses and sedges were flowering, none of which I can ID.
@srall and @erikamitchell have you read about Trips? I thought you might be interested since you often have targets on your walks. https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/trips-feature-on-inat/3061
5-18-19. deCamp Trail and Eno's Pond, Forsythe NWR, Brick and Lacey Twps., NJ. 4.0 miles today, 503.75 miles total
category: bioblitz
I led two walks today for the National Wildlife Reserve's bioblitz. Molly and Katie came along with me, and @kjknutsen and @tonycullen (and his two kids) joined me for the first. (two people signed up for the second but didn't show). Katie (@angelpony) took lots of photos and ended up making the second most observations in the blitz (I was first). Katie found swans, an osprey, a catbird, a turkey vulture, a bunny (that didn't show up in the photos), a greensnake, what was probably a ratsnake (it got away) and a big dragonfly that flew right up to Molly. Also lots of plants, especially pitch pine cones and sweet pepperbush, and lots of lichen and fungi.
I found my first ever glossy ibis, blooming bristle thistle (C. horridulum), live osprey (as opposed to a nest), downy arrowwood, marsh fern, wool sower wasp gall, a new to me oak stem gall, a small oak spindle gall, pink lady slippers, the greensnake, and a pond skimmer dragonfly.
I had not heard about trips, though the concept of "proving" a negative kind of intimidates me. The more I know the more I am aware of how much I miss! I could see doing it, though, for a single species. For instance I've gone out in privet blooming season to disprove people's observations of various species, by checking where they said they saw them and finding only border privet. It would be nice to be able to document that somewhere other than just a comment on the erroneous ID.
5-20-19. Whitenack Woods, Bernards Twp., NJ. 0.75 miles today, 504.5 miles total.
Categories: flowering, chest high
Molly and I walked in these wet woods (and a bit of meadow) until the gnats got too annoying and we had to turn back. I then found three ticks, though she had none.
Flowering I found: my first yellow star grass of the year, 2 kinds of cinquefoil, 6 kinds of sedge, 2 kinds of grass, bittercress, jack in the pulpit, spring beauty, geranium, strawberry, ragwort, blackberry, wintercress, may apple, mouse ear chickweed, and fleabane.
Also blooming, but at chest-high, were cherry, burning bush, bittersweet, amur maple, bayberry, and olive. Tulip tree and hickory were blooming but way up in the canopy.
Other things with chest-high leaves were: hornbeam and hophornbeam, barberry, beech, blackhaw, rose, three kinds of oak, maple, ash, pear, dogwood, sassafras, wineberry, poison ivy, grape, red cedar, honeysuckle, privet, angelica tree, and linden.
5-21-19. Whiterock. Martinsville, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 505 miles total
Category: new this spring
Molly and I went to this local park to see if there was a tulip tree flower she could reach to pick, as they are her favorite flower. And there was, right in the parking lot. But we then walked the short distance to the hawk-watch lookout over the quarry, where a red-tailed hawk swooped in so close that I actually got an in-focus photo of it in flight with my regular-old hand-held digital with the 18-55 lens on it.
After that we followed a path I'd not been on before that headed back in the direction of the parking lot. Well, I'd never been on it as it turned out to be a deer path that petered out in a lovely blackberry thicket (It seems like all deer paths end in brambles, at least when I'm trying to use them as short-cuts!). We made it out eventually.
In addition to the hawk we found the first tiger swallowtail of the year, and the first blooming dame's rocket. There was a pretty jumping spider and a Pyractomena firefly as well.
The Never Say It's Just a Dandelion book sounds like a treasure! What a way to explore an area, through looking for plants from the book, and finding others that aren't in the book. I think a lot of plants from your area are not so common around here and vice versa. Boston may be yet a different situation. Next time either of us gets to Medford, there's a challenge for us, to see what plants we find most common.
Congrats on getting a rose breasted grosbeak at your feeder! We've had a pair here for a week or so. And over the last few days, an indigo bunting has joined the feeder crowd. So exciting!
The Trips feature looks interesting, but it appears to be mainly a California thing right now. Does it require using the phone iNaturalist app? I think it might work for limited taxons like reptiles or maybe even butterflies. But for plants we'd have to narrow it down a whole lot to avoid having to do a botanical bioblitz for every outing.
@erikamitchell it doesn't require the app (it's a website-only feature). It's not geographically restricted, it's just used in California because a group there supported/encouraged its development. It seems like a good botanical use case is a few invasive or rare species that you want to target. Interested to hear your thoughts if you give it a try. :-)
5-22-19. Middle School, Warren, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 505.75 miles total
Category: as much as possible.
I had to pick my daughter up from a softball game today (she's not on the team but was watching her friends play). The game went very long. So I walked the edges of the field and a path through the woods and tried to document as much as I could. Interesting things I found included many sedges (it was pretty wet), water hemlock, a spikerush, royal fern, fig leaved goosefoot, two-flowered Krigia, yellow star grass, blue eyed grass, arrowwood, and maleberry. unfortunately our team lost.
Many sedges? Oh, oh, oh! Spikerush? Maleberry? What a great walk! And a great excuse for exploring the edges of the field!
I was thinking some more about the trips feature. I guess it might work if there were a short list of common invasives to watch for. Who would define the list? Another possible use for plants could be on the genus level. For instance, Acer or Viburnum--those are groups that are sometimes on our lists as we go walking.
You're free to define your own target list, but maybe there's a local office you could contact to ask about the invasives of greatest interest?
5/11/19. Dodge Rd trails, East Montpelier, VT. 0.2 miles today, 1854.3 miles total.
Categories: spring ephemerals
Today I met up with my Saturday morning hike buddies (4 of them) for a short, flat trip into the woods in search of spring ephemerals. I had my electric scooter with hopes of using it to minimize my walking, but the trail was too rough and sloped a bit more than my scooter could handle. Nevertheless, we managed to find some red trillium, wild oats, dogtooth violet, and bloodroot in bloom before I had to turn back. I was quite disappointed at not being able to continue, since I haven't yet found a single spring beauty in bloom this year.
5/12/19. Adamant, VT. 0.1 miles today, 1854.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms
This morning I made a series of sits along the north end of Sodom Pond, driving from spot to spot, then getting my stool out to do some bird watching. I found dandelions and marsh marigold in bloom, also coltsfoot, violets, and sweet gale. The birds were quite plentiful, right from the start. Near the feeder across from the store were purple finch, hairy woodpecker, bluejay, mourning dove, and black-capped chickadee. Also, a belted kingfisher and grackle out over the marsh. A little ways down the road were a pair of geese eating grass along the road. They quietly slipped down the embankment and back into the water when I got out of the car. I saw plenty of red-winged blackbirds, and also another small bird (ruby-crowned kinglet), slipped out of a nest near where I was sitting. A robin called loudly from a tree overhead, and a mallard flew by. I drove to the upper pond where I saw a flock of about 16 common mergansers from quite a distance (my long lens was still in the shop, so it was hard to get decent photographs of the mergansers).
5/13/19. Adamant, VT. 0.1 miles today, 1854.5 miles total.
Categories: birds
This afternoon I sat for a while at the top of Sodom Pond, in my usual spot beside the willow tree, whose blooms are starting to go by. I saw plenty of geese out on the pond, and a robin sang overhead.
5/16/19. Cummings St, Montpelier, VT. 0.2 miles today, 1854.7 miles total.
Categories: invertebrates, blooms
This morning I met up with a friend for a bug walk along the Cummings St trail. I thought it might be flat enough for my scooter, but the trail was not paved like I thought, and it was quite muddy with streams running through it. We made it about 100 feet up the trail, then had to turn back. Next we walked a little ways along the invasive corridor trail, but not many of the hideous plants had sprouted yet. I soon tired, so we at on the rotting park bench and watched birds for a while. I was carrying my point and shoot camera, so my picture-taking was limited. Still, I captured box elder, dandelion, violets, wild strawberry, and colt's foot in bloom, false Solomon's seal in bud, and blood root gone to seed. We had great luck with invertebrates for an early season walk, with a snail, an Arion slug, a centipede, some harvestmen, a box elder bug, a couple of tiny black beetles, and a large red velvet mite (it's all relative!). We found a dead frog in a rut in the path. We didn't know if it just didn't overwinter well or got run over by some illegal vehicle on the path. My friend's favorite find of the day was a northern redbelly snake that she found under a rock. The snake was quite stiff. I picked it up and tried warming it with my hands. It felt like plastic at first, but after a minute or so, it started sticking out its tongue, so it was just too cold to move, not dead. We placed it back in the shadow of the rock to finish deciding whether it wanted to wake up.
5/17/19. Shelburne Pond, Shelburne, VT. 0.1 miles today, 1854.8 miles total.
Categories: birds, bloom
I drove up to Winooski today to pick up my bird lens after several weeks in the shop. Such fun to have my lens again! I went shooting at Shelburne Pond, which eBird noted as a popular birding hotspot in the area, with parking access right at the water's edge. I was quite surprised to find terns there, as well as seagulls and a cormorant. Along the water edge were red-winged blackbirds and yellow warblers. Then 4 geese came in harrying...a bald eagle. The eagle sat in a tree for about 15 minutes, then a second eagle joined it and they flew off together. While I was sitting, I also photographed the poison ivy shoots that were coming up all around the mowed area near the parking lot.
5/19/19. Sodom Pond, Adamant, and Cranberry Meadow, Woodbury, VT. 0.1 miles today, 1854.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms
This morning was the first warmish somewhat sunny day of spring here in Adamant. The blackflies were flying, but not biting yet, much. At the feeder across from the store I saw a goldfinch, some chickadees, a purple finch, and a white-breasted nuthatch. There were also geese in the pond and lots of red-winged blackbirds. I drove to the top of the pond and got some close looks at a swamp sparrow, and just off the shore was a solitary sandpiper. At my next stop was a small flock of 3-6 yellow-rumped warblers and a Blackburnian warbler. I also managed to shoot a blue butterfly and a pair of (mating) water bugs. The Amelanchier shrubs are in bloom all along the north end of the pond--my favorite time of year here--blooms, with hardly a bug. I next parked at the Adamant Church so I could check Adamant Pond. As I got out of the car, a male redstart got very territorial and sang loudly as he checked me out. I took dozens of photos of him close up. I'm so glad to have my long lens back! I also shot a mystery warbler, yellow, but not a yellow warbler. The ground ivy was in bloom in the grass, and also some white violets. A kingbird was hunting from the powerlines over the pond, and I got some nice views of some grackles on the shore. There were also some song sparrows in the shrubs and a yellow warbler came over to check me out. Meanwhile, the geese were playing in the sculpture garden across the pond. I shot a few fish in the water, and captured a calligrapher beetle and a leaf hopper (with my camera).
Since the sun was still shining in the afternoon, I decided to do some more bird watching up to Cranberry Meadow in Woodbury. Also, for the first time today, I had no pain or fatigue despite being outdoors. As I sat in Adamant, minute by minute, I could feel my energy finally returning. It seems the treatments this week for partial bowel obstruction finally worked. Hurray! Still just to play it safe, I stuck to my chair today rather than walking. No sooner had I set my chair up beside Cranberry Meadow than a big pickup truck stopped right beside me and a guy and 2 young boys got out, in their swimsuits, and jumped in the water. Wow! Brrrr! Up at the meadow I didn't have as much luck finding birds, but I still managed to shoot a common yellowthroat, a chipping sparrow, and a least flycatcher. I also caught sight of a Canada yew and some bellwort in bud. I shot some more fish, and I also caught sight of a new-to-me willow gall.
Wow, I've never even heard of geese harrying a bald eagle before, cool!
So glad spring has finally fully sprung up by you, and exciting to hear everything you're finding now. Also glad to hear the lens is back and you are feeling better, what a tough year it's been so far for you!
Brave folks swimming in May way up there. I've not been brave enough to get in any water here yet, and we're a whole lot warmer.
5-24-19. Chimney Rock Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 506 miles total
Categories: insects, blooming
I was on duty so did not walk far from the parking lot here, mostly I walked the perimeter inside an old street hockey court. I found a caterpillar that rolls grape leaves, and a grape flea beetle. The poison ivy was blooming.
5-28-19. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 506.75 miles total
Category: insects
Saturday I went to Hersheypark in Pennsylvania but took very few nature photos. Monday I walked around my yard (while keeping an eye on kids in the pool) and found an ant-mimic jumping spider, among other things. But today (Tuesday) I walked a lesser used trail on the top of the mountain, looking for things I'd not posted here before. Mostly that was two kinds of snipe flies, an ash leaf gall, and white baneberry (which is not very common around here, needs more well established woods than I mostly visit).
5-29-19 Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 507.75 miles total
Category: new, insects
I took Molly to see the "hidden pond" at the local park, as well as the most popular "cliffs" the mountain bikers use. On the way to the park, a bee flew in the car window and hit Molly in the face, just below her eye. I didn't entirely believe her until I saw the big round splotch of pollen it had left behind on her lower lid. Crazy.
As we set out on the walk, there was a painted turtle walking down the trail toward us. but it swiftly headed off into the underbrush. Animals got a little less exciting after that. We found lots of leaf miners and syrphid flies, but also a large dragonfly, a big sharpshooter, the first 4-lines plant bug of the season, a dance fly with huge legs and a tiny head, a big ground beetle that was stuck on its back in the middle of the path (we flipped it back over) and an interesting running crab spider.
Newly blooming this year were yellow flag, birdsfoot trefoil, and reed canary grass. I also found what I think is intermediate woodfern (but I'm not good with ferns).
5-30-19. Watchung Lake, Watchung, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 508 miles total
categories: insects, sedges, first time this year.
Molly and I walked around the edge of the playing field here, along a brook and the edge of a pond, mostly looking for insects. There were so many syrphid flies, and so many of them were mating. We found over half a dozen sedges, only one of which I was pretty confident IDing (squarrose). We also found what I think is European alder, though I'm not sure. And both yellow and blue flag irises.
Animals got less exciting after the painted turtle? But all those wonderful insects! A 4-lines plant bug? A dance fly? So very cool! Great fun looking for insects!
5/20/19. Stone Cutter's Way, Montpelier VT. 0.4 miles today, 1855.3 miles total.
Categories: birds, daily dandelion
Today I took a short walk along Stone Cutter's Way for a picnic lunch on the shores of the Winooski. While I was eating, I shot a small native bee (carpenter bee?), a robin, and a dandelion.
5/22/19. Towne Hill Rd, Montpelier VT. 1.5 miles today, 1856.8 miles total.
Categories: blooms, buds, insects, birds
This afternoon was one of the first halfway warm sunny days of spring, and I was actually feeling well enough to try a real walk. I headed up to the top of Towne Hill Rd to explore some of the side roads on this eastern edge of Montpelier. I found quite a few plants in bloom, including strawberries, chickweed, marsh marigold, Norway maple, English plantain, Vinca minor, garlic mustard, apples, yellow birch, and ground ivy. I found buds on grapes, chokecherry, buckthorn, and red osier dogwood. The box elder was in fruit already. Birds today were a chipping sparrow, some mourning doves, a robin, some pigeons, and a red-winged blackbird. I caught several bumblebees, a native bee, a red admiral butterfly, and found a dead cranefly in the road. I came across some hemlocks in the process of being logged, also a white pine and some quaking aspen. My moss of the day was a Climacium. The only Japanese knotweed I found today was on the margin of a yard with a sign for professional gardening services. Hmmm...I was also quite distressed to find a lawn service poison warning sign. Lawn spraying should simply be illegal. Period. Dangerous for the neighbors, human and otherwise.
5/23/19. Dog River fields, Montpelier, VT. 0.5 miles today, 1857.3 miles total.
Categories: insects, birds, phenology
This morning I met up with my 2 insect-hunting friends and I took them on a walk through the playing fields on the western edge of town along the Winooski. I remember this area being exceptionally buggy last August, but we didn't find so many bugs today. Back in August, the Japanese knotweed was in full bloom and full of pollinators, but today the knotweed was just getting waist high. We found some crawling larvae, white and orange. Also a cool brown tiger beetle, a shiny black beetle, some craneflies, a calligrapher beetle, a shiny green beetle, a lightning bug, a black and gold round beetle, some bumblebees and some syrphid flies. Birds today were a black-throated green, lots of redstarts, some catbirds, a yellow warbler, a mallard, a phoebe, and a robin. In bloom today were garlic mustard, dandelions, and sugar maple. Budding were daisies, wild chervil and black cherry.
5/24/19. Adamant, VT. 0.6 miles today, 1857.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms, road kill
I joined the early morning bird walk led by the North Branch Nature Center through downtown Adamant this morning, fully 20 birders! We saw some red-winged blackbirds, a hairy woodpecker, a yellow warbler, Canada geese, a double-crested cormorant, and an eastern kingbird. Actually, we saw quite a few other birds, but this is all I managed to photograph. In bloom today were dwarf raspberry, baneberry, and toothwort. A beaver swam past the group while we were walking along Sodom Pond. There was plenty of road kill this morning, unfortunately. I shot several dead wood frogs and an eastern newt. The big thrill of the day was a planarian worm, which we found in the road almost immediately at the beginning of the walk. Last year I found one up on Lightning Ridge Rd, just a few miles away, but this is the first one I've seen in Adamant.
5/26/19. Adamant, VT. 0.8 miles today, 1858.7 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms, buds, insects
This morning I returned to Adamant for my regular Sunday morning bird walk. I walked a little ways along the north end of Sodom Pond, then returned to the store and headed up Quarry Rd to the gate. There are new signs by the gate that say No Trespassing. I had permission from the former caretaker of the music school to trespass all I wanted through music school property. But since I haven't met the new caretaker yet, I guess I need to heed the new signs and stick to the public road, at least for a while. For birds today, I found a chickadee, a grackle, some mourning doves, a red-winged blackbird, some goldfinches, a phoebe, a common yellowthroat, a catbird, a song sparrow, an eastern kingbird, a blue jay, a Blackburnian warbler, a broad-winged hawk, and some robins. In bloom today were marsh marigold, forget me not, English plantain, apples, plums, sugar maple, strawberry, painted trillium, red trillium, toothwort, dandelions, and dwarf raspberry. Budding were wild sarsaparilla, blue bead lily, foam flower, false Solomon's seal. And wild ginger was in fruit. I found a red admiral buttery fly, as well as a lightning bug, a shiny black wasp, a small black beetle, and a blue butterfly. I found quite a pile of turtles sunning near the pond, a large slug, and another planarian. Road kill for the day was a woolly bear caterpillar.
So many things you have that I virtually never see: trilliums, dwarf raspberries, chervil, chokecherry, bluebead lily, foam flower. Also restarts, so many warblers, phoebes, broad wings, yellowthroat. I love planarians and don't come across them often, either.
5/27/19. Highgate State Park, Highgate, VT. 0.4 miles today. 1859.1 miles total.
Categories: everything
Today I went exploring in Highgate State Park. There was only 1 previous iNaturalist observation for the entire park (a red fox, from the parking lot), so I figured it was time to go see what was out there. I expected to find a sign, a parking lot, and some trails at a minimum since this is an official state park. But when I arrived at the parking lot I had seen on the satellite view, the lot was marked private property, and there were no signs at all about the park. I had driven a long way to get here, so I decided to risk parking in the lot anyway and wandered off on what I thought was a trail. But the “trail” soon petered out. This park goes right up to the Canadian border, so I just kind of headed north through the woods, shooting everything I could see. I found:
--dandelion, mugwort, Barbarea vulgaris, wall lettuce, herb Robert, downy yellow violet, purple violets, white violet, Canada mayflower, Dutchman’s breeches, bloodroot, Ranunculus, Veronica, Solomon’s seal, meadow rue, baneberry, columbine, bedstraws, greater celandine, garlic mustard, wild ginger, sweet woodruff, showy white trillium, jewelweed, wild sarsaparilla, wild strawberry, Jack-in-the-pulpit, avens, burdock, Virginia waterleaf, bishop’s weed, mullein, bird’s foot trefoil, queen Anne’s lace, cow vetch, purple clover, oxeye daisy, plantain, St. Johnswort, tansy, curly dock, Phragmites, yarrow, ragweed, cinquefoil, wild chervil
--red elder, Japanese barberry, common barberry, black raspberry, thimbleberry, currants, poison ivy, fly honeysuckle, Virginia creeper, fire cherry, pin cherry, buckthorn, dogwoods, deadly nightshade, purple clematis, honeysuckle, staghorn sumac
--white cedar, sugar maple, hop hornbeam, white birch, basswood, white ash, black ash, big-toothed aspen, shagbark hickory, white pine, black cherry, red oak, trembling aspen, red maple, beech, willows, cottonwood, honeylocust
--Plagiomnium, Anomodon rostratus, Neckara pinnata, Thuidium delicatulum, Brachythecium, Leskea, , Orthotrichum, Rhodobryum ontariense, Nowellia, leafy liverworts
--rattlesnake fern, polypody fern, spleenwort, other ferns, sedges
--native ladybugs, deer tick, bumblebee, craneflies, isopods, winter firefly, ants, march fly, mosquito, black beetles, native bees, white moth, micromoths, green bug, several snails
--gilled mushrooms, polypores, chlorociboria, dog pelt lichen, Cladonia
--turkey vulture, black-capped chickadee, eastern phoebe, gray catbird, yellow-bellied sapsucker, vireo, blue jay (feather), crow (feather), and an unidentified yellow feather,
--coyote (scat), gray squirrel
Without a trail and without cell phone data, I was using dead reckoning to find my way around. I was trying to be careful not to get too close to the border. Afterwards when I downloaded my GPS track, I found that I did make it into the southern end of the park, but not very far. And most of my weedy plants were just outside the park. When I got back to the parking lot hours later, a border patrol car was parked beside my car. I told the border guard that I was photographing wild flowers and butterflies. She told me I was allowed to be there, but she asked how long I would be staying. I guess someone needed to keep checking on my vehicle to make sure I wasn’t up to something nefarious at the border. Such an odd place—a park that is not open to visitors, yet visitors who look interested in outdoor activities aren’t turned away if they show up. They are just supervised closely.
Wow, what an odd park indeed, Erika.
5/27/19. Lake Carmi State Park. Franklin, VT. 0.2 miles today, 1859.3 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms, bugs
This evening I camped at the largest (?) State Park campground in Vermont, along the shores of Lake Carmi. This is definitely the time to come here to beat the crowds. Out of the 100+ available sites, only about 10 were occupied, and I got a nice lake front site across from the shower and toilet facilities. How convenient! Lake Carmi is a rather large lake with lots of agricultural run-off problems that affect its water quality. The guy in the next site was there to work on the water quality problem, installing some aeration units that were supposed to change the water chemistry to make the fertilizer issues go away. In the evening, I took my electric scooter on a tour of the campground so that I could see the place without logging too many steps. (My ability to walk is still quite limited—if I walk too far, I end up flat in bed.) There is a lovely bog just below the lake, on the other side of the camp road. I picked exactly the right week to visit: the rhodora was in full bloom. Also in bloom were swamp laurel, leatherleaf, cottongrass, mountain holly, starflower, garlic mustard, hawthorn, golden Alexanders, blueberries, foam flower, and pin cherry. The Labrador tea was in bud, and the dandelions had gone to seed. There was a small patch of Phragmites near the camping area. Birds tonight were osprey, yellow-bellied sapsucker, robin, and common grackle. And insects this evening were a bumble bee and some tent caterpillars.
Sounds beautiful. I've never seen leatherleaf or labrador tea, and cottongrass only once. I'd have thought the bugs would be bad in May in VT?
5/28/19. Lake Carmi State Park and the northern border, Franklin, Vermont. 8.2 miles today, 1867.5 miles total.
Categories: trees, blooms, birds
Yeah, the campground folks thought there were lots of bugs. They were wearing full net gear as they did maintenance around the grounds. But the bugs didn't bother me, thanks to my treated bug jacket. And the chilly wet weather.
This morning I did a short bird walk down by the bog at the campground. I found a white-throated sparrow, an osprey, and a robin. I also noted a blackberry in bud, and swamp laurel, golden Alexanders, and land cress in bloom.
After breakfast, I drove to the north end of the pond and got out my scooter to explore the roads leading to the border. Since I can't walk far, I figured the scooter could let me cover more ground. By coasting down hills and walking up the really steep hills, I was able to get the scooter to go all of 6.8 miles on the gravel roads. And I made it to within 1/4 mile of the border where I had to turn back at a private driveway. On the way back, the clouds started to gather, and then it began to rain, quite hard. Fortunately, I had my raincoat, but it was still quite cold and wet. Trees along the route were sugar maple, elm, apple (blooming), white pine, trembling aspen, balsam poplar, tamarack, dotted hawthorn, staghorn sumac, box elder, white ash, basswood, speckled alder, black cherry (budding), willow (in bloom), white pine, and white cedar. Blooms were dandelion, marsh marigold, Canada plum, chokecherry, foamflower, red elder, red baneberry. And birds were phoebe, mourning dove, great crested flycatcher, bobolink, song sparrow, tree swallow, red-winged blackbird, European starling, American goldfinch, song sparrow, chickadee. There were loads of bobolinks, singing from posts, telephone lines, and field trees. The rolling hills and agricultural fields were quite scenic!
After lunch, I hung out at the only covered shelter I could find at the campground, a roof over the concession stand at the beach. Of course, being pre-season, the concession stand wasn't open, so I had the place to myself. I was wearing every scrap of clothing I had brought with me, even my gym clothes (I found my gym bag tucked under my seat). And still, it was cold in the rain. By the concession stand I saw some organ pipes from a mud dauber. As the rain finally let up to mist, I went along the beach and found some eastern elliptio mussel shells. In the woods along the shore, I went moss hunting and found Hedwigia cilia, Polytrichum, Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus, Hylocomeum splendens, Pleurozium schreberi, Climacium, Leucobryum glaucum, and Porella platyphylloidea. Trees by the shore were beech, silver maple, hemlock, fir, and striped maple. Blooms were goldthread, painted trillium, bluets, and toothwort. I also found a grackle and a black-throated green warbler.
Boy, does this post make me miss spring!
5/29/19. Lake Carmi State Park and the northern border, Franklin, Vermont. 1 mile today, 1868.5 miles total.
Categories: birds, plants, arthropods
This morning I did a quick bird walk along the bog below Lake Carmi again, then I chose a road to walk that had no iNaturalist observations and went right up to the Canadian border, Pigeon Hill Rd. I wasn't sure exactly where the border was, or if I had crossed it. Turns out that there used to be a road that crossed that border, but now it was barricaded with brush. There was still a concrete obilisk border marker, though.
In the bog, I found a robin, an osprey, a goldfinch, a white-throated sparrow, a common yellowthroat, a song sparrow, a hermit thrush, and a red-tailed hawk. Also, a red velvet mite, a tri-colored bumblebee, a confusing bumblebee, and eastern bumblebee. Bog plants were black spruce, bog rosemary, and red maple.
Along the border, I found golden Alexanders, black cherry, apple, dandelion, red elder, buttercup, garden red currant, all blooming. Other plants that caught my eye were white pine, staghorn sumac, trembling aspen, burdock, red osier dogwood, and elecampane, plus ostrich fern and sensitive fern. I found a mourning dove, a barn swallow, and a starling, plus a two-spotted bumblebee.
5/30/19. Montpelier, Vermont and Horn of the Moon Rd, East Montpelier, VT. 2 miles today, 1870.5 miles total.
Categories: things with wings, trees, ferns, blooming
This morning I met up with a friend in Montpelier and we walked about a residential neighborhood inspecting flowers for pollinators and other insects. After lunch I stopped at the top of Horn of the Moon Rd for a short walk since I hadn't walked that section of the road before. Also, it was relatively flat, so I figured I could handle a short walk here.
In Montpelier, we found an Andrena bee, several honeybees, a yellow jacket, a potter wasp, a European paper wasp, a green bottle fly, a flower fly, a squished june bug, and some box elder leaf galls. We also saw a chickadee, a robin, a cardinal, a grackle, a house finch, some pigeons nesting in the facade of a church steeple, and the remains of a dead chimney swift.
On Horn of the Moon, I found garden cress, false Solomon's seal, Canada mayflower, downy yellow violet, garlic mustard, foamflower, and crowfoot all in bloom. Ferns were interrupted fern, sensitive fern, Christmas fern, maidenhair fern, horsetails, and fiddleheads. Woody plants and trees were chokecherry, sugar maple, red maple, red oak, beech, juniper, yellow birch, American elm, alternate leaved dogwood, basswood, white ash, quaking aspen, hazlenut, white birch, honeysuckle. I also found an eastern pine elphin, a tiger swallowtail, and a cranefly.
Add a Comment