April, 2019: 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.

Publicado el lunes, 01 de abril de 2019 a las 12:06 PM por erikamitchell erikamitchell

Comentarios

4-1-19. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 464 miles total
Category: starts with "F"

Molly and I walked these woods near my house today to see if the coltsfoot was blooming yet (it was). It, oddly, grows right in a brook here, but it shows up every year so it must be fairly happy. There was also a nice liverwort in the brook, and some spurred violet leaves are up (though no violets yet)

For letter "F" in "Latin" we found: Ficaria verna in Flower, Frullania sp., Fraxinus pensylvanica (I think), Flavoparmelia caperata, and Forsythia. In English: False turkey tail, two Ferns (christmas and marginal wood), several Fungi, including one with Fingers, Fluff (from thistle and sycamore), Foxtail grass, Fur (probably from deer), Flowers (red maple and skunk cabbage), a (stone)Fly, Fallen leaves, Flaking grape and sycamore bark, Forked branches. Also a Fallen tree, the remains of a Fire, the Footprint of a sneaker, and a broken sign, which Molly called a "Failure to communicate". At any rate it was "Fun".

We also saw a water strider, and the first trout lily leaves. And the barberry buds are open. Molly learned that plant this winter and has never noticed it in leaf before.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-2-19. Duke Island Park, Bradley Gardens, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 465.75 miles total
Categories: blooming, budding

Spring is coming and I went looking for blue cohosh. Other people have seen it at this park, two weeks later in the year and already blooming, so I was wondering if I could find any sprouts. No such luck. Instead I found blooming chickweed, lesser celandine, red and silver maples, elm, and for the first time this year both spring beauty and spicebush. Also popping up but not yet blooming were ramps, virginia bluebells, and trout lilies. Box elder, privet, and honey suckle buds broke, but the hickories, ashes, and oaks have not. Still, very exciting.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4/1/19. Montpelier, VT. 0.4 miles today, 1842.1 miles total.
Categories: mosses, birds

I went for a stroll around the block today after yoga class. It was quite windy and very cool, so I didn't dally. I managed to find a chickadee and several pigeons. I also managed to find a few patches of moss showing up where the snow was melting, some Orthotricum and some Bryum argenteum, both with capsules. I found a forsythia (planted) all budded up, and the melting snow revealed a few dandelions greens, last year's growth, with no buds yet.

You are months ahead of us!

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

4-3-19. Seeley's Pond, Watchung, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 466.25 miles total
Categories: breaking buds, blooms, new leaves, moss, lichen

I went for a walk after a doctor's appointment in this rather over-used park on a wooded hill over a mill pond. Buds are breaking, but the only things blooming were an elm, a tiny bittercress, and some maples. Trout lily leaves are up, as are new mugwort shoots. Viburnum buds are opening. Rose is leafing out. Not much otherwise is new, but spring is in the air and I'm quite excited. We are having Red Flag weather with warm, dry winds, which made walking quite pleasant (and luckily I had no interest in making a fire).

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4/3/19. Westview Meadows, Montpelier VT. 0.6 miles today, 1842.7 miles total.
Categories: mosses, lichens, birds

I noted that the area around Westview Meadows independent living facility is a blank spot on the iNaturalist map of Montpelier, so I went exploring up there today. I guess it's a private development. On the other hand, I've been up there a lot visiting friends. Today, my friends had feathers. I found some chickadees and mourning doves enjoying the bird feeders on the backside of the building. I also found some Evernia mesomorpha, Flavoparmelia caparata, and another gray lichen. Plus some Dicranum montanum, Brachythecium rivulare, and another moss. And a dead earthworm in a puddle. Very windy today here as well, but not exactly warm. Much more comfortable than Monday, though.

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

4-4-19. Echo Lake, Mountainside and Westfield, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 467 miles total
Categories: blooming, breaking bud, animals

I walked along the lake here in a very heavily used park. There were turtles (red eared sliders, I think) sunning themselves on every log, and I surprised a blue heron, who in turn surprised me. A sedge that I think is Pennsylvania was blooming as well as a woodrush (common?) the first of each this year. Spring beauty was up but not blooming. Lesser celandine and sugar maples were in full bloom. Hickory and beech buds were elongating, but lots of things were not showing any sign of life yet.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-5-19 Martinsville Rescue Squad, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 467.25 miles total.
Categories: blooming, spring

They have closed the road between my house and the rescue squad for the next several months. This means that I now get to spend 10 hours every Friday based at that building instead of home. So today I went for a brief walk, in between squad calls, looking to see what's blooming. There was bittercress and my first purple deadnettle of the year. There's an interesting Cladonia lichen on the retaining wall, and mouse ear chickweed was blooming for the first time. Forsythia was in full bloom, and saucer magnolias were just opening. Sand cherries buds are swelling, and their daffodils have not opened yet, though most of them are blooming around town.

While I was in the ambulance waiting for my partner to arrive I spotted a shrew running across the driveway, but I didn't have my camera.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

I cannot fathom spring beauties or chickweeds in bloom! I hear fresh snow sliding off our roof at the moment. The plate of our bird bath just came into view this past week, so we were down to 18" of snow in the yard. It's still too dark to see what fell overnight, though, but no doubt the bird bath is submerged again. That's a bummer about the road closing!

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

4-6-19. Washington Valley Rd., Martinsville, NJ. 2.0 miles today, 469.25 miles total
Categories blooming, buds, rosettes

I walked up the closed road today. They have concrete barriers blocking it, but you can technically get around them, and probably 40 people did so (a few of them lived there) in the hour I was walking. Three police cars also came by, and I had a great time pointing my camera at each illegal driver (though I didn't actually photograph any of them).

Plants-wise I don't think I saw a single native plant in the 4-foot edge of the road that will be dug up to widen it (though there were three galls and an evergreen bagworm, don't know if any of them are native, but probably). Blooming were bittercress, mouse ear chickweed, dandelion, ground ivy, henbit, purple deadnettle, daffodils, saucer magnolia, myrtle.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4/7/19. Adamant, VT. 0.4 miles today, 1843.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, galls

This morning I went down to Adamant to chase birds. I caught some grackles, blue jays, and red-winged blackbirds. Also some chickadees. There were geese out on the pond on the edges were there is some open water. They were making a royal racket with lots of territorial displays and chasing and biting, all very dramatic. A few robins were hopping along in the mud by the side of the road. After seeing the fox sparrows and tree sparrows in the shrubs at the end of the pond last week I was determined to walk just a little further this week and see some more. But the birds weren't there. I hunted and hunted, with hardly any luck, and no sparrows. I found a nice collection of willow galls, though, including the willow beak gall and willow crown gall. And some honeysuckle galls. I had a tough time walking back to the car, though, so I guess I'll have to curtail my enthusiasm for a while. Alder catkins are starting to show signs of life, but no hazelnut blooms yet.

I'm so glad you got to walk the closed road! What an opportunity to do some road walking! 40 cars, though? I wouldn't see that many in a week around here, on an open road!

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

This is why I don't often walk roads! (probably also why I see less roadkill than you do, nothing is brave enough to cross).

We don't get many willow galls down here. Most willow I encounter is black (or something someone planted) and seems to be less gall-y than the shrubbier willows. And I've never seen a tree sparrow (or maybe I dismissed it as something else) I seem to live right on the southern edge of their range in NJ.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-7-19. Chimney Rock Park, Martinsville, 0.25 miles today, 469.5 miles total
Categories: blooming, buds breaking, newly emerged, moss, starts with G

Walked briefly with Molly today, and we found a path I've never been on before, on this, the closest park to my house. For G we found: Garlic mustard, wild garlic, common greenshield, the Green head of a mallard, not much more, she wasn't feeling very well.

blooming was only lesser celandine, and only a few. In a week this valley will be carpeted in yellow. Breaking buds were black rasperry, wineberry, privet, barberry. Newly emerged were the garlic mustard, mugwort, and trout lily leaves.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-8-19. Great Swamp, Harding Twp, NJ 0.25 miles today, 469.75 miles total
Categories: breaking bud, newly emerged, fruit

I got cortisone shots in my back today to see if they will help with leg/hip pain. On the way home I stopped to walk at the Great Swamp but the trail was totally flooded and i had no boots, so I walked the edge of the parking lot and a little ways on the road instead. Not much of interest, just swamp rose, tussuck sedge, and swamp milkweed in the way of things that I don't see often. Honeysuckle, blackhaw, gray dogwood, and privet are breaking bud as well as another small tree I couldn't ID. buttercups, bedstraw, dock, and day lilies are recently emerged.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-9-19. Sons of Liberty Park, Liberty Corner, NJ. 0.75 miles today 470.5 miles total
Category: spring

I walked at this low, wooded park which had paths that had just recently had woodchip mulch spread over them (I'd bet they were chopped up Christmas trees). I took a ton of pictures of all sorts of interesting things: the first may apple, budding linden viburnum and jetbead spring to mind, only to get home and find out my SD card had been knocked loose and none of the photos were saved to it. Argh!

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

How frustrating with the SD card! So odd that your camera wouldn't give you a warning somehow. I hope your cortisone shots work! Tomorrow I'm off to my first acupuncture session. Fingers crossed that it will get me walking again!

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

4/10/19. Rt 2, Montpelier, VT. 0.5 miles today, 1843.6 miles total.
Categories: birds, mosses, epiphytes

This afternoon I took a stroll down Route 2 east in Montpelier. This has to be about the busiest, dustiest, most industrial road in town. But it's flat, has a sidewalk, and few iNaturalist observations. I managed to add a few more. I found some dark-eyed juncos and a crow. I also got a glimpse of a common grackle but didn't get a photograph. Only now did I remember I could have just recorded its screeches instead of trying for a photo. I found some Flavoparmelia caperata on a tree. And some tree climacium moss in the grass. I also found yet another patch of Japanese knotweed and big planting of Japanese barberry, right near some woods.

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

I've got to figure out a good system for recording bird songs. Frogs would be good, too. It will take some practice.

My camera does indeed tell me when it's not writing to the disc, with a little icon at the top of the screen that looks only slightly different from what's usually there, and which I cannot see at all in daylight. Not terribly helpful.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-10-19. Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 470.75 miles total.
Categories: blooming, breaking bud, recently emerged.

I didn't get a walk in today before the kids got home from school, so I walked around the back yard in the afternoon, shooting things leafing out. Most of which were intentionally planted, but they are still interesting. I find IDing opening buds particularly challenging, so it's nice to reference these ones whose ID I am certain of.

Blooming I found: Katsura tree, forsythia, ground ivy, bittercress, willow, dandelion, grape hyacinth, daffodil. The red maple and american elms are setting seed.

Beginning to leaf out I found: lilac, mock orange, the katsura, doublefile viburnum, cranberry viburnum, Korean spice viburnum, the willow, Japanese honeysuckle, rose, crabapple, bush honeysuckle, black cherry, barberry, Japanese spirea, sugar maple, chokeberry, and clematis.

Buds just barely starting to crack open were: redbud. rose of sharon, wineberry, Korean spice flowers, apple, swamp white oak, mulberry, dawn redwood, ash, black oak, wisteria.

Newly emerged herbs included: spring avens (or maybe that's been there all winter and I just missed it), hawkweed (likewise), toothwort (definitely new), knotweed, bleeding hearts, violet, trout lily, and stickseed.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-11-19. Chimney Rock Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 471.5 miles total
categories: blooming, breaking bud, newly emerged

folks north of me have been posting open hepatica flowers so i went to check these, and they were indeed bloooming. Dutchman's breeches were also flowering, which I had not expected. I found the first cut leaved toothwort flower just about to open and several rue anemonies wide open. It was overcast, so even the lesser celandine were closed, as were the few spring beauties (we have Virginia ones) and the one trout lily I found. Garlic mustard and virginia saxifrage were budding.

There is bloodroot here, and someone posted it from south Jersey this week, but I couldn't find a sign of it. There's at least one species of toothwort here that I'm not sure of, maybe C. diphyllum but maybe something else. And the geranium leaves are up though they won't bloom for a while yet.

wood rush is out but I can't for the life of me figure out which species I have, and a sedge that I call Pensylvania, but I'm not at all sure that's what it is.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4/11/19. Montpelier, VT. 0.5 miles today, 1844.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, mosses

I walked several blocks today from the free parking area near the elementary school to the library and back. I managed to catch a house sparrow with cell phone along the way and some Atrichum moss in a lawn. Later I checked out a rock near the acupunturist's office and crossed Rt 2 to see if there were any birds in the Winooski River. Indeed, I saw some common mergansers on a rock in the river, but I don't know if anyone will venture to confirm the ID from the lousy cell phone photo. I found some more Atrichum moss on the rock in the parking lot, another kind of moss, a crustose lichen, and a dandelion, far from budding.

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

4/14/19. Adamant, VT. 0.3 miles today, 1844.4 miles total.
Categories: birds

I caught the best part of the day in Adamant this morning, out while the sun was still shining. There were lots of birds about, including chickadees, blue jays, mourning doves, juncos, and an American tree sparrow near the bird feeder that I watched all winter. Plus some geese on the pond, some wood ducks, and a trio of great blue herons flew overhead. I heard a mystery bird singing in the shrubs. Sean Beckett from the nature center walked by with his wife and identified the call for me as fox sparrows, although I never got to see the birds. And no luck with my recording. Other downtown birds were some robins in a compost pile, lots of red-winged blackbirds and song sparrows. And the first ruby-crowned kinglets of the year. And finally, the alder catkins are open and I found the first hint of a hazelnut blossom, as well as some coltsfoot blossoms. Plus a brown Noctuid caterpillar and a green spittlebug.

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

4-12-19. Newman's Lane, Martinsville, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 472 miles total

This is a placeholder as I downloaded these photos to a different computer and don't have access to them here in MD.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-12-19. Rescue Squad< Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 472.25 miles total
Category: spring.

I had a slow afternoon on rescue squad duty and was stuck at the building so I went for a short walk up the wooded (and brushy) hillside behind the building, in the drizzling rain. Mostly these are very familiar plants; I've probably posted most of the individuals here before. But there was an unexpected flowering shrub with flower buds just ready to open and very small leaves. I'll have to check next Friday and see if I can figure it out. I also found a stringy gall on wineberry I've never seen before, and a lot of ants on a single dandelion flower.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-13-19. Rancocas State Park, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 473 miles total
Categories: emerging, blooming, critters

My whole family (except my son, who's working) went down to our aunt's house in MD on Friday, but I was on duty and ended up driving down alone Saturday. So I took the opportunity to go explore three different areas on the way. This was the first. It's a set of damp woods in south Jersey but not in the Pine Barrens. I got a little lost and finally had to pull out both my phone to figure where I was on the GPS and then the park map to figure out how to get back, and it's a good thing I did as the way I was certain I needed to go would have added nearly 2 miles to my walk.

I was expecting a lot of spring wildflowers, as I would see in the woods north of here at home, but there were not many. A small amount of spring beauty, and the first blooming violets I've seen but that was about it. I found a slug and a spider, a cinnabar colored mushroom that was big and tough, Canada mayflower leaves emerging (they are not up yet at home) and some blueberry/huckleberry bush budding. It budded dark pink and looked like what at home would be highbush blueberry, but there are a whole lot more Vaccinium spp. in south Jersey so I don't know.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-13-19 Supawna National Wildlife Refuge, Pennsville, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 473.75 miles total
Categories: leafing out, blooming, critters

This wildlife refuge is very near the Delaware River, a marshy flyway for birds, but I ended up only walking in the wooded sections (and a lawn by a lighthouse). The woods here are billed as one of the richest in the outer coastal plain, but they are maybe 75 % invasive species, it was sad. I found lots of kinds of small weeds: several types each of chickweeds, bittercresses, speedwells, and deadnettles. there was hickory just opening up and a clubmoss that I haven't figured out yet. But my favorite was a ratsnake sunning itself in a small tree at the edge of the woods, right at the level of my head.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-13-19 Fort Mott State Park, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 474 miles total.
Categories; shells, leafing, lawn weeds

This state park is next to the wildlife refuge and offers actual access to the Delaware River. I wanted to look for shells. The day was damp and very warm, and the river was covered in dense fog, you could only barely make out the other side, but the land was fog-free. I only found one kind of clam shell on the beach here, but also saw raccoon tracks. And there were bigtoothed aspen in the woods along the river, which I rarely see.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-13-19 Nottingham Co. Park, Nottingham, PA. 0.5 miles today, 474.5 miles total
categories: blooming, emerging, unusual plants

On Friday I realized that the serpentine barrens in southeastern PA are very near my route to our aunt's house, so I decided to visit two of them. This park is the more developed, with a fitness trail as well as access to the barrens, which had just been logged last summer (I found out later it was to control pine beetles) it looked awful, half burned and all the logs left to rot, and it's a "barren" to begin with. But there were so many interesting species. I ended up with 7 new "life firsts" a single-day record for me.

Here I found the southern pine beetle's tracks that were the point of the logging, the subspecies of field chickweed that grows in the barrens, Small's ragwort, lyre leaved rockcress, and serpentine aster. Also very unusual for me was downy serviceberry. There was a rust on cinquefoil I've never seen before. and a dock and a rose that were new to me and haven't been IDed yet.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-13-19. Goat Hill Preserve, Nottingham, PA. 0.5 miles today, 475 miles total
Categories: blooming, emerging, unusual plants

The final stop for the day was the other barrens, much less developed. The section I walked was half steep woods and half powerline clearing. It had also been logged of pitch pine the previous summer.

Here I found more lyre-leaved rockcress, field chickweed, Small's ragwort, and serpentine aster, but also rock sandwort, slender knotweed, arrowleaf violet, and low St. Johnswort. Also rare for me were thyme-leaved sandwort and azure bluet. All in all very exciting and I intend to go back again in another season.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-14-19. Gunpowder Falls State Park, Baldwin, MD. 1.25 miles today, 476.25 miles total
Categories: leafing out, blooming, critters

I walked this trail through woods and a farm field to a pond, then decided to follow the path around the pond only to find at the 3/4 point that it petered out. It looked like a deer path would lead me right back where I needed to go. Well, it didn't. But eventually I found my way along deer trails back to the cultivated field and then along it to the original path. Luckily I was wearing jeans, so the brambles were not much of an issue, though I tore my shirt.

I did find blooming bloodroot (first of the year for me) and jack in the pulpit (likewise) as well as hepatica and cut leaved toothwort. There was also an interesting speedwell and Cardamine flexuosa, neither of which I see often. And I found a lovely bright green tiger beetle.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-17-19. Dock Watch Hollow Brook, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 476.75 miles total
Category: blooming

I took Katie into the woods by our house so she could work on her latest "fort". Blooming I found: yellow trout lily, lesser celandine, virginia spring beauty, cut leaved toothwort, a Pennsylvania-type sedge, Japanese barberry, Norway maple, common blue violet, garlic mustard, a sedge somewhat like wooly sedge, American hornbeam, eastern skunk cabbage, and ground ivy. I also found a tiny clump of ramps, a few Virginia waterleaf leaves, and some leaves that look a lot like lungwort, none of which I've seen back there before. Very exciting.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-18-19. Harry Dunham Park, Liberty Corner, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 477 miles total
Category: blooming

I walked in these wet woods (and a bit of mowed lawn) on the way home from donating junk to the huge local rummage sale. Blooming were hairy bittercress, common chickweed, shepherd's purse, Japanese barberry, garlic mustard, common blue violet, spicebush, lesser celandine, Virginia spring beauty, hornbeam, callery pear, and flowering dogwoods were just opening up. I also spotted some Nabalus which I don't see often.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-17-19. Mountainview Dr, Montpelier VT. 0.5 miles today, 1844.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooming, mosses

Today I took I took a short walk around the block from Mountainview Dr. in Montpelier. It's on the edge of town, close to some woods that get lots of iNaturalist action (like thousands of Charlie observations!), but not many people walk these streets. I found a squirrel, a robin, and a junco. Plus some silver maples in bloom--just about the first blooms of the year for me! And some juniper polytrichum moss in a ditch.

Great work on the barrens--7 new species for the day? Fantastic! It sounds like some exciting adventuring!

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

4-19-19. Green Mountain Rd, Montpelier, VT. 0.6 miles today, 1845.5 miles total.
Categories: birds, mosses

This afternoon I took a stroll through another edge of town, near the bike path, but on an industrial road that runs parallel to it and winds through some state office parking lots. Again, there are tons of iNaturalist observations along the bike path, but hardly any on this road. I found a black-capped chickadee, a song sparrow, and a cardinal. Plus 4 kinds of mosses, included Atrichum altecristatum, Brachythecium rutabulum, a little dirt moss along the railroad tracks, and an interesting moss growing along the concrete foundation of a warehouse. I think it's actually a dry rock moss. Must work on my mosses this year...

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

Thank goodness for silver maple, blooming just when one is most desperate for any sign of spring.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-19-19. Tullo Rd., Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 477.25 miles total
Category: spring

I escaped from rescue squad duty for a little while, and walked by the brook at the end of Tullo Rd., part of the linear section of Washington Valley Park. I went about 5 minutes from my car in each of three directions, because I was still on duty and needed to be able to get back quickly. But I did not get called.

Blooming were sassafras, trout lily, spring beauty, lesser celandine, barberry, and violet. I also found (I think) all three kinds of juniper rusts.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-20-19. Washington Valley Rd., Martinsville, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 478.5 miles total
Categories: new, birds

I walked the closed road again to see what progress they've made. Maybe a sixth of the sewer line seems to be in, which is excellent. I saw grackles, fish crows, mourning doves, and a sparrow that was too far away to ID. I was only passed by 3 cars this time (though I also only went half as far). I think people are learning to avoid the area. A big surprise for me was lesser swinecress just four houses away from mine. I've never seen it here before, and there was a large patch of it.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-21-19. Chimney Rock Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 479.25 miles total
Category: spring

I took Becca and Katie into the woods to my favorite wildflower path to see if the bloodroot was blooming (no, but this time I found leaves at least). They did get to see: crabapple buds, spring beauty, trout lily, garlic mustard, woodrush (they didn't believe me that that was a flower), Pennsylvania sedge (likewise), dandelion, jonquil (I don't know how they got here), lesser celandine, cut leaved toothwort, violet, rue anemone, round lobed hepatica, smooth rockcress, Virginia saxifrage, kidney leaved buttercup (not impressed), and wintercress. I was amazed that the dutchman's breeches are already done for the year! We also found a tiny amber snail.

Afterward, they floated leaf boats down the brook (skunk cabbage was most effective) while I looked around further and found field horsetail (only infertile, though, I've not seen any fertile stalks this year), spicebush, barberry, hophornbeam, hornbeam, sugar maple, golden alexanders, and wood anemone, all blooming as well.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-22-19. River Road Park, Pluckemin, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 480.75 miles total
Category: spring.

I walked in these wet woods, not taking into account the fact that we've had quite a bit of rain. The start of the trail was a dauntingly huge puddle, but I managed to pick my way across. It also sprinkled on me most of the way, but not too badly.

I saw the first sweet vernal grass of the year. A big surprise was a red seeded dandelion, already in fruit. Blueberries were blooming, and I found two different kinds of ticks climbing my pant legs.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

The first images I saw when I opened the project today were the ticks...yikes! It sounds like you've had a wonderfully busy week in the woods. Lesser swinecress? Wow! That's a new one for me. Congrats on finding the red seeded dandelion! They are so easy to overlook.

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

4/21/19. Sodom Pond, Adamant, VT. 0.7 miles today, 1846.2 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms, epiphytes

This morning we had more grass in our yard than snow for the first time since November. I took advantage of the actual springlike weather to go for a birdwalk in downtown Adamant. I had great luck with the birds, chalking up a total of 29 species on my eBird list for the trip. I didn't quite get photos of all of them, but a lot anyway. There was a white-breasted nuthatch by the birdfeeder at the corner, some Canada geese on the pond (squabbling over territory), and a pair of quiet hooded mergansers (both females). In the shrubs on the northern edge of the pond I found some ruby crowned kinglets flitting about, and there were swamp sparrows calling from the same area. I think I shot one through the bushes. Meanwhile, up above, there were lots of red-winged blackbirds, a belted kingfisher, a yellow-rumped warbler, some mallards, and an osprey soared past. And way across the lake, I caught a glimpse of a river otter skittering across the ice. I made it all the way up to the bottom of Adamant Pond this morning, where I found some robins, a song sparrow, a northern flicker, a crow, and a bald eagle. Epiphytes today were some Orthotricum moss (O. stellatum, I think), and a red lichen on some bark. The only roadkill today were some drowned earthworms. But I found my first Arion slugs and snails of the year crawling in the road.

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

4-23-19. Hoffheimer Pond, Warren, 0.5 miles today, 481.25 miles total
Category: blooming (and ferns)

I took a brief walk this afternoon as the weather was stunning. I feel like I'm drowning in plant photos and the City Nature Challenge is looming (starts Friday) so I tried not to take many photos. I stuck to actually blooming but got distracted by ferns and their allies (luckily there were only 3). I finally found fertile strobiles for field horsetail. I was thinking I'd missed them entirely this year. Blooming I found: dandelion, Norway maple, spring beauty, barberry, a sedge, garlic mustard, trout lily, whitlow grass, and a mouse ear chickweed.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

4-22-19. Barre, VT. 1 mile today, 1847.2 miles total.
Categories: blooming, birds, mosses

Errands took me to Barre this afternoon, so I decided to explore a Barre residential neighborhood. I ended up walking a cul-de-sac that borders up to the highway, and then down a road past the gun shop to some granite sheds and an overpass. There was an oil and propane filling station along the way as well. Nothing living there. At all. But still, I managed to a house sparrow, some chickadees, and a crow in the residential part. Blooming today were box elder and colts foot. The leaf buds were just starting to open on a lilac bush in someone's yard. For mosses I found a little soil-growing specimen, and then a shaggy lawn Hypnum, H. lindbergii. But I think I read on Facebook that they've changed the name on this one.

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

4-24-19. Horn of the Moon Rd, East Montpelier, 1 mile today, 1848.2 miles total.
Categories: blooming, birds, bryophytes

This afternoon I stopped along Horn of the Moon Rd for a quick inspection tour. I relished this, my first rural road walk in a very long time. Not much blooming up here yet, but I did find some red trillium and colt's foot budded up. The dandelions still no show no signs of buds. I found several mosses, only one of which I could identify, Orthotricum stellatum. And 2 liverworts, much easier to ID, Porella platyphylloidea and Frullania eboracensis. I finally got my little microscope set up on my computer so that I could get the close up photo needed to get the Frullania to species. Now that the microscope is set up, maybe I can get serious about the mosses that I see. Photo IDs of mosses often need microscopic magnification of diagnostic traits. Birds today were a raven and something that got away. I kept hearing brown creepers, but couldn't catch any on film. I found my first sedge of the season, Carex lucorum, which was blooming nicely today. And my first roadkill, a wood frog, a spotted salamander, and a red eft.

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

4-27-19. Plainfield Rail Trail, Plainfield, VT. 1 mile today, 1849.2 miles total.
Categories: mosses, lichens

I met up with 2 of my regular Saturday morning hiking buddies this morning for the first time since December. It was pouring rain and almost 40F, but it still great to be out hiking. We found some familiar mosses, including Hedwigia ciliata, Thuidium delicatulum and Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus. Plus some fluffy Helodium paludosum along the base of some honeysuckle bushes. The beaked hazelnut was in full bloom, but my photos were too lousy to share--the underwater camera refused to focus on such tiny blooms. We also found a dead 6-spotted tiger beetle in the trail. And a dandelion with the beginning of buds, the first of the year.

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

4-28-19. Adamant, VT. 0.1 mile today, 1849.3 miles total
Categories: birds

This morning I went down to Adamant to check on the birds. I started with a 10 minute sit across from the store. Two neighbors came over to say hi and ask what I was seeing. I told them about the osprey that had soared over head just before they arrived. And there were geese on the pond. The pond was completely open this week, after being just 50% last week. I asked the neighbors when ice out occurred. Neither of them knew the exact day, but they thought it was early in the week. One of the neighbors said she had seen a scaup down the other end of the pond. I wanted to go check it out, but found I couldn't walk much further, so I had to head home early.

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

4-29-19. Adamant, VT. 0.1 mile today, 1849.4 miles total.
Categories: birds

I had a picnic lunch in Adamant today. It was sunny but quite brisk, so I kept my gloves on and hood up. I drove down to the north end of the pond and got out my chair for a sit. I was glad I was facing the bright sun face on. Today I saw a pair of hooded mergansers on the pond, lots of geese (about 16), some mallards (about 6), and my first bumblebee of the year, a tri-colored, probably a queen. She seemed to be checking out possible nest sites along the south facing slope above the pond.

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4-24-19 Speedwell Lake, Morristown, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 481.75 miles total
Categories: invertebrates, flowering, spring

I looked for a new place to walk after my follow up appointment with the orthopedist for the back injections and found this man-made lake. It was a stunningly beautiful spring day, and lots of stuff was leafing out. Bloom-wise I was most excited to find smooth rock cress, an unusual one for me. There was also dandelion, spring beauty, violets, ground ivy, and periwinkle. Invertebrate-wise i didn't find much but there were a fly, a winter firefly, a millepede, and a snail.

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4-25-19 Community Pool area, Mountainside, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 482.75 miles total
Categories: blooming, invertebrates, spring.

I found a new path through wet woods on the way home from an appointment in Elizabeth. Blooming today were dandelion, corn speedwell, a mouse-ear chickweed (I really have to sort these out), bulbous meadow grass, ground ivy, thyme leaved speedwell, violet, spring beauty, sassafras, crabapple, bird's eye speedwell.

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

By the way, I just sat down and figured out my walking distances, and I have made it to Callais, and about 20 miles past it. My next goal is my husband's aunt in Charlotte.

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4-27-19. Lemon Creek Park, Staten Island, NY, 0.25 mile today, 483 miles total
Category: everything I can find

This was the first day of the City Nature Challenge (well, the first day that I could get to the city; I was on duty on Friday in NJ for the rescue squad). The results are not entirely up yet, but at the moment I'm second in New York (and fourth in the world) for number of observations and first in New York (and 11th in the world) for number of species (and NYC itself is 11th in the world in observations) so I saw a LOT of stuff and this will be the highlights.

The coolest plant was common cornsalad which I had never seen before and had never been recorded in NY before. I also saw my first bulbous meadow grass of the weekend and my first cottonwood, neither of which is common at home (but both were common on Staten Island).

There was a very friendly (and wet) dog who kept coming up to me for pats and then shaking all over me (thanks!). I also saw a feral cat. Bird-wise there were brants and a cormorant (both not common for me) and my first ever tern photo (to blurry to get to species). I found 8 species of mollusk shells, a sponge, and evidence of more sponges, bryozoans, and polychete worms.

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4-27-19. Marina at Great Kills, Gateway National Park, Staten Island, NY. 0.25 miles today, 483. 25 miles total
Category: everything

I moved on to the place I'd actually arranged to meet folks at 10 for an "iNat meet up". @cbarron was there. (I'd never met her before). We wandered the parking lot area here despite an intense wind, waiting to see if anyone else showed.

Here I found blooming beach plum (lovely), blue scorpiongrass, common storkbill, silverleaf cinquefoil (not blooming), and my first of very many hackberries. None of these are new to me, but none are ones I see often, either.

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4-27-19. Nature Center, Great Kills, Staten Island, NY. 0.75 miles today, 484 miles total.
Category: everything

It turned out many of the folks I was intending to meet ended up at another parking lot, so we met in the middle, and @cbarron came with me to join @sadawolk @margela and @dorigerber .

The funny surprise here was three watermelons randomly left under a bush.

Interesting plants included European field pansy, duckweed and watermeal, my first shadbush of the weekend, and the first northern bayberry of the weekend (both common here but not at home). The restroom yielded a mud dauber nest and a paper wasp nest. I also saw a mockingbird, a brownheaded cowbird and a barn swallow. Live insects included a silver spotted skipper and tent caterpillars.

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4-27-19. Blue Heron Park, Staten Island, NY. 0.5 miles today, 484.5 miles total
Category: everything

After lunch, @sadawolk @dorigerber and @margela went up to explore these damp woods with me. There was a nice, weedy garden at the parking lot, too.

Unusual for me in the garden we found: Variegated solomon's seal, forget-me-nots, celandine poppy, and what was probably northern maidenhair fern. Other plants included probable giant knotweed and it's hybrid with Japanese knotweed: Bohemian knotweed. I'd not seen it before and am not certain. I also saw cinnamon fern, bigtoothed aspen seedlings, swamp loosestrife left over from last year, a lovely blooming willow of some kind (white?) and something that was either hooked buttercup or a sanicle.

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4-27-19 Bloomingdale Park, Staten Island, NY. 0.5 miles today, 485 miles total
Category: everything.

On the way home I stopped on my own at this wooded park and walked around a pond. There was more of the weird knotweed here, I think giant, and mouse ear cress. There was more bigtoothed aspen, and a sweetbay magnolia. And I found the only glaucous greenbriar in the NY CNC (so far). Animal-wise it was a robin, a bowl and doily spider, and a fuzzy wasp gall on the stem of a swamp white oak.

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4-28-19. Conference House Park, Staten Island, NY. 2 miles today, 487 miles total
Category: everything

I gave @tonycullen and @dendroica a ride in to the city today and met @schoenitz and @klodonnell here. We checked out the weeds in the parking lot garden while waiting for everyone to arrive then walked through a park like area and field to the beach, then up through dunes to somewhat drier woods, back to the beach and up along a marsh, swamp, and brook then slightly drier edge and back to the car. Mirko Schoenitz is a dedicated rock and log flipper and we got lots of insects and other critters that we'd have otherwise missed.

Interesting plants I found included figleaved goosefoot, winter aconite, chokeberry, I think 5 kinds of Viburnum, and moonseed. I found 13 kinds of shells, plus tubeworms, bryozoans, sponges, and two kinds of barnacle. There were two fish (rare for me): menhadden probably used as bait, and a mummichog that Mirko scooped up in his hand. We also found termites, rove beetles, and maritime earwigs. The weirdest thing was what might be the gills stripped out of a fish, washed up on the beach, and a spiral of plastic that looked a lot like skate egg cases.

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4-28-19. High Rocks Park, Staten Island, NY. 1. mile today, 489 miles total.
Category: everything

Everyone except Kelly O'Donnell went next to this, one of the highest points on the island. It's mostly wooded, with ponds and a boy scout camp. We had a bit of trouble finding a path that would take us where we wanted to go, so wandered around some, but were never really lost and got back eventually.

This was far more my usual biome and I didn't see many things that I don't see often at home. The highlight of the park, though, was beautiful blooming pinkster flower (that we would have missed had we not gotten a little turned around). Also unusual were three lobed rattlesnake root and wild sarsaparilla. I found both lady and cinnamon ferns. And, thanks to Mirko's log-rolling, a flatworm, a bald-faced hornet, and a red-backed salamander.

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4-28-19. Brookfield Park, Staten Island, NY. 0.75 miles today, 489.75 miles total
Category: everything

On the way home I dragged Tony and John to this reclaimed landfill. John is a birder, so he was able to show me a coot and to tell me that the small heron I saw was a snowy, both new birds for me. This is a grassland with ponds, and mostly early successional species so mainly familiar. Interesting ones were a willow with enormous fruit (maybe bebb willow?) a different willow with narrow leaves and cone galls, and a fothergilla.

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4-28-19. Alaska Place, Staten Island, NY. 0.5 miles today, 490.25 miles total
Category: everything

Today I drove in myself and was early to my meet-up so I stopped at this "model airplane field" in one of Brookfield, Fresh Kills or Latourette Park, like towns in NJ, there is no clear delineation among them. At any rate, it was a field of reed, a stand of black locust, and a lot of occasinally mowed grass with large trees. It was not particularly interesting but I found the first thyme leaved sandwort of the day and some musk thistle. I also took my only clear photo of a live deer here (as opposed to blurs, scat, and hoofprints).

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4-29-19. Ocean Breeze Park, Staten Island, NY. 1 mile today, 491.25 miles total
Category: everything

I met @irag @javiehweg and @sigridjakob at this flat, sandy park chock full of mugwort with stands of black locust and bayberry. At the entrance was a whole flock of turkeys with males displaying and everyone periodically gobbling.

Julie is good at little things that swim in puddles, so I got to find water fleas and blood worms (midge larvae) neither of which I knew existed. I also found some tiny green aquatic maybe beetle, springtails, and water striders.

Sigrid is good with mushrooms, though there were not many interesting ones here, but she was able to confirm the common ones (and one interesting one) that we found. There was a very large variety (I think 5 species) of land snails, which was fun. And I found red-seeded dandelion.

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4-29-19. Roosevelt Beach, Staten Island, NY. 0.75 miles today, 492 miles total
Category: everything

When we got fed up with the flooding at the last park, Julie and Ira and I drove down to the shore at the other end of the park (though technically a different park). This was an excellent choice with lots of interesting stuff.

I found 12 or so kinds of shells (they're not all IDed yet), fish crows, a red breasted merganser, brants, sand crabs (dead) and several other dead crabs, something called snail fur, the first 7 spotted ladybug of the year, and a big moth cocoon. Plant-wise there was new-to-me Japanese sedge (with huge flowers) and large yellow vetch (also with huge flowers). Rarely seen by me were blue toadflax (lovely and blooming everywhere), beach wormwood, rugosa rose, and salsify.

And that was the end of the bioblitz (though I'm still slowly plowing my way through thousands of IDs). I ended up walking about 3 miles a day, in small chunks, go me!

Anotado por srall hace casi 5 años

Wow! What an incredible bioblitz you had! Congratulations! From cornsalad to fish gills and back! And...welcome to Calais!

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

4/30/19. Montpelier, VT and Sodom Pond, VT, 0.1 miles today, 1849.5 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms

This morning I drove into town early for an advertised bird walk at the food co-op. However, the walk was postponed until tomorrow due to rain. Since I was already there anyway, I took my stool around to the back of the building for a sit. And the first thing I saw was a pair of copulating chickadees. They were behind a branch for modesty. Next was a robin, and box elder in full bloom. Down on the riverbank I spotted a patch of honeysuckle leafing out with quite a lot of Hyadaphis tatarica.

Between appointments in Adamant I took another sit at the top of the pond. Today I was greeted by a belted kingfisher and watched a pair of osprey soaring over the pond. There were lots of geese on the pond, plus some hooded mergansers, and a mallard flew by. Then along came a hawk, but I'm not sure what kind. A northern harrier?

Anotado por erikamitchell hace casi 5 años

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