Happy May! I've been doing a lot of wandering outside recently, and there's been so much to see. It certainly is a lively time of year! Here are some assorted sights from the past couple of weeks.
On May 10, during a visit to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Sapsucker Woods, I was happy to see a Brown Creeper alternately foraging along tree trunks and singing his sweet song:
And an Ovenbird was singing (loudly!) from his perch close to the path:
The following day (May 11), I spent some time exploring the paths along fields near our house. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to wander, because it's so close and it seems to always have interesting creatures around. (Bobolinks! Orioles! Warblers singing in the woods!) Plus, the scenery is amazing; I love all the spring colors on the surrounding hillsides:
This male Baltimore Oriole spent several minutes busily feeding among apple blossoms:
I'm still super impressed by the deep orange breast on this fellow:
And the view from underneath was brilliant indeed!
I also love the orange-glowing-through-black effect on the back of this guy's neck when he stretched:
Several Cabbage White butterflies were flying after each other in a nearby field, making a weird swirling swarm that looked more like the result of a computer algorithm than anything I'm used to seeing in nature:
A brilliant Six-spotted Tiger Beetle was hanging out on a bare patch in the path:
When I looked at this beetle from the front, I thought at first that it was munching on something; but no, the bulging white and brown things on the front if its face are just its huge mandibles. I definitely wouldn't want to be a smaller bug with this fast and powerful hunter around:
A few days later (May 14), I was in Maryland visiting my family for a few days, and the wonderfully colorful wildlife sightings continued with a male Scarlet Tanager (a female was nearby as well, but she was even less willing to pose for pictures than the male was):
Back home in Central New York, I went for a walk at the Roy H. Park Preserve late yesterday afternoon, where the fields are filling out with new-spring-green leaves:
And the dark coniferous woods are now speckled with pale green as well:
I wandered down into a small gorge to find the loveliest little stream:
All sorts of wildflowers were blooming in these woods, including dainty Starflower (Lysimachia borealis):
Tufts of floating Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia):
And several Painted Trillium (Trillium undulatum), which I don't think I've ever seen in person before; this flower was such a wonderful surprise:
Lady slipper leaves were sprouting up nearby. I didn't see any flower buds, but I'll be sure to come back and visit these plants in a few weeks in case any blossoms do make an appearance:
It's been quite an eventful spring so far. And it's not over yet!
Friday was a lovely (if a bit chilly) late fall day, and I decided it was high time for a woods walk. (How has it been over a month since my last walk in the woods? Not cool! I was feeling some serious woods withdrawal.)
I ventured out to the Bent of the River Audubon sanctuary, where I had a couple of absolutely lovely visits this past summer. The fields are now brown, and the trees are mostly bare, but this place remains wonderful and welcoming.
There were creatures all over the place, but I'll just skip right to my favorite. Pileated Woodpecker!
:) I think Pileated Woodpeckers are one of the best things around, and I so often see them only as flashes of big black and white wings or hear them hammering in the distance. This lady and I kept crossing paths during my walk, and I'm very glad she decided to stay and work on this tree fairly close to me on our last meeting! This is the first time I've been able to watch one of these awesome creatures for any length of time and at anything resembling closeness. I love her black and white stripes, of course, and that brilliant red crest, but now I have other things to admire, too, like the scale-like pattern on her belly, and the small yellow spot at the base of her beak.
I couldn't very well just walk away with such a (relatively) cooperative Pileated Woodpecker right there, so here are a couple of videos of the lady at work. She has quite the powerful stroke with that beak!
While I was watching this woodpecker, a big Gray Squirrel came ambling down a tree a few feet away from me and looked at me curiously:
On another part of my walk, I came across this rather zealous Eastern Chipmunk:
Birds were foraging all over, too, including a couple of funny little Brown Creepers:
And the fields were filled with sparrows. Hello, handsome Song Sparrow:
There's a lot of gray and brown out there right now, and many cool things to see. I'm definitely adding Bent of the River to my more-frequently-visit list!
Today was sunny and beautiful, and I've been itching to get out into the woods, so I headed off this afternoon to Southford Falls State Park. After all, what better way to celebrate the first official day of spring than with a nice walk through the woods?
Did I say "spring"? This doesn't look particularly spring-like!
Even with a thin layer of snow still on the ground, though, the seasons are definitely changing. You've got your Skunk Cabbages in bloom (our first flowers, although they've actually been blooming for weeks now):
And your American Robins foraging in the muddy ground:
I also saw an Osprey wheeling high over the park's pond this afternoon -- these birds are just now returning from their winter stays to the south.
For a short stretch of my walk, I was accompanied by two Brown Creepers. (That is, they kept flying ahead of me along the path, although I'm sure they didn't actually intend to stay in my presence.) I think these little birds are really cool, and I'm always glad to see them doing their creeping thing up tree trunks:
I also really love the pattern of colors on this bird's back:
It looks like temperatures should start inching upward in the coming weeks -- this gradual shift into spring is so completely different (and much more normal, I imagine) than our jump to 70 degree days around this time last year. I'm happy to wait, because I know spring will be in full swing soon enough!
When I went for a walk in Naugatuck State Forest yesterday morning, we'd just had a couple days of rain, and even though the sun was coming out, everything was still soaked through. I happen to love the way the woods looks after rain, with the trees deep and dark and leaves glowing:
And now that fall is really setting in and the leaves are changing, the woods were looking especially showy. I just could not get over the colors on this (I believe) Sassafras tree, especially against the dark mostly-pine woods!
On soggy days, I tend to keep an eye out for amphibians, and I definitely wasn't disappointed during yesterday's walk. I always love getting to hang out with Red Efts (juvenile Red-spotted Newts), and a few of these brilliant little creatures were taking walks along the same paths as me. I hope they didn't mind my camera in their faces!
Efts are just too wonderful. I wonder why some are more shockingly orange than others:
Under a flat log, I found a little Red-backed Salamander, whose adorableness certainly rivals the efts' (although I don't think I could choose between the two):
And on the underside of the salamander's log was this group of European Sowbugs (Oniscus asellus) -- I'm sure I've encountered these creatures before (in the garden, most likely), but I never really stopped before to notice how crazily prehistoric they look:
Speaking of weird things on logs, I also found these pink bubbly growths, which turned out to be a slime mold (!) called Wolf's Milk (Lycogala epidendrum) -- I identified them thanks to a recent post on Saratoga Woods and Waterways:
(Looking at this picture now, I just realized that there are lots of smaller, brown spheres on the lowers parts of this log.... I wonder what's going on there.)
There were tons of birds flying around, but not many wanted to come in range of my camera. A Brown Creeper did come close enough, however, for me to notice how ridiculously large those feet and claws look -- all the better for creeping up tree trunks, I guess!
For whatever reason, I also saw quite a few Woolly Bear caterpillars crawling around on one section of the path. One was munching away at a big leaf on a Mullein plant, and it had already made a very respectable hole -- how appropriate, a woolly caterpillar and a woolly leaf:
On these (not actually very cold) winter days, when I go for walks in the woods, I don't really expect to see much -- many creatures are sleeping or away, and most of the plants are dormant, and those are the things most likely to capture my attention in the warmer months. I enjoy moving through these quiet woods, and I'm always open to seeing things if I happen upon something new and unusual, but I don't set my expectations too high. For whatever reason, though, while I was walking in Naugatuck State Forest this past Wednesday, I seem to have noticed more things than I normally do in winter. Nothing especially earth-shattering happened while I was there, but I think I paid more attention to features along the trail that I often take for granted. And really, the normal winter woods can be exciting, too.
I watched some fun bird acrobatics among the trees. A pair of Brown Creepers (I've never seen two in the same place before) were vacuuming up bugs on the tree trunks near a stream. They're such tiny birds, just little brown-and-white dots working the big trunks, and I think they're awesome (there's just one bird in this picture):
This male Downy Woodpecker was showing some serious skill, too, moving all along (and climbing under) this vine to test every possible spot with his beak -- and yes, this picture is right-side up:
These stark black fertile fronds from a Sensitive Fern (Onoclea sensibilis) stood out so much in the overall brown landscape that I can't believe I never stopped to look at them before:
These strange beaded structures are actually a special type of frond (i.e. leaf) that stands through the winter and contains the fern's spores, which will be released into the air in the spring. An entire south-facing bank was covered with these fronds, like weird flags stuck into the ground:
(As a side note, I actually really love this particular bank. Last year, it was the first place in these woods where I found flowering Trout Lilies, and as the months progessed, its carpet of lilies was replaced with one of ferns, then milkweed and Joe-Pye weed, among other things; just a succession of beautiful plants and flowers all year, and all densely packed together. I'm looking forward to watching this spot grow and change again this year.)
There were some wonderful spots of color in the woods, like these tiny frills of what I think is Turkey Tail Fungus (Trametes versicolor) on a fallen branch:
And I love the color on these Black Raspberry canes -- it makes me think of the plant's berries, which I won't get to sample again until late July:
Really, these canes have the best colors ever:
I did see one unusual thing on my walk. One spot in the path was littered with tufts of hair -- I think some furry animal ran into some trouble here:
The fur was medium-length and fluffy -- I thought it was clumps of down feathers at first. Perhaps it once belonged to a rabbit?
And walks in the woods continue to be interesting, at any time of year!
I knew, when I left my apartment to drive to Naugatuck State Forest this morning, that it would be a cold walk. My first big tip-off came last night, when the falling raindrops turned suspiciously thick and sludgy. My suspicions were confirmed this morning, when I had to scrape ice off of my windshield for the first time this year, and then when I saw several cars (commuters, I presume) driving around with an inch or two of snow (real snow!) on their roofs. Winter, it seems, is on its way!
When I arrived at the woods, it wasn't just cold -- it was frozen. Not the lakes (that will come later), but leaves, plants, and everything else:
Mmm, pretty. Frost makes even common plants -- like the plantains, clover, and wild carrots in the picture above -- seem extraordinary, like they're dressed up for a special occasion. And how cute are the strawberry leaves in this next picture, all frosted and nestled in a bed of dry grass?
Frozen it may have been, but the animals didn't seem to mind. Birds were chittering and flying around everywhere, and there were plenty of creatures to see.
This female Hairy Woodpecker* was hard at work excavating a large hole in a fantastically fungus-covered tree:
Update 12/22/11: I've changed my mind, and I'm fairly convinced now that this is a Downy Woodpecker. I've seen some more Hairy Woodpeckers since I took this picture, and they do seem to be much bigger and with more strikingly large beaks and heads than this girl. So... Downy it is -- sorry for the confusion! (Either way, I still think the pictures are cool.)
Better check to see if the hole is big enough yet! (And I wonder what she will use it for.)
A pair of Hermit Thrushes was foraging for food among the mud and fallen leaves, and this one seems to have found something:
Something delicious, I hope?
This funky little bird is a Brown Creeper:
A little creeper, just creeping along. This bird is really good at climbing vertically up tree trunks, but I'm not actually sure that it can go downwards at all -- Brown Creepers generally creep up a tree for a little while, looking for tasty bugs in the bark, and then they fly down to the base of the next tree and start climbing up again. I think these birds are super cool, and I didn't even know they existed until I started visiting this forest about a year ago. And they're pretty good at the camouflage thing, too:
Other sights from today's walk included a flock of kinglets (Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned) that seemed to follow me wherever I went, and a teeny Red Squirrel chasing a Gray Squirrel easily twice its size. Hooray for activity, and hooray for living things!
Notes:
*I've been getting much more confident recently about distinguishing between Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers -- these two species look very similar, especially when they're not sitting side by side -- but this picture had me second-guessing myself for a little while. This bird's beak looks small for a Hairy Woodpecker, but big for a Downy. So that's confusing. However, I don't see any black marks on this bird's outer tail feathers, and I remember it being fairly large in size, both of which point to Hairy Woodpecker. So that's my identification, at least for now. If anyone wants to correct me, feel free to do so!
