Two Weekends of Wildflowers

Everything's changing so quickly outside now! Last weekend, I went into the woods behind our house to check out the wildflowers, and I was pretty well astonished by the variety of blooming plants I found just in this little sloping area. A bunch of these flowers were ones I'd never encountered before!

The Cutleaf Toothworts (Cardamine concatenata) were fully open:

I seemed to have missed the peak blooms on this Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum thalictroides), which was holding onto only a few flowers:

Twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla) flowers danced on long stems next to the plant's strangely shaped leaves:

Patches of Rue Anemone blooms showed up in pale pink and white:

The pink blooms were very pretty:

But I especially liked the white flowers:
 

It seemed like this Spring Beauty was trying to be extra beautiful with its bonus petals:

I haven't been able to identify this small yellow violet that was blooming by a stream, but it was quite a lovely flower, named or not:
 

Speaking of yellow flowers, after seeing tons of Trout Lily leaves, I was happy to find a few plants in bloom! These are some of my favorite spring plants:

Small beetles (Asclera ruficollis, I believe) were also enjoying the Trout Lily blooms, apparently munching on the pollen:

A few other insects were out and about on this sunny day, including this Green Stink Bug:
 

Although most of the Bloodroot blooms in the woods had faded, this amazing patch lit up a corner of the yard:

When I went out exploring again yesterday, I found almost an entirely new cast of characters. Well, the Trout Lilies and Spring Beauties at least are still going strong; our yard is practically carpeted with Spring Beauty blooms, which is quite a lovely thing to see:
 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit leaves and flowers are starting to pop up all over the woods:
 

Big patches of Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) are just starting to open their bright blue flowers:

And I'm so, so happy to see Large-flowered Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum) with its billowing blooms. These plants are scattered all through the woods, and one gorgeous patch even came up right next to the house:

Spring is in full swing now, and I'm excited to see what creatures and plants will show up next!

A May Bird Bouquet

I went back to the Bent of the River Audubon sanctuary this morning to check up on May's progress. The trees have really started to leaf out over the past few days, and the explosion of diversity is only getting more intense!

A slew of warblers were flitting around in the woods and among blooming apple trees, many of them different from the cast of characters who lit up these woods last week. A gorgeous male Magnolia Warbler came close enough for a few pictures:

He mostly hung around just over my head, but I was happy to admire his fancy costume from below:

This fellow was exhibiting some excellent hunting skills, peering under leaves and around branches for tasty bugs:

And every few seconds he came up with a morsel, often a small caterpillar:

A few whacks against a branch, and then the caterpillar was gone (yum), and it was on to the next meal:

A male Common Yellowthroat (aptly named) was hunting in these trees as well:

Blue-winged Warblers foraged in a flowering tree in the fields (this bird even has bands on its legs):

And I was happy to come across a female Black-throated Blue Warbler as she worked her way through the undergrowth:

An American Restart (yet another warbler) was fluttering around in the woods:

With all that gray and yellow, I assumed at first that this was a female redstart, but those black splotches on the face and chest make this (I believe) a second-year (i.e., one year old) male. He won't get his adult black and orange breeding costume until the fall, but apparently he might still find a mate and breed this year. Well, good luck, splotchy bird!

There were plenty of other creatures besides warblers, of course. I was surprised to see a few White-throated Sparrows still around, since I expected these birds to have left for their northern breeding territories by now:

A pair of Black-capped Chickadees were busy excavating a nest cavity in an old log, and I watched them come in and out with beaks (and faces) full of sawdust:

Digging through wood is a messy job!

One of my favorite discoveries this spring is that Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are super common at Bent of the River (whereas I see them only rarely everywhere else). This female grosbeak was selecting twigs for a nest this morning:

And I came across a male grosbeak as he puffed and preened after a late morning bath. I had no idea that Rose-breasted Grosbeaks also have rose-colored armpits, but there you go!

Shake it out, gorgeous bird!

Most of the early spring flowers have now faded in the woods, but new flowers like this Jack in the Pulpit are taking their place:

And this Black Rat Snake (so identified by its black and white checkered belly) found a cool resting spot in this nest box several feet up a tree. Could it have found a meal inside the box as well?

How exciting that -- with the Northern Black Racer of a couple weeks ago -- I've now seen Connecticut's two large black snakes in this same place. And the array of birds (especially warblers) continues to astound.

Hooray for diversity!

Woodland Wildflowers, and Defensive Birds

After nearly two weeks away, I was feeling some serious woods withdrawal when I made a trip back to Naugatuck State Forest yesterday morning. Ah, spring in the woods!

It was a little chilly when I arrived, and many of the wildflowers that I had been looking forward to seeing were still closed, but there were still plenty of blooms around. These tiny Dwarf Ginseng flowers made puffy umbrellas a couple of inches above the forest floor:

The Wild Strawberries were blossoming on a sunny bank:

And a little Jack-in-the-Pulpit flower was taking shape (before this plant and its neighbors had even unfurled their leaves):

These lovely little violets were growing in clumps in the marshy areas and along the path. I think I identified them as Small White Violets (Viola macloskeyi) when I found them here last year, but I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong! (Violets are tricky.)

The blooms on this small bush look an awful lot like Serviceberry (a.k.a. Juneberry, Shadbush, etc.), but I feel like I would've noticed if there were Serviceberries here (and munched on them) last summer. I love Serviceberries. Is this something else, instead, or could I have just missed the berries last year?

The Trout Lilies weren't quite ready to open their petals yet, but the closed flowers were quite pretty nonetheless:

And the Mayapples were sprouting up, building their own mini forest -- I think I see some buds on that one on the left!

Next to the Mayapples, a couple of Red Trilliums were nodding their green buds, not quite ready to open yet. I think these are some of the prettiest flowers ever (that color!), so I'll be eagerly watching for their arrival.

There was quite a bit of bird activity in the woods as well, especially on the lakes. A pair of Common Mergansers was vying for space with a pair of Mallards on the smaller lake, and I watched the Merganser drake chasing the Mallard drake. (I think it looks like the Mallard is sticking his tongue out at the Merganser in this picture. Boys!)

Once the Mallards had moved on, the Merganser pair sailed around for a bit, enjoying their territory:

But of course they flew off to another lake soon afterwards. (Why were you chasing the other ducks off, if you were just going to leave anyway?)

And I happened across something I haven't seen at these woods before -- a Canada Goose on her nest:

She's trying so hard not to be seen, with her neck all flattened down like that. And it worked pretty well, too -- I was standing there for several minutes before I noticed her at all. I wonder if there will be babies on this lake in a few weeks....

Happy spring!

More salamanders and turtles, and the tadpoles have hatched!

It was a very herp-y (herp-tastic?) day in the woods today. First of all, I seem to have found a nice Red-backed Salamander hangout, because I looked under another log today in the same area where I found that salamander last week, and I found this guy:

It's another Red-backed Salamander, an individual with the more usual coloring this time (the reddish-brown back that gives the species its name). This little fellow almost scurried away into the leaves when I lifted up the log, but then it decided to sit still for some pictures instead. I like how I didn't even know this species existed until a week ago, and now I've seen it multiple times -- such a cool little animal!

If I were someone who names their pictures, I would call this next one "Turtle Rock." Can you guess why?

So many Painted Turtles! I love how they're neatly arranged by size, and especially how that cute little dinky one gets to hang out in the front. :P

And look what I found in the pools: The Wood Frog eggs have started hatching! There are still a bunch of egg masses waiting to hatch, but the pools are already starting to fill up with these tiny tadpoles. I'll continue to keep an eye on them as the seasons progress -- they're all going to need to grow up into frogs before the pools dry up in the summer.... I hope these little babies can make it!

And this post wouldn't be complete without at least one wildflower. Here's a Jack in the Pulpit, just sprung up and still covered with morning dew. This is the first of these flowers I've seen this year, although there were many more plants starting to bloom nearby and more leaves coming up all over the woods. I think these flowers are both crazy and awesome.

I also saw some really cool birds today (a Bald Eagle, a Black-and-white Warbler, a Northern Parula (a super pretty warbler that I just learned last week)), and three new ones that I'd never seen before (a Veery, a Louisiana Waterthrush, and a Solitary Sandpiper). In total, I saw 28 species today, a new personal record. All the pictures I took, though, were just barely good enough to help me identify these birds, and not really worth sharing -- oh well!

Hooray for the woods!