After our recent stretch of chilly and rainy weather, I was more than happy to take advantage of today's gorgeous sunny skies for my first woods walk in far too long. (My weekly trips to the beach are great, too, but I miss the woods.) Osbornedale State Park has a lovely mix of forests, fields, and ponds, which was just what I wanted this morning, so off I went!
Most of the animal activity (as usual) centered around the ponds and fields. Red-winged Blackbirds popped up to scold at me as I walked along the path near the ponds:
Canada Geese milled around, with a single quickly-growing chick in tow:
When I was last at this park a month ago, I saw a few geese sitting on nests.... I wonder what happened to all those families.
This Canada Goose was nice enough to let a Painted Turtle share its rock (or maybe it's the other way around):
And even though I get to see Great Egrets all the time now at the beach, it was a treat to see one stalking through a freshwater pond, surrounded by pretty Yellow Pond Lily blooms:
The fields were buzzing (literally) with flying insects. This large fuzzy fly (I'm not sure what species) chased another fly around and then sat and cleaned itself on a leaf:
And there were butterflies everywhere, big and small, including this Silver-spotted Skipper:
And a very impressive Spicebush Swallowtail, its black and blue wings standing out against the pale Dame's Rocket blossoms where it was feeding:
I even stopped to notice a new (for me) wildflower in the fields, the appropriately-named Tower Mustard (Arabis glabra), its tiny pale yellow flowers at the very top of tall purplish blue stalks:
This plant is apparently common in much of North America (and other continents), and I'm glad I finally noticed it. The leaves and stalks are striking, and the mustard-y flowers are quite pretty close up:
In the woods, everything was lush and cool. (Have I mentioned that I love the woods?) The trees have completely leafed out, so most of the ground was shaded except for a few spots of sun. These ferns were making some very pretty shadows in their sunny patch on the forest floor:
I'm always amazed at how well some plants are able to grow in the forest even with so little light. The Canada Mayflowers were still opening a few dainty white blooms (although most of these plants I saw were finishing blooming by now):
Round-leaved Pyrola was sending up stalks studded with flower buds:
And several tall False Hellebore (Veratrum viride) plants were making a stunning display along a stream bank, with cascades of flowers that are actually easy to miss because their light green color blends in so well with the rest of the forest:
I've seen these big-leaved plants in previous years growing among Skunk Cabbages, but this is the first time I've actually seen them in flower. Close up, the flowers are especially cool looking, and I think that green is extraordinarily pretty:
It was certainly a great visit. I would spend every day in the woods if I could!
I keep expecting to see signs of spring in the woods, even though I know it's not quite time for that yet. Just to remind me that winter's still here, the paths at Naugatuck State Forest where I went for a walk this afternoon showed a thin layer of packed snow, left over from the few inches we got last Thursday:
Maybe because my mind is already in spring mode, though, I honed in on the color green during my walk today. There wasn't much in the way of new things growing, but it was nice to notice some of our plants that keep their leaves all winter. As it turns out, there's quite a bit of living green out there among the brown!
The shiny purple-green leaves of Round-leaved Pyrola, for example, dotted the side of this bank:
And this Spotted Wintergreen contributed a lovely blue-green hue to the mix -- one of these plants is still holding on to the dried remains of last year's flower:
Partridgeberry stretched chains of its tiny dark-green leaves across the ground:
My favorite discovery of the day was this lone Downy Rattlesnake Plantain, one of our native orchids, growing in a different part of the forest from where I found it blooming last summer. Its intricately patterned leaves practically glowed from its setting on the brown forest floor:
Isn't this just the prettiest little plant? I'll keep an eye on it to see whether it blooms this year.
The Hemlock trees looked especially green today, making a roof above the path:
And I love the extensive patches of sea-green lichen on this tree -- I've often noticed it, but neglected to photograph it until now:
And of course, what list of green things in the winter woods would be complete without some moss? There are so many different types of moss out there, and maybe one day I'll try to learn to identify them -- for now, I'll just marvel at some of the interesting textures and vibrant colors that presented themselves today:
The only real sign of spring I've seen so far remains the Skunk Cabbage, and those plants are getting stronger by the day, with little mottled maroon-and-yellow balloons popping up all over the swampy areas of the forest:
And what's this? A hint of new-green Skunk Cabbage leaf unrolling as well?
Maybe spring really is on its way after all. :D
Today was another great day for a trip to the Naugatuck State Forest: clear skies, sunshine, and cool breezes; it couldn't have been nicer. The animals and plants were very active, so maybe they agreed with me.
I've seen Red Squirrels in these woods a couple of times before, but much less frequently than I see their larger gray cousins. So I was pretty excited when this little fellow scampered out of the undergrowth and then posed for a few pictures -- it even let me sneak a little closer before it ran the rest of the way up the tree:
This guy was just barely bigger than a chipmunk, and so much daintier than the more common Gray Squirrels. Apparently Red Squirrels prefer forests with conifer trees, so maybe that's one reason why I never see them around my apartment. In any case, getting close to this adorable creature today was a real treat.
And speaking of treats, I've always wanted to see a slime mold (yes, I'm aware of the strangeness of that statement), and I'm pretty sure I found one today! Behold:
Isn't it magnificent? I had just assumed that slime molds were a type of fungi (or maybe I had forgotten what I learned in my 7th grade science class), but it turns out they're actually an entirely different thing! And there's a lot of crazy stuff to learn about slime molds, if the Wikipedia page is any indication -- I wish I had time to learn more. If you click the picture to zoom in you can see the crazy texture on this thing -- it's even starting to grow over that leaf. So cool!
The rest of today's walk turned up some more cool new things, but in familiar veins: bugs and flowers.
There were more dragonflies than ever, but all of the individuals I got pictures of managed to elude my attempts at identification (this is not surprising). However, even though I couldn't figure out their species, I got to see some cool behaviors. This dragonfly, for example, just recently metamorphosed -- it's still standing on the skin of its nymph form (from which it emerged):
And this rather large dragonfly is munching on what looks like a (still wriggling) ichneumon wasp (a non-stinging insect whose larvae are parasites on other insects -- I'm not sure of the exact species):
That looks like a pretty big meal, even for such a large dragonfly. These guys are serious hunters.
The flowers were putting on a nice display as well. Here's a whole bank covered in low-growing plants of the blackberry family -- are these actually dewberries, or can I just call them "blackberries" like I want to?
This pretty (and very small) flower is Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria), originally from Europe but not considered invasive (to my knowledge):
Finally, here are a couple of new flowers for me, whose leaves I've been seeing all winter (since they're evergreen). These plants were growing on opposite sides of the same path and they look very similar, but they are different species. First there's Round-leaved Pyrola, with its glossy leaves that are tinged slightly purple at the stems:
And then there's Shinleaf, with leaves that are not as glossy, and there are some differences in the flowers if you look closely, too (it's hard to see the leaves that go with the stem in this picture, but the leaves directly below the flowers are from the same plant):
Also, a side note: I mentioned in a post last week that a couple of people had apparently seen a Black Bear in the Naugatuck State Forest recently. Well, according to this article, the DEP captured a Black Bear that was in a neighborhood just north of the forest, so I'm wondering if this is the same creature.... It seems likely!
