I'm fitting in as many visits to the woods as I can these days. Early next week, we're leaving for a vacation in Florida -- which will be awesome... more on that later -- and I want to make sure I've had my fill of Connecticut-in-May happenings before I go!
This afternoon's walk in the meadows of Naugatuck State Forest brought sunny skies and warm breezes, and several lovely creatures enjoying the sun. My favorite was this gorgeous American Copper (Lycaena phlaeas), a butterfly I don't think I've ever seen before:
Goodness, butterflies sure do seem to love Wild Strawberry blossoms! This little butterfly is beautiful with its wings spread out, of course, but I actually think it's even prettier with them partially closed -- I feel like this creature is containing a glowing fire within its wings in this next picture:
Other lovely sights dotted the fields, like these delicate Sessile Bellwort (Uvularia sessilifolia) blooms:
And big lavender rays of Robin's Plantain (Erigeron pulchellus), a type of aster:
I've been noticing these tall ferns unfurling for a while now, and today they revealed their fertile spore-bearing fronds, allowing me to identify them as Cinnamon Fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomeum) -- what a perfectly fitting name!
Isn't May wonderful?
I can't get over how cute baby geese are!
The Canada Goose nest I found at Naugatuck State Forest last month has now produced a handful of fluffy babies, who toddle around their spit of land while Mom and Dad look on:
I want to give these babies a big snuggle (but I won't).... Just look at those tiny wings!
Mom and Dad didn't seem too upset at my presence, but after a few minutes, the babies made a bee-line back to Mom, and I started to get the hint that I wasn't welcome:
It's OK, I'm going! And anyway, I wasn't going to hurt you, babies. It's probably best, though, if you stay close to Mom until you're bigger -- just to be safe.
Some other highlights from today's walk in the woods include this lovely Green Frog relaxing on a bed of moss:
A little Eastern Pine Elfin butterfly (Callophrys niphon) on some Wild Strawberry blossoms -- what a gorgeous pattern on the backs of those wings:
And [Warning: Grossness alert!] an owl pellet! I poked it apart a little with a stick to see what someone had been eating, and it looks like there are a few small rodent bits in there (two jawbones on the right, some leg bones), and pieces of a big insect of some sort. Cool!
Yay, the woods. :D
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!
Yesterday I celebrated my return to Connecticut with a trip to the Naugatuck State Forest, and once again, the woods looked completely different from when I was last there ten days before. The ferns are huge and covering the forest floor, some of the vernal pools are all but completely dried up (poor little tadpoles, will they survive in the damp muck until the next rain?), and the insects of all kinds were out and about (including the flying, biting kind, unfortunately).
The spring flowers are just about all gone, and the summer flowers are opening. These Ox-eye Daisies and bright yellow Hawkweeds (either Field or Pale Hawkweed, I'm not sure which), both non-native species, were bringing some cheery color into the open areas:
These flowers were keeping close company with plain but pretty Common Yarrow:
In the woods, Maple-leaf Viburnum shrubs were blooming everywhere:
And in the shade near a stream I found this Yellow Stargrass, which I don't think I've ever seen before:
Here are a couple of butterflies that sat still long enough for me to take their picture, first a cute little skipper of some sort (I'm not sure of the exact species):
And this Red-spotted Purple (I think the name might make more sense if I'd seen the undersides of this creature's wings):
There were quite a few different types of dragonflies and damselflies zooming around, but I've only managed to identify this one -- a Chalk-fronted Corporal:
And on a raspberry leaf, I found this surprisingly pretty Forest Tent Caterpillar (a pest sometimes, but apparently not every year):
I did see some birds as well, including my first Indigo Bunting of the year (so pretty), and a Great Crested Flycatcher (a first for me) -- no pictures of these guys, though. This Wood Thrush did pose for me in the underbrush, however (don't you just love those spots?):
And I watched this Red-eyed Vireo doing some serious acrobatics to get a meal -- it looks like hanging upside-down from a leaf got him or her a nice insect-y mouthful here:
As I was leaving, I found one last treat -- the Wild Strawberries are almost perfectly ripe:
I saw tons of these plants blooming a couple of weeks ago, but this was the only collection of ripening fruit I found today. A lot of the strawberry plants have been shaded out by other plants (mostly Poison Ivy), so I don't know how much of the fruit is actually still there. I'm just hoping I'll be passing by when some of these berries are ripe. (And I'm dreaming up schemes for how I might be able to get some of these seeds into my garden....)
So a great trip overall, despite the increasingly gross weather. (It was in the mid-80s when I was in the woods yesterday, and the weather forecast is calling for high-90s by Thursday.... Yuck!) It's good to be home!
There were monsters in the woods today.
I'll start with the lesser of the two monsters I saw -- monstrous because of its size more than anything else:
This Bullfrog was at least 5 inches long -- not the biggest Bullfrog ever, but certainly the biggest I've seen in these lakes. This frog was totally confident in its command of the lake, refusing to hop away even after all of its smaller cousins dove underwater at my approach. OK, so it's maybe more impressive than scary (and I want to give it a hug, actually).
This next creature, though, lurking just a few feet away from the Bullfrog, is a monster fitting the title of this post. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have nightmares after looking so closely at this thing:
Is that a stick poking out of the water? Hardly, although that's what I thought at first. I actually started taking pictures of this thing because I liked the novelty of a stick that looked so much like it had an eye... and nostrils... and an open mouth.... It took me a little while to figure out that the "stick" was alive -- the decisive clue was that it was slowly sinking below the surface of the water as I got closer, only to resurface again after I'd sat still for a few minutes.
I find this picture deeply creepy, maybe because that eye looks so human to me.... I can't think of what else this could be besides a Common Snapping Turtle, and it must be a huge one -- that part of the head sticking above the water alone was at least as big as the giant Bullfrog. There were fish swimming around nearby, probably unaware of the presence of that gaping mouth.... *shiver*
But it wasn't all monsters today, thankfully. I was excited to see this Common Loon in the middle of one of the lakes -- this is my first time seeing one in Connecticut, and the only other times I've encountered loons has been on trips to the Far North (i.e., Maine). I couldn't resist showing this teeny picture -- the loon was so far away, but still so cool.
And the wildflowers are really starting to come up. This is the part of the post where I just throw out a bunch of pictures with quick descriptions. Ready? Here we go! :P
This is an Azure Bluet (or just "Bluets", Houstonia caerulea), so dainty and pretty. Apparently this plant is supposed to grow in clumps, although I only saw this one flower.
Here's Coltsfoot, a plant that sends up its bright yellow flowers before it opens up its leaves. I just learned that Coltsfoot is not native to North America, and it's actually listed as invasive and "banned" in Connecticut -- does that mean that you can't bring new plants into the state, or are they trying to eradicate the plants that are here? I haven't done enough research to have an answer to that question.
This is a Wood Anemone. I've been seeing the tiny buds of these plants in the woods for a while now, but they just burst into bloom today -- what pretty, luminous flowers.
And here's one of my happiest discoveries of today, a patch of Wild Strawberries in bloom. This plant is being visited by a Cabbage Butterfly (I think). I was trained to dislike Cabbage Butterflies when I was little, because they're invasive and the caterpillars are really hard on garden plants -- but if this guy is going to help pollinate the strawberry plants and create delicious fruit (and I mean delicious, way better than cultivated strawberries in my opinion), then I say go for it.
Oh good, with all those flower pictures, I've almost forgotten about the Snapping Turtle already. Except that I just reminded myself of it. Yikes, those eyes....
