May 11, 2025: Happy Mother's Day!

Flowers for mom.

It's very kind of Mother Nature to provide a bright sunny day to help celebrate Mother's Day after a rather dreary week.  That's a Service Berry tree blooming on Sheep Island.  

Serviceberry (aka Shadbush) on Sheep Island.

I'd hoped we would have enough sun to get some of these trees blooming for Mother's Day.  The Black Cherry didn't make it, but the Hobblebush Viburnum did.

Hobblebush Viburnmum

This shrub has two distinct types of flowers.  The outer blossoms are sterile, and likely developed just to attract pollinators to the small fertile flowers in the center which produce the seeds.  It seems every plant evolved with some special trait that gives it enough of an edge to survive in a competitive world. 

There was enough sun to get a few more wildflowers to brighten up the world for mom, including these violets.

Common Blue Violets in a sunny moment.

Sunny moments were the exception for the week as it rained more days than not, giving us almost five inches of rain in the past week.  The lake rose to more to 12 inches above normal, even with the dam lowered.  We'll keep the dam open to get the lake down as quickly as possible so the loons will be able to access their nesting sites which are currently submerged.  This was the scene more often than not around the lakes this week:

A calm, misty evening.

I did fit in a couple of paddles between the showers, taking advantage of high water to explore areas of the lake that are typically inaccessible.  

Exploring a marsh near the Wicwas dam.

There were blackbirds singing loudly from tall stems in the marshes.

A Red-winged Blackbird sings its distinctive song.

I should also mention the new arrivals this week:  Chestnut-sided Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Yellow Warbler, and Blackburnian Warbler.  That's a lot of warblers!

I found leatherleaf that had bloomed in spite of the rain and high water.

Leatherleaf

These plants are wetland-specific species, not bothered by the high water levels.

I'll close with one more almost-flower:

A Pink Lady's Slipper preparing to bloom.

One more sunny day ought to do it - something to look forward to next week!

Happy Mother's Day!

A mid-day update:  I was way off on the lake level.  It's more like two feet above full level, lapping over the top of the dam!

May 19, 2023: Woodland Wildflowers

I'm publishing early this week in case anyone wants to go out this weekend to look for woodland wildflowers.   Most of the deep-woods flowers are blooming now, and by next weekend they may be going by, depending on the weather.  One exception is the Lady's Slipper which usually doesn't bloom until late May, but you might get lucky and see an early bloomer this weekend.  Last week I noted I found a couple of trilliums blooming, but this week there were many to be found.

Painted Trillium

Several of the tiny white woodland flowers are also blooming, including the starflower and the goldthread.  

Starflower

Goldthread

There are still a few trailing arbutus around, but these, the earliest of the wildflowers, are mostly gone.  All of these deep-wood flowers take advantage of a narrow window of opportunity after the ground warms up, but before all the trees leaf out.  The bare branches of deciduous trees allow sufficient sun to reach the forest floor for these plants to collect enough energy to grow and flower before they are relegated to the dark shade of the forest.  They will continue to photosynthesize throughout the summer with what little light does reach them, but that short window is what really keeps them going.  

If your travels take you by more open sunny areas you're likely to see several other pretty blooms growing down at your feet.  Two violets, the sweet white and the common blue are in bloom now.

I love the perfect spheres of dew on the blades of grass,

Also down at ground level, wild strawberry are flowering, hoping to attract an early pollinator to let them set fruit for the birds later in the summer.

A future strawberry in the making.

Another fruit-bearer is blooming as well, and judging by the quantity of blossoms, it appears another good blueberry season might be in store for us.

Lots of blossoms have been set on the blueberry bushes.

Of course, this depends on sufficient rain coming during June and July, something we haven't seen in two weeks now.  

Bridging the borders between sun and shade is one of my favorite flowers, the fringed polygala, which can spread into large patches.

Fringed Polygala

I think it's the unusual color, somewhere between magenta and violet, that I find intriguing.  You might also see bluets and lily-of-the-valley blooming right now.

Lily-of-the-valley

The last flower I'll mention is a new one for me, and I had to work to determine what it is.  Though I found it on the forest floor, it's not one that blooms down low, but rather up high in the forest canopy.

I expected it was a flower from a tree, but which tree?  I found many of these flowers under hemlocks, but I knew that wasn't its host.  Eventually, by looking up flowers of the various trees that grow in our forests, I determined it's the flower of the American Beech; it perfectly fits the description of the male beech flower in the Audubon guide "Eastern Forests".  [Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, publisher, 1985]  The flowers are very light, and with the strong winds this week, they could have blown a long way.

The tiny flower of the mighty beech tree.

The variation in relative size between plant and flower that different species have developed is remarkable.  A trillium flower is about one third the height of a mature plant, while the flower of the American Beech is less than one one-thousandth of the height of a mature tree.

Moving on to the animals, I saw a couple of new bird arrivals this week, the American Redstart the Baltimore Oriole and the Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Chestnut-sided warbler.

These birds tell me that we're nearing the end of the migration, as these birds, based on my observations, are among the last to arrive.  I heard the oriole on the Wetland Loop Trail at Page Pond, high up in a tree with no chance to see it.  Chestnut-sided warblers flit around in the thickets of young successional forests, but its song is so loud you can easily track it, and if you watch long enough you can usually get a glimpse of him (it's always him that sings).  You're likely to see one along the Page Pond Field Trail at the Barnard Ridge Road trailhead.  Listen for its distinctive "Pleased, pleased, pleased to MEET you" song.

It can be hard to get past the bugs, but if you can, the sights and sounds of the forest are now reaching their spring climax.

Singing loudly to defend his territory.

May 8, 2022: Buds and Blossoms

Last week the red maple and the trailing arbutus - two of the earliest plants to wake up in the spring - were on display.  This week things really got moving with a lot more gearing up for summer, including some small but pretty flowers.

Common violet (Viola papilionacea)

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

It's not surprising that the tiniest flowers - the arbutus - were first to bloom, followed by slightly larger blossoms, with the largest ones - think sunflowers - not blooming until late in the summer.  And then just yesterday I saw my first trillium of the year, a purple one.

Purple Trillium (Trillium erectum)

With the early head start on most other trees, the red maples are already forming small red leaves on their branches.

Early red maple leaves.

Black cherries have also put out leaves and are now forming buds that will turn into bouquets of delicate white flowers, and eventually cherries.

Black cherry (Prunus serotina)

The blueberry buds are swelling and will burst out soon.

Blueberries getting ready for summer eating.

That always gets me thinking of blueberry pancakes even though I know I still have two months to wait.

The oaks are always the laggard in the forest, whether it's putting out the leaves in the spring or hanging on to them late into fall.  But they are forming buds now, and some of them will survive long enough to become leaves.  Others will meet a different fate:

Look at that tasty morsel.

No leaves on that twig!

As the compost pile has warmed up and started cooking again we've had some visitors digging in it overnight so I set out the camera to see who our late night dinner guests are.  My first guess was correct:

This nice plump raccoon seems to have survived the winter just fine.

But it also has a least one other dining companion sharing the table.

A turkey looks for discarded seeds.

The turkeys are just picking over the dry plant debris, not digging down into the pile like the raccoon looking for more substantial items.  I guess I need to bury new additions to the pile a bit deeper.

We have seen plenty of of turkeys around the lakes as well as signs of them digging in the leaves throughout the woods; I hope they're eating lots of tics!

Scouring the woods for seeds and bugs.

Scratching up leaves - the dry land version of the snowy egret scratching in the mud in Shem Creek.

Wishing you all a Happy Mother's Day!

Sweet White Violets for Mom!

May 13, 2018 - Happy Mother's Day!

Our particular latitude of planet earth is robing itself in the color of new life as trees burst out to show off their new summer sportswear.  The drab hills of brown and gray, having passed mostly through the short crimson phase, have progressed to the lime-green of emergent leaves.

The lower trees tend to open their leaf buds first, as seen by these beech leaves which have escaped their long, thin buds.

Newborn beech leaves

And smaller red maples have done the same.

Red maple showing its true color before being masked by chlorophyll

Upstairs, the taller trees lag behind, but only by a few days this year as the sudden warm weather pushed all residents along in quick succession.

Tinges of red linger among the lime green

One doesn't have to look hard to find flowers among the trees this time of year, as many are wearing white flowers with their green leaves to recognize Mother's Day.

Shadbush (Downy Serviceberry)

After a cold and misty start early on this Mother's Day, the morning turned bright and mostly sunny here in the Lakes Region.

A misty start to the Mother's Day

So in observation of Mother's Day, here is a bouquet of birds and blossoms that made an appearance this week to honor all mothers.  Happy Mother's Day!

Daffodils at the Chemung State Cemetery

Painted Trillium in the Hamlin Conservation Area

An Ovenbird or "teacherbird" (Seiurus aurocapillus) visits the Harris Conservation Area

Azalea along Wicwood Shores Rd

Large-flowered Trillium also on Wicwood Shores Rd

A Common Yellowthroat sings in the Chemung State Forest

Common Violets are in many fields and roadsides

Love you mom!