Blooms and Bugs

This is turning out to be a very flower-filled week, with far-flung excursions planned for the rest of it.  So yesterday and today I hurried off to catch up on some of my favorite places close to home.  My first stop yesterday was Woods Hollow Nature Preserve in Ballston Spa, where almost as soon as I stepped from my car, I was nearly bowled over by the beauty of this meadow chock full of snowy Oxeye Daisies and pretty pink Crown Vetch.

That sunny meadow was so full of just those two flowers,  I had to really search to locate the one I had come to find.  But find it I did:  Spiked Lobelia.

The air over the meadow was filled with darting and dashing dragonflies, and I couldn't believe my good luck when this Widow Skimmer sat still for its portrait, the sun glinting off its gossamer wings and touching its body with gold.

These two flower beetles were too wrapped up in each other to pay me the slightest mind, as I poked my camera into their intimate space.

There were several species of tiny hoverflies zipping in and out of the Common Milkweed flowers, and this tiger-tailed one took a moment to rest on a blade of grass.

As the mid-day heat bore down on my head, I was glad to seek the shade of the pine woods that makes up much of Woods Hollow.

It's under these pines that I know to look for the elusive Checkered Rattlesnake Plantain.  I always find the distinctively patterned basal leaves of many plants, but finding a flowering stalk is not always a given.  This year, I found but two flower stalks among some 20 plants in one area.  Sometime in the next few weeks, those tight green buds will open into tiny white orchids.

Sharing that same pine-needled forest floor were many Pipsissewa plants, easily seen, with their glossy evergreen leaves.  And as with the Rattlesnake Plantain, not so easy to find are the occasional flower clusters.

Tiny flies have no problem finding these flowers.  I don't think I have ever turned over one of these waxy pink blooms when I didn't find it crawling with little black flies.

When and where Pipsissewa blooms, it's almost a guarantee  that Shinleaf Pyrola will not be far away.

I see I wasn't the first one to find this lovely fat boletus mushroom with the rusty brown cap.

I next headed down to the pond that forms the heart of Woods Hollow Preserve, so cool and green and shady on this hot summer day.

There's a sweet little brook that flows into this pond, and its water (which must be spring-fed) is always icy cold and refreshing to my hot dusty feet.

I didn't have to wade far to find American Brooklime with its dainty little blue flowers, one of our native Speedwells.

 *  *  *

Well, today was even hotter and muggier than yesterday, and I really thought twice about visiting Bog Meadow Nature Preserve just outside Saratoga, a beautiful trail but which is more infested with Deer Flies than any other place I know.  Ah, but then I remembered my Tred-not Deerfly Patches, which, as this photo reveals,  saved me from being bitten by these 18 flies.

But not all the bugs along this trail are the kind we dread.   This butterfly eluded me for the longest time, but eventually it lit on a leaf and spread its glorious wings.   If it had closed its wings, it would have looked more like a dead brown leaf.  But then I could have determined if it was a Question Mark or a Comma, according to little white marks that can only be seen on the underside of the wings.  One thing I can say for sure is that this is one of the angel-winged butterflies, a species that will winter over as adults.

Update:  A loyal reader has left a comment positively IDing this butterfly as an Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma), noting the three dark spots across the middle of the forewing.  A Question Mark Butterfly would have a 4th spot that looks like a dash.

This little guy, on the other hand, has underwings  that are showier than the top.  I believe that this is an Eastern Eyed Brown, but there are several brown butterflies that look very much alike, and this one was not about to let me examine it closely.  It's a wonder I even got this close to it.

I hope this little Candy-striped Leafhopper is not some dreaded pest, because I am always delighted to see one.  Have you ever seen a little bug more colorfully attired?

It even sat still long enough for me to get a side view, so I could see its vivid yellow underside.

This tiny blue leafhopper, species unknown, did not sit still for one moment, so my camera had to keep chasing it as fast as it ran away.  It was quite a vivid blue, and if it had not been so colorful, I never would have noticed it.

And if I hadn't been chasing that little blue bug all over the leaves, I never would have turned this leaf over to find this little green caterpillar all snug in its silken hammock.  What a lovely sheer veil it has spun for itself.  I wonder if it's just resting in there, or is it getting ready to undergo metamorphosis?

On the River, Again!

 Oh, it was sweet to be back on the river again!  I can't believe how lucky I am to have such a beautiful place to paddle, a stretch of flat water between the Spier Falls and Sherman Island Dams on the Hudson River at Moreau, where forested mountains come right down to the water, and little islands beckon a paddler to stop and explore.  And now, as the banks begin to bloom, it was time to haul my little Hornbeck out from under the porch and get back out on that river.

It wasn't the nicest day for a paddle on Saturday morning, cloudy and cool with a brisk breeze riffling the water,  but I was eager to check on the Early Azalea that grows abundantly on the little island that lies just off the Sherman Island boat launch.  This native shrub doesn't usually bloom until late May, but so many flowers have bloomed extra early this spring, perhaps the azaleas will too.  But I soon learned that it's going to take a good long while before most of the shrubs on that island will be putting forth flowers again.  Almost very single one of them has been lopped to the ground by beavers.  And not just azaleas, either.  Dogwoods, viburnums, even standing trees have all been leveled by some very busy brushhogs.

I did find a few little spindly shrubs that the beavers somehow missed, and these were bearing nice fat buds, so it looks like we might have just a few flowers, although we will have to wait a few weeks longer.  Ah, but Early Azalea is worth the wait, with its showy pink blooms and heavenly clove-like fragrance that wafts across the water, signalling its presence before you can even see it.

Yes, I was saddened to see the azaleas so damaged, especially after they had survived so well after the terrible flooding we had a year ago, when raging, flotsam-filled waters roared over the island to a depth of 5 feet or more. But I'm counting on their tested resilience to see them through once more.  And in the meantime, the river banks offered many other beauties in compensation, such as these charming little bluets studding the rocky, tree-rooted banks.

I paddled beneath the overhanging boughs of an apple tree and stopped to admire its pretty pink blossoms.

The boughs above me resounded with sweet birdsong, and I could see two colorful birds flitting about the branches.  Trusting my camera to focus on the birds better than my eyes can, I pointed and shot and then when I looked at this shot on my computer, I discovered this beautiful male Baltimore Oriole.

Another surprise was a massive bloom of Wood Anemones that I'd never noticed before, although I wonder how I could ever have missed them, growing in such profusion.
 

Well, speaking of profusion, migrating flocks of Red Admiral Butterflies have been absolutely filling the air of late, all over the county.   My own tiny back yard was alive with them Saturday morning, a dozen or more visiting the Dandelions in my grass, and then when I reached the parking lot for the boat launch site, about 15 miles away, I saw dozens more basking in the sun on the hard-packed gravel.  There were six more butterflies in this shot to begin with, but by the time I clicked the shutter they had flown away.

One stayed put long enough for me to take its portrait.  Thanks, dear butterfly.  You are very pretty.

Bog Meadow Abloom and Abuzz

I just had time today for a quick jaunt along Bog Meadow Trail near Saratoga Springs, which, despite the damp cool weather, was blooming and buzzing as if it were midsummer.

When I first saw these very large hover flies (probably Eristalis tenax), I though they were bees, since they were visiting every bloom in their paths. And they look like bees, with those stripey, fuzzy bodies. This fly was at least an inch long. They don't sting, but their similar appearance to bees could possibly warn away predators.

You have to look really close to notice the itsy-bitsy flowers of Deertongue Grass. It helps to put a yellow notebook cover behind them. I first found the fluffy red flowers last summer, but this is the first time I noticed those dangling black parts. Hmmm. . . . Are those the styles? Or stamens? Anybody know?

I do know that these Y-shaped things are the styles of Partridgeberry flowers.

And these little prongs sticking up are the staminate parts. These two different sexes were growing in entirely separate patches, quite a distance apart.

A really interesting thing about Partridgeberry is that it takes two flowers to make one berry, and both flowers of the pair have to be pollinated for a berry to grow.

Winterberry was just coming into bloom, with the branches still holding many clusters of tight little ball-shaped buds. I noticed that only staminate flowers were blooming today. Where are the pistillate ones?

There was lots of fluttering along the trail, but only a very few insects stopped long enough for me to take a photo. I know that this butterfly is a Skipper, because of its short fat body and the way it holds its wings, but I don't know which kind.

Aha! Gotcha! I chased this Pearl Crescent all up and down the trail and had just given up any hope of taking a photo, when finally it landed. And stayed there. Open winged. So beautiful in its complementary surroundings. Thank you, dear little butterfly. You made my day.