Here and There on a Gorgeous Spring Day

Oh man, days just don't come any lovelier than it was today! And doesn't this view of a blue, blue sky through the pink-and-white blooms of an Apple tree just epitomize the perfection of a day like today? These Apples grow in a sunny clearing of the Skidmore Woods, where I went this morning to plan my route for a wildflower walk I'm leading there Saturday morning. (Nine A.M., meet on North Broadway where the pavement turns to dirt. Y'all come!)

I hope the folks who come on the walk won't be too disappointed because the first spring ephemerals have faded. Bloodroot, Trout Lily, Hepatica -- now all gone, or mostly so. But the Large White Trillium is in its glory, violets of many kinds are burgeoning, and Columbine is ablaze. Maybe we'll even have some fern aficionados, which would be great, since the Skidmore Woods with its limestone substrate contains a marvelous collection of these lime-lovers. I just hope nobody expects me to know the names of all the ferns. This dainty little duo, for example. Is it maybe one of the Wood Ferns? I confess I do not know. But I do know I was smitten by its beauty.

At least I know the names of most of the flowers. This, for example, is Toothwort. Kind of a homely sounding name for such a pretty flower.

It's been a good week for snakes. Usually, they slither away so fast I can't snap their photo, but twice this week a Garter Snake has seemed as curious about me as I was delighted to see it. Thanks, little snake, for holding this curvaceous pose.

After planning my route through the Skidmore Woods, the day was still young, so I headed next to Bog Meadow Trail just east of town. There, I discovered I'd missed the flowering time of this Hairy Wood Rush, but I did recognize the plant by its spent flower heads and its general hairiness.

Yes, I know it's not such a showy plant, but until I reported finding it last spring, there had been no record of its existence in Saratoga County. And now there is.

Another plant that is quite uncommon in the county is Nodding Trillium (Trillium cernuum), which does grow, if sparsely, along Bog Meadow Trail. I felt a little excitement when I first spotted this nodding white flower, but something tells me that this is a white variety of the much more common Red Trillium. The petals are not as reflexed as those of T. cernuum are, and the flower seems just too big. I'll have to come back in a week or so to see if I can find others to compare it with.

Sometimes leaves are as pretty as flowers, such as these deep-red velvet baby oak leaves.

Highbush Blueberries were dangling their pixie-capped bells along the trail.

Wood Anemone was spangling the shady woods with their pristine white blooms.

Ah, here's the promise of fruit to come: the pretty yellow flower clusters of Wild Black Currant.

Such a truly dazzling day! These Panicled Dogwood leaves with the sunlight shining through make the branches look as if they were tipped with flames.

Back home again, this White-crowned Sparrow paid us an unexpected visit to our backyard birdfeeder. He stopped by in the early evening, while we were eating supper. What a nice treat to close such a beautiful day!

A Fine Day, A Good Friend, and Lots of Flowers and Ferns

Just look at that sky! That beautiful light filtering through those translucent spring leaves! A perfect day for a walk in the Skidmore Woods with my friend Ed Miller, to check on what's blooming today. One of the first flowers we found was this whole row of Columbine, blazing away at the top of a mossy boulder.

We usually look down on Wild Sarsaparilla, ubiquitous bloomer of the forest floor, but today our path took us below a ridge and gave us a different perspective on this plant, now starting to bud.

I was happy to show Ed my secret stashes of Goldenseal, a plant that's nearly extirpated from Saratoga County. Ed knew another place where they grew, and let me in on his secret.

I'm always glad to have Ed help me ID ferns, although I didn't need any help to identify this Walking Fern, the fern that doesn't even look like one.

And it was easy to know this zig-zaggy juvenile frond was Polypody, since its evergreen adult fronds were lying right below it.

This juvenile fern, however, was not such a cinch to identify. Ed guessed it was Fragile Fern and I'll take his word for it. I was able to recognize the little Maidenhair Spleenworts growing out of the moss behind it.

I also knew that this was Rattlesnake Fern, although Ed would prefer that I call it by its scientific name, Botrychium, since too many plants have the word "rattlesnake" in their name. OK. Botrychium. Also called Grape Fern because of its round clustered spore cases, which somewhat resemble a bunch of grapes when they grow from the center frond later in the summer.

Could this be Broad Beech Fern? It has the right triangular shape, but as Ed remarked, juvenile ferns are notoriously hard to identify. Cute, though.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted an entry showing the dark purple flowers of a species of Blue Cohosh, Caulophyllum giganteum. Today we found some plants that had yellow, not purple, flowers, but otherwise the plants all looked exactly alike. Could this be the species C. thalictroides that Newcomb shows in his wildflower guide?

Here's another bloom to puzzle those of us who depend on flower color to help us identify a species. It's no doubt a Common Blue Violet that couldn't make up its mind whether to be white or purple and so chose both.

And speaking of violets, the Common Blues were carpeting the banks in Saratoga's Congress Park today, right next to masses of Cuckoo Flower blooming in the grass. I couldn't resist picking a small bouquet, they are so pretty together.

Yaddo's Lovely Lawn

Yaddo, the famous artists' retreat at the edge of Saratoga Springs, is famous also for its beautiful formal gardens filled with roses and fountains and classical statuary. But I love to visit Yaddo for its beautiful weeds. There's a vast expanse of lawn below the landmark Victorian mansion, and today it was spangled with many kinds of pretty wildflowers. There were violets of several kinds -- Common Blue, Sweet White, and Dog Violet -- and just hundreds of these tiny Thyme-leaved Speedwells, almost as small as snowflakes and equally as pretty.

Some folks might not consider Pussytoes a beautiful wildflower, but it sure is fuzzy and cute when you view it up close.

Lawn fanatics consider Ground Ivy the bane and torment of their lives, but I wonder why anyone would want grass instead of these little blue orchid-like blooms and their ruffly, mint-scented leaves that fill the air with fragrance when they are mowed.

I'm glad the groundskeepers at Yaddo don't spread the kind of poisons that would kill these beautiful "weeds." I'll bet this Chipping Sparrow is glad the ground is not poisoned, too, since that's where this half-pint sparrow with a chestnut cap likes to spend most of its time, scratching among the gravel.

Of course, not all of Yaddo's wildflowers are weeds. They do have a shaded woodland garden planted with many varieties of native flowers. Rue Anemone was in bloom today, and while most of the flowers were the expected pristine white, one of the blooms was the palest, prettiest lilac.

Another violet was flowering today. This is Labrador Violet, distinguished by its dark-green leaves that look like their bases were dipped in purple dye.

M-m-m-Mushrooms!

What a gift my dear friend Sue gave me today! She knew a place where Black Morels had sprouted by the dozen, and she took me there in person. And lucky for me, since Sue won't eat wild mushrooms, she let me have them all. My husband and I ate them for supper, dusted with flour and fried crisp in butter tempered with a little olive oil. What a treat! Sue, you really ought to try them. (Except then there'd be fewer for me!)

Here's another wild food that Sue will eat, and I agree with her that the new leaves are tasty -- crisp and sweet, with a flavor a bit like green beans. It's a sedum called Live-forever. With a name like that, I bet it's really good for you, too. They're certainly pretty to look at, even before they bloom. The leaves themselves look like green roses.

While picking those mushrooms, we came nose-to-nose with this pretty Tiger Moth caterpillar with the unpronounceable name of Ctenucha virginica. This is one of our spring caterpillars that has wintered over as an adult and is feeding furiously now.

Such a pretty caterpillar, with that yellow and black and white fur. And whoa! Get a load of those Cherry Twizzler feet!

Do you think that this is a face that only a mother could love? Is that why I find it adorable, since I am indeed a mother?

Nah, this Garter Snake is just plain cute, with a face as sweet as a puppy's. Or maybe ET's. A very curious little guy, too, who at first disappeared under a rock, only to pop his head out to look at me. (And taste the air with his lovely red tongue, which I took a couple of dozen photos of, not one of which was in focus. Darn!)

Back With My Paddle Again

My first day back on the water this year -- and what a gorgeous day it was! Just look at that bright blue sky and smooth-as-satin water. Heaven!

The Hudson was still way too raging to risk paddling there, but my friend Sue took me to one of her favorite sites, a quiet fen we could access from the Warren County Bikepath near Glen Lake. Unlike a true bog, which is watered only by rain, a fen has fresh water running through it but yet has the acidic conditions required by bog-loving plants, such as these Pitcher Plants.

Pitcher Plants are known for drowning insects inside their tubular structures, but today the pitchers themselves were nearly drowned by the super-high waterlevel in the fen.

Another plant typical of bogs and fens is Bog Rosemary, which we found today dangling these clusters of deep-pink buds. When opened, the little bell-shaped flowers will be a much paler pink.

Sweet Gale was thriving everywhere, with most of the shrubs covered with cinnamon-brown staminate catkins.

We had to search, but here and there we found a few Sweet Gale shrubs with bright red pistillate flowers. These shrubs can switch their sex from year to year, and sometimes they will bear flowers of both sexes on the same plant.

In a few weeks, paddling around the fen will be made difficult by masses of Water Lilies, which were just beginning to sprout. Although these leaves were still under water, we could sure see them coming, because of their brilliant color.

Speaking of color, this Red-winged Blackbird was showing all of his, flashing his shoulder patches as he challenged another male who had entered his nesting territory. We also saw the much duller females today, who will be nesting low down among the cattails.

And speaking of nesting, Mother Goose was crouching low on hers, hoping I wouldn't see her.

On my way home from the fen I swung by the Hudson at Spier Falls Road to check on the water levels. The boat launching sites above and below the dam were still closed, to discourage boaters from risking their lives (or losing their trailers!) in this cold, fast-flowing water.

I could see that the islands were now partially above water, but I imagine it will take quite some time for the flowers and shrubs to recover from the flooding. Ordinarily, the islands would now be abloom with vivid pink Early Azaleas and carpeted with dainty little Bluets. At present, it just looks like brown mud out there.

In the woods near the boat launch, however, many different plants were beautifully in bloom, including this Hobblebush, with its snowy-white sterile flowers circling the greenish fertile blossoms in the center, which were just beginning to open.

In many places along Spier Falls Road, what used to be little rills and seeps that quietly made their way down the mountains, today were rushing waterfalls noisily leaping and splashing from boulder to boulder.

I couldn't resist posting just one more photo of the charming moss gardens thriving among the boulders this extra-wet spring.

Mud Pond Mushroom Hunt

Although it was rainy and kind of cold, I went to Mud Pond today. Why? "When oaks have leaves like a mouse's ear, that's when the tasty Morels appear." Time to hunt for the best-tasting mushroom there is. So I skedaddled right over to where we had found some last year. No luck. Try again later. I did find some tiny mushrooms though, really wee ones (maybe a half-inch across), bright orange, clinging to a branch of a tree. They did have stems, which can't be seen in this photo. Of course, they don't look like any of the pictures in any of my mushroom books. Any guesses?

Even though I didn't find Morels, I did find some other things worth a second look. Lots of Dutchman's Breeches were growing along a creek, and by now it looks like they've opened their flies (compared to how buttoned-up they looked a few blog posts back).

Miterworts are now opening their blossoms, which will bloom unseen if you don't bend down to take a close look, they are so small. It's worth the effort, because I know of no other flower with such amazingly intricate petals.

The path around Mud Pond cuts midway across steep banks, which brings the walker right into the branches of trees blooming down by the water. I had never been this close to the flower clusters of an American Beech, which usually occupy the air far over my head. There's a female flower in the uppermost spot, tucked under that bright pink cover. The clusters of green buds are the male flowers, which will shed lots of pollen on the air when they open (Ah choo!).

Aha! One more violet to add to the season's list. At first glance it looks like just another Common Blue Violet, but do take a closer look. Those basal leaves are not heart-shaped, but oval. And see how furry they are. Furry stems, too. This must be Ovate- leaved Violet (Viola fimbriatula).

Here's a closer look at those furry ovate leaves. This is surely the teddy bear of the violet world.