What can you see in early summer along the trail? All the photos below were taken May 30.
The most abundant flowers right now are Dame’s rocket and chervil, with buttercups close behind and more species opening up. Flowering shrubs /vines include honeysuckle, alternate-leaved dogwood, buckthorn, a viburnum, and grape.
Every morning you can hear yellow warbler, common yellowthroat, Amer. redstart, catbird, song sparrow, indigo bunting, robin, and red-winged blackbird. I found 36 bird species on my May 30 trail walk, a number that shows the diversity of birdlife along the trail. With the canopy fully open now, it’s easier to hear than to see many of the birds that are present. Nesting is well underway. Check out the two ponds for green and great blue heron, kingfisher, mallard, painted turtle, muskrat, and a sandpiper.
Look for what appear to be white foamy globs of spit on low trailside plants, especially bedstraw. Inside each is a nymph of a spittlebug, an insect that sucks up sap from its plant and blows sappy air bubbles out its rear end to produce a surrounding layer of moist bubbly protection. I wiped away the bubbles to show the nymph in the photo below. The adults are true bugs (hemipterans) known as froghoppers.
There is much more to observe as well. Look for horsetail, a spore-producing relative of ferns, which adds a different green pattern to trail edges.
