More than 50 plant species are in flower and fruit along the trail now, and below is just a selection of what you can find. This is the time of greatest diversity of flowering species and of floral shape (different kinds of pollinators are attracted to different floral characteristics). One of the flowering plants is spotted knapweed, which may look pretty but is a nasty invasive that crowds out native plants; feel free to kill it. Birds on the trail currently include mostly common species (chickadee, robin, catbird, crow, Carolina wren, goldfinch, woodpeckers), but we’re seeing many of the young produced this year. A wood duck family has stayed regularly at the pond. Sulphur butterflies are now numerous in the fields by Dugway Rd, and in the photo below, a male sulphur underneath is trying to mate with the female above (some females are white rather than yellow). Beautiful, freshly emerged question mark butterflies are out, showing why in the 1800s they were called violet-tips. Of course this is a season of fruit production, with red, black, and white berries, as well as other fruiting structures, providing food to birds and other animals in exchange for seed dispersal.
