Describe your walk by adding a comment below
2/26/17. Adamant, Vermont: 3 miles today. 3 miles total
Categories: trees, non-native plants, ferns, bryophytes, native plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, phenological signs, fungi
2/26/17. Adamant, Vermont: 3 miles today. 3 miles total
Categories: trees, non-native plants, ferns, bryophytes, native plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, phenological signs, fungi
Comentarios
2/27/17. Montpelier, VT: 3 miles today. 6 miles total.
Categories: trees, non-native plants, ferns, bryophytes, native plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, phenological signs, fungi
2/28/17 Leonard J. Buck Garden, Far Hills, New Jersey: 0.5 miles today. 0.5 miles total
Categories: spring flowers, species I have not posted before, fruit, green in winter, plants I am trying to learn to identify, buds, lichen, moss, bark, weeds, insects, birds, other vertebrates (I did not find 3 moss or 3 other vertebrates).
2/28/17. East Calais, Vermont: 3 miles today. 9 miles total.
Categories: trees, non-native plants, ferns, bryophytes, native plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, phenological signs, fungi
I was struggling with the invertebrates. Then I found the spider under a fungus when I was trying to photograph the fungus pores. Native plants were likewise tough since there was a lot of snow along the road.
3/1/17. Coddington Farmstead, Warren, New Jersey: 0.75 miles today, 1.25 miles total.
Categories: flowers, weeds, fruit, thorny plants, bark, buds, lichen, moss, fungi, invertebrates, vertebrates, grasses, things that start with "A" (I saw squirrels, deer, chipmunk, blue jays, juncos, and heard mourning doves, but only got photos for two vertebrates). Things that start with "A" was fun; I thought I'd never find enough but got 4. I also watched lightening strike nearby just moments after I got back in my car!
3/1/17. Montpelier, VT: 3.6 miles today. 12.6 miles total.
Categories: trees, non-native plants, ferns, bryophytes, native plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, phenological signs, fungi
Ferns were really tough today, which was a little surprising since I had no trouble finding ferns on the other side of town on Monday. Even fungi were few on this side of town. But then I finally spotted my lichen--now I need to learn my lichen families!
3/2/17. Calais, VT: 3.1 miles today. 15.7 miles total.
Categories: trees, non-native plants, ferns, bryophytes, native plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, phenological signs, fungi, things that begin with "A" (thanks for the inspiration--I just had to try it!)
On a whim, I wandered out onto the VAST trails today. Unfortunately, I left my walking stick in the car. I really missed it on the ice, and when the coyote tracks looked fresh, too fresh for comfort.
3/2/17. Nomehegan and Lenape Parks, Cranford, New Jersey. 1.5 miles today, 2.25 miles total.
Categories: flowers, weeds, fruit, buds, bark, vertebrates, invertebrates, thorny plants, moss, lichen, grasses, fungi, Things that start with "B".
B was fun, and when I got home I found I'd actually gotten a lot more Bs than I realized. Fungi were hard, and I did not find all the grasses. Luckily there was a building where I parked with a ton of old cobwebs full of insects or invertebrates would have been impossible on this cold, extremely windy day.
3/3/17. Dock Watch Hollow, Warren, New Jersey. 0.75 miles today, 3 miles total.
Categories: flowers, weeds, fruit, buds, bark, grasses, lichen, moss, fungi, ferns, vertebrates, invertebrates, things that start with "C".
I walked here to see if the Coltsfoot was blooming yet, but it wasn't. Only found one flower, one fungus, and two grasses. Not a single animal of any kind. But lots of other stuff.
3/3/17: Calais, VT: 2.9 miles today, 18.6 miles total.
Categories: trees, non-native plants, ferns, bryophytes, native plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, phenological signs, fungi, things that begin with "B"
A very brisk walk down Wheeler road with a short diversion onto the VAST trail. Found a good number of tracks in the woods crossing the VAST trail. Lots of coyote, and something else with largish feet leaving tracks in groups of 4s.
3/4/17: East Montpelier and Calais, VT: 2.8 miles today, 20.8 miles total.
Categories: trees, non-native plants, ferns, bryophytes, native plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, phenological signs, fungi, things that begin with "C"
Started off with my regular Saturday morning hiking group exploring the East Montpelier trail system. I finished up on my own on a section of VAST trail near my house in Calais. I'm guessing that VAST trails may only be open for another few days, so I need to make the most of them while they're open. Lots of tracks today in the fresh snow. Everything but coyote, on the day I was looking for things whose names start with "c".
3/4/17. Delaware-Raritan Canal, South Bound Brook, New Jersey. 0.5 miles today, 3.5 miles total
Categories: weed, flower, fruit, thorny, bark , bud, moss, fern, grass, lichen, vertebrates, invertebrates, Starts with "D".
I went here for Draba verna and found it. Found a fern, too, which surprised me here. Grasses, and vertebrates were scarce. Very cold and windy had me turning back early.
3/5/17. Adamant, Vermont: 3.2 miles today, 23 miles total.
Categories: trees, non-native plants, ferns, bryophytes, native plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, phenological signs, fungi, things that begin with "D"
Great tracking conditions today--1/2" of fresh snow over ice. I was looking for things whose names start with "d", and found all kinds of mammal tracks, except deer. I was mostly walking in the East Montpelier Town Forest. I had a hard time finding non-native plants there--good news for the forest!
3/5/17 Ten Eyck Park, North Branch, New Jersey: 1.25 miles today, 4.75 miles total.
Categories: Starts with "E", thorny, flowers, weed, fruit, grass, bud, bark, lichen, moss, vertebrates, invertebrates
I saw several birds, including my first ever woodcock, but I only got photos of two. Didn't even try to do ferns.
3/6/17. Montpelier, Vermont. 3.7 miles today, 30.7 miles total.
Categories: trees, non-native plants, ferns, bryophytes, native plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, phenological signs, fungi, things that begin with "e".
I found a woodchuck (not quite a woodcock!), or rather, a laminated photograph of one that had been left in the woods. And some tracks that might have belonged to one, if woodchucks are up yet. This was in an area of town I had never walked in before. I'm finding quite a few wooded tracks that are entirely new to me, even though I've lived here 20 years.
3/6/17. Top of the World Park, Green Brook, NJ: 0.25 miles today, 5.0 miles total.
Categories: Things that begin with "F", invasive herbaceous dicots, native herbaceous dicots, invasive woody plants, native woody plants, flowers, buds, bark, fruit, thorny, grass, moss, lichen, fungi, vertebrates.
Top of the World is a heck of an elaborate name for a basic ball field and wooded playground. My bad knee was hurting so I kept it short today. Tried a new thing, separating natives from invasives. The invasives won in the herbs, but the natives won in the woody plants. "F" would never have worked if not for the Latin names. Once again, fungi were scarce and I didn't find any invertebrates or ferns.
3/7/17. Calais, Vermont: 2.8 miles today, 33.5 miles total.
Categories: trees, non-native plants, ferns, bryophytes, native plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, phenological signs, fungi, things that begin with "e".
Walked home from Town Meeting today, taking one of the main roads in town since there was an ice storm--a slightly less slippery than on the back roads or through the woods. I didn't meet my "f" quota--I went looking for Frullania in a mature cedar swamp with the hopes of finding F. selwynii, but it was dark and I shot a bad specimen of Radula complanata by mistake. I'll try to get more creative with my categories once the snow melts.
3/7/17. Phillips Field, Watchung, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 5.5 miles total.
Categories: Things that start with "G", flowers, thorny plants, buds, bark, fruit, native herbaceous, invasive herbaceous, native woody, invasive woody, grasses, moss, lichen, fungi, invertebrates, vertebrates.
Got out for half an hour in between rainstorms and was surprised at the variety along the edges of a local ballfield. Animals of any kind were scarce, fungi were difficult as well, and invasives beat out natives by a lot.
3/8/17. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 6.5 miles total.
Categories: Starts with "H", flowers, thorny plants, buds, bark, fruit, native herbaceous dicots, invasive herbaceous, native woody invasive woody, grasses, moss, ferns, lichen, fungi, invertebrates, vertebrates.
Natives squeaked ahead of invasives here, which was nice to see. Found the first blooming lesser celandine of the year. I heard frogs and saw birds, but no photos, and lichen and ferns were very scarce.
3/8/17. Calais, Vermont. 3 miles today. 36.5 miles total.
Categories: trees, non-native plants, ferns, bryophytes, native plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, phenological signs, fungi, things that begin with "g".
Took a ridge walk in the bright sun, but the skies clouded over, the wind picked up, and drops of ice/snow began to fall. I didn't meet my quotas for "G" or invertebrates. I'll try "G" again tomorrow.
3/9/17. East Montpelier, Vermont. 3 miles today. 39.5 miles total.
Categories: trees, non-native plants, ferns, bryophytes, native plants, vertebrates, invertebrates, phenological signs, fungi, things that begin with "g", fruits.
Chose a new route today that took me past the area's largest industrial farm. Not very much biodiversity visible in the fields surrounding the farms. More once I got back into rural-residential land. Tried to find fleshy fruits today. The closest I got was a rosehip, but the bush was planted.
3/9/17 Watchung Reservation, Mountainside, NJ. 0.5 miles today. 7.0 mi total
Categories: starts with I, flowers, invasives and natives, buds, bark, lichen, moss, ferns, grasses.
Walked a trail today that I haven't walked since 1991. Not much has changed, from what I remember, except now I know how to ID so many more things.
3/10/17. Calais, Vermont. 3 miles today. 42.5 miles total.
Categories: ferns, native plants, phenology, bark, red, white, leaves, photo contains people, photo contains domestic animals
Got chased by a dog today for the 1st time in a couple years. Guess the owners never heard it barking or me yelling with their windows all buttoned up tight. I can't wait to get back into the real woods where there's fewer dogs.
3/10/17 no walk today; doctor's appointment followed by rescue squad duty and now it's too dark for photography. And it snowed all day. 7.0 miles total.
3/11/17. East Montpelier, VT. 1.9 miles today, 43.4 miles total.
Categories: opposite leaves, alternative leaves, lichens, blue, fungi, edible, evergreen, landscape, vines.
Saturday morning hike with my buddies--temps hovering around 0F. We were glad to get into the woods and off the windy fields. Found everything but the vines--no vines at all today. Almost accepted a frazzled Gallium strand as a vine, but decided to wait for a better viney day. (I don't think I'd know jimsonweed if it bit me. We are fortunate not have much of it around here.)
3/11/17. Hoffheimer Mausoleum, Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 7.25 total
Categories: starts with J, flowering, thorny, native and invasive herbs and woody plants, lichen, fungi, bark, fruit
Cold and windy (and snowy) Just walked enough to get my "Js" and come back again. I picked the mausoleum because I knew there was a ton of jimsonweed.
3/12/17 morning. Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today. 7.5 miles total.
Categories: Starts with K, flowers, buds, bark, fruit, thorny, invasive, native, lichen.
I walked here because I knew there was Knotweed and Black Knot (also Koelreuteria and Knotgrass, but neither was identifiable in winter). K is a very difficult letter!
3/12/17. Anse Noir, Martinique. 0.8 miles today, 45.2 miles total.
Categories: ferns, phenology, vertebrate, trash appears in photo, things that begin with "h", invertebrate, white, alternate leaves, people in photo, thorns
Travel day--I only had time for a brief meander before evening. I decided to choose my categories randomly for a while, using a random number generator to pick 10 out of about 35. In the random set for today, I got "name starts with...h". I don't know the names of anything here in Martinique, but I did manage to shoot a hummingbird. Also had trouble finding ferns. But no trouble with trash, sadly.
3/12/17 afternoon. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.75 miles this afternoon, 8.25 total.
Categories: Starts with L, flowers, buds, bark, fruit, thorny, native, invasive, lichen.
I took a break from helping my kids with homework to take a second walk this afternoon. Cold but lovely, and L is much easier than K. I realized that this is one of the older parks in the area, and even so, if they removed all the non-native vegetation there'd hardly be anything growing here. (I left out a walk on Thursday and had to edit all my comments to fix it)
3-13-17 Washington Valley Park, Bridgewater, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 8.75 miles total.
Categories: Starts with M, bark, ferns, invasive herbs
Made sure to get a walk in today as 2 feet of snow are expected tomorrow. Martinique sounds fantastic about now. I picked only 4 categories to look for and liked that better, but I'm too controlling to use a random number generator to do it; I made a schedule. Only found one fern. Walked a trail I haven't been on for about a year, and found Neptune (they have a scale model of the universe in this park; this was about 3.3 miles from the "Sun").
3-17-17. Anse Noir, Martinique. 0.5 miles today, 45.7 miles total.
Categories: bryophytes, sedges, white, fruit, lichens, grasses, alternate leaves, phenology, evergreen, domestic animals in the photo
Short stroll around Anse Noir beach parking lot today with my birding lens. I know very little about the plants here, so I had trouble distinguishing the evergreens from the leaf shedders (dry season shedders, not winter shedders). I also had trouble with sedges, but I think I found one. Looking for items from the categories seems to be helping me turn on my "searching mind". It led me to finding the mangrove cuckoo, and two yellow warblers. I had seen the cuckoo near the same location before, but the warblers were a big surprise--if I had not been searching for lichens and domestic animals I don't think I would have seen them at all. Meanwhile, our hosts think they are flying to New York tomorrow. They have no concept of snow, or that their travel plans may be disrupted. It will be an adventure!
3-14-17. No walk today. 8.75 total.
We've gotten about 1/30 of the driveway done and it's 3 PM. Walking is not happening. Even though there's only about 8 inches out there and we have an extra hour of daylight. Flying into New York is also not happening. I believe all the airports are still closed, and the winds are impressive. I did spot 16 species of birds and a squirrel on my feeders today, however.
3-14-17. Anse Noir, Martinique. 0.9 miles today, 46.6 miles total.
Categories: red, invertebrate, phenology, trees, landscape, people in photo, things that begin with "i", edible, pollinators, lichens.
I had fun with red and surprised myself with edibles. I didn't think I knew any wild edibles here, but out popped a wild pomegranate on the edge of a chasm. Finding things that begin with "i" was quite difficult since I don't the names of hardly any plants here. I finally settled on an Indian mango as one example, although our host said he planted it from seed 4 years ago (now a 30 foot tree, bearing for the 1st time). Our host had time to show us his fruit trees this afternoon since he didn't make it to New York this morning. We are now trying to explain the concept of boots to him since he plans to try to leave for New York on Thursday.
3-15-17. Anse Noir and Anse Dufour, Martinique. 2 miles today, 48.6 miles total.
Categories: circles, alternate, phenology, white, sedges, graminoids, toxic, evergreen, non-natives, grasses
After getting the list from my random category generator I decided to head up the road in hopes of finding plenty of grasses and sedges. To my surprise, the diversity in graminoids was somewhat limited, at least to my beginner eyes. To me, being confronted by all these new plants feels like learning a new language. At first, everything is a jumble, and I can't figure out where one plant ends and the next begins. Using the categories seems to help me focus on a just a few details at a time. I'm trying to figure out what might be evergreen, and which plants have alternate leaves. Toxic--that was a good one--makes me try to recognize what might be in families that I know. Perhaps I found a Solanacea today...
3-16-17 Maplewood, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 9.25 miles total
Categories: Starts with N, buds, fungi, invasive woody
Slushy snow froze solid, along with a lot of lovely black ice, so walking has not been good. I managed a little around a downtown I rarely visit, and got one letter N, two sets of buds, no fungi, but 4 invasive woody plants. Looking forward to spring, and having fun trying to figure out what is what in all those Martinique pictures.
3-16-17. Anse Noir and Anse Dufour, Martinique. 0.9 miles today, 49.5 miles total.
Categories: bloom, bryophyte, red, graminoids, bark, fungus, invertebrate, pollinators, opposite, vines
The category list looked easy today, but I chose a trail up the hillside in back of our campground that was difficult in hopes of seeing a yellow warbler. I was blessed with at least 4 yellow warblers and an unknown bird with a black back and white belly. But my "easy" categories didn't go so well--too much birding. When we were here in January, the hillside was bursting with red pom-pom flowers and buzzing with hummers, bananaquits and other birds. Today there was hardly a red flower to be found, and the only hummers were buzzing by briefly to check me out. A carib grackle kept up a constant pish which made the other birds hard to hear, but his pishing is what called out the warblers. A green heron was calling in the brush somewhere but I never spotted it. The surprise of the day was that bryophyte #2 turned out to be a liverwort, not a moss when I saw it in close up on the computer. It looked like a moss, it felt like a moss, but seen close up it certainly was a liverwort. Hope your snow and ice melt soon!
3-17-17. Crim Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 9.75 miles total.
Categories: Starts with O, buds, flowers, lichen, native herbaceous.
Walked at a small park, partly in 4x4 tracks, partly on a paved driveway, and partly on old snow that would annoyingly hold my weight for a second and then break through. But I found tons of "Os", and at least three in each of my categories, and I felt like I was finally able to really get out after this darned "blizzard". Found two birds when I wasn't looking for any, too. And a whole flock of Public Works trucks; apparently they decided to meet in this tiny park's tiny parking lot.
Jealous of the liverwort; other than Frullania, I've probably seen about 3 liverworts in my life.
3-18-17 River Road Park, Bedminster, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 10.0 miles total.
Categories: Starts with P, buds, lichen, native woody
I made it to 10 miles, woohoo! Trudged through the snow to do it, but was pleasantly surprised at finding 11 things that started with P, and also a gall on Forsythia that I'd never seen before. Looking forward to longer walks once the weather improves.
3-19-17 Mountain Park, Liberty Corner, NJ 0.75 miles today, 10.75 miles total.
Categories: Starts with Q, buds, flowers, invasive herbaceous
Walked (well, trudged through snow) here because I was pretty sure there was quaking aspen (for Q). A beautiful, sunny day, but I am really ready for spring (mud and all).
3-20-17 East County Park, Warren, NJ 0.5 miles today, 11.25 miles total.
Categories: starts with R, buds, lichen, flowers, invasive woody
R was easy, especially compared to Q. The snow is melting, and the shoes are getting wet. I need to remember boots, since I can't seem to stay on the path!
3-17-17 Anse Noir, Martinique. 0.8 miles today, 50.3 miles total. (the internet was out for several days)
Categories: yellow, compound leaves, opposite leaves, domestic animal in the photo, grasses, red, leaves, alternate leaves, vines, vertebrates
I hiked up the wadi (dry river bed) on the other side of the campground this morning. The category generator wanted me to look at leaves today. They are so bewildering and overwhelming when I don't know any plants, but the prod to look closer helped. I think maybe there isn't as much diversity here as I thought--it's getting harder and harder to find something new. I think I may have reached the end of the grasses. Finally found a non-crustose lichen. And a bonus of 3 new ferns, even though I didn't have ferns on my list. The trail through the river bed is filled with tall emergent trees, a very different microenvironment than anything else around here, which is pretty much dry scrub forest. Hence, the ferns.
3-18-17 Anse Dufour, Martinique. 1.5 miles today, 51.8 miles total.
Categories: tree, non-native plants, ferns, trash in the photo, red, compound leaves, thorns, lichens, pollinators, leaves
Hiked up the trail out of Anse Dufour to the swamp. "Trail" is a generous term for seasonal streambed, challenging but scenic. I actually found everything on my list today, from pollinators to lichens. I even found some items that I was unsuccessful with on previous days, like "yellow" and "ferns". The swamp itself was fascinating, a vernal pool with cacti nearby in the shrub. Other than the swamp, the plants along the trail were very much dry scrub.
3-19-17 Anse Noir, Martinique. 0.3 miles today, 52.1 miles total.
Categories: trash in the photo, vertebrates, non-native plants, domestic animal in the photo, red, buds, alternate, yellow, opposite, toxic
Short walk before our trip home today. Found 7 yellows! And some trash :( . I am beginning to note the difference in vegetation between the settled areas and the hills. I bet the plants around the settled areas (full of trash) are mostly non-natives.
3-20-17 Northfield, Vermont. 3.8 miles today, 55.9 miles total.
Categories: starts with "i", leaves, grasses, faces, phenology, thorns, landscape, fruit, trees
Forgot my boots so I had to stick to the sidewalks today. In the bright spring sun, the temperature rose 20 degrees during my walk, from 15 to 35F! Wow, that starts with "i" category is tough! I finally noticed the sticky smudge on my lens filter halfway through my walk. I think the camera had a rough trip home.
3-21-17 Calais, Vermont. 3.1 miles today, 59 miles total.
Categories: yellow, leaves, red, people, pollinators, things that begin with "j", edible, phenology, sedges, bloom
Followed a VAST trail out to a sugarwoods today. Lots of snow, no people in sight. I had a tough time with the categories today. Without immigrants from Japan, I could find no "j"s. When I at last spotted some Joe Pye weed, it was behind a house with a tight fence around it, seemingly cultivated. I'll try again for "j" next time. Sedges were tough to find, but the trail groomer left a few bare patches in the trail here and there, so I think I found a few.
3-21-17 Delaware Raritan Canal, South Bound Brook, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 12.75 miles total
Categories: Starts with S (17!), flowering(11), buds(7), bark(4), fruit(5), basal rosette(4), plants I'm learning(3), don't recognize(4).
Lovely, snow-free trail with overhanging vegetation. I thought I'd take a short walk but went much farther than I'd realized. Just as I got back got a call to come pick up my daughter from school; she had a very sore throat. I found three different speedwells with similar leaves and flowers and found I could now confidently tell them apart (V. polita, V. persica, V. hederaefolia). And I found 4 things I haven't managed to ID, which is unusual for me (though I have some guesses)
3-22-17 Chimney Rock Park, Martinsville, NJ. 1.0 miles today, 13.75 miles total
Categories: Starts with T (3), flowering (3), fruits (14), basal rosette (6), bark (4), lichen (3), buds (15), moss (3), Unknown but not moss (6)
Very windy walk through a park right next to the area where the best spring wildflowers grow, carefully saving that section for next month; can't wait! Thought I'd only found one "T" but when I got home I found out that both Carolina Wren and Chinese Mantis have genera starting with "T"!
3-21-17 Foster Hill Road in Calais, Vermont. 3 miles today, 62 miles total.
Categories: Trash in the photo, round, galls, things that begin with “j”, toxic, pollinators, yellow, edible, simple leaves, leaves
Very, very brisk walk today, wishing I had worn a few more layers. At 12F and windy, it was not a good day for pollinators. I also couldn't find any trash, since it's all buried under the snow. Still no luck with "j". I passed a patch of Japanese barberry, but I've already posted that patch before so I didn't shoot it. I can't wait to see more things with leaves!
3-23-17 Dodge Road, East Montpelier, Vermont. 3 miles today, 65 miles total.
Categories: White, things that begin with “j”, blue, pollinators, thorn, invertebrates, domestic animal in the photo, bark, landscape, signs
Warmer today, but the wind was still encouraging a brisk pace. I had trouble remembering what I had already shot and came back without some easy captures--a landscape of white pines! Still no luck with "j". I'll guess I'll have to stick with that one until I finally find some knotweed or juniper. And once again, no hope of seeing pollinators.
3-23-17 Stransky Farm, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 14.25 miles total.
Categories:
Starts with U (2), flowering (1), fruit (15), buds (6), bark (5), basal leaves (3),lichen (3), moss (1)
I've walked here many times before and never noticed the path I took for part of today's walk. I'd also never seen the grove of yellow birch here, so lots of nice surprises. Letter U is the hardest one yet. I had to cheat and use a family, just to get 2 total. I'm giving up on that one.
3-23-17 Spring Ridge Park and powerline cut, Lyons, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 14.75 miles total
Categories: Starts with V (7), flowering (1), fruit (26), buds (6), bark (6), lichen (2), moss (4), fungi (4).
They will be replacing the bridges on both sides of this area for the next four months, so I figured I'd better get my walk in while I could. The weather is warming and the snow is mostly gone, but the ground was still (mostly) frozen at 8 am, which was good as this is a very swampy area. A huge field of wildflowers in the powerline cut, and my very liberal definition of "fruit" allowed me to find amazing numbers of species in that category. I was really excited to find a script lichen, as well (on hornbeam). Still looking forward to live insects. Heading to Maryland tonight to tour Washington College with my daughter, and it's supposed to be 69 degrees tomorrow there, so hoping for some flowers and bugs (and time to take pictures). (missed a day and had to edit my comments)
3-24-17 George Rd, Calais, Vermont. 3.2 miles today, 68.2 miles total.
Categories: sedges, prickly, opposite, trees, buds, alternate, people in the photo, landscape, evergreen, graminoid
The roads were messy so I just took a walk out the front door this afternoon instead of risking driving anywhere. I really should have used my underwater camera today rather than my SLR. Each time I went to take a photo, I had to dig the snow out of the view finder. I hope the camera will dry out OK after such abuse. Found a little of everything. I think. I think that's a sedge that I dug out that was sitting on top of a mostly covered rock ledge.
3-25-17 VAST Trail from Center Road, East Montpelier, Vermont. 2.4 miles today, 70.6 miles total.
Categories: Invertebrates, graminoids, white, red, evergreen, phenology, fruit, pollinators, fungus, alternate leaves
Saturday morning hike with friends today on a snowmobile trail that starts in a cornfield, ends in a cornfield, and has a nice section of woods in between. We found everything except the pollinators. The thrill of the day was live insects! They were clustered around a small stream at the top of the cornfield. Fresh hatch? Surprisingly hard to find any fungi in the woods. We speculated whether the lack of fungi had to do with chemicals used in the cornfields.
3-26-2017 - have not been out that much due to difficult conditions to walk with baby. Should be better in the summer. Anyway, got out on a little 2.6 mile walk on the Montpelier bike trail. Just trying to look for anything I hadn't seen before, while i wasn't the one pushing the stroller. Maybe the three plants I added have already been added on previous hikes. I love winter but i'm ready for the snow to go away and for more plants and animals and fungi to appear. Was given 'Mushrooms Demystified' last fall and one of my projects this summer is to try to ID some fungi.
3-25-17. Lums Pond State Park, Bear, DE. 0.5 miles today, 15.25 miles total
Categories: flowering (7), buds (4), fruit (5), bark (2), lichen (5), can't ID (7), rare for me (3), new for me (4).
Walked at Lums Pond on the way home from a college tour with my daughter. It was nearly 70 degrees, and there were bluets (I realize most people see a lot of bluets, but they are rare in NJ). Then grape fern and crane fly orchids! (wish I'd caught them flowering) and also water oak. Lots of new plants, uncommonly seen (by me) plants, things I can't identify. Had a great time.
3-26-17. VAST Trails from Center Road to Dodge Rd, East Montpelier, Vermont. 3.5 miles today, 74.1 miles total.
Categories: sedges, blue, graminoids, landscape, lichens, evergreens, red, grasses, vines, faces
Explored some new-to-me sections of the VAST trails in brilliant sunshine. Much of the trails cut through industrial cornfield. Not much to see there. The the trail headed up a moist slope dominated by tamarack, and I found a rush. A good thing, since my category generator gave me grasses, sedges, and graminoids all in one day with 6-10" of snow on the ground. Found some of everything, and a live fly. Two days in a row of live insects--spring must be coming now!
3/26/16 Slattery Park, Bridgewater, NJ 0.5 miles today, 15.75 miles total.
Categories: basal leaves (8) flowering (9), buds (10), fruit (11), bark (3), lichen (4), I can't ID (3)
Took my youngest to the best playground around and walked the perimeter and photographed plants. The snow is basically gone, and spring is finally getting back on track.
3-27-17 River Road Park, Pluckemin, NJ 1.0 miles today, 16.75 miles total.
Categories: Letter Y, lichen, moss, basal leaves, flowers, fruit, buds, bark, I can't ID.
Rainy day, so I went with a paved path (and then went off into the grass anyway). I gave up on letter X, being unable to come up with anything that even contains a letter x. For Y I found Yarrow and Yellow Rocket and figured that's good enough.
3/27/17 Hospital Hill, Berlin, Vermont, then Montpelier, Vermont. 2.5 miles today, 76.6 miles total.
Categories: prickly, pollinators, vines, white, red, leaves, galls, compound leaves, bryophytes, simple leaves
Doctor's appointment this morning, so I took the opportunity to do a parking lot perimeter walk around the medical complex, from the state psychiatric hospital to the emergency room and back. I might have seen more if it weren't for the snow that still covering mostly everything. Found one moss on the hill. Then I continued my walk in downtown Montpelier and discovered a new-to-me park. With a Japanese barberry plunk in the middle. Freezing rain, so still no luck with pollinators. I saw a Eurosta solidaginis on the hill but forgot to photograph it.
i love doing inaturalist around the edges of parking lots and stuff. And there is a feeder at that berlin hospital near the prenatal care area which has tons of chickadees and stuff at it.
Still lots of snow, it's oddly resilient considering the warmth, i think because it's a layer of icy sleet
also this project means i will never catch up with @erikamitchell on number of vermont observations again :) (it's not a bad thing... i can do some iNat from work but not usually as much when on private land so most days i won't get much even in the field season)
I developed a fondness for parking lot botany while traveling with my parents. My dad liked to collect post offices. He would visit every one, take a photo of the building and get a postmark. While we waited in the car. To relieve boredom, I would hop out of the car and try to identify all the plants in the parking lot. I learned a lot of weeds that way!
Anyway, it's not about numbers of observations. Just trying to document what's out there before it's gone, changed, or taken over.
oh i agree. the numbers are not that important, just kind of silly and fun. mostly just trying to hoard information so after the dumb times humans are going through are done we can do a better job of understanding and recreating whatever gets ruined.
Numbers motivate me to get outside on days like this where it's rainy and cold and I'm fairly busy. But for me it's more about, how do you know where a species occurs or how abundant it is if you don't have any data to back it up? So iNat for me is about creating that data pool, so that you can better predict what you will find, and rule other things out on the basis of range, and just put a name to everything around us. I particularly like the naming. But it's also the real life Pokemon Go for me: Oh, look, I caught a grape fern! At the Lum's Pond pokestop! or: Not another mugwort; I don't need any of those. (Can you tell I have four nerdy kids?)
3/28/16 Thomae and Green Brook Parks, Bridgewater, NJ 0.5 miles today, 17.25 miles total.
I found a new path south from a park I'd only gone north from before. It shortly became a series of deer trails and I got a little turned around but managed to find my way back out. Found some interesting lichen and fungi, though, and the first flowering ground ivy of the year.
Instead of aiming for 1000 miles, I'm mapping my walking along the path to my sister's house, near Boston, which is 259 miles from home, something I'm more likely to be able to achieve in a year. So far I've made it to Morristown, NJ.
3/28/17, VAST Trail section near Maple Corner, Vermont. 3.8 miles today, 80.4 miles total.
Categories: buds, pollinators, bryophytes, trash in the photo, landscape, sedges, lichens, vertebrates, vines, round
We're in the thick of mud season. I don't know how I got my Prius to the center of town to start my walk. Tomorrow I'll probably be better off sticking closer to home. From Calais Town Hall, I headed up Kent Hill Rd, but got enticed onto a VAST trail section I had never tried before. Fabulous trail through deep woods and a cedar grove. I went overboard on the landscapes and bryophytes, I'm afraid. A big advantage of this Pokemon Go is that it works where there's no cell signal. 'Cause there isn't a hint of signal in this part of town. I'm struggling with my camera these days. I can't see the screen well enough to see if the photo is in focus, and I can't see the objects well enough to hand focus when necessary. I need to work on this!
3/29/17, VAST Trail section from Peck Hill Road, Calais, Vermont. 2.9 miles today, 83.3 miles total.
Categories: compound leaves, alternate leaves, graminoids, bryophytes, non-native plants, fungus, prickly, vine, blue
Can't drive anywhere due to mud season, so I took a walk from home up a nearby VAST trail section. The coyote tracks got thicker and thicker and fresher and fresher. Then I saw a dark shadow move in the woods up ahead, so I decided to turn around. I didn't have my walking stick with me, so I tried walking like a bouncer, all 5'2" of me. I don't think a lone coyote in the summer would give me any trouble. But a pair or a pack of hungry coyotes in late winter could be a different story. We've seen a pair take down a deer in our front yard. Great mosses today--they're starting to emerge from the snow.
3/30/17, VAST trail section from Leonard Rd to Fowler Rd, Calais, Vermont. 3.6 miles today, 86.9 miles total.
Categories: trees, galls, faces, fungus, simple leaves, fruit, white, compound leaves, invertebrates, domestic animal in the photo
The road are impassible, so I stayed close to home again today. Scenic hike up Leonard "Road", then turned off onto the VAST trail. Found some of everything except photos containing domestic animals. A good day for galls, stoneflies, and spiders.
it looked like an incredible day. i was stuck inside though
3/29/17, Possumtown, Wynwood, and Riverside Parks, Piscataway, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 18 miles total
Categories: lawn weeds, lichen, trees, animals, flowering, fruits
I checked out a park I'd not been to before, a wet, urban one. Took a detour on the way home because of traffic and found another tiny park of just mowed lawn, trees, playground. Almost didn't stop, but did, and found red-stemmed fillaree, a common weed just to the south of me that I'd never encountered before (though I've IDed it for people lots of times). Finally I stopped in at a very run-down little park I've driven by hundreds of times and found the first blooming pennycress of the year. I tend to dismiss mowed-lawn parks as not worth my time, but this time it payed off.
I love going random places like that for iNat. In a few weeks I am going to LA with a baby which means less mountain explores than usual. I'll be dredging the barrel of urban ecology for sure, no suburbs mroe depauperate than there. But still, there are living things. Some introduced geckos, oddly. would love to find one of those.
3/31/17, Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, Vermont. 3.1 miles today, 90 miles total.
Categories: toxic, vertebrate, edible, fungus, yellow, grasses, bryophytes, graminoids, red, leaves
Still confined to home due to impassable roads. Walked my old jogging route today. The categories for the day helped me find something new on a route that I have been up and down hundreds, perhaps thousands of times before. Red-stemmed fillaree? Now that would be a find!
3/30/17 Watchung Reservation, Berkeley Heights, NJ. 1.0 miles today, 19 miles total
Categories: bark, flowering, buds, fruit, green over winter
Walked in "the Deserted Village" where I hadn't walked since 1990. It's a tiny ghost town in the suburbs of NJ. While I was walking my son was taking the behind-the-wheel test for his tractor-trailer trucking license, and my husband was texting me about each section. He passed everything but the last one, over-the-road, where he drove too slowly! Luckily he only has to redo the one section. He has two weeks to learn to drive faster. The big surprise on the walk was a huge patch of Akebia quinata (which I haven't seen in decades, except at a zoo, of all places). Of course, it's an invasive, so not necessarily a good find, but still cool.
3/31/17 Glenhurst Meadows, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 19.5 miles total
Categories: thorny, flowering, buds, bark, lichen, moss
It was pouring rain, but I only had a little bit of available daylight before going on duty with the rescue squad, so I walked anyway. This area used to be a golf course, but it's so soggy I'm not at all surprised it wasn't successful. It was abandoned maybe 30 years ago, so succession is interesting here. I found a cool fasciated black raspberry branch (much broader than it should have been), and a shrub willow all covered in "pussies" (usually the only willows I see are black and weeping).
My parents are up in southern New Hampshire, so I've been hearing about your latest snow. This is the time of year I'm most grateful to be in NJ.
we did not get out much today, very wet snow and baby teething and with a cold, but it sure was beautiful. http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5527223
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