High Park: May 16, 2018

 

16 degrees and sunny at the start

Bird Highlight: Wood Duck

Wood Duck (female)

Wood Duck (male)

Wood Ducks

Botany Highlight: Dryland Sedge

Dryland Sedge (Carex siccata)

Species list:  double-crested cormorant, mute swan, Canada goose, mallard, gadwall, wood duck, red-tailed hawk, ring-billed gull, rock pigeon, northern flicker, red-bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker, great crested flycatcher, eastern pewee, eastern kingbird,  blue jay, black-capped chickadee, white-breasted nuthatch,  American robin, veery, blue-gray gnatcatcher,  European starling, blue-headed vireo, red-eyed vireo, warbling vireo, tennessee warbler, nashville warbler, northern parula warbler, yellow warbler, yellow-rumped warbler, American redstart, house sparrow, red-winged blackbird, Baltimore oriole, common grackle, brown-headed cowbird, northern cardinal, house finch, American goldfinch, chipping sparrow, song sparrow.  (41 species)

Black Oak (Quercus velutina)

Chipping Sparrow

American Robin

Northern Flicker (male)

Cherry Blossoms (Prunus)

Baltimore Oriole (male)

Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

Red-winged Blackbird (female)

False Solomon-seal (Maianthemum racemosum)

Gadwall (female)

Sassafrass (Sassafrass albidum)

Snapping Turtle

Serviceberry (Amelanchier)

Mute Swan

Huckleberry (Gaylussacia baccata)

Chipmunk

Poison Ivy (Tocicodendron rydbergii)

Common Blue Violet (Viola sonoria)

Miles Hearn

                                           NATURE POETRY

Backyard

Apples, peaches, pears and plums

Tell me when your birthday comes.

An apple, a peach, a pear and a plum,

my back yard hosted four trees.

Pal Penny shimmied the apple

Hurricane Hazel rent the peach

Squirrels rushed the paltry pear.

I climbed the plum.

The bark had treads.

It hurt.

  • Adele Koehnke

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