Birds, Butterflies and Flowers
When
What
Where
Who
Link for More Info
Description
Charlie has spent many an hour logging bird and butterfly sightings in various locations in the FLNF and he’ll lead the group to some of the best spots for doing so. Oh, and we’ll see some plants, too! This will be a moderate walk on forest trails.Meet at the Ballard Pond parking area on Searsburg Road, West of T-burg at 10, or at CCE at 9 am to carpool.
Report
If you ever get a chance to walk in the Finger Lakes National Forest with Charlie Smith, jump to be there! He has studied the FLNF for decades and can recite the history, and natural history of the land and "read" the history in the landscape.
We visited Ballard Pond, and then moved on to Teeter Pond. We went to see an isolated woodlot that is almost entirely hickories, rather unusual. It's within a pasture just West of Teeter Pond, so it's a grazed woodlot. There were shagbark and red hickories, and little else, and seemed to be the same age. Charlie and Robert Wesley suggested that it might be the result of selective logging to remove the more valuable oaks. The views were spectacular across the meadows into the Seneca valley, and the day was just perfect. A list of the birds and amphibians we saw is below, and the full plant list can be seen by clicking this link (plant list).
One spectacular plant was an 'old rose", "Harison's Yellow", blooming prolifically in an old house foundation. According to Robert, Harison's Yellow was bred in the 1800's (1830) by (George) Harison, a New York City rose fancier. It is thought to be the offspring of Rosa spinosissima x R. foetida. It is prized for its cold tolerance, and received the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit in 1993. Also called the "Pioneer Rose", it traveled with settlers throughout the country. It is said to be the famous "Yellow Rose of Texas". (more on Harison's Yellow) Charlie says that several heritage roses are found at old homesteads in the National Forest.
Birds seen or heard on the walk:
Mallard
Canada Geese & goslings
Red-winged Blackbird
Baltimore Oriole
Bobolink
Eastern Meadowlark
Savannah sparrow
American goldfinch
Great Blue Heron
Yellow Warbler
Red-eyed Vireo
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Wood Pewee
Eastern Towhee
Common Yellowthroat
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Raven
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Common Yellowthroat
Song Sparrow
Field Sparrow.
Reptiles & Amphibians seen or heard:
Bullfrog (heard)
Green frog (heard)
Leopard frog
Pickerel frog
American toad (scrunched into the 'cave' of a deep horse footprint)
Common gartersnake
Butterflies and Odonates seen:
Common Ringlet
Pearl Crescent
Juvenal's Duskywing
Black Swallowtail
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Bluets (Enallagma spp.)
Eastern Forktail
Green Darner
Common Whitetail
Twelve-spotted Skimmer
White-fronted Corporal
Plants seen:
|
Acer saccharum var. sacharum |
sugar maple |
|
|
Achillea millefolium var. millefolium |
yarrow |
|
|
Agrimonia parviflora |
small-flowered agrimony |
|
|
Antennaria parlinii ssp. fallax |
Parlin's pussytoes |
|
|
Anthoxanthum odoratum |
sweet vernal grass |
non-native, smells sweet when dried |
|
Arisaema triphyllum ssp. triphyllum |
common Jack-in-the-pulpit |
|
|
Bidens sp. |
bur-marigold |
|
|
Carex gracillima |
graceful sedge |
|
|
Carex laxiflora |
broad loose-flower sedge |
|
|
Carex vulpinoidea |
foxtail sedge |
|
|
Carex woodii |
pretty sedge |
|
|
Carya ovalis |
red hickory |
|
|
Carya ovata |
shagbark hickory |
|
|
Cerastium fontanum |
mouse-ear chickweed |
not native (from Eurasia) |
|
Cicuta bulbifera |
bulb-bearing water hemlock |
|
|
Cicuta maculata var. maculata |
spotted water hemlock, poison hemlock |
Extremely poisonous; N America's most toxic plant |
|
Circaea lutetiana ssp. canadensis |
common enchanter's nightshade |
|
|
Climacium americanum |
tree moss |
|
|
Cornus racemosa |
gray dogwood |
|
|
Crategus sp. |
hawthorne |
|
|
Dactylis glomerata |
orchard grass |
not native, introduced for hay |
|
Diervilla lonicera |
northern bush honeysuckle |
|
|
Elaeagnus umbellata |
autumn olive |
not native, invasive |
|
Eleocharis sp. |
spike-rush |
|
|
Epipactus helleborine |
eastern helleborine |
not native, orchid |
|
Erigeron annuus |
daisy fleabane |
|
|
Fragaria virginiana |
wild strawberry, Virginia strawberry |
|
|
Fraxinus americana |
white ash |
|
|
Galium mollugo |
hedge bedstraw, false baby's breath |
|
|
Galium tinctorium |
stiff marsh bedstraw |
flowers white, 4 leaves per whorl |
|
Geranium maculatum |
wild geranium |
|
|
Geranium robertianum |
herb Robert |
|
|
Geum aleppicum |
yellow avens |
|
|
Geum canadense |
white avens |
|
|
Hesperis matronalis |
dame’s rocket |
not native |
|
Hieracium caespitosum |
field or meadow hawkweed |
yellow ligules |
|
Holcus lanatus |
common velvet grass |
not native |
|
Hylotelephium telephium ssp. telephium (Sedum purpureum) |
witch’s moneybags, garden stonecrop, frog's stomach |
not native |
|
Impatiens capensis |
orange jewelweed, spotted jewelweed |
up to 9 teeth on one side of leaf |
|
Lonicera sp. |
shrub honeysuckle |
not native, invasive |
|
Malus pumila |
apple tree |
|
|
Ostrya virginiana |
hop hornbeam |
|
|
Oxalis stricta |
common yellow wood sorrel, sour clover |
|
|
Penstemon digitalis |
foxglove beardtongue |
|
|
Pinus strobus |
white pine |
stumps used for fencing |
|
Platanus occidentalis |
sycamore |
|
|
Poa compressa |
Canada bluegrass |
perennial grass, introduced from Europe |
|
Podophyllum peltatum |
Mayapple |
|
|
Potentilla simplex or canadensis ? |
old-field cinquefoil, common cinquefoil |
|
|
Prunella vulgaris var. vulgaris |
heal-all |
not native |
|
Prunus serotina |
black cherry |
|
|
Prunus virginiana |
choke cherry |
|
|
Pyrus communis |
European pear |
escaped |
|
Quercus alba |
white oak |
|
|
Quercus rubra |
northern red oak |
|
|
Ranunculus abortivus |
kidney-leaved buttercup |
|
|
Ranunculus acris |
tall buttercup |
not native |
|
Ranunculus sceleratus var. sceleratus |
cursed crowfoot, blisterwort |
annual, native to N America & Europe |
|
Rhamnus cathartica |
European or common buckthorn |
not native, invasive |
|
Ribes cynosbati |
eastern prickly gooseberry |
|
|
Robinia pseudoacacia |
black locust |
not native |
|
Rosa 'Harison's Yellow' |
Yellow Rose of Texas, Oregon Trail Rose |
a hybrid rose cultivar |
|
Floribunda (rose) |
floribunda rose |
polyantha/hybrid tea cross |
|
Rosa multiflora |
multiflora rose |
not native, invasive |
|
Rubus allegheniensis |
blackberry |
|
|
Salix spp. |
willows |
|
|
Scirpus atrovirens |
dark green bulrush |
not a rush, in sedge family |
|
Sisyrinchium sp. |
blue-eyed grass |
|
|
Solidago juncea |
early goldenrod |
smooth stem, bracts in leaf axils |
|
Solidago rugosa |
rough-stemmed or wrinkle-leaved goldenrod |
|
|
Sphagnum sp. |
a species of sphagnum moss |
probably S. girgensohnii |
|
Stellaria graminea |
little starwort, common stitchwort |
not native, native to Eurasia |
|
Symphyotrichum lanceolatum (Aster lanceolatus) |
panicle aster, lance-leaved aster |
|
|
Taraxicum officinale |
dandelion |
|
|
Toxicodendron radicans |
poison ivy |
|
|
Tragopogon pratensis |
showy goat's-beard, meadow salsify |
yellow ligules |
|
Trifolium pratense |
red clover |
|
|
Vaccinium sp. |
blueberry |
|
|
Valeriana officianalis |
garden heliotrope or common valerian |
escaped garden plant, native to Europe and Asia |
|
Veronica chamaedrys |
bird's-eye speedwell |
native to Europe and Northern Asia |
|
Veronica officinalis |
common speedwell, gypsy-weed |
not native |
|
Viburnum dentatum |
arrowwood |
|
|
Viburnum lentago |
nannyberry |
|
|
Viola sororia |
common blue violet |
|
|
Vicia tetrasperma |
lentil vetch, sparrow vetch |
introduced as a forage crop, native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa |
