Snow in June

The cottonwood trees are spreading seeds, fluffy snow that floats through the air and collects in the grass.

Addendum

What I forgot yesterday... Dame's rocket and phlox. What I didn't notice because I was running... False Solomon's seal.

We went back to closely inspect the red patch, which involved a significant off-trail jaunt. Here's Chris standing by them:

And here's a close-up:

It is, I believe, Indian paintbrush.

We also rescued a turtle today. 

And saw a lot of crayfish remains.

Prime Prairie

I'll admit it... There are times of the year when the prairie isn't the most aesthetically interesting ecosystem. But she is coming into her own now, and from June through October, the prairie will display staggering biodiversity.  A slowly but constantly changing cast of colorful characters will appear in the endless sea of waving grass.

Here is a partial (because I won't remember them all) list of what I saw blooming in the prairie today:

Shooting stars (still holding on!), golden Alexander, spiderwort, cream false indigo, wild indigo, wild roses (pictured below), lupine (pictured below below), wild hyacinth (pictured way below), wild geraniums, Canada anemone, daisies, fleabane, mustards -- yellow, white and garlic (I didn't say all the flowers were desirable), cow parsnip, bladder campion, hawkweed, irises, a patch of something bright red and far off the trail in a wetter area, no idea what it was... That's all I'm remembering at the moment.  I'm sure there was more, but I probably got the best ones. Even so... That's a lot!

Purple (with an Orange Topper!)

Spiderwort is blooming.

Look at these spectacular indigos!

Purple irises by the pond, with yellow ones blooming in the background.

Also sighted today: my first monarch butterfly of the year!  Too much moving to get a good photo, though. 

Flowers

A few more from today...

Mayapple flower.

Woodland phlox.

Jack in the pulpit.

Canada anemone.

Back in the Swing (For Now)

Between last week and this week, some things I've missed photographing:

• mayapples blooming
• wasps making nests everywhere
• assuming last frost was last week -- 5/14 was in the 30's -- SUPER COLD -- we planted all the vegetables in the garden this weekend.  I did hear Tom Skilling say on the radio this morning that he thinks the warmth is here to stay.  Now if he could take the thunderstorms out of the forecast for my last camping trip, that'd be good. 
• pretty much all trees have leaves now, including ashes and oaks, our late leafer-outers
• I saw a really beautiful wood duck yesterday, just floating along by the boardwalk at Rollins Savannah

And here are some observations from the actual May 23:

Spittlebug spittle is quite common now.

Cream False Indigo blooming:


Daisies:

I Know, I'm Behind...

OK, I've been remiss as a blogger and, to a lesser extent, as a phenologist.  I have all sorts of excuses, though they all boil down to one, really... I've been on school trips.  This means that a lot of the observations I've made haven't been here, but rather 2 hours north or 2 hours south.  It also means I'm extremely busy, and extremely tired.  So some data has been lost.  I know.  Irretrievable.  A day of laziness, data lost forever.  There's always next year. 

At any rate, I'm typing this on May 23, but I've dated the post 5/16, because I actually did take these pictures on that date.  Just didn't make it to step 2, uploading (or step 3, writing, or step 4, publishing...)  So here's just a taste of what was happening a week ago:

Columbine blooming.

Dogwood (red-osier) blooming.

Chokeberry blooming, and feeding a big fat bee. 

Honeysuckle blooming.  All over, because they're terribly invasive. 

Also important to note: we had our last freeze on 5/14, which was a very cold day.  I don't think it topped 40 as a high... there may have also been frost on 5/17.  There was where I was sleeping, and that was SOUTH of here, so it would make sense.  But I wasn't home to witness it.