A small group from the Cecil Bird Club walked the first mile of the
wildflower trail below Conowingo Dam this morning. We saw a sizable flock of
Bonaparte's Gulls acting like storm-petrels on the river, and the usual
suspects: Bald Eagles, Black Vultures, Osprey. Hundreds of Double-Crested
Cormorants in the water and on the rocks, Great Blue Herons in the heronry
on the Cecil side. Very few migrants along the trail, but at one point we
heard something singing loudly but invisibly. I should have recorded it on
my cell phone but was too busy trying to find the darn thing. Later on the
walk, something chipped at us, a very assertive "tick" sound, about two per
second, with an occasional "tick tick" thrown in. I glimpsed it briefly but
just as a silhouette-small perching bird, all I could see.
However, the stars of the day were Trillium and Virginia Bluebells. Both are
at their peak-the trillium from about the half mile mark south, and at the
mile mark, the entire cliff side covered in bluebells. Spectacular!
Here's the full list of wildflowers:
Garlic mustard, Alliara petiolata
Wild ginger, Asarum canadense
Hairy bittercress, Cardamine hirsuta
Dutchman's breeches, Dicentra cucularia
Gill-over-the-ground, Glechoma hederacea
Virginia bluebell, Mertensia virginica
Wild blue phlox, Phlox divaricata
Creeping cinquefoil, Potentilla reptans
Heal-all (Carpenter weed), Prunella vulgaris
Small-flowered crowfoot, Ranunculus abortivus
Lesser celandine, Ranunculus ficaria
Early saxifrage, Saxifraga virginiana
Star chickweed, Stellaria pubera
Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale
Declined trillium, Trillium flexipes
Stemmed yellow violet, Viola pubescens
Common blue violet, Viola soraria
Redbuds, cherries, and dogwoods are also blooming. There are already many
tadpoles in the pools, and some eggs masses that we think were Wood Frog
eggs.
Thanks to David Francis for the botany lessons!
Pat Valdata
Elkton
############################
To unsubscribe from the MDOSPREY list:
write to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
or click the following link:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?SUBED1=MDOSPREY&A=1 |