My winter walks are often focused on lichens, winter tree ID and birdwatching (birds are so much easier to see when there are no leaves in your way!). But every now and again there’s an interesting unexpected sighting. With the exception of a few species of evergreen fern, notably Christmas fern, rock polypody and evergreen woodfern, winter is not generally a good time to locate and identify ferns. But there are a couple species that have parts that are persistent…
With our nitrogen-poor, acidic, sandy soil, one of the more successful native shrubs on Cape Cod is northern bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica). It is found in habitats ranging from sand dunes, to open forests, to the edges of bogs and marshes, and can tolerate a wide range of moisture. Despite its commonness, for someone new to plant identification, this can be either a very difficult or very easy plant to identify. On the difficult end of the scale, when I was…
Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed a number of common eastern bumble bees (Bombus impatiens) resting on the sedum flowers along my front walkway when I first walk outside in the early morning. As the season turns and the evenings get cooler, bumble bees start to slow down. Bees require a temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit or higher to fly easily without using up all of their nectar stores; even overnight temperatures in the 50s or low 60s will…
Virginia meadow beauty (Rhexia virginica) is a small perennial wildflower, typically found in areas of sandy acidic soil or in low wet meadows. I often find them around the edges of cranberry bogs (active or abandoned). The plants pictured here were seen blooming at the edges of the restored wetlands where the cranberry bogs once were along the Childs River in Falmouth. The hot pink to magenta colored flowers always seem so fragile to me. I often have a hard…
So many of our wildflowers are relatively small and easily overlooked; blue toadflax (Nuttallanthus canadensis) is one of these. Common in “waste places”, sandy areas and the sides of roads, this little beauty is native to Canada and the eastern United States. Although the plant itself is typically a foot or two tall, its thin stem, narrow leaves, and tiny flowers (each only ~1/4 long), cause this wildflower to be easily overlooked. Next time you take a walk, give yourself…
Last weekend I visited the Paskamansett Woods in Dartmouth. The trail takes you to and across the Paskamansett River. The low lying area adjacent to the river (i.e., the floodplain), was dotted with new bright green growth. None of our native plants typically leaf out this early, so I wandered in to take a closer look. It turned out that these were the new leaves from Lesser Celandine (Ficaria verna), also known as fig buttercup. Lesser Celandine is a low…
March is an unpredictable month. We’re just as likely to have a blizzard as we are to have a 60 degree sunny day. But even though there are still a few weeks left until the official start of spring, there are already many early signs of spring’s approach. Many of our year-round resident birds have started to sing in earnest, in preparation for defending a territory and finding a mate. The Carolina wren in my hard has been “tea-kettling” his…
My husband was chopping down a rotten pitch pine last week and found dozens of beetles under the bark. Knowing my interest for beetles, he brought one home for me to see (and photography with my macro lens!). We were able to identify it as a ribbed pine borer (Rhagium inquisitor), a member of the longhorn beetle family (Cerambycidae) that is widespread throughout North America and Eurasia. The ribbed pine borer is unusual within this family, however, as it has…
Continuing my macro explorations from my previous posts (if you missed them, check them out here and here) I switched my focus to wildflowers. Admittedly, January isn’t the most obvious time to go looking for flowers, but many of our local species have persistent seed heads that can be found through the winter. And some of these, as you’ll see, are quite intricate when observed up close. And in at least one case, some flowers already have their spring buds ready…
As mentioned in my previous post, I recently received a new macro lens attachment for my cell phone. It’s been really fun to wander around my yard and nearby trails with this new close-up perspective. Some things are obviously enhanced by a zoomed-in look, such as insects, moss, lichens and other “tiny” things. But I’ve also really enjoyed a new look at things you wouldn’t necessarily assume you need a macro lens to observe, like trees and shrubs. Below are…