The phragmites towered above me.
Not impenetrable to a deer.
I found this turtle shell. Is it/was it a box turtle? The top almost immediately came apart in segments, unfortunately; it's probably been rotting all winter. There are 15 species of turtles found in NY (not including 5 sea turtle species).
Birds: Snow goose, Canada goose, brant, mute swan, great heron, great blue heron, Am. wigeon, scaup, northern shoveler, mallard, Am. black duck, bufflehead, ruddy duck, hooded merganser, d.c. cormorant, herring gull, great black-backed gull, ring-billed gull, oyster catcher, osprey, tree swallow, downy woodpecker, mockingbird, cat bird, phoebe, yellow-rumped warbler, red-winged blackbird, robin, cardinal, crow, grackle, starling, white-throated sparrow, song sparrow. First of the year, and sure signs of spring: the phoebe, red-winged bb, and swallow. Thousands of scaup on the pond: frankly, I haven’t figured out the difference between greater and lesser scaup yet.
Then, after a shower, I went to the Met to see M. Courbet, who was always looking for a fight. Hell of a town, this.
4 comments:
I'm curious about the thing with the thready leaves. Do you have any larger shots of it?
Unfortunately, I only took close-ups, and I am a botanicalidiot. There were a couple of them out at the SW corner of the West Pond loop, at the entrance to the turtle trail. Along with the prickly pear cactus (which looks oppressed this time of year), it gives the place a certain western desert air.
This page has a long list of plants found at JBWR: http://nynjctbotany.org/lgtofc/lgjamaca.html
I'm guessing Yucca filamentosa. It was my first guess, and the plant list confirms it can be found there. I don't know of another plant that has strappy leaves with marginal threads like that. I'm just used to seeing the leaves more stiff than they appear in the photo.
A very cool looking plant, this genus of a yucca.
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