I have a tendency to not want to post photographs of previously treated observations. But especially at this time of year I think there’s some value to logging at least the lesser known ongoing events. So while I won’t post photos of purple henbit, probably, all of these items are things that I’ve done before but that are a bit unusual and that folks north of here might be wondering about in the days and weeks to come.

It was nice to see a lot of these Eastern Tailed Blues, Cupido comyntas, flitting about the higher elevation deck. They’re common here, superficially resemble spring azures, but clearly have the hairstreak-like tails. I see from that Bugguide link that caterpillars are gluttons for a very wide range of plants and plant parts.

One of my favorite groundcovers, violet woodsorrel, Oxalis violacea is now emerging. No flowers yet, but this post from mid-April 2006 shows flowers and some additional spring bounty.

I wish I’d waited to post yesterday’s photo of the outrageous mayapple farm. We had half an inch of rain early yesterday morning and it was enough to deepen the brown of the litter and brighten up the green of the mayapples. A small perspective change gives a much better but still incomplete picture of the extent of this field.



On the edge of Goulding Creek, popping up from the deposited sand of the heavier rains of a couple of weeks ago, these young and very nice red fern emergences. They’ll green up, of course. I’m going with netted chainfern, Woodwardia aureolata, but they could be sensitive ferns, Onoclea sensibilis. I’ve always had some trouble telling the two apart.

I’d prefer it to be Woodwardia, which has a threatened or endangered status in several northern or northeastern states, and is wetland obligatory (meaning you won’t find it in dry areas). Sensitive fern is common and unendangered (according to USDA Plants) and is wetland facultative (meaning you can find it in wetlands but it’s also hardy in drier areas).