Saturday, April 21; 10:00 AM
EARLY SPRING WILDFLOWERS at Harris
Whalen Park, Penfield with Burroughs Audubon Nature Club ( http://bancny.org/
)
Harris Whalen Park in Penfield is one of Monroe County’s
best places to enjoy the earliest spring wildflowers such as Bloodroot, Spring
Beauty, Trillium and Trout lily. Join us at the top of Harris Hill at Harris
Whalen Park for an easy walk in the woods. The park entrance is on the north
side of Rt. 441 across from Wegmans, just west of the intersection of Routes
441 and 250. Annette Leopard will be our guide.
It was a brisk chilly morning when Annette, her grand-daughters and Laura met at Harris Whalen Park at 9:30 to take a quick walk to see what they might find before the 10 AM wildflower walk began. Amazingly it seemed some of the plants budded out in the short time between 9:30 and a walk with the larger group of about 26 people.Due to the cold and snowy weather just about everything was late to bloom. We expected a few days of sunshine and warmth would help to burst out the wildflowers to a completely different view the coming week. Laura plans a revisit to Harris Whalen on Sunday, April 29th....watch for updates!
Here's what we saw and what would be hoped for in a matter of days:
It was a brisk chilly morning when Annette, her grand-daughters and Laura met at Harris Whalen Park at 9:30 to take a quick walk to see what they might find before the 10 AM wildflower walk began. Amazingly it seemed some of the plants budded out in the short time between 9:30 and a walk with the larger group of about 26 people.Due to the cold and snowy weather just about everything was late to bloom. We expected a few days of sunshine and warmth would help to burst out the wildflowers to a completely different view the coming week. Laura plans a revisit to Harris Whalen on Sunday, April 29th....watch for updates!
Here's what we saw and what would be hoped for in a matter of days:
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| blood root buds |
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| The elusive wild golf ball |
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| fern |
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| Periwinkle/myrtle |
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| a crocus growing at the edge of the park near a home |
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| garlic mustard |
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| gallium (cleavers) |
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| a bit of color before we headed out as a large group - dandelions |
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| young dicentra - squirrel corn or dutchman's britches |
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| spring beauty leaves |
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| cut leaf toothwort |
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| spring beauty in tree trunk |
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| spring beuty just beginning to blossom |
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| young northern blue cohosh leaves |
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| trillium |
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| wild ginger |
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| downy woodpecker |
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| scarlet elf cups |
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| cleavers, bed straw, stick weed |
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| wild ginger |
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| found a bit of color in this periwinkle blossom |
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| It seems we may have upset a nest of snakes |
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| about a dozen snakes slithered in the sunshine |
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| easier to spot the moving snakes than the early wildflowers |
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| scarlet cup fungus |
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| beech tree with leaves |
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| mayapples |
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| hickory nuts |
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| trillium almost ready to bloom |
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| trout lily leaves |
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| bloodroot buds |
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| northern red prickly ash - habitat for giant swallowtail. blooms before leafing, yellow flowers, buds like ladybugs |
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| Northern prickly ash buds |
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| red osier dogwood |
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| dried wild carrot/Queens Anne's Lace |
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| cranesbill, stork's bill (Erodium cicutarium), wild geranium |
I made another visit to Harris Whalen Park 8 days later and even after an early morning snow cover the difference was remarkable. Here are some of the changes:
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| dutchman's breeches, Dicentra Cucullaria |
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| ramps/leeks (we saw loads of these last week but somehow I did not photograph them |
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| leaf cut toothwort |
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| loads of leeks |
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| bounty of bloodroot |
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| Sanguinaria canadensis - bloodroot |
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| blood root was mostly to the left of the parking area behind the water tower |
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| trillium |
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| more coloring a week later |
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| Trout Lily. Erythronium americanum. Other Names: Adder's tongue, American trout-lily, Dog's tooth violet, Serpent's Tongue, Yellow Adder's-tongue, Yellow fawn-lily, Yellow Snowdrop. |
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| the trout lily scent can be quite offensive to some |
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| Most trillium were red but this one looks like it might be white |
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| leaf cut toothwort and trillium |
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| more trout lily |
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| periwinkle / mrytle |
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| Virginia Waterleaf |
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| gallium / cleavers |
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| young blue cohosh against white board |
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| plenty of trillium to the right of the parking lot |
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| May apples |
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| hickory nuts |
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| scarlet elf caps |
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| northern red prickly ash |
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| spring beauties |