feeding flock

Around this time of year we begin to see feeding flocks coming through the woods led by family groups of Chickadees and Titmice There was a very active flock that came by in mid-morning and included a singing Red-eyed Vireo, a Yellow Warbler (possibly with young), a Blue Jay, and two species of woodpeckers -- Downies and an adult male Red-bellied with a young one (no head markings). Two or three Eastern Phoebes seemed to join in but they stayed behind after the main flock moved on.

The Pokeweed is in flower -- spikes of strange little waxy flowers -- and the Bull Thistle is starting to bloom; both are in big stands along the old right-of-way. The very different Canada Thistle has no spikes on its stem and finished blooming before the Bull Thistle even started. I am not totally sure of the ID of these two plants which I never saw here before Sandy. The Bull Thistle is growing in dense evil-looking thickets that ornament the two sides of the old right-of-way and covered a big section of the middle as well before we cut it back. Although these plants en masse look like they are ready to attack, they have a very attractive reddish-purple flower head (surprisingly, they are in the composite or daisy family).

A wild flower of exceptional interest is also blooming right now; this is the Spotted Wintergreen with its exotic striped green-and-white low leaves and nodding waxy flowers on a short stem. This is a Pine Barrens specialty and we used to have a lot of it but the eruption of salt water during Sandy wiped out a lot of undergrowth and decimated this plant. Perhaps the few survivors will reseed the woodland undergrowth which is their habitat.
 
Eric Salzman