September 06, 2021

Ready to Volunteer Again

September 06, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

Over the past week or so – I’ve been attending training sessions at the Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant in preparation for field trips that might happen this fall. With schools in the county just starting this week, there is a lot that is TBD for the fall field trips. There are more that the usual challenges: potential for COVID-19 outbreaks (vaccination and masking helps but is not 100%), shortage of bus drivers, and a higher percentage of new volunteers than in past years. The usual weather challenge for the outdoor programs seems small in comparison!

I am hopeful that there will be at least some field trips. The scheduling requirements probably mean there will not be a lot of them until October, and there might be some opportunities where the volunteer gig will be in the school yard rather than at Mt. Pleasant. Either way – being outdoors with students is something I look forward to every fall; I missed it in 2020.

The training session this past week was on a sunny, cool day after Hurricane Ida came through our area. I couldn’t resist some photography before/after the session.

Honors Garden

Sweet Bay seed pods just outside the Honors Garden – smaller than the pods of the Southern Magnolia but still looking like red M&Ms peeking out of the pod.

A little fall look with sunshine bringing out the changing color of leaves

Looking again at a tree stump cut earlier in the pandemic. I noticed that the rings are somewhat concentric for the early years of the tree’s life. Then they get very closely spaced on the side toward the bottom of these image. The tree seemed to grow skewed to the left!

As I got close to my car, I noticed that the old pear tree in the old orchard is loaded with fruit this year! .

The place….the people…it feels good to be on the cusp of fall volunteering!

June 21, 2021

Short Hike at Howard County Conservancy – 1

June 21, 2021/ Gwen Morrison

One of the big draws of Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant is that it is open from dawn to dusk….we always go early in the summer ahead of the heat. Last week, we were there before 8 AM when the air was still full of moisture burning off in the sunshine. The sweet bay magnolia in the rain garden near the parking lot was blooming…droplets of water on the leaves and flowers.

The milkweed plants are blooming in the meadow and we saw a Monarch butterfly. Hopefully there will be lots of caterpillars soon.

The Brood X cicadas were still around but definitely winding down. The morning was still cool enough that they weren’t flying around a lot…easier to photograph.

2021 06 IMG_7531 (9).jpg — The meadow was sunny…lush with growth after plenty of rain: a bunny munching on grass, blackberries ripening, and skippers fluttering.

There is some shade along the edges of the meadow…close to the stream. I liked the change in images that comes with that difference in light.

Near the end of our hike, I photographed some allium with light coming from behind. Again – enjoying the changes that light makes.

There were two ‘wow’ sights from the hike that I am saving for the next two blog posts….

August 15, 2019

A Serendipity Hike at Mt Pleasant

August 15, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Last Saturday morning, there was a Serendipity Hike offered at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt Pleasant location. There were quite a few registrations for the free event after the forecast temperature and humidity were lower than recent days in our area. About 50 people came and we had 4 volunteers to lead hikes. My group included people that had not been to Mt Pleasant before.

My focus turned out to be about landscaping with native plants (like the sweet bay magnolias)

We headed through the Honors Garden to see more flowering plants and around to the stand of Joe Pye Weed (full of tiger swallowtails). Along the way, the green frogs provide a serenade from the pool. I told them that I had seen 3 frogs earlier but that the summer campers had found 7 a few weeks ago. My hiking group saw 5 and one was positioned to easily observe when he made his croak!

From the Joe Pye Weed we hiked around to see Ranger the Barred Owl…then to the meadow, noticing the orchard and Montjoy barn along the way. Down at the stream we noticed the steep slopes that now have vegetation growing on them --- an indicator that the stream restoration upstream has slowed the flow of water from storms. To avoid a steep uphill climb, we crossed the meadow and walked along the stone wall and then back to the nature center. I pointed out the tree with myriad yellow-bellied sapsucker holes.

The hike was a little over an hour…several people came in to get maps of the trails afterward.

June 20, 2019

Road Trip Scenes

June 20, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing our trek east from Springfield, Missouri, I got some pictures of St. Louis and the Mississippi River since my daughter was driving. The arch is easy to spot…not so easy to photograph driving east…probably would be easier on the highway driving west on the bridge with the Mississippi River in the foreground. The Mississippi was obviously high with no tree trunks showing along the water’s edge. A train was crossing the river on a bridge parallel to our route.

We stopped for the night in Springfield, Ohio. As we walked across the parking lot of the hotel to a restaurant, I spotted catalpas in bloom. The trees brought back memories of summer visits to my grandparents although I was always too late to see the trees in bloom. They already had their long seed pods by the time I visited. I read a book that described the blooms and then noticed them in a garden many years later. I was thrilled to see one in Ohio. It was growing near a water retention pond (so red-winged black birds and frogs provided ‘music’).

In the same area – on a very manicured area between parking lots were sweetbay magnolias…and they were in bloom too. These smaller magnolias are great for places that would be overwhelmed by the larger magnolias like the southern magnolia (*Magnolia grandiflora*).

Our timing in Ohio was near perfect for seeing both catalpas and sweetbays in bloom! It was a good finale for a long day of driving.

September 13, 2018

Magnolias

September 13, 2018/ Gwen Morrison

This time of year, we are seeing the last of the magnolia blooms for the year. I like the white blooms with the velvet brown underside of the leaves.

Even when the flowers start to fade, their deepening color is appealing. These two flowers were on a Southern Magnolia tree at Brookside Gardens that did not look quite healthy. I hope this bloom time was not its last. It often seems that stressed trees make a huge push to make seeds.

And then there are the seed pods. There are variations with the different varieties of magnolias, but I always imagine that the seeds look like red M&Ms. I mentioned during a pre-school field and one child told me – with a very serious face – “except they don’t have an ‘M’ on them”! My favorite pods are on the sweet bay magnolia because they are more seed – less pod and the specimens near where I hike with students are low enough for them to easy see them.

August 10, 2018

Morning Walk at Mt. Pleasant (part 2)

August 10, 2018/ Gwen Morrison

Today I’m focusing on the plants I photographed during my morning walk earlier this week at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant. The seed pods on the sweet bay magnolia are in all stages of development: from green to

Seeds bursting from the pod (I always think they look like red M&Ms) and then pods that are mostly empty and dry.

There are always chicory flowers after each rain. I liked the blurs of yellow and green behind this macro image.

Goldenrod is beginning to bloom. Goldenrod is one of the nectar plants for butterflies into the fall. People thought it caused their terrible fall allergies but now ragweed is said to be the primary culprit.

There was Queen Ann’s Lace in the meadow as well. It’s always interesting to me how different a plant appears in the macro view.

As I hiked along the narrow path near the stream there was a young sycamore that had leaves that were beginning to lose their chlorophyll for fall. The leaves were backlit so I took some macro images to show the changes.

There are still new leaves being unfurled on the tree too; this one was about the size of a dime.

Thistles are not very friendly looking! Too many prickles.

Bind weed is an occasional plant in the meadow. The flowers always look like they have little pleats.

This mint flower – taken from above with the macro lens – was coated with morning dew.

Dandelions are always attention getters. They look a bit like bursts of fireworks…or yellow streamers.

Even the clovers that are usually not noticed have a unique beauty seen through the macro lens.

Do you recognize mile-a-minute? It’s an invasive plant that grows very quickly and has wicked thorns.

And now for the Pokeweed. The ones I photographed were still blooming and the fruits that were formed were still green. They’ll turn purple later…and the stem will be bright pink. I’ll remember to photograph the plants through the fall to track their development.

By the end of the walk – I was hot…ready to cool off in the air-conditioned car as I drove home and to drink a lot of water.

August 09, 2018

Morning Walk at Mt. Pleasant (part 1)

August 09, 2018/ Gwen Morrison

Earlier this week, I took a morning walk at Howard County Conservancy’s Mt. Pleasant. I stopped by the nature center first to leave some comments on a new BioBlitz guidebook; my plan was to hike down to the Davis Branch. I forgot my camera at home so was ‘roughing it’ with my Samsung Galaxy S7 and clip-on macro lens.

I stopped near the Honors Garden to look at the sweet bay magnolia…and noticed some eggs under one of the leaves. The only way I know to figure out what they might be would be to isolate the leaf and wait for them to hatch! I didn’t do that…so it will be a mystery. Maybe a ‘leaf footed bug’?

I walked down toward Montjoy barn and noticed that the pear tree in the old orchard looks terrible – many bare branches. It’s an old tree and I hope it sees another season.

Near the demonstration garden at the top of the path, an Augochlora sweat bee was slow enough that I got a picture!

Some id references: http://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Documents/CommonBees.pdf and https://www.insectidentification.org/insects-by-state.asp?thisState=Maryland

I saw a flock of goldfinches as I walked down through the meadow. They kept moving just ahead of me all the way down the hill. I regretted leaving my camera at home. There were also lots of dragonflies and butterflies and gnats in the meadow. I should have sprayed my clothes and hat with insect repellent for the gnats.

When I got down to the stream, it was cooler because I could easily stay in the shade. I walked down stream a little and saw what looked like one of the trees purposefully upended as part of the upstream restoration that must have been sweep away by one of the recent rains. It is now caught on some rocks and other tree debris and will ‘slow the flow’ in its new location too.

When the water is high – there are two paths for the stream in the old ‘beach’ area. The one in the upper left is the main channel; the one in the middle of the picture is no longer flowing and will dry up if we don’t get another big rain this week.

I took the narrow path along the stream. There is high vegetation on both sides. Sometimes it opens enough for sun loving plants like milkweed to grow…and this skipper landed just in time for me to take a quick portrait.

There was a vista of a restored area of the stream. The pools look a little larger than I remembered – possibly because it has been so rainy recently. One part of the path was very muddy and I wondered if there was an intermittent spring there.

There were two butterflies on a Joe Pye Weed nearby. Rather than use the digital zoom on the phone, I clipped the area I wanted when I got home. It’s easy to identify the two butterflies: tiger swallowtail and monarch!

I hiked back to Montjoy barn on the sunny side of the stone wall. I didn’t stop along the way since it was hot and sticky. When I got to the shade near the barn I looked more carefully at the vegetation and found a new-to-me orange, white, and black insect. I had no idea what it was but I took several pictures and then identified it when I got home: an ailanthus webworm moth. It’s an insect that followed the invasive Tree of Heaven to our area. Aargh!