Tag: Spring Beauty

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01/16/2024 walk to OU duck pond

It’s 22 degrees F and sunny and with very light north wind now, so we walked over to the OU duck pond to see what was happening. All the geese and ducks were at the north end at a patch of open, flowing water on the creek. We also saw two Belted Kingfishers tangling in the air – squabbling? Courting?

A woman in a long blue quilted coat looks into an iced over pond at some big slider turtles.
Paula spotted one big slider turtle under the very thick ice!
Three turtles (two close together near shore and one farther out) under cracked ice that’s at least half a foot deep b
Can you find all three? They were all moving under the ice, which looked at least 4-6” thick.
A big iron sewer or water cover with the tidy graffiti described in the caption as well as a small geometric pattern of partial squares at right angles. Briar the dog sniffs the concrete under the lid.
“think, look, listen”… smell?
Paula holds a purplish leaf of the spring beauty. It’s very narrow and long, with dry tan bits of bermudagrass around it.
Paula remembered where she saw Spring Beauties blooming last year and after a few minutes of searching we found several leaves! No buds yet.
Briar’s fluffy tail near a geodetic survey marker in low bermudagrass and small forbs.
We also noticed this geodetic reference survey marker for the first time. Dog for scale.
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12/30/2023 spring beauty expansion

I point at the base of each long skinny green leaf with my first two fingers
I was showing Mom today how one of the two Spring Beauties she gave us have survived. She pointed out it now has two stems from the same plant! I can’t find the second plant which was another foot or so away. I accidentally pulled up its single leaf last year while weeding out Star of Bethlehem lilies and I suspect that killed it.
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Lexington WMA

A bit more cast iron forest this afternoon, not just the garden!

Probably a Common Buckeye butterfly caterpillar.
Neat shelf fungi on a blackjack oak that has been burned in the past.
Spring Beauty flower. Saw just a few!
Moss with undeveloped capsules (thanks Jeanne!)
Mexican Plums blooming had just a few bees on them. It was windy.
Briar helped look for frogs.
A round bit of moss.
Close up of Mexican Plum flowers.
Cardamine sp. (Thanks for ID, Abby!) You can see the leaves/rosette here.
Flower of Cardamine sp. There were lots in this damp area. You can see in both pictures some nearby sedges.