This has been a wonderful week – not too hot yet, with a little rain but lots of sun. It was a perfect weekend for girdling aspen, so I did a lot and made good progress on some of the clones. I had forgotten what good exercise it is.

These are some of the aspen in 3 Finger Valley.

I took a walk on a friend’s prairie that’s a few miles from here. It was the first time I’d seen it, and was impressed by its quality. I don’t think it’s ever been grazed much, and parts of it are so diverse and have such interesting plants that I think it was probably too steep and rocky to have been grazed at all. This is a view of the steepest part, with lots of Puccoon and Birds Foot Violet blooming, and some stubby Hill’s Oak trees in the middle.

The best thing I found there was a Great Spangled Fritillary caterpillar climbing up a Birds Foot Violet stalk. Fritillary caterpillars eat violets but they’re quite secretive, and I’ve never seen one before.

Flowers are blooming on all the dry prairie remnants now.

Fringed Puccoon (Lithospermum incisum)

Hoary Puccoon (Lithospermum canescens)

Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium campestre)

Bastard Toadflax (Comandra umbellata)

And our apple trees are all blooming. We have dozens of apple trees sprinkled around our property. In the fall it’s fun to taste an apple from each tree as we walk by – they all have different flavors and textures. They’re not native, but I like having them around – and they’re beautiful when they’re blooming. (Read The Botany of Desire by Jonathan Pollan for an interesting history of apples in America.)

Apple tree

Apple blossoms

The Hawthornes are in bloom too.

All the summer butterflies are coming out now – it still seems early for them.

I saw several Black Swallowtails – this one was patrolling up and down the path to Indian Grass Prairie.

A Tiger Swallowtail was enjoying all the dandelions in the new planting in Western Prairie.

There were lots of Meadow Fritillaries.

And several Juvenal Duskywings.

The woods are still full of Rue Anemones, and this week there were Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)

Wood Betony (Pedicularis canadensis)

Jacob’s Ladder (Polomonium reptans)

And Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana).

These are the blossoms of American Black Current (Ribes americanum).

Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea) is blooming on the planted prairie slopes by the house. I planted the seeds two years ago, and this is the first time I’ve seen it growing there.

In this close-up you can see one of the real flowers – the red parts are modified leaves called bracts. The flowers are tiny, mostly green, and hidden between the showy red bracts.

Here’s a spring view of the wetland. The Spring Peepers are quieting down, and now I’m hearing a few Gray Tree Frogs and either Leopard or Pickerel Frogs.