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To me, the action as a naturalist is downtown. It's
not that hard to find something to appreciate in a
pristine forest (assuming that there are any left).
The challenge is to find the beauty under our feet
and above our heads in the parking lot. |
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picture: stunning color of
an American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis) budding out at
the local vest pocket park,
Hoyt and Prospect Streets, Stamford CT April 2005 |
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| So if you look up in Hoyt Street Alley, you'll find this
eastern cottonwood (a poplar like the aspen) turning
luscious caramel buds into gorgeous catkins. |
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pictures: eastern
cottonwood (Populus deltoides) bud to catkin (flower) , Hoyt
Street Alley, Stamford Ct. April 2005 |
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| Some of the other local trees with catkins are from the
Betula (birch) clan: the river birch, paper birch and alder
(male alder catkins are the long ones: female are the
shorter redder ones). |
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pictures: River birch,
Morgan Street, paper birch, 3rd Street, and alder, Mill
River at Scalzi Park, all Stamford CT April 2005 |
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If you look down, you'll find some wonderful
wildflowers tucked away in odd corners.
Without even considering the lower cancer
risk, it'll make you glad that some people
skip broad-leaf weed killers. These beauties
are thriving in a part of Scalzi Park that’s
a hard-packed, heavily-tread mowed area with
no supplemental water.
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picture: trout lily (Erythronium
americanum), Scalzi Park, Stamford CT April 2005 |
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pictures: cut-leaf
toothwort (Dentaria laciniata) (a mustard), spring beauty
(Claytonia virginica), common blue violet (Viola sororia)
fighting for space with the lesser celandine, Mill River at
Scalzi Park, Stamford CT April 2005 |
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picture: spring beauties
(Claytonia virginica), Scalzi Park, Stamford CT April 2005 |
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Violet leaves, by the way, are said to be
very high in vitamin A and C which is
probably why the rabbits adore them. In my
mother's garden, I plant these violets in
all the garden borders; the rabbits hop
along (when they think no one is watching)
taking a bite here and there from the
violets and leaving almost everything else
alone. Rabbits also prefer lawn clover to
garden plants. (Cover has the added
advantages of being highly disliked by
Canada geese as well as a nitrogen-fixer
that's good for the lawn.) And of course,
there are small gems as well as large ones
in Hoyt Street alley.
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pictures: This common blue
violet came with some sod tossed in the alley under the
chokecherry. Hoyt Street Alley, this mourning dove has two
suitor- she's ignoring both at the moment. One of the "lawn
mints", henbit, makes (Lamium amplexicaule) makes me glad
that some people don't use weed killers. Stamford CT. April
2005 |
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pictures: I often see these
three mallard brothers swimming in a row, as they learned to
do as small children. Or perhaps it's the father and his two
sons. IN any case, I can't tell if the same one gets to be
first all the time. I wonder if they'll stay together after
they get mates. Mill River at Scalzi Park, Stamford CT April
2005. This feral street cat is pretending that an overhead
squirrel isn't alerting everyone that the cat's here.
Location is undisclosed for the cat's protection. Stamford
CT April |
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picture: A
busy squirrel hurries across a roof,
Strawberry Hill Ave; Stamford CT April 2005 |
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picture: one of last year's
grape tendrils, Hoyt Street Alley, Stamford CT April 2005 |
