Welsh Mountain Nature Preserve Hike

Mountain laurel flowers

I recently went on a lovely hike in the nearby Welsh Mountain Nature Preserve.  The timing was just right, as the mountain laurel was plentiful and in full bloom.

Green frog

It’s been a  wet spring, and the trail skirted a number of vernal pools, teeming with tadpoles.  Vernal pools, which will dry up in the heat of summer, are ideal for tadpoles as there are no predator fish present.  Ideally, the young frogs develop and find their way to the nearby stream before the pool evaporates.  This frog was keeping watch over one of the pools.

Skunk cabbage leaves

There were patches of lush skunk cabbage all about.  I was too late for the blooms but enjoyed them none the less.  I’m very fond of this plant--I have a weakness for anything with large, distinctive leaves--and previously featured it in my art quilt Skunk Cabbage and Possum:

"Skunk Cabbage and Possum"

Another, larger vernal pool brought the discovery of an immature snapping turtle:

Snapping turtle

Distinctive features are the wedge shaped head, the whip-like tail, and the ridged shell.  This one was about the size of a salad plate.

Snapping turtle

I found a patch of milkweed and spent some time turning over leaves looking for monarch butterfly eggs.  Milkweed and associated plants are the only hosts for the larvae.  I didn't spot any eggs; hopefully it’s just too early in the season, and not a further sign of the monarch’s decline.

Milkweed leaves

The plants themselves were hale and hearty and full of buds:

Milkweed buds

One of my sharp eyed hiking companions spotted this  American Toad, camouflaged in the underbrush:

American Toad

One of the things I admire about toads is their attitude.  They know they taste bad, and are not overly skittish.  (If you've ever watched an inexperienced cat or dog mouth a toad, you know what I mean.  They usually don’t try it twice.)  This one posed obligingly while we captured the lovely patterning on its back:

American toad patterning

It then grinned for a portrait:

American toad portrait

This may be the year of the toad here in the northeast.  I've seen more in my yard and out and about than I have for a long time.  Perhaps the mild winter and wet spring is just what they needed for a population surge.