Monday, April 28, 2008

Wildflowers and Butterflies


It won't be long now, perhaps in just a week or so, when Wild Strawberry blossoms will be blooming in abundance, like those seen in the covered bridge photo above, taken in early May, 2006. However I did find my first Wild Strawberry blossoms yesterday in the same location where I found my earliest blooms last year. I now have four check marks on my spring wildflower list: Coltsfoot, Dandelions, Mayflowers and yesterday I added, Wild Strawberry Blossoms. The next two I am expecting to check off soon will hopefully be Trout Lily and PurpleViolets. After that Purple Trillums and Ground Ivy should be blossoming soon too. And a reminder to me that spring isn't all just about birds and blossoms when yesterday a Mourningcloak butterfly came fluttering by and I took my first butterfly photo of the season.

7 comments:

  1. tony: I have pasted your comment here below as I think you probably meant it to be a comment on this post and not on the Wood Duck one.

    Tony Morris said...
    hi, did you know that the "Morning Cloak" is a rare butterfly in the UK known by the name "Camberwell Beauty"? The name originated from the discovery of two individuals at Coldharbour Lane in Camberwell in 1748.It's near the London Docks and the two were probably stowaways from mainland Europe!

    tony:
    Actually I had read that name this morning while checking on this species but I didn't know the story that went with the origin of the name,'Camberwell'. Thank you for that interesting anecdote on its UK name.

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  2. Your spring is bursting out all over and I'm glad for you! I love the wildflower pictures and you know so much about them. I'm going to learn a lot about butterflies from you, also :-) Do the wild strawberries produce fruit big enough to pick? As a child we had wild ones that produced very small berries...1/2" maybe?....but they were very sweet and we ate them by the handfuls.

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  3. mary:
    Yes, the wild strawberries are delicious and they make the greatest jam!! But they are very small and you have to pick a lot, without eating them :-), if you want a reasonable quanity.

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  4. Beautiful post. O- the beauty of nature.

    I am answering you question here, as I am never sure if people actually return to the comments to find the answer when they ask... Yes the flower is a wild iris.. the are beautiful and blanket the wetter areas of our forests in the summer.. thanks

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  5. Beautiful images of spring and a terrific post! Those look like lupines coming up near the wild strawberries. Most of our wild strawberries here taste very watered down, but the ones in northern New England are yummy. We are just starting to get our woodland flowers now. I keep meaning to drive to a certain place to see if the trout lilies and marsh marigolds are in bloom, but I forget to do it once I'm on the road. Today it's raining and feels raw outside, so I'm not going anywhere.

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  6. stacey:
    I thought it was an Iris. We have a wild flower here that looks similar to yours and is part of the Iris family named Blue Flag. Its found in wet areas also as is the beautiful one you posted today.

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  7. sandpiper:
    Yes, the whorled leaves are Lupines. The wild strawberries found here are delicious, though very small and you have to pick very many for a tasty treat. Searching for the earliest of wildflower blooms has always been a tradition with us and it a special part of our spring; looking for each new bloom.

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