April 28th.  Early afternoon from downtown East Hampton to just east of Cranberry Bog.  At first, I thought all I'd see blooming were a scarce few Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best guess is a Whitlow-grass (Draba sp.). Only 4" tall with a basal rosette of leaves.

 

Bluets (Houstonia caerulea).

 

Yes, an almost identical picture, but I wasn't sure which I preferred.

 

 

 

 

 

Note the tan specks on the petal margins.

 

They're Collembola!

 

 

 

 

 

Periwinkle (Vinca minor).

 

A "Micro-lep", = teeny moth.

 

Fertile frond of a Field Horsetail (Equisetum sp.).

 

 

 

Fractures on a cut stump.

 

 

 

Barnyard animals just east of Cranberry Bog.  A treat for casual trail users and families.

 

 

 

 

 

I like the fan-folding in False Hellebore (Veratrum viride) leaves.

 

Big difference when the sun goes behind a cloud.

 

 

 

 

 

April 29th.  Late morning east and west of Cook Hill Road in Lebanon.  Green Metallic Bee (Family Halictidae) on Dandelion.

 

 

 

Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The beetle is a Red-necked False Blister Beetle (Family Oedemeridae, Asclera ruficollis).  It feeds on pollen in the spring.

 

Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis).

 

 

 

 

 

Wood Anenome (Anenome quinquefolia).

 

Leaf color variable.

 

Small White Violet = Northern White Violet (Viola macloskeyi).

 

Red Trillium (Trillium erectum) beginning to open.

 

 

 

 

 

Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) is blooming.

 

It gives a yellow cast to the understory.

 

Vegetative stalks of Horsetail are beginning to expand.

 

A common green Six-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata).

 

A Spider Wasp (Family Pompilidae) with a relatively enormous paralysed spider which will serve as food for a wasp larva.  The wasp was dragging the spider along with some difficulty, intending to deposit it and an egg in its burrow.

 

 

 

 

 

A quick stop east of Route 207 near the Hebron/Lebanon line.  Ribbon Snake (Thamnophis sauritus sauritus).