Hudson River Park Wild!

Walter and Michelle led a nature walk this morning in Hudson River Park.  Our first stop was Pier 42, which has been left in place as a thriving mini ecosystem for certain species that like fresh and salt water at different points in their lives. Such as striped bass.

Birds enjoy the pier's ecosystem too!

Bayberries (aka waxberries)
DO NOT EAT

Walter said that most of the berries growing in the park are poisonous to humans and other mammals - but perfectly OK for birds, because they pass through the birds' digestive system too quickly to be broken down into toxins.

He also showed us a "Kentucky coffee tree" (not pictured here) which we should NOT use to make coffee; apparently, the leaves, seeds, seed pods, and bark are all poisonous!

Blanket flowers

Ginko tree, with holes drilled by yellow-bellied sapsuckers

The butterflies I saw last time I was out skating were really a lot of the inspiration for me to go on this walk. I was intrigued (and thrilled) that they'd deliberately created butterfly habitats along the bike path.  (Somewhat less thrilled about the "other insects" part of it - e.g., the golden trumpet flowers are beloved not only by bumblebees [yay!] but also houseflies [boo!].  I guess the park rangers are trying not to discriminate.)

Painted Lady butterflies 

These bushes were alive with them!  Butterflies everywhere!

See if you can count all of them in this picture.  It was so cool.

The butterflies were very photogenic; they did not move when people pointed at them or
brought camera lenses way in close.

I think the plant with purple flowers is officially known as a "butterfly bush", and with good reason.

We did eventually (alas) have to tear ourselves away from the butterflies.  Apparently there are other things to see as well.

I don't remember what Walter said about this plant, but I lingered a little longer when I heard some rustling...

After the group moved on, I heard a little rustling in the shrubbery.  It was this guy.

We saw two kinds of oaks - one had an amazing super-sized acorn.  The other had ridges on the branches, and normal-sized acorns that were about 3/4 covered by a fuzzy cap.

The limber pine was pretty cool.  It's a native, cold-weather plant, with pliable (limber) limbs and needles.  Apparently, this allows the snow to fall off rather than breaking the branches (clever design, eh?).  Walter said the pine cones have a 2-year life-cycle.  The new ones (foreground) are a warm light brown, small and tight; last year's (middle-ground) are green and sticky with white resin to keep them sealed; the ones from two years ago and longer are the stereotypical dead pinecones, dry, fully opened, and a dull gray-brown.

Limber Pine, with this year's cones (front) and last year's (back).

Closeup of the new growth 

Walter showed us these caterpillar sacs on the limber pine.  Apparently, this is the work of the evergreen bag-worm moth.  They don't get out much.  He said the female is little more than a womb (no eyes, etc) and never leaves the cocoon at all.  The male pupates and leaves the cocoon only to seek out the female by pheromones, enter into her sac, impregnate her, and die.  She then lays a bunch of eggs, and dies.

Cocoons of the evergreen bag-worm moth

Alas, the tour eventually ended.  On my way back, I stopped for more butterfly pictures:

Painted Lady patiently posing on the ground.  How polite and considerate!

Is this inspired by the twitter bird?

Beautifully painted concrete dividers...

One of the first things we looked at on the nature walk was a spiderweb, so I thought it was fitting to end with this image:

(Incidentally, I had not realized until today that the daddy long-legs is not a spider. ) 

I had brunch (quinoa salad and a watermelon lemonade) at Au Bon Pain on my way home.