{"id":6090,"date":"2016-03-20T10:19:03","date_gmt":"2016-03-20T14:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenprovidencepark.org\/?p=6090"},"modified":"2016-04-12T16:30:45","modified_gmt":"2016-04-12T20:30:45","slug":"2015-spring-summer-photojournal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenprovidencepark.org\/2016\/03\/20\/2015-spring-summer-photojournal\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring-Summer 2015 Photojournal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spring emerges in waves of blooms around Glen Providence Park<\/strong> – starting with lovely ephemerals Bloodroot<\/strong> and Trout Lily<\/strong>. Soon after, trees start blossoming around the pond, with elegant Serviceberry<\/strong> followed by Silverbell, Redbud,<\/strong> and Black Cherry<\/strong>. Some of the more whimsical flowers in the park are those of the Horsechestnut<\/strong> tree found on the sledding hill, and the Buttonbush<\/strong> that we planted near the pond. 2015 was the first year I can remember seeing Rhododendron<\/strong> and earlier-blooming Mountain Laurel<\/strong> flowering in the park on the same day, in early June.<\/p>\n

At the pond, we saw our first Black Ducks<\/strong>, and for the second year in a row, Solitary Sandpipers!<\/strong>\u00a0In the woods,\u00a0Pileated Woodpeckers<\/strong> made their usual dramatic (and sometimes loud) appearances. We spotted a Great Crested Flycatcher<\/strong>\u00a0and a\u00a0Hermit Thrush,<\/strong>\u00a0a sweet bird with a similar ethereal song to the Wood Thrush. It was exciting to watch a pair of Baltimore Orioles<\/strong> over several weeks as they built and tended a nest – but unfortunately we think a predator got to the eggs. The orioles spend most of their time high in the canopy – their nest was over 50 feet up in a tree!<\/p>\n

For our fourth year, we tracked the timing of the emergence in the park of both ephemeral Bloodroot flowers and American Toads<\/strong>. Each year, the toads have emerged at the pond 5 to 8 days after the Bloodroot buds appeared on the western hill, despite a 3-week variation in the timing of the Bloodroot. After the long-lasting 2014-2015 winter, the Bloodroot buds appeared on April 6, and the comical toads (with their loud trilling!) 8 days later on April 14. We started tracking the timing of other plants in the glen – it will be interesting to see if any\u00a0patterns emerge. For more on phenology,<\/strong>\u00a0the study of timing in nature, see our Spring 2013 photojournal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Summer brought peaceful mornings in the woods with the shade of all those trees providing respite from the heat. Hundreds enjoyed summer afternoons at our Summer Concert Series<\/a><\/strong>, including a\u00a0special 80th anniversary celebration<\/a><\/strong> for Glen Providence. Throughout the spring and summer, we invited the community to deepen its appreciation of the glen with monthly events for kids and adults including two cleanups<\/a><\/strong> and herpetology, stream life, tree, and nature walks<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Click on any of the chronological photos below for a closer look, or scroll through them all. You can compare our 2015 spring and summer to other years in my photojournals<\/a>, starting in August 2011. And many of these photos have detailed captions in our Facebook albums<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\t