This being my fourteenth Van Cortlandt Park photo diary a few here might think it repetitive. These Friday photos are very different from the rest. It is sleepy time during the growing season.
Sadly after a harsh winter there are many trees missing from my favorite walk. But my favorite for photos and probably the most abused tree in the park still stands. This is Van Cortlandt Park (last stop on the Broadway local) in transition from spring to summer.
I had not taken my lakeside walk and forest stroll there for over two weeks, a long time for me. Surprised by how rapidly the transition from spring to summer views occurred the forest is shady and the last of spring flowers can be seen floating on the surface of the lake. Everything went so green and lush so quickly.
Below the fold is another photo walking tour of my favorite slice of nature in New York City. Just a walk in the park for my Mom who hasn't been to the Bronx in years.
There is a word in nature that I've always loved. "Ecotones" hold the widest variety of flora and feed the widest variety of fauna. That area where land meets water, be it field and stream or forest and lake are the richest areas in temperate climates. Ecotones that represent change and dynamic but get very little attention remind me of this time of year.
I like to think of May as the season of unnoticed change. There is still plenty of growing season ahead but the spring growth we all notice is over and the summer flowers are yet to come. By July the sides of the "Old Put" (an abandoned railroad trail) will be taller than I am. In the summertime this trail becomes a golden gantlet of jewel weed and it is very pretty. Now it is between the wildflowers of spring and the golden days of summer.
Outside of all the flower petals floating on the lake, the view has gone so green in the past two weeks. It won't look much different until autumn.
This does seem like a summer view.
It is really only the wide view that will seem unchanging. Where forest meets water soon the pepper bush will hang over the water reflecting white and then give way to goldenrod before the autumn color sets in. Up close the early green can still be seen in the seemingly full grown leaves of this oak that sits beside a real water loving gray birch.
But even though the green of spring can still be found in these waterside views, flora seems to have filled in so rapidly as plants turned from flowers to photosynthesis. There was a clear view of the lake from this vantage point just two weeks ago.
The nature trails, forest, meadows, willow and swale have suddenly changed from the new green of spring to the rich tones of summer but everywhere seems to be in a lull. The lakeside trail that speckled yellow by trout lilies and white with both blood root and trillium is all green now.
Actually this could be the furthest for a slow period in northeastern nature. It just doesn't offer so much of the visual pleasures that humans enjoy as the plants focus on growth in the longer days.
Northeastern nature only seems to be on a break. The sun loving flowers of spring are all gone because the broad leaved trees have already shaded the forest floor.
And look who else is enjoying the shade and coolness under the forest canopy.
While the forest seems to have found a period of calmness the squirrels are at their most active. On Friday it seemed like all squirrels had chosen up sides and were playing an extended game of tag. I don't know much about the bedroom habits of squirrels but I got the feeling that the females were "it."
Here's a pair that were definitely luffing it. Turtles soaking up some sunshine seems like a summertime view.
There's a dead tree right beside the sunning turtles and the better vantage point seemed worth the adventure.
Those two turtles didn't like me getting close so they took off but once I got out on the branches, a defiant one while keeping an eye on me would not be intimidated from a comfortable piece of real estate.
After a while out on the branch one of them felt comfortable with me, came back and found a little friend too.
Then a walk through some Bronx forest to the wetlands.
Even the marsh seems dormant. Unlike the forest spring flowers rushing to get ahead of the shade the phragmites, cattails and beautiful periwinkle will never have to deal with shade so I guess they are in no hurry to produce wetland beauty.
Are you aware that the cattail is a member of the forest forward infantry? The northeastern forest like any other ecosystem fights a never ending battle to gain new ground. Evidence of this can be seen on our city streets as we see the dried peppergrass growing up through the cracks in our sidewalks.
The cattail lives on the balance between woodlands and wetlands. Each year that the cattails live at water’s edge their root system captures sediment and creates a rich soil. The species is then uncomfortable in the environment it created so the plants move further out into the water. In its foot prints a meadow is created. Then one of the ephemeral fast growing trees like a white birch take hold and chase away the sun loving meadow plants that are replaced by shade tolerant forest plants.
Some of those plants will be the more permanent trees that also enjoy having wet feet. Trees like the red oak and willow will spread more roots and create more solid land. Still others will be the patient saplings of the mighty hardwoods like oak that will accelerate growth a century later when the dying white birch that was once at the edge of the forest leaves a hole in the forest canopy.
There is another sort of ecotone that is always moving, always moving in the wrong direction. Where civilization meets nature are also ecotones.
A walk to the pond to see all the birds.
The pond looks the calmest it ever does.
Usually there is no chance of getting a photo of the special tree that people can't walk to and mute swans raise one cygnet below each summer, usually don't get a photo without a bunch of waterfowl in the picture.
And even that nice safe branch so far from people where I get my best birding photos is deserted. Where have the geese, herons and mallards gotten off too?
Outside of the red winged blackbirds chatting and the squirrels chasing this seems like such a quiet park in May.
How about a walk up to the meadow?
The meadow must be showing off by now.
Nope it looks like only these raspberries or blackberries are in flower.
And a some False Solomon's Seal scattered on the forest floor at meadow's edge.
I wonder if the wild flowers take a break because all the insects are so busy in the treetops. But there is much going on. A few weeks back the meadow milkweed was under ground. Now these plants are just about ready to feed the butterflies.
And some are busy with other issues.
But here's a score. Some beautiful flowers from a bush with a cherry like bark. A nature's bouquet for Mother's Day.
I prefer how the light falls in the forest during the late afternoon sun, epically the sassafras stand along the cross country trail.
And then at the end of the day, the best sighting in the least natural place. At the point where the John Muir woodland trail is squeezed between a highway and a golf course a beautiful pea tree.
That where all the insects are.
I hope you enjoyed this little Bronx nature walk.
Happy Mother's Day.