Brukner Nature Center, April 5

Sonja and I walked at Brukner on Friday.  The day was warm enough that Sonja wore no jacket and I wore a light-weight one.  We looked around at Cattail Pond, then headed down Hickory Ridge Trail.  She hadn't seen the snow trillium.  The snow trillium were blooming more profusely than the last time I visited and there were hundreds of hepatica, not just one like on March 29 when I walked with Stephen.

I asked her if she was willing to walk to the swamp.  I wanted to see the skunk cabbage and the harbinger-of-spring.  She said, "Sure."

As we were walking up Wren Run, I spotted a Mourning Cloak Butterfly, the first butterfly I have seen this spring.  I didn't get a photo.

I did get a picture of a purple cress.

Sonja spotted something moving among the leaves at our feet.  She took its picture...a slender garter snake.

The leaves of the skunk cabbage have grown a lot since I was last in the swamp.

But there was still a still blooming skunk cabbage.

Sonja pointed out a crawdad chimney.  No hole in it so the crawdad was still working its way up from its burrow.

But the crawdad from this chimney was out and about.

As we were climbing the stairs up from the swamp, I spotted these red-purple buds and stems.  Hard to believe that there is a bright yellow flower hidden under the purple covering.  This is one of the two ragworts that live at Brukner.

/