Nature

Signs of things to come

Clarke Green

03 Apr 2025 — 1 min read

Wild Leeks emerging

Two more spring ephemerals started showing up this week. Wild leeks grow thickly in one section of the park. I may be wrong but I suspect they are lasting remnant of an area that the Lenape people harvested. I think this because the abundance of them points to a long period of responsible, honorable, harvesting and cultivation.

The Yellow Trout Lily is showing it's dappled dark bronze and green leaves like the backs of so many brook trout. The forest will soon be alive with blooms, it really is a remarkable sight. I think we ought to have a Trout Lily festival.

Trout Lillies in their tens of thousands! Quite a sight.

Black Willow

Before long the soft filaments of back willow (Salix nigra) seeds will be drifting through the park. Black willows are so common we are likely to pass them by, but they are a vital part of the park ecosystem. They grow in floodplains, stream banks, swamps, marshes, sloughs, and ponds

Tyrants!

Tyrant flycatchers are so called because they are, well, tyrannical, jealously guarding their territory from interlopers. Possessing keen eyesight for spotting insects and judging distances, flat, wide bills perfect for catching prey, and whisker-like bristles around their mouths likely aiding rapid course corrections, flycatchers are formidable hunters. Flycatchers have their

Seen Around Town

Some recent photos. I’ll be at third thursday this week on State Street with my paintings 5:30-7:30 pm.

This Week at Nixon Park - May 3-9

A seasonably warm week with plenty of sun, and enough rain to break the back of the drought.

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Black Willow

Tyrants!

Seen Around Town

This Week at Nixon Park - May 3-9