#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #48 What was that?

Walking through the woods, movement underfoot! What's that? I think it was a garter snake!

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day # 47 Turtle in the Road!

Found a 2 inch hatchling Painted Turtle, in the road by the mailbox. I picked it up and set it down in the woods facing the pond. 

Chrysemys picta, a pond turtle, is the most widespread turtle in North America. Fossil records indicate that the Painted Turtle has been around for 15 million years!

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #46 "KERPLOP!"

A heavy piece of machinery drove through part of the woods leaving two wide sunken tracks that have filled with water because the drainage is very poor. While walking by I heard a "Kerplop!". Definitely a frog, didn't see enough to identify the species. Perhaps a wood frog?

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #45 A Flutter of White Wings...

Today it's about the little white butterflies flying up the left side of the page so stop looking at the cute little Painted Turtle hatchling!

Didn't know that Pieris rapae was an accidentally introduced to North America from Europe or Asia species. It can be quite pesky in some agricultural areas. 

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #44 Leaves of 3...

Leaves of 3, let it be! Unless, of course, it's these 3 leaves then be happy for the Jack-in-the-Pulpit! 

A member of the Arum family, Arisaema triphyllum, loves to grow in moist or seasonally wet shady places. 

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #43 A Painted Lady visits...

A visit from a Painted Lady butterfly, Vanessa cardui.

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #42 Meadow Shrub...

During the winter I was curious about the persistent seed capsules on this meadow shrub. Now that the leaves are coming out, I can take a guess as to what it is. 

It may be a Summersweet (also called Sweet Pepperbush), a Clethra spp. If it is, it will bloom with white spike-like upright clusters of flowers in July and August and attract many species of butterflies and birds. Yay! 

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #41 Eat it while it's young!

I found this when it was just a prickly twig and now that it's getting leafed out I can confirm my guess as to it's identity - a greenbriar (or greenbrier), Smilax spp. perhaps rotundifolia. 

Research says it's good to eat but you must harvest the young soft parts before the sharp spines harden. I think I'll pass for now, thank you.

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #40 An evergreen wintergreen?

There are plants that obtain (Steal!) a portion of their food through mycorrhizal fungi attached to other green plants, but can meet some of their own nutritional needs with their leaves. Some members of the Pyrola or the wintergreen family are an examples of this. I found what may be wintergreens also called Shinleaf in the woods. They are definitely evergreen and soon they will bloom. 

Is this a Shinleaf?

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day # 39 A Starflower!

Been watching a small spring plant with a whorl of leaves. I've had a few ideas of what it might be. Today I discovered which plant it was when I found one with little white blooms. I'm pretty sure it's a Starflower, Trientalis borealis. What a great name!

Great spring flower! It's growing in wet woods. Love it. 

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #38 Archie, The Royal Purple Fiddlehead

  

I found two fern plants, side by side, with a royal purple hue. Are they Royal Ferns, Osmunda regalis? Don't know yet, but still I named them Big Archie and Little Archie.

Aren't these fun!

  

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day#37 The Blueberry Bushes are Blooming...

I believe this to be the Northern Highbush Blueberry, Vaccinium corybosum, blooming now. Look at those wonderful bell-shaped flowers! I was quite delighted when I found them but now I'm thinking... Hmmmm, blueberries are a favorite food of the local black bears. Well, I will certainly keep an eye out for them! 

There's several bushes at the edge of the wet woods area and a few smaller ones in the woods.

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #36 Yes, ferns do have an awkward "teenager" stage...

The woods are brimming with young ferns! I can find both the baby "fiddleheads" and the "awkward teenagers". The latter is when the frond is almost finished with its unfurling but the leaflets are still not fully open. The overall effect is a straggly individual whose characteristics don't reflect what its mature beauty will soon be. 

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #35 Finding more on twiggy...

March and April are prime Lichen viewing months but here we are into May. The weather is still cool and rainy so there may be more yet to come! Today I worked a bit more on this twig, drawing the tiny lichen above the ruffly one. It has great apothecia but I haven't identified it yet.

 Zoomy image of lichen with apothecia.

There are a few more species below the tiny rosette. One is more of a yellowish-green (wet) foliose lichen and the other a darker green (wet) one. The darker one, I believe, looks like a "Hammered Shield Lichen" because of its overall look, no apothecia, and based on the fact it is common in this area and is found on bark. Its Latin name is Parmelia sulcata.

Zoomy image. "Sulcata" is derived from sulcatus which means grooved or furrowed.

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal.