Billy Goat B trail
clear and 47 F at Carderock, 10:30 am
61 F at 2:20

Things Found:
bluejay feathers (see yesterday’s post)
a dozen turkey vultures eating something
a few turtles sunning themselves on logs – northern red-bellied cooters, perhaps

a particularly lovely rock, gneiss or schist on one half, quartz on the other

Emerging Foliage:
Virginia waterleaf (Hydrophyllum virginianum)
southern chervil (Chaerophyllum tainturieri)

squirrel corn or Dutchman’s breeches, too soon to say (Dicentra species)

In Bud:
slender toothwort (Cardamine angustata)
early saxifrage (Saxifraga virginiensis)
spicebush (Lindera benzoin)

Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica)

In Bloom:

spring beauties (Claytonia virginica)

harbinger of spring; a favorite patch is now covered by a downed tree that took some vines with it.  The flowers are visible but inaccessible for close inspection (Erigenia bulbosa)
maples, both Acer negundo and Acer rubrum (probably)
elm, species unknown (Ulmus)
just a few cutleaf toothwort, on sunny, south-facing slopes (Cardamine concatenata)
round-lobe hepatica, one in flower, one in bud (Hepatica nobilis var obtusa)

a single bloodroot, though a friend reports there are more (Sanguinaria canadensis)

And sadly, some aliens: common chickweed, purple dead nettle, hairy bittercress…

…and ivy-leaved speedwell