Shutterbug Explorations: April 12, 2014

Saturday afternoon, 12 April 2014, in Wildwood Park, Radford, Virginia. Clyde Kessler writes:

It was a very warm afternoon in Wildwood Park. Conditions were fantastic for our first Blue Ridge Expeditions outing. We’re calling them Shutterbug Explorations in Wildwood . Nancy Kent and I were curious as to how many folks would show up, since there are so many events happening locally almost every weekend in spring and summer.

        

We were delighted when nine folks showed up. We talked a little while at the Outdoor Classroom, then we walked the trail on the west side of the park, and indulged in the wildflower show. Dutchman’s Breeches were in full bloom, carpeting the hillside from the edge of the trail up to a small cliff.

                                                     
                                            Bloodroot also tried to steal the show.  
                                               

Other flowers that were in bloom or starting to bloom included: Spring Beauty, Large-flowered Bellwort, Trout Lily, Yellow Mandarin, and Coltsfoot. Spicebush was still in prime bloom.

                                                

                                                   
We saw a few species of bees at the flowers, and we saw Carpenter Bees patrolling the area by the Outdoor Classroom.  We saw only a few species of butterflies: Cabbage White, Summer Azure, a Mourning Cloak that posed for us a while. It was found by Elizabeth when it was sunning on the side of a buckeye tree. Some of us briefly saw a species of Polygonia, either an Eastern Comma or a Question Mark.

Almost everyone that came on the hike had a camera or camera-phone. So we had lots of pictures of flowers. And we had some fine sketches of flowers too. Elizabeth's art explained the difference between Coltsfoot and Dandelions:
                                                                                                                                                                   

                                          

                                  Zora created her own version of a Wildwood scene as Dad watched:
                                                                                                                              

                                                          

                                                         
                                                                  

Some of the group (Elizabeth and her twin brother Gardner) decided to indulge in a little rock hopping in Connelly’s Run.

                                                                        

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

                                                                                     
It was such a fun time, I couldn’t believe how fast two hours went by, seemed like minutes. We’ll definitely try this again soon. Definitely, adds Nancy.