Spring Forests

It's early spring in the Alleghenies. I love the delicate colors as the trees flower and leaves emerge.

Serviceberries (white) and red maples (red) are the first trees to bloom. Actually, these are not the flowers of the red maples, but rather the beginnings of the "helicopter" seeds (samaras).

Redbuds line the forest edge and most roads.

As the redbuds begin to fade, dogwoods come into bloom, and other trees begin to leaf out.

Red maple samaras (winged seeds) start out a brilliant red, ...

... then slowly turn brown as they mature. These have been knocked off the trees by recent high winds.

We had a surprise dusting of snow on Friday, April 10. It's difficult to see, but this snow is caught in a cup-like spider web. There were quite a few of these "snow cups" in the forest.

Butterflies have also emerged from overwintering as either a larvae of a pupa. Here duskywings and a zebra swallowtail "puddle" on dung on the road.

A closer look at the zebra swallowtail. The caterpillars of these butterflies eat pawpaw leaves exclusively, so we must have some pawpaws nearby.