Day 185: July 3rd – Stonecrop Gardens

Hot (91), sunny and light breeze

      Stonecrop Gardens In Cold Spring, NY is a collection of gardens and plants which sits at an elevation of 1.100 feet.  It serves to demonstrate the kinds of gardens that can successfully be grown in a relatively restrictive climate and landscape.   Gardens like rock cliff gardens, water gardens, woodland gardens, raised alpine stone beds, and an indoor conservatory are all part of the collection here at Stonecrop.

       The environment makes this 12 acres of pristine habitat prime real estate for may of birds which reside or migrate through the Hudson Valley.  Goldfinches, House and Song sparrows, Gray catbirds, Robins, Tree swallows were fairly abundant today.  I have to admit, I was really looking for other forms of wildlife this afternoon as the heat was pretty oppressive once again and I did not anticipate a great deal of avian activity. 

      The many gardens also provide a perfect habitat for a wide variety of butterflies, and the water features also are home to a variety of amphibians, reptiles, and dragonflies. 

       I concentrated on these water features today to see what was making use of the streams, ponds, and waterfalls in the gardens.  The “jug–o-rum” calls of the bullfrogs greeted us even before we had a chance to set foot inside the gardens proper. 

       Again, my attention was drawn to the dragonflies which lately have become a diversion when the birds have not been so evident due to nesting and the heat of this summer.  The Eastern pondhawk was the most prevalent member of the “odes” and therefore worked its way onto the blog today.

Northern Water snake

       I remembered that last year, there were an inordinate number of Northern water snakes on the property, and made a concerted effort to see if I could find any today.  While not around in the numbers that I found last year, sure enough at least one was prominent enough to be easily photographed at fairly close proximity.  We renewed out membership to the gardens once again today, so you’ll be seeing more reports during the upcoming months about the changing wildlife we find.