Today we took a walk at Huntley Meadows. It was another cloudy day, which made it a great day for animal and plant hunting. We saw several great blue herons and an egret; green frogs, many red-eared sliders, a couple of snapping turtles, three water snakes, and one little black snake with yellow stripes; three kinds of swallowtail butterflies (eastern black, tiger, and spicebush), viceroys, cloudless sulphurs, a buckeye and a green comma (which is actually orange and black -- a first for me); a huge yellow and black spider; and many wildflowers: cardinal flower, broadleaf arrowhead, crimson-eye rose mallow, ironweed, buttonbush, and another yellow flower very similar to the primrose willow (but it only had four petals, green stems, and it was much taller).
I've never seen the primrose willow growing any place but Huntley Meadows and I've only seen it one of my wildflower books. In late fall they are growing all over the swamps here.
