Nature Walks 2024

Sunday, May26 at 9:30 AM

We’ll walk around Lenoir Preserve to see the changes in plants and trees. We’ll observe the birds: the ones which overwintered and the ones which spent the winter in warmer places.
Register with Debbi Dolan, leader
We meet at the Lenoir Preserve Nature Center
(pictured below)
19 Dudley St., Yonkers

Report on Nature Walk April 21 It was a chilly day, but the birds were active. We heard and/or saw 22 bird species, and enjoyed flower budding trees and trees in vibrant emergent leaf. The tree swallows were circling and perching in a flowering poplar; one pair selected nesting box M5, and another darted into nesting box T3. Several northern flickers were seen up on the Copper Beech trail. A palm Warbler was sighted, and a pine warbler heard in the conifers. We also sighted a ruby crowned kinglet, many American goldfinches and house finch. The chipping sparrow and song sparrow, Carolina wren Northern cardinal and American robins were singing. The white throated sparrow is still among us. A doe was browsing near the fading copper beech trees.

Our common native bees Bumblebees are important pollinators in most areas of North America, and they were sighted in several locations. In spring, queens emerge from underground where they have spent the winter, and look for a nest site, often found underground in an old mouse nest or rodent burrow. Dandelions are an important source of nectar for these bees when they first emerge in early spring.

A group of volunteers was beautifying the Butterfly garden and working on special structural garden features. A clump of Spring beauty was in flower, and purple phlox. Many native plants were in pots ready for transplanting.

Q: Where do the tree swallows come from?
A: Tree Swallows begin migrating south in July and August, flying during the day and roosting in large flocks at night. Eastern populations probably migrate along the Atlantic coast to winter in Florida and Central America.

Hope to see you on another jaunt in lovely Lenoir Preserve. — Debbi Dolan

About Debbi Dolan, Conservation Chairperson, leads Nature Walks at the Lenoir Nature Preserve. She knows the birds, the plants, the trees to be found there. She even knows which plants - like boneset - have been used for traditional medicines. She also leads walks at Van Cortlandt Park, in the Bronx.