We had a fun outing last Saturday with John DeMary leading our group at Balls Bluff Park in Leesburg.
While many of the wildflowers typically in bloom this time of year had already put on their show, there were still a number of great wildflowers to enjoy and we identified and talked about more than 30 different species.
Some of the wildflowers we saw include Wild Ginger, Early Saxifrage, Shooting Star, Spring Beauties, Bluets, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, blue cohosh, chickweed, squirrel corn, phlox, wild geranium, rue anemone, and a nice variety of violets.
Paw Paw trees were in full bloom and we saw Zebra Swallowtail butterflies flying around. Red Admiral butterflies were also seen.
On the amphibian side of things, Gray Tree Frogs were found by a few of us as they sat in the open and sometimes called.
Black snakes were quite active and we enjoyed watching one climb a tree. A Garter snake also met us along the trail and we enjoyed watching it as it headed back into the leaf litter.
We’ve posted a few photos from the walk on our facebook page.