Northeastern jungle

It was like the greenwood of a fairy tale in the marsh we visited yesterday. Everything was bursting out and greening up and singing and chittering and croaking.

We were greeted by a yellow warbler at the entrance to the trail.

He stood out pretty well, perched at the highest vantage point he could find.

But when he turned his back, he looked just like one of the leaves.

The May apples always bloom in this spot first, and they were everywhere. We found them when we spooked a rabbit and I bent over to look beneath the canopy of leaves for a nest.

No nest, but… blooming May apples!

You have to bend the stem back a little to make the drooping flower face front for a picture. It always reminds me of a hold-up: “Don’t shoot!”

There were ferns rolling out their fiddleheads everywhere.

Not everything was colorful, though. My daughter spotted (somehow!) this leaflike butterfly.

Tiny plants are emerging on the forest floor. (I got some better, more diverse photos last year around this time.) These are some of my favorites, though I never noticed them till last year.

The whole place has a primeval feeling about it.

Though it’s surrounded by noisy highway, I heard lots of birds — warblers I never got my eye on. But one of the reasons I like the place is that in spring there are so many blooming trees and plants.

Even though it was in the 60’s, there was no way we could forget that the green carpet is rolled out to stay.