Hawkweed

After a morning—and a chilly one at that—outside with my granddaughter, we came in from raking leaves and I headed off to the Miner preserve to help organize and photograph a family hayride and to lead natural history tours. Oh yes, and to accompany the folk-singer who rode with us. We had an enthusiastic, if smaller than I'd hoped, crowd, but the view from the hay bales of the past-peak foliage was splendid, and if there wasn't much, bird- and odonate-wise, to see, I think we all had a good time. In between songs, I talked about our survey effort, and about grassland birds and management strategies. In between the first and second hay ride, I ran off to the North Vernal pool to see if it had taken in any water. It was, however, still bone dry. On the way back to meet the riders, I spotted a couple of uncooperative odes—meadowhawks not interested in providing a photo op—and a small patch of yellow flowers, apparently the last blooms on Miner this season. They're some kind of hawkweed, a group of dandelion-like composites. They're very pretty, but, because I neither collected plants nor photographed the leaves, they are wildflowers whose species designation may have to way until next year to be determined. I should never leave home without a plant press.