Tulip tree leaf, Babcock

I was on a mission today: after the fairly significant rains earlier, I wanted to check the vernal pool at the Babcock refuge to see if the Marbled Salamanders had come out to, er, play. I'd had that amazing sighting last year of the female Ambystoma opacum on eggs under a log and I thought I might get as lucky this afternoon. However, it's been so dry that the parched earth soaked up the precipitation completely and there was no sign of water in the pool-to-be. There was also no sign of Marbleds... or any other amphibian, for that matter. So I simply made the loop, and, en route, I spotted another kind of sign: a Tulip Tree leaf on the ground and turning the characteristic yellow-gold of the species. Finding a "tulip" was something of a surprise, since I'd never noticed one of those wonderfully straight and tall trees at Babcock. But if I had any doubts about the identification, I soon found corroboration: a scattering of Tulip flower "petals" that had, in all likelihood, nourished a squirrel or two. I really need to start keeping a Babcock plant list.

Tulip tree spent flower, Babcock