28 April 2009 - 6:20Trillions of trilliums

Trillium,
originally uploaded by tackyjulie.

On Saturday, Bob and I got up early to go see the trilliums at the Thompson Wildlife Management Area, near Markham, Virginia. It is the largest concentration of them in the state. The phenomenon is known as “Trillions of trilliums,” and that is not that much of an exaggeration. I’ve posted 34 photos from this outing on my Flickr site.

We took I-66 West from the DC area. It was about 50 miles to Exit 13 to Linden, VA. Soon after, we took a left, going East on Route 55. After maybe a mile, we took a left onto Route 638, and went back under I-66. We followed the road for a few miles until we saw signs for Thompson WMA. Be sure to follow the road as it takes a sharp right (if you miss the turn, you’ll end up in the Skyland Estates development like we did, and have to turn around). We did the trails in two areas: the Upper Ted Trail, and the Trillium Trail. Both had lots of trilliums. Most of them were still white, which means there will probably still be trilliums to see in early May.

We saw a few other wildflowers as well: rue anenome, yellow violets, wild geranium, bloodroot, cutleaf toothwort, and jack-in-the-pulpits. As for bird life, we heard plenty, but we were looking more on the ground on this trip than in the trees. Still, we managed to see two warblers: an American redstart and a worm-eating warbler. We heard towhees encouraging us to “drink your tea,” which was ironic, since I didn’t get any that morning due to the early start.