May 2021: Describe your walk by adding a comment below
Each time you go out and make observations for this project, describe your walk by adding a comment to this post. Include the date, distance walked, and categories that you used for this walk.
Suggested format:
Date. Place. Distance walked today. Total distance for this project.
Categories.
Brief description of the area, what you saw, what you learned, who was with you, or any other details you care to share.
Comentários
5/1/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3196.3 miles total.
Categories: animals
The sun came out today but the temperature was below 50F. My husband and I went unicycling in Adamant. It was my first long ride in over 2 years, since before my abdominal problems got me down. I saw several dead amphibians in the road there but I wasn't able to get photos from my wheel. On our way back home we found @charlie and his family heading out to Chickering Bog. Maybe he'll have some photos of ephemerals from the Bog. When I got home I walked around the house but it was quiet and I only found a turkey and a chickadee. In the evening I found a pug moth and a micro moth at the lights but both flew before I could get photos.
5/2/21. Marshfield Pond, Marshfield, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 4.4 miles today, 3200.7 miles total.
Categories: flowering, shoots, animals
This afternoon was partly sunny and breeze with the temperature around 55F. My husband and I went out to Marshfield Pond, he with his unicycle and me on my bike so that I could go slowly and look for ephemerals. I started by following a private dirt road by the pond that goes to the "back" of the pond and dead ends at a single cottage. A few vernal ponds crossed the road on the way and a stream ran down both wheel tracks near the end, so I was glad I had fenders front and rear. Blooming were colt's foot, trout lily, hobblebush, spring beauty, red trillium, and Canada violet. Budding were foamflower, fly honeysuckle, Golden Alexander, and toothwort. Arthropods were pale green assassin bud, early tachnid fly pollinating spring beauty, Priocnemis minorata wasp, wolf spider, red-necked false blister beetle pollinating trout lily, several other flies pollinating the spring beauty and colt's foot, and galls on meadowsweet and willows. I also found spring beauty rust, a first for me.
In the evening, there was no rain and the temperature was above 50F, a delightful night for mothing. I found Comstock's sallow, pale homochlodes, toothed brown carpet, gray spring moth, reddish speckled dart, several morphs of mottled gray carpet, a Noctuid moth, several micro moths, an Ichneumon wasp, a Chironomid fly with mites, and an orbweaver spider.
There weren't a ton of ephemerals out up there yet, surprising since i've seen a lot elsewhere. Msotly trillium, though it was nice to see the trillium of course.
Yeah, our neck of the woods is the last to see spring. We don't have any grass in the yard yet, let alone dandelions. The bloodroot in the yard is blooming, though.
5/3/21. Elm St, Montpelier, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.2 miles today, 3200.9 miles total.
Categories: green, arthropods
This afternoon I went with my husband to town, where we celebrated his 2+2 day with a visit to the chiropractor's for the first time in many moons. While he was inside, I searched the yard for some city weeds. The office is in a residential area near the Nature Center. But the lawn is neatly manicured, with just a few dandelions for interest. Even the edges of the yard only had lilacs and a single sugar maple. I went across the street and walked along the road a ways looking for weeds. I found wild chervil, autumn dandelion, and sprouts of wrinkle-leaved goldenrod and fleabane, plus a box elder. And galls on goldenrods.
In the evening at the moth lights, I found a gray spring moth, an Agonopterix and a Noctuid, as well as 2 different kinds of Chironomid flies and another fly.
5/4/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 3201.0 miles total.
Categories: animals
This afternoon was overcast and about 55F when I went out for my walk around the yard. For once, the turkeys were nowhere in sight, but I found a black-capped chickadee, a red-breasted nuthatch, a purple finch, a red squirrel, and a chipmunk, plus the black elderberry was starting to leaf out, and the red clover is looking bushy.
In the evening, I found a pale homochlodes, a gray spring moth, a nameless pinion, a mottled gray carpet, a curve-toothed geometer, and an Agonopterix, plus my first June beetle of the season.
5/5/21. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT, 0.4 miles today, 3201.4 miles total.
Categories: animals, greenery
A celebration today--my physical therapist said I could try walking 5 minutes. I walked a bit longer than that since I was taking photos, but I didn't go far, just to the end of the driveway and back. It was raining steadily and the temperature was about 55F. There were lots of birds at the feeder, including a chickadee, some turkeys, a goldfinch, a purple finch, and a red-breasted nuthatch, plus my first black-throated green warbler of the year, and a red squirrel. Along the driveway, I found burdock, common barberry, moneywort, white avens, Vinca minor, Christmas fern, bunchberry, fly honeysuckle (in bloom), mallow, and last year's New England aster still standing. I also found galls on raspberry and blueberry.
In the evening it was raining hard. When I checked the moth lights I found a dozen gray spring moths and 2 morphs of mottled gray carpet.
5/6/21. Sodom Pond, Adamant, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT, 0.5 miles today, 3201.9 miles total.
Categories: arthropods, birds
This afternoon I met up with @edlintonvt for a bug walk along Sodom Pond Rd. We were hoping to find some specialist bees in the willows that are blooming there. We shot a few bees in the willows, but although it was sunny, it was a bit chilly for bees (54F) and breezy. We found more bees and flies in the dandelions along the road. Other finds included a leafhopper on some Gallium, a ladybug cozying up to a Psyllid, some ants, and a deer tick on some tall grass. And lots of yellow-rumped warblers and swallows. Road kill was 2 red efts and a bee. At the end of our hunt, we drove up the road to meet my husband on his unicycle. He had staked out a spot to watch some geese in the wetland below the pond, but the geese had moved on by the time we got there. However, we found a leech swimming in the water and a swarm of black mayflies that must have been the target of the swallow flocks.
In the evening there was nothing at all at the moth lights. The sky was clear and it was chilly, so perhaps clear skies are not great bug skies, at least early in the season.
maybe the moths knew it was going to freeze tonight, we got down to 28
I haven't been adding to this project, but i still really appreciate reading your summaries when you can.
I got a new phone with better camera so am hoping to get more insect observations this year.
I don't think I've ever seen a leech swim (though of course they must). How frustrating it is not to be able to walk far, especially in spring. You really are still far behind us in flowers, though I miss the bloodroot and only saw it open once this year, would love to see more of it. And I find "nicely manicured" lawns very frustrating and would have been across the street looking for weeds as well.
5-1-21. Staten Island, NY. 4 miles today, 1023.5 miles total
Category: everything
Today was my big day on the City Nature Challenge, and my biggest day ever on iNat. I got up early and was in the national park at Great Kills before 8am. There I walked the beach and the harbor. I saw double crested cormorants flying, as well as the first laughing gulls of the year. Plus fragrant sumac, water chestnut (washed up on the beach), sea rocket, oyster drill eggs, a dead spider crab, and what I think was corn gromwell.
Next I drove to Blue Heron park, which is wooded, with a pond. I walked out to the pond and then thought I'd take the other path back, only to find it headed in completely the wrong direction. I turned back, bushwhacked briefly, and ended on another path, but turned the wrong way and had to backtrack again. But I did eventually get back to the car! Here I saw sessile bellwort, wild sarsaparilla, an ant walking on duckweed, mile a minute weed, and a whole bunch of ferns just unfurling that I'm not confident of my ID,
Then it was down to the southern tip of the island. I'd mentioned online that I planned to get to this park around 10, though I did not see anyone I know, but it would have been hard to find them, as they were having a beach clean-up day and there were dozens and dozens of people wandering around. Here I found lots of hackberry, cottonwood, chipping sparrows, and lots of flies on a dead menhaden. I also walked past a family having a big gender reveal party (a girl, apparently) and then a family taking what must have been first communion photos (at first I thought it was wedding pictures, then I got close enough to realize it was a child). By far the busiest park I visited, and the busiest I've ever seen this park.
I managed to drain 2.5 of the 3 camera batteries I'd brought with me at this point, so I drove all the way to the other end of the island, to give two of them a chance to charge off my car for half an hour. This was Fort Wadsworth, and I went there to get the smooth cliffbrake, which was still reliably growing in the walls of the old fort, along with ebony spleenwort and a whole host of other plants, including a 4-foot tall common mullein (from last year) about 10 feet up the face of the wall. Here I came across what appeared to be a naval memorial service.
Next stop was a fishing pier I'd been to before, for Japanese sedge and an odd clover-like plant on the dunes with extremely hairy leaves. No one has yet given me a convincing ID and I may need to go back and see if I can find it in flower. On the way back under the boardwalk to my car I managed to smack my head into one of the crossbeams (I was wearing a hat with a brim so didn't see it) so hard that I sat right down in the sand. I had a bruise for a couple of days but was otherwise okay, thank goodness.
After that was a wooded nature center walk but it was also very crowded and I was getting tired and didn't last long there. No particularly interesting species, either.
Then I stopped at a pond where people were feeding huge flocks of geese, mallards, pigeons, and house sparrows. Here I found both red eared sliders and painted turtles.
And finally I stopped at the only state park on the island, where I walked through the woods to a pond. I had stopped to talk briefly to the naturalist there, who had heard of the challenge but only posted one photo. She mentioned birding at the pond, and indeed I found a pair of orioles (I've only seen them twice before) and a very cooperative male yellow-rumped warbler. I also found the remains of four different abandoned cars.
5-2-21, Tall Pines Park, Sewell, and Palmyra Cove, Palmyra, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1024 miles total
Category: everything
I took Becca down to south Jersey again for her second COVID shot. We were early so stopped at a nearby state park reserve to take some photos, then afterward stopped at Palmyra Cove on the way home, mostly because it had something labelled "turtletopia" which was interesting enough to get my most reluctant hiker out of the car.
Turtletopia did indeed have turtles, both sunning themselves and swimming. There were also a lot of frogs; bull and green at least, though I didn't shoot many. And I nearly stepped on a snake. Though the highlight for me was that the pond was covered in fringed heartwort, an aquatic liverwort I'd never seen before. I also saw several tailed blues, a comma, a red-winged blackbird, and there was dwarf plantain, another new species for me. Back in Sewell the excitement was fragrant honeysuckle in fruit and a dead possom (with vulture) that we stopped at the side of the road to photograph.
5-3-21. New Hope, PA. 0.75 miles today, 1024.75 miles total.
Category: everything
Today was the last day of the CNC, but I was on duty with the squad until 3. So in the afternoon I drove over to Pennsylvania to take some more photos. It was sprinkling rain on and off, but I had an umbrella. Most of these sights were ones I'd visited last year on a lovely, sunny, Saturday, and I nearly all were crowded. Today I was nearly the only one there at each.
First was Virginia Forrest Park, on the Delaware Canal. There I found cornsalad, and under the eves of the bathrooms there was a patch of liverwort, pennywort, and brittle fern.
Next was a wooded hilliside in Johnson Park, where I found solomon's seal, false solomon's seal, hairy sweet cicely, glade fern, christmas fern, New York fern, wild hydrangea, alternate leaved dogwood, jetbead, and wild great rhododendron.
Then Clark Park which is again on the canal, but wooded, which had cream and yellow (and common blue) violets, dryad's saddle, hackberry petiole galls, red-seeded dandelion, and moonseed.
Finally Canal Path, which was mostly sunny but swampy. The main interesting thing here was poison hemlock.
5-5-21. King George Rd., Lyons, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1025 miles total
Category: blooming
I stopped on the way to the grocery store on the side of the road in this wooded floodplain, not long before sunset. And it started raining, driving me back into my car. But I found a cranberry viburnum (very unusual here) blooming, plus blackhaw, Morrow honeysuckle, several grasses, garlic mustard, bladdernut, Virginia pepperweed, wintercress, and autumn olive. Then I got home and found two ticks walking on my arm, yikes!
5-6-21. Frelinghuysen Arboretum, Morristown, NJ. 2 miles today, 1027 miles total
Category: blooming
My friend Laura suggested walking at this arboretum. The viburnum and dogwoods were blooming, along with a few lingering tulips. I also found garlic mustard, thyme leaved speedwell, violets, buttercups, spring avens, greater celandine, buttercup, ground ivy, dames rocket, larkspur, bleeding hearts, jacob's ladder, geranium, forget me nots, golden alexanders, silverbell, hellebore, fothergilla, magnolia, trillium, sweet woodruff, and lily of the valley, all blooming.
5-7-21. Voseller Ave., Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1027.25 miles total.
Category: flowering
Duty today but I managed to squeeze a walk in by parking on the side of this road that runs through a bit of the local park. I had seen cypress spurge blooming here and wanted to take photos of its leaves, as I'd been discussing with someone how to separate them from butter-and-eggs leaves without flowers. But then I found the butter and eggs (not flowering) as well. So that made it easier (butter and eggs are wider and pointier). Also blooming were wintercress, spring beauty, bugle, cinquefoil, garlic mustard, autumn olive, ground ivy, blackhaw, violets, barberry, dame's rocket, pepperweed, geranium, several sedges, and blue-eyed grass.
What an exciting big iNat day! So many species! But I was sorry to hear about how you bumped your head! Great find on the fringed heartwort! I’ve been looking for that for years. And you are one of the few people I know who would stop to photograph a dead possum with vulture. Any flies on the possum? Burying beetles under it? Johnson Park sounds lovely. The ticks at King Rd not so much.
5/7/21. Hubbard Park, Montpelier, VT & Grand Isle, VT, 2.4 miles today, 3204.3 miles total.
Categories: birds, greenery, arthropods
I went out early this morning to meet up with @cdarmstadt and 8 other birders for the weekly North Branch Nature Center spring migration bird walk. We had great finds in the park. We saw some robins, then a barred owl preening in a tree, some hermit thrushes, some black-throated green warblers, and got some lovely views of a Blackburnian warbler with perfect lighting from the meadow below the stone tower. Other birds included blue jays, chickadee, a least flycatcher, and a pair of broad-winged hawks. I couldn't help myself and also shot some plants along the way including Vinca, fly honeysuckle, wild oats, bellwort in bloom.
In the afternoon my husband and I drove up to Grand Isle for a week's stay at a cabin facing the Gut, a lake within lake Champlain enclosed by Grand Isle and North Hero. Before we left home, the landlord let me know that they were having a bug problem and that they had contracted a local pest control person to come and spray. Noooooo! I wrote back and asked if they could wait until we left. They said sure, but could I let them know what the bugs are. As soon as we got out of the car, we could see them, little Chironomid midges by the looks. We dug the paddleboat out from under the deck and I managed to photograph a collection of spiders (mostly Philodromus) on it before we took it out on the water. From the boat, I shot an osprey carrying fish, some grackles dissecting a dead racoon, and a song sparrow, plus black ash and cotton weed trees. In the evening I went out onto our deck to look for moth, but all I found was clouds and clouds of the midges. On one window sill they were piled up more than a half inch thick. Cool!
good for the fish!
Your description of The Gut reminded me of my kids showing me photos of "the island on a lake on an island on a lake on an island" or a third-order island, in a volcano in the Philippines. It's since disappeared (as the lake dried up in an eruption), but there are others: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recursive_islands_and_lakes#Islands_in_lakes_on_islands_in_lakes_on_islands. I'm so glad you were able to stop them from exterminating just before your visit (though I have to say I find huge clouds of midges annoying).
5/8/21. North Hero State Park, North Hero, VT & Grand Isle, VT. 5 miles today, 3209.3 miles total.
Categories: birds, arthropods, blooms
This morning I went out for a bird walk along Drawbridge Rd where we are staying. It's a dirt road with 5 cabins on it. I then crossed the street to continue on Drawbridge Rd on the other side of the island. On the other side is a marina with a great patch of wild scrub along the road. I found white-crowned sparrows, grackles, blue jays, chickadees, morning doves, cow birds, cardinals, and brown thrashers. Out on the water were golden-eyes and gulls, and overhead were ospreys and swallows. I also found some escaped lilacs and some red cedar and green ash.
After breakfast we went up to North Hero State Park where I rode around on my bike while my husband rode his unicycle. Flat, flat, flat! The park is at the very end of the island in red and silver maple swamp. It used to be a campground where they hauled in fill to dump in the swamp to make the campsites. Now the campground is closed and abandoned but some great trails head through the swamp through the old sites. It's a great time to visit since the poison ivy shoots that are everywhere are mostly leafless or just beginning to break their leaf buds. Probably later in the season no one would want to venture out there. I found crowfoot, baneberry, Solomon's seal, violets, currants, and dandelions in bloom. And leaves of mugwort, red maple and some plants that I didn't recognize. There were lots of native bees in the dandelions, including Bombus impatiens, Ceratina, and sweat bees, but I didn't see any Andrena bees. Other insects included a fabulous midge with a lime green abdomen, a mosquito, some ants, and a crane fly.
In the afternoon my husband and I took the paddleboat out along the shore heading south. We saw plenty of birds, including grackles and song sparrows. In the evening I checked the lights for moths again. Zilch. The midges are all but gone, with no spraying! That made me glad to find the silverfish in the bathroom, who posed nicely for me.
5/9/21. Grand Isle, Fisk Quarry, Isle La Motte, & Knight Point State Park, North Hero, VT. 3.5 miles today, 3212.8 miles total.
Categories: birds, arthropods, blooms
This morning I took a bird walk down our road and up to the opening of the drawbridge on the highway. Since it was Sunday, traffic was light on the highway, so I figured it was a good day to explore the bridge. The temperature was quite chilly, around 33F, and the birds were a bit more sparse than yesterday. I found chipping sparrows, grackles, robins, chickadees, and a cardinal.
After breakfast, my husband and I drove to Isle La Motte to see the coral reef at Fisk Quarry. We were amazed to find the 450 million year old fossils lying scattered about the quarry, quite a sight. At the quarry I also found stonecrop, Phragmites, Tatarian honeysuckle, and wild parsnip, as well as beaver sign, a blue butterfly, a Caenurgina moth, ants and bees in dandelion blossoms, galls on honeysuckle, maple leaves and cherry leaves, and lots of turtles.
In the afternoon, we took our cycles over to Knight's Point, my husband on his unicycle and me on my bicycle. At first I wasn't impressed with the park--it seemed to be simply a picnic area with a not-so-sandy beach covered in algae. There were few other visitors on this cool sunny afternoon, just a couple having a picnic in the parking lot. We headed down the nature trail, which seemed to be mostly garlic mustard in bloom. But a little further down the trail the garlic mustard thinned out and there ephemerals, lots of ephemerals, especially large white trillium, which I haven't seen wild elsewhere in Vermont. Plus spring beauty, squirrel corn, blood root (gone by), downy yellow violets, trout lilies, jack in the pulpit, and Hepatica (gone by). And a little bishop's weed, crown vetch, and Japanese barberry. I found bees in dandelions, a beetle in a hawthorn flower, and a Zelus lurida bug in a white trillium.
In the evening there were no bugs at all at the porch lights.
5/10/21. Grand Isle State Park, Grand Isle, VT & Knight Point State Park, North Hero, VT. 6.1 miles today, 3218.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, arthropods, blooms
This morning was cloudy and much warmer than yesterday. I just took a short bird walk down our road, finding chipping sparrows, chickadees, robins, song sparrows, cormorants, and gulls.
Later in the morning, my husband and I went to Grand Isle State park to explore, he on his unicycle and me on my bicycle. This park is usually for campers only, but since it is pre-season, it's possible to visit on foot or wheel. Actually, this is the best time to visit since the park is large and virtually empty except for one or 2 other visitors. It is one the hills and cliffs on the east side of the island facing the lake. I buzzed past the southern loop of the park where the RVs camp. Boring, loaded with buck thorn and even some burning bush. Down in the center part of the camp facing the water were some very scenic lean-tos, but most of them had chain link fence between the sites and the lake, entirely taking the charm away. But I guess the cliff must be steep along those sites and they need to keep the campers topside. Along the road near these sites was a breathtaking display of white trillium and bellwort, plus some Dutchman's breeches, spring beauty, blood root (gone by), early meadow rue, false Solomon's seal (budding), and Hepatica (gone by). By the time the campground actually opens, there won't be a hint of this highlight of the park. Other plants included black medick (blooming) and Amur maple. I found lots of bees in dandelions including some Nomadas, and a common eastern bumblebee queen in the leaf litter. On a woodland loop I saw a woodchuck cross the road, then a mangy fox with no tail came out to chase the woodchuck. Other finds of the day included maple tar spot (there must be some Norway maple in the park), and galls on sugar maple and honeysuckle.
In the afternoon my husband and I took our cabin's paddleboat across the lake to Knight's Point State Park, about 0.75 mile each way. This is my first time with a paddleboat, and I was dubious that we could go so far. But my husband grew up with paddleboats and he was quite confident that we could get there and back. When we set out, the lake was calm and the sky was sunny. At the park we watched 2 osprey in the trees over the beach. We heard some leopard frogs calling in a sheltered area near the shore and tried to chase down some yellow warblers but never caught sight of them. Then the weather turned and the water started getting choppy. We were quite glad that this lake within the lake stays much calmer than the big lake. Certainly I never would have consented to make such a long trip on the big lake, which is notorious for big waves coming out of nowhere. As it was, we had some whitecaps, and one even came into the boat. But we made it back safely in the end, pausing to watch a group of 5 osprey playing in the sky, landing and taking off from a construction crane at the bridge.
In the evening when I went out to check for bugs, I found the midges were back. They were in very thick clouds, but not quite as thick as on Friday when we arrived. I couldn't find any other bugs, not even a spider.
How nice to see over-used, not very interesting parks have lovely less-used sections with wildflowers! I've been paddle-boating, but never in significant wind or waves; it's a scary thought, getting stuck out in the middle of a lake and not able to get back to shore, even if it's not a huge lake (like Champlain would be).
5-8-21. Farrington Lake Dam and Bicentennial Park, East Brunswick, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 1029 miles total
Category: flowering
I was headed to Bicentennial to see if the umbrella magnolia were blooming (sort of, I found both spent and buds but no open flowers) and I stopped here first to check out a park on the other side of the lake that I'd not been to before. Interesting finds included aspen seedlings and variegated pond lily (mostly we have spatterdock around here).
Across the lake at Bicentennial, there was more spatterdock, and swamp rose, buttonbush, plus deerberry, leucothoe, clubmoss, chokeberry, jetbead, a huge European hornet, two separate chipmunks, and the highlight for me: swollen bladderwort in bloom, a new to me species.
5-9-21. Stokes State Forest, Branchville, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 1030.25 miles total.
Categories: flowering, unusual
For Mother's Day, my husband and the girls drove and hour and a half north to the top of the second tallest "mountain" in the state (it's all of 1600 feet). The plants here were noticeably behind the ones at home. We found lots of things I don't see often, including tower mustard, sessile and perfoliate bellwort, polypody, striped maple, smooth rockcress, pinxter flower (almost but not quite blooming), blooming dwarf chinquapin, wood betony, interrupted and royal ferns, and a new one for me: Susquehanna sand cherry. Plus I finally found trailing arbutus in flower (barely) and did indeed enjoy the scent. And Becca found a big Narceus millepede.
5-10-21. Thomae Park, Bridgewater, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1030.75 miles total
Category: flowering
This park is wet woods along a brook, with a little bit of occasionally mowed lawn. Blooming were garlic mustard, ground ivy, thyme leaves speedwell, violet, pennsylvania bittercress, black cherry, cuckooflower, chickweed, wintercress, cleavers, and Amur honeysuckle. I also saw an eastern tailed blue and a white throated sparrow.
5-11-21. Passaic River Park, Chatham, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1031 miles total
Category: blooming
I have not been to this park (more wet woods) in 5 years, so decided to go back. It's covered with cuckooflower, especially all over the rather-overgrown soccer field. Also blooming were chickweed, buttercup, speedwell, spring beauty, cinquefoil, violet, honeysuckle, some sedges, sheep sorrel, clover, and a little plant I couldn't figure out. The computer suggested blunt-leaved sandwort. I didn't recognize the name but searched to see if I'd ever seen it before. Yup, once, 5 years ago, right here. (duh). I also saw a pygmy-type grasshopper that hopped into the river as I walked by and then started swimming for shore, and my first pearl crescent of the year.
Congrats on the swollen bladderwort and sand cherry. Your Mother’s day trip to Stokes State Forest sounds wonderful, especially since you finally found that trailing arbutus in bloom. Great story about the swimming pygmy grasshopper!
5/11/21. Knight's Point State Park, North Hero, VT & Mississquoi National Wildlife Refuge, Swanton, VT. 3.5 miles today, 3222.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, arthropods, blooms
This morning I drove across the bridge to Knight's Point to see if the birding was any better over that. To my surprise, it wasn't. The park certainly had a lot of birds, but they were mostly yellow warblers (my favorite!), cat birds, robins, and grackles. Probably because the habitat was so uniform, mowed grass with low shrubs on the edges. Great for yellow warblers and catbirds, but not so great for other birds. Still, I also managed to find a crow, some kingbirds, some orioles, and also some nettles.
After breakfast my husband and I drove up to Mississquoi National Wildlife Refuge for a walk in the woods. This was my husband's first trip down the woodland trail beside the river, and he said it was his favorite part of the refuge. We saw redstarts for the first time this year and a rose-breasted grosbeak, plus an osprey, a goose, some ring-necked ducks (lifers for my husband), catbirds, robins, grackles, song sparrows, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, red-winged blackbirds, chickadees, a mallard, downy woodpeckers, a white-breasted nuthatch and our first veery of the year. In bloom were wood anemone, wild oats, highbush blueberries, leatherleaf, and rhodora. Other plants that we noticed were cinnamon fern, royal fern, poison ivy, red oak, and my first observation of smooth alder in Vermont. We also saw enormous (4-5' dba) oak trees girdled by beavers.
Wow, optimistic of those beavers! I've not seen them succeed with more than about a 1' diameter tree, though I've seen evidence that they tried. Ring necked ducks are relatively common here, but I've never seen a redstart, and I've only seen a yellow warbler once.
5-12-21. Edison State Park, Edison, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1031.75 miles total
Category: flowering
I walked this wooded park down to a pond where I saw turtles (but too far away to ID). There were lots of flies of various species, a sawfly larva and a spider. Blooming I found dandelion, speedwell, cinquefoil, mustard, jack in the pulpit, black cherry, spring beauty and some sedges.
5-13-21. Cushetunk Mountain, Lebanon, NJ. 1.5 miles today,1033.25 miles total.
Categories: insects, blooming
I walked pretty much straight up the side of this mountain, 450 feet gained, on the wooded north slope of a hill. It's a great place for relatively rare plants. I found a ton of flies as well, plus some ants, a nomad bee, and several galls and leafmines. The highlight for me was pennywort, a new species, but this is also the only place I've ever seen showy orchis in bloom (at least a dozen). There was one flowered cancer-root, long-spurred violets, and perfoliate bellwort, herb robert, as well as more common species like rue anemone, common blue violets, spring beauty, false and hairy solomon's seals, mayapple, garlic mustard, autumn olive, wintercress, dandelion, wild geranium. And so many ferns. I only recognized Christmas, cinnamon, sensitive, broad beech, and maidenhair, but there were a lot more.
What a great mountain walk! And showy orchis in bloom already...there is one plant that I know of near here, but it won't bloom for another 3 weeks.
5/12/21. Grand Isle, VT, Gordon's Landing, Grand Isle, VT, Grand Isle State Park, & Knight Point, North Hero, VT. 2.9 miles today, 3225.3 miles total.
Categories: birds, arthropods, blooms
This morning I walked up and down our road and was much more satisfied with the birds I was finding. The apple trees have broken out into full bloom, and I caught an oriole feeding in one, plus an osprey and a goldeneye on the water, some chickadees, chipping sparrows, song sparrows, grackles, a crow, a house wren, some robins, and some gulls.
After breakfast we went to Gordon's Landing, which is listed in the atlas as a scenic view. Not really. It's a ferry terminal. Beside the terminal is a fishing access area and the release stream for the state fishery. Near the release stream I found common barberry and the every present garlic mustard, plus some trout lilies, star-flowered lily of the valley, a grackle, a song sparrow, a bee sunning in the walkway, and a stink bug sunning on a leaf.
Since the landing was a bust, we returned to Grand Isle State Park to walk their nature trail, which is fortunately outside the main entrance to the park. This morning, the park entrance was closed off, so it seems we got in to wander the park the other day on the last possible day of the season. The nature center trail was quite nice, a trail that led through rich woodlands full of ephemerals in bloom and also through some very wet patches. We found a large patch of Canada violet, downy yellow violets, white trillium, trout lilies, Hepatica gone to seed, and garlic mustard. I also shot a fishing spider along one of the boardwalks through the wetlands.
In the afternoon we returned to Knight Point State Park for some riding, my husband on his unicycle and me on my bike. Today I explored the mowed areas behind the beech, searching the apple tree blossoms for insects. I managed to find a few bees in the flowers, but not as many as I had hoped since it was cool and windy.
By evening the wind had died down and there were clouds of midges at the porch lights, as well as 3 spiders, a large black and white one, a Tetragnatha and a sac spider. No moths.
I wonder if midges drive the moths away? I'm glad you got in the park before it closed; seems to me a park like that should still be open to hikers even during camping season.
I don't think the midges would drive the moths away because we often have quite a few midges on the screen in Calais as well as moths. I think Calais may just be a really good place for moths, probably because our house is tucked into deep woods.
5/13/21. Grand Isle, VT, Goodsell Ridge Preserve, Isle La Motte, VT, Alburg Dunes State Park, Alburg, VT, & Frizzle Mountain, Calais VT. 0.7 miles today, 3226.0 miles total.
Categories: birds, arthropods, blooms
This morning I once again enjoyed a bird walk down our road in Grand Isle. I watched an osprey fly in and peel large chunks of bark off a dead elm, presumably for nesting material. I also got some good looks at an oriole and a house finch in an apple tree. Other birds included robins, song sparrows, chipping sparrows, gulls, cormorants, grackles, and brown thrashers.
After breakfast we took another trip out to Isle La Motte to see the other fossil area, Goodsell Ridge, which has 84 acres of land with bits of younger reef popping up, full of fossils. In the midst of our fossil hunting, I also shot some bees in dandelions and spiders on the rocks, plus more of the stonecrop that we saw at the Fisk Quarry. And there were lilacs everywhere--lilacs seem to be quite good at escaping here in the islands. After the preserve we went to Alburg Dunes State Park for a picnic lunch on the beech. I shot a striped beetle there on the rocks and a big spider. I had hoped to poke around a bit more there, but we were running late on our return home.
In the evening the mothing was excellent at our own home lights. We had a curved tooth geometer, quite a few gray spring moths, a Canadian Agonopterix, and a flock of midges.
5/14/21. Adamant, VT, & Frizzle Mountain, Calais VT. 0.4 miles today, 3226.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, arthropods
This morning I met up with @cdarmstadt and 14 other birders in downtown Adamant for a Nature Center bird walk. We had hardly begun our walk when one of Chip's sons spotted a gallinule on the water, only the 3rd sighting of a gallinule in the county. We also spent some time watching some king birds flirting on a tree branch and saw song sparrows, goldfinches, yellow warblers, common yellowthroats, crows, a raven, geese, robins and grackles.
In the evening at porch lights I had gray spring moths, Comstock's sallow, a pug, a large purplish gray, a curved tooth geometer, the first looper of the season, several Agaonopterix and another micro and 2 sizes of midges, plus an unknown to me fly.
Sounds like it was a wonderful trip. You make me want to go visit upper Lake Champlain. I always see more moths at lights at my girls' camps (heavily wooded) than I do in the same week back home (suburbs, but with stands of trees). I do think woods make an enormous difference.
5/15/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT, East Hill Pond, Cabot, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais VT. 3.4 miles today, 3229.8 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms, arthropods
This morning I went out for a bird walk up Peck Hill. I had several false starts--the first time I tried to go out, there was a large male bear in the yard, checking out the same trees that he had visited yesterday evening during dinner. I waited for a few minutes and he left. Then just as I was ready to go out, a yearling bear came in the yard and also checked out the trees and the ash can. I'm glad they have figured out that the ash cans don't have food so they don't need to empty them. They have also stopped overturning the bee waterer, although I wander if they ate any of the marbles from the bee watering dish. Finally, the second bear left so I could go out. I found a woodpecker, phoebe, kingbird, belted kingfisher, bluejay, starlings, goldfinches, and a blackthroated blue warbler. There were many others that I could hear but not see. Our trip to Lake Champlain made me appreciate our woods even more, since the bird diversity, especially warbler diversity is much greater here. My ebird list for the walk had 37 species, more than I found on any of my walks at Lake Champlain.
In the afternoon, my husband and took the canoe out to East Hill Pond in Cabot for a quick tour around the pond. We found lots of turtles, as well as marsh marigold in bloom and some wild parsnip along the boat put in. In the evening, I had quite a few visitors at the moth lights, with some curved tooth geometers, a pug moth, a tan Noctuid, a white geometer, 4 kinds of wide micromoths (Agonopterix and others), 3-4 kinds of very thin micromoths (perhaps leaf miners), midges, tiny flies, white flies, Ichneumon wasps, a small spider, and a beetle.
5/16/21. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3231.8 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods
This morning I took advantage of light Sunday traffic for a walk along Pekin Brook Rd, which is often kind of busy, but I only saw a few cars today. And I also only saw a few birds, but I heard a lot more. I recorded a wood thrush calling very close to me since I knew I probably wouldn't see it (I didn't). I managed to shoot a few chickadees, and a blue jay, and I got some good long looks at a common yellowthroat in great light. It rained much of the day with thundershowers, but by evening when I checked the moth lights, the rain had stopped. Still, all I had at the lights was a single 4-barred gray moth.
5/17/21. Chickering Rd, East Montpelier, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2.4 miles today, 3233.2 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods
This morning I walked along Chickering Road for the first time this season. On my eBird list, I had 41 species of birds, but most of them were by ear. I saw a flicker, some yellow-bellied woodpeckers, some catbirds, a Nashville warbler, and some chickadees, plus about 6 red efts crossing the road and a snowshoe hare who was standing very very still so that I wouldn't see him.
In the evening I had plenty of insects to shoot at my moth lights. I found a beautiful zale, some gray spring moths, a hooked tip geometer, a pug moth, a goldenrod leaffolder, several wide micros and a tiny narrow micro, a June beetle, an Ichneumon moth, and 3 sizes of Chironomids, including one like we had in Grand Isle.
5-15-21. Best Lake, Watchung, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1033.5 miles total
Categories: blooming, critters
I had to drop by the walk-in-clinic for an infected tick bite (joy) and on the way home walked at this little pond. A goose posed for me at the top of the dam. I found an interesting gall on an elm leaf, a picture-winged fly, the first blooming yellow iris of the year, a forktail, a freshwater mussel, curly pondweed, and a painted lady.
5-16-21. Wattles Audubon Center, Lebanon, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 1035 miles total
Categories: blooming, critters
I decided to walk at this Audubon center as it's relatively near the camp my daughter will be working at this summer and I wanted to check out the area. I found all sorts of interesting things. Appropriately I photographed two unusual (for me) birds: a tree swallow and my first ever great crested flycatcher. I also saw an oriole. Other critters included squirrels, a moth fly, a mayfly, a drone fly, pink ladybugs, the first Zelus assassin bug of the year, lots of ants, a red banded hairstreak, lots of flies I can't ID, and a ground ivy gall.
The place was covered in Anthriscus, Virginia waterleaf, and also, oddly, crimson clover (which I'd only seen once before). They also had whole row of planted pawpaw trees in bloom.
Pawpaw trees in bloom? Gosh, I'd love to see that. I planted 4-5 in our orchard some 10 years ago. They're zone 5-6, but one of them actually survived here. So far it hasn't leafed out this year, but I think it probably will. Blooms would be a real treat--I've never seen one in bloom. Sorry to hear about the tick bite!
5/18/21. Tucker Rd, Calaist, VT, Kingsbury Branch, East Montpelier, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2.8 miles today, 3236.0 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods
This morning I walked along Tucker Rd for the first time this year. Once again I had trouble spotting birds (especially since one of my contacts fell out and was lost as soon as I arrived). But I managed to catch a few, including turkeys in a farm field along Lightening Ridge, some blue jays, a song sparrow, a robin, a chickadee, and a phoebe.
Late in the afternoon my husband and I took our canoe to the Cate Rd put-in on the Kingsbury Branch. It had been windy all day so we figured paddling on a pond would be difficult. We had never been on the Kingsbury Branch, which feeds into the Winooski River. We decided to paddle up hill and float back down. There was quite a strong current, so we both had to paddle hard in order to go up stream. If I stopped paddling to take a photo, we got nowhere with just my husband paddling. But I did shoot a family of geese including 2 parents and 4 week old goslings. When we turned around to come back down again, I shot an alder, some ostrich ferns, and a song sparrow. Then the current pushed us into an overhanging tree at speed and overturned the canoe. Whoops! Fortunately, the stream is no more than waist deep at any point, but we did get fully dumped into the water and my camera was immersed. We got the canoe righted again, got back in and paddled rather swiftly home since we were now a bit cold, but no more photos on the way back. I think the camera will probably dry out fine. We'll see in a few days.
In the evening, there was lots of action at the moth lights. I had an arched hooktip, a curved tooth geometer, several Noctuids, a gray, a gray spring moth, a pug, a variable carpet, a Cladara limitaria, an Acleris, several other micros, 3 sizes of midges, a paper wasp, an Ichneumon wasp, a May beetle, and a sac spider.
Yikes, I wouldn't want to get capsized in May in NJ, let alone Vermont! I hope your camera makes it.
5/19/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1.5 miles today, 3237.5 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods
This morning I took a walk up Peck Hill, but only as far as the farm field since I had to get back early for an online course that we are taking. I found a pair of geese in the lower field, and caught a black-throated green, also an indigo bunting in the top of an apple tree across from the farm field, some blue jays, some robins, some chickadees, and some wood ducks. On the way back up the driveway I poked my head in our tractor shed to check for nesting and found a robin sitting on a nest in the rafters.
In the evening I had another good night at the lights, although I think I'm checking them a bit early now, before the moths have a chance to arrive. I can't stay up much later, though, and still get up for an early morning birdwalk. Oh, the choices we have to make this time of year! I found an arched hooktip, an American lappet, a pug, a carpet, several Acleris, a Noctuid, a tiny orange micro (leafminer?), 3 sizes of midges, and several lightning bugs.
05-18-21. Codington Farm, Warren, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1035.75 miles total
Category: blooming
My husband and I walked at this local park that somehow he'd never been too. It's not much used, and many trees had blown down since the last time I'd been in the back of it. While I was climbing over a waist-high fallen trunk, I managed to catch my foot and fall off, landing flat on my back. I was perfectly fine, if startled.
I was surprised to find star-of-Bethlehem everywhere along the main paths. I'd never noticed it here before, but it was wide-open in full bloom. The blackhaws were also still blooming here, whereas they've mostly gone over everywhere else. And there was black cherry, bugle, and hooked buttercup blooming as well.
05-19-21. Crystal Springs, Glen Gardner, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1036 miles total
Categories: blooming, critters
Molly and I walked at one of the ponds here. We found lots of interesting animals: a swimming watersnake, pumpkinseed sunfish, a green frog, a pickerel frog, a vulture, lots of dragon-and damselflies, and a dog tick walking up her leg.
Blooming were buttercups, wintercress, speedwell, autumn olive, mayflower, stitchwort, violet, star of Bethlehem, the first white campion of the year, black medic, and my favorite: bulbous cress.
Yikes--glad you didn't get hurt in your fall off the tree! What a great collection of animals at the ponds! I've never seen star-of-Bethlehem, blackhaw, or bulbous cress.
5/20/21. Sodom Pond, Adamant, VT, Dog River Fields, Montpelier, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2.8 miles today, 3240.3 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods
This morning I drove down to Adamant for my walk. I began with a slow walk up Quarry Rd. By the time I got to the end, I only had a short amount of time left to check out Sodom Pond. I found geese, grackles, crows, a warbling vireo, a mourning dove, phoebe, kingbird, catbird, robin, bluejay, goldfinch, and song sparrows. Along Quarry Rd I found foam flower in bloom.
In the afternoon I met up with @emendela and @edlintonvt for a bug walk at the Dog River rec fields. I got there early for a picnic lunch after some errands in town. I found a lovely spot on the rocks near the bend in the river for my picnic and enjoyed watching a listening to the birds while I ate. A flock of 9 geese floated downstream and stopped at an island near the bend to picnic on the grass. Then a group of teenagers showed up to swim. It seems the Montpelier schools are still operating on half day schedules, so the kids literally have nothing better to do in the afternoons than hang out at the swimming hole. It was great to see kids outside, but I didn't enjoy their music coming through their Bluetooth speaker. After eating, I met my friends for bug group where we annoyed kids and dog walkers on the path through the Japanese knotweed jungle, blocking the path to photograph bees and other insects. The knotweed is just growing in, but there was plenty of garlic mustard and wild chervil for variety. There was also a little yellow rocket, and that's what the bees seemed to prefer. That, and leaves of garlic mustard that had been blessed by dogs. Out on the sandy flats near the river we found a few bees, but it was really too warm for hunting, 87F. We beat a quick retreat and decided to try again on another day when it is a little cooler.
In the evening at the lights it was beetle night, with a click beetle, a ground beetle, a weevil, and several small brown beetles, as well as a good selection of moths: arched hooktip, gray spring moth, curved tooth geometer with a bite taken out of it, mottled gray carpet, American lappet, several other geometers, several Acleris, a goldenrod leafolder, a tiny micro, 3 sizes of midges, an Ichnuemon wasp, and and another large Hymenopteran, perhaps a termite.
5/21/21. Berlin Pond, Berlin, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.8 miles today, 3241.1 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods
This morning I went up to Berlin Pond for the weekly nature center bird walk. Today's walk was led by Sean Beckett, with 20 other walkers, unmasked! What an odd experience to be with such a large group of unmasked people after so long! Folks were mostly good about distancing, but many were quite relieved not to have to struggle with fogged glasses from their masks while birding. The highlight of the morning was a group of 4 green herons that flew over and around several times. We also saw red winged blackbirds, geese with goslings, a pair of orioles, robins, blue jays, goldfinches, and a willow flycatcher. I also caught an orange damselfly.
The afternoon was hot, in the upper 80sF. I went for a brief walk through the backyard checking the cherry trees for pollinators. It was tough shooting since the bees were moving so fast. I finally found one bee who wasn't moving and discovered it was being eaten by a crab spider. Another bee was being eaten by a sting bug. I also managed to catch a weevil, a blue butterfly, and several bees on the wing.
In the evening the action at the moth lights was lively. I found a pug, several gray spring moths, a mottled gray carpet, an American lappet, a goldenrod leafolder, several Acleris, and a few narrow micro moths. There were half a dozen large June bugs flying around, one of which continually bombed my headlamp. Other finds included winter fireflies, numerous midges and flies, lots of small click beetles, and some weevils.
very neat. I haven't been tracking my walks in this project but I now have a garmin watch that i usually turn on the GPS for during iNat walks. It's always funny to see the algorithim set up for fitness stuff try to make sense of my stop and go walks :) Yesterday i got to roam about a cedar swamp in Monkton and also walk around that drained out beaver pond on the top of Ap Gap. Unfortunately the latter is full of invasives and obvious road-cased gravel runoff and such, and appears to be in much worse condition than when it was sampled ~10 years ago. Amazing how many invasives can come off of the road, which i am assuming is what happened because there isn't a ton of foot traffic down there.
Great news on the watch, Charlie! I've found my watch gives more accurate GPS tracks than my phone. Since I take photos with a camera, I use Lightroom to pair the photos with the GPS track afterwards. As long as I remember to check the time on the camera every couple of weeks, the geotagging on the photos is quite good. As for invasives along roads, as a weed connoisseur, that's one reason I like to walk railroads and roads. It's fascinating to see the collection of odd weedy invasives that occur just along the roads. But it's more disturbing than fascinating if you'd rather see pristine communities.
5/22/21. Lightening Ridge Rd, Calais, VT, Montpelier Bike Trail, Montpelier, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 7.1 miles today, 3248.2 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms, and arthropods
This morning I took advantage of it being the weekend for walking along a busier road, Lightening Ridge, looking for birds. In fact, I only saw 1-2 cars during the entire walk. There were plenty of birds, especially where I parked the car at the Chickering Bog lot. The lot is near the top of an old hay field. The top of the field is quite wet and filled with willows and other wet loving shrubs, which the birds love. On the other side of the road is deep forest with houses sprinkled along the edge, so there is a good mix of forest birds and warblers. I found mourning doves, red eyed vireos, crows and ravens, chickadees, catbirds, goldfinches, and a pair of robins copulating in the Bog access trail. And a mixed cloud of blackflies and mosquitos that kept me moving along.
Later in the morning my husband and I went down into Montpelier to visit the bike trail. While he unicycled, and tootled along on my electric scooter collecting flowers for some craft projects. I got quite a few honeysuckle flowers in white, yellow, pink, and fuschia, some germander speedwell, some soapwort, some Vinca, golden Alexanders, and a lovely batch of common barberry flowers and brought them home for pressing. I also collected photos of whatever I found pollinating the flowers, mostly small native bees (Ceratina, sweat bees), but also a white flower beetle and a few other beetles. And I found some galls as well on box elder leaves and pin cherry leaves.
In the evening the June bugs were back at the moth lights. Alas, I stepped on one by accident. It continued to crawl, although mortally injured. I found several other beetles including some click beetles and fireflies. Moths were an arched hooktip, a gray spring moth, a yellow dusted cream, a mottled gray carpet, several other geometers, a birch leaf folder, quite a few other micro moths, a caddisfly, and the usual collection of midges.
5/23/21. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 7.1 miles today, 3250 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods
This morning I walked along Pekin Brook Rd heading west. I found a flock of geese on a freshly plowed farm field, a pigeon by the farm, a mourning dove, a hummingbird pollinating our blueberries along the driveway, a kingfisher, a phoebe, a kingbird, some bluejays, a crow, some chickadees, a catbird, a pair of veeries, some song sparrows, and some red winged blackbirds. I checked our tractor shed and the robin was on her nest in the rafters. The thrill of the morning was catching the Canada warbler that I heard near the bottom of our driveway.
In the evening I was a bit early at the moth lights, 9 PM--there was still a glimmer of light on the horizon, but I was done for the day. The insects were just starting to arrive. I found a June bug, an American lappet, a pug moth, Comstock's feralia, a birch leaf folder, and the usual midges.
5/24/21. Chickering Rd, East Montpelier, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2.1 miles today, 3252.1 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods
This morning I walked along Chickering Road. It was foggy when I got there which limited my ability to find birds, but then the fog soon lifted. I found a yellow-bellied sapsucker, a phoebe, some blue jays, a crow, a raven, some chickadees, a catbird, a pair of veeries, a robin, a song sparrow, and chestnut-sided warbler who let me take a long photo shoot with good lighting.
Later in the morning, my husband noted a hawk flying out of our tractor shed. I walked down the driveway to the shed and found the robin's nest that I had been watching on the ground together with a headless chick. Sad, but hawk chicks have to eat, too. In the afternoon I mowed a trail up to our blueberry patch, then took my macro camera up there to watch for pollinators. I found a blue butterfly, some bumblebees, an Andrena, some sweat bees, carpenter bees, and nomad bees. Also, a milkweed beetle, a lacewing, a crab spider, a stink bug, a Lygus bug, and my first hummingbird moth of the year.
In the evening, there was lots of action at the moth lights. I had several grays, several lemon plagodis, a friendly probole, a curved tip geometer, a yellow dusted cream, quite a few wide macros, 3 sizes of midges (but not the usual clouds), and a June bug.
5/25/21. Tucker Rd, Calais, VT, Groton, State Park, Groton, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 5.4 miles today, 3257.5 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods
This morning I walked along Tucker Rd looking for birds. There were no birds on the big hay field, but along the road I found a robin, some ravens, a song sparrow, a chickadee, a chestnut sided warbler, a magnolia warbler, some goldfinches, a black-throated green warbler, a broad winged hawk, a cardinal, and a parula. I also found a mayfly and some galls on elm leaves, basswood leaves. I also found the showy orchis in full bloom.
In the afternoon my husband and I went to Groton so he could ride the rail trail on his unicycle while I rode my bike. I started out through Ricker State Park, taking the woods trail down to Lake Groton with the hope of sitting on the dam and hunting dragonflies. But when I got there I found a crew mowing the dam area with a weed whacker. I thought current management practices discourage mowing right up to the edge of water bodies, but I guess that doesn't apply to the state parks. At least I didn't have to walk through tall grass to get to the dam. But it was too noisy and disturbed to watch for bugs there, although I did find a bee in the blueberry bushes. I continued on up the trail and found a few more bees and butterflies. I found a large patch of lily-of-the valley in full bloom in partial sun. It was very fragrant, but no pollinators there. I found some leaf galls on the witch hazel bush, and I was glad to see the witch hazel seems to be spreading along the trail.
In the evening I found quite a few bugs at the moth lights. I found curved tip geometer, mottled gray carpet, variable carpet, Packard's concealer, goldenrod leaf folder, a looper, the first blackberry loopers of the season, a small engrailed, some grays, a pug, and several other micros. Other bugs included some June bugs and lots of midges.
5-20-21. Ten Eyk Park, North Branch, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1036.75 miles total
Categories: blooming, critters
This is the overgrown edge of two fields along a river. I went because I wanted to see if I could find the Heracleum maximum I'd seen here years ago (I did). It was almost in bloom. Also blooming were cream violets (a surprise), cuckooflower, dames rocket, hickories, speedwells, a grass that I cannot figure out, wild geranium, the last of the spring beauty, and Gray's sedge. Critters were and elm miner, the back end of an unknown beetle, a dog tick that stayed on the plant I spotted it on (for once), a bee, a hackberry miner, hackberry petiole galls, 4 lined plant bug, bowl and doily spider.
At home Becca keeps bringing me bugs she finds inside the house, and leaving them on my desk, under and overturned drinking glass. Most of the time they are Sergiolus sp. ground spiders. We have also opened the above-ground pool, and my husband keeps a liner in the skimmer basket, which he changes several times a day. It's my job to clean them, but they generally have some interesting bugs in them. often ants, but today also two different (green with white stripes) caterpillars and a stonefly.
5-22-21. Hunterdon County, NJ. 1.0 miles today, 1038.75 miles total.
Categories: blooming, animals
I drove through much of Hunterdon County today, in part keeping an eye out for Brood X periodic cicadas (this is the edge of their range) and also keeping an eye out for juvenile spotted lanternflies.
The first place I stopped was the side of the road, having spotted a road-killed groundhog, in beautiful shape. In beautiful shape, that is, until a dump truck drove right over it just before I'd finished walking back to photograph it. But it was still identifiable.
My first planned stop was the Coopalong Trail, dense strip of woods along a brook. I found the one-flwoered cancer root I knew grew here, but the bugs were the interesting things here. I found the only spotted lanternfly larva of the trip (and didn't recognize it, thinking it was a tiny beetle) plus 2 kinds of mayflies, a caddis fly a stilt legged fly, a syrphid fly, an ichneumon wasp, and an ant tending aphids.
I stopped briefly by an old church next to an airstrip, but there was an event going on and I didn't stay. Next was the side of the road at a pullout across from a small cliff, but the most interesting thing here was a dock leafminer.
Next planned stop was Horseshoe Bend Park: woods by a mowed field. Blackberries and wild geranium were flowering. Maple-leaved viburnum and hawkweeds were about to start. I found lots of golden-backed snipe flies, a soldier beetle that I thought was a firefly, several hornets, and a couple unidentified flies.
Then I stopped at the Delaware Canal and walked down to the river. Lots of Anthriscus here, blooming. bloodroot (leaves) and moonseed were a surprise, but the most interesting thing was a whole lot of black aphids all lined up, very evenly spaced, along the main veins of the leaves of some kind of Asteraceae plant. They were like an exaggerated version of the little black glands on Aronia leaves.
Last stop of the day was Bull's Island State Park, where I finally heard (but didn't see) the Magicicadas. But I also saw Anthriscus growing right next to Conium maculatum (which made for a nice comparison as I used to have trouble separating them) and I found a gray treefrog trying to hide on a big oak tree trunk. The black locusts here were in full bloom and very sweet-smelling.
5-23-21. Montgomery, Princeton, and Hopewell, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1039.25 miles total
Categories: insects, flowering, birds
Today Molly, Katie, and I drove down toward Princeton, stopping at several parks along the way, looking for Brood X cicadas. First stop was Sourland Mountain. Cicadas had been recorded here 17 years ago, (and someone posted one from this park the next day), but we didn't hear or see any. But we did find a painted turtle and spotted a swimming baby snapping turtle as well.
Next stop was the Gulick House. Here we found our first cicada "skins" (exuviae) of the day. I also found a red-seeded dandelion. Molly pointed to something in the gravel driveway and asked if it was pineappleweed. I told her, no, it's too early. But she was right, it really was pineappleweed. (and she gave me grief about that for the rest of the trip).
Nest stop was Skillman Park. Here was the cicada jackpot of the day. This is an old park with mostly mowed lawns and big, old oak trees. Thus the cicada density, in spots that were really easy to see. Also here was a lovely brown cutworm of some kind, and poison ivy with a reddened, thickened stem gall I've never seen before.
Next was Hobler Park, which is newer, with lawn and woods, but not a lot of huge trees. We did find a few here, but nothing like the park just to the north. Down in Princeton itself (the center of Brood X in NJ) we stopped at the wooded Woodfield Reservation. We could hear the deafening calls from the lawn of the private school next door, but in the woods themselves the cicadas were pretty scarce. Here I found a chokeberry bush, though, which is unusual for me.
The last stop (other than lunch) was at St. Michael's Preserve, a little to the northwest. Woods adjoining farm fields. No cicadas at all but they had set up martin houses in one of the fields and they were very busy. Plus I found salsify.
5-25-21. Merrill Creek Reservoir, Washington, NJ. and East County Park, Warren, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 1041 miles total
categories: blooming, critters.
Molly and I walked at this reservoir and confirmed that the cicadas are here as well. We also found golden ragwort, mouse ear hawkweed, marsh bedstraw, an oak apple gall, mile a minute, lots of rue anemone and wild geranium flowering, a big hornet-mimicking fly I don't recognize, lots of ferns including rattlesnake and ebony spleenwort, a snowberry clearwing, lots of wood satyrs, and a big, lumpy spider on the ground that looked like an orbweaver to me.
In the evening, Molly, Katie, and I walked at the local park that was recently a farm, though we mostly stuck to the woods and checked out a pond. We found rose, blackberry, buttercups and poison ivy blooming. Molly wouldn't touch the flowering dogwood or beech leaves, as they were shiny and "too much like poison ivy". Katie spotted a phylloxera gall on hickory, Molly found me a nomad bee, a fuzzy oak stem gall of some kind, and an American carrion beetle. Katie found a green frog. I found both golden ragwort and a pussytoes in fruit, neither of which I'd seen fruiting before. Katie spotted a brown thrasher (we think; it was a little blurry) plus a robin, a red winged blackbird and what she called a "speckledy boi", which I'm pretty sure was just a baby blackbird.
How thoughtful of Becca to deliver bugs to your desk! What treasures! And to also get to inspect the drowned creatures from your pool. Sorry to hear that your dead groundhog got squashed seconds before you got to meet him. And congrats on your treefrog! I have been searching for one since last year when I first heard they are in town. A friend sent me a photo of one which I posted simply because she didn't want to post it herself and the Vermont Herp Atlas collects photos from iNat and didn't have one from Calais.
5/26/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT, Admanant, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3259.5 miles total.
Categories: birds, arthropods, and herps
This morning I walked up Peck Hill and back looking for birds. I found 4 turkeys on the upper farm field, a mourning dove, a pair of kingbirds near the intersection with Pekin Brook Rd, several veeries, some robins, an ovenbird, and some yellowthroats. I heard quite a few more, but these were the only ones I managed to shoot.
In the afternoon my husband and I drove through Adamant on our way to the garage for auto service. We had to keep stopping to help turtles across the road, 6 in Adamant, plus one far from water on George Rd. It had rained and was warm, so I wonder if that's what got them moving. They love to lay their eggs in the sandy hillsides along the road. We found one just covering up her eggs, way too close to the road. We left her to finish her task but moved all the rest across the road in the direction they were headed.
In the late afternoon we had a big thunderstorm which knocked out power for a while. When the lights came back on, the action at the moth lights seemed a little subdued, perhaps because of the temperature drop. I found an American lappet moth, a yellow dusted cream, a Packard's concealer, a June bug, a small round black beetle, and a jumping spider.
5/27/21. Sodom Pond, Admanant, VT, Vermont College, Montpelier, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2.5 miles today, 3262 miles total.
Categories: birds, arthropods
This morning I drove down to Adamant for a walk up Quarry Rd and then along Sodom Pond. The birds seemed a bit subdued this morning after yesterday evening's storm. There was a tree down partially across Adamant Rd, nothing unusual, but the power was still out in Adamant and there were several generators and a chain saw going during my walk. I later heard on Facebook that the storm had been centered in East Montpelier, just south of Adamant, and that there were 3 large trees down across Center Rd, just south of Adamant center. One had landed on the electric cable and caught in flames. I've never considered before how such storm affect the birds. If the storm was powerful enough to blow down branches and even trees, maybe it could also blow down nests or baby birds. I guess it must have come through like a hurricane through their community. In any case, not many birds were singing this morning, and even fewer were letting themselves be seen. Birds for the day were mallard, mourning dove, hairy woodpecker, 2 eastern kingbirds, some bluejays, some crows, some swallows, some robins, an oriole, some red-winged blackbirds, and some grackles.
In the afternoon I met up with @emendela and @edlintonvt at Vermont College. Our original intention was to walk down to Sabin's pasture. But it was cool (57F) and windy, and we ended up searching the brick walls of the college buildings for spiders. We did start down the path to the pasture, but a local alternative school uses the meadow on the way as their classroom and they were in full swing with a costumed (and masked) rehearsal of Robin Hood going on, so we turned around. We found zebra jumping spiders, bronze jumping spiders, and another small brown jumping spider, harvestmen, and a beetle on the walls. We also found lots of Bibio flies sunning and copulating on Japanese knotweed leaves and several Asian ladybugs. Other bugs for the day included some crab spiders, click beetles, ants, lily beetles, and weevils.
In the evening, I didn't make it out to my moth lights until just after they had turned off. And it had been cool and windy. I found a zale and a Packard's concealer moth, but no midges or other bugs.
I love that you have so many turtles you have to keep stopping to help them across the road. I see less than one turtle a year outside of ponds. It's interesting that the birds were so subdued after the storm. I see them being very busy at my feeder just before storms come, and then it takes them a while to come back afterward. We had a windstorm take out a chunk of an arborvitae in our yard one summer, and it killed a nest of baby birds in the process. It must be far more common than I see.
5-27-21. White Oak Park, Branchburg, and Victor Crowell Park, Middlesex, NJ. 1 mile today, 1042 miles total
Categories: flowering, critters, not a dicot
I visited a park I'd not been to in years as I remembered it as being all mowed field, but it turns out there's a nice path through some woods (albeit nearly entirely filled with invasives). Here I found a jumping spider, a lanternfly nymph, an ant, a snipe fly, and a syrphid fly. The roses and blackberries are blooming.
In the evening, my husband and I walked along a pond in a residential area. There were lots of geese with large goslings, blooming poison hemlock, arrowhead, and a mayfly.
5/28/21. Berlin Pond, Berlin, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 1 miles today, 3263 miles total.
Categories: birds
This morning I drove up to Berlin Pond for a Nature Center bird walk, this time led by @richardlitt . There were 12 of us this morning, and the weather was about 30 degrees cooler than last week, about 40F. No blackflies this week, which was a blessing. We saw some crows and robins, both alder and willow flycatchers, which look exactly alike but their call is different ("free beer" versus "fitz bew"), Baltimore orioles, a loon, a seagull, some common yellowthroats, and some yellow warblers. We tried for quite a while to chase down a northern waterthrush, but it just wouldn't show itself this morning.
In the evening, I checked the moth lights at 9 PM. Between the early the hour and the cool windy weather (40F), there was simply nothing out there, not even a single midge or spider.
5/29/21. Lightening Ridge Rd, Calais, VT & Rail Trail, Plainfield, VT. 4.6 miles today, 3267.6 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods
I started the day this morning with a walk along Lightening Ridge Rd looking for birds. I parked at the Chickering Bog lot, where I flushed a turkey and a crow who were in the field below the lot. I found several alder flycatchers in the wetland at the top of the field and finally caught the house wren who hangs out at the house with all the day lilies. He was singing from a metal sculpture in the front yard. Other birds for the morning included robins, purple finches, goldfinches, song sparrows, and a black-and-white warbler. And then there was the groundhog by the side of the road who tried to be very still so I wouldn't see him, but I had already seen him.
In the afternoon I drove my husband up to Fiddlehead Pond in Marshfield so he could ride his unicycle downhill to Plainfield. Meanwhile, I drove down to Plainfield and rode my bike uphill on the railtrail to meet him, stopping frequently to collect flowers for pressing. I collected some blue speedwell and some white violets. Also blooming were foamflower, Solomon's seal, mountain maple, and the highlight of the day, loads of gay wings. Arthropod finds included craneflies, maple leafcutter moths, white butterfly, wood borer beetle, click beetle, a very large 6-spotted orbweaver, dog ticks waiting for a ride, a winter firefly, a leafminer on elm, and leaf galls on basswood, elm, sugar maple, pin cherry, beech, white ash, red maple, and yellow birch. In the evening I fell asleep before the moths arrived, so no moths for today.
5/30/21. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3269.6 miles total.
Categories: birds
This morning I walked along Pekin Brook Rd heading east looking for birds. I found an alder flycatcher, a white-throated sparrow, Nashville warbler, indigo bunting, mallard, robin, and blue jay. I also found mountain ash and garlic mustard in bloom and a crane fly on the road. In the evening I had a few moths at the light, even though it was barely 40F and raining. I had a curved tip geometer, gray spring moth, splendid palpita, a micro moth, and several flies.
5/31/21. Chickering Rd, East Montpelier, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3271.6 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods
The sky was threatening this morning when I went out for my bird walk and the temperature was near 45F. But on the schedule was Chickering Rd, my favorite walk of the week, so I went out anyway. I managed to find a catbird, some phoebes, a song sparrow, a white-throated sparrow, a mourning dove, and a loon, and finally caught sight of the olive-sided flycatcher that I've been hearing there for the past 2 weeks. I guess it's a very uncommon bird for the county, but it really likes these deep boreal woods along Chickering Rd. Then it started raining, but much of the rest of the walk was through the deep woods so I got a little less wet. Conditions were prime for herps or at least salamanders. I found 54 live red efts crossing the road in the woods and only 1 dead one. On my way back, I also found a robin and then a hummingbird feeding on honeysuckle once the rain lightened up a little.
In the evening I had 4 visitors at my lights, despite the rain and cold weather. I had a pug moth, a wide micro, a gray, and a lemon plagodis.
5-29-21. Delaware and Raritan Canal, Kingston, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 1043 miles total
Categories: plants, birds
Katie and I walked through the on-and-off drizzle and long wet grass here. She was looking for birds but also pointed out each different kind of plant, (mostly by kicking it with her foot). She got a kick out of describing where she saw birds, as she doesn't know the names of most plants, so it would be "that oaky thing" or "the one with the big leaves". My favorite description was of a knee-high Lactuca plant, that she called "oak grass" because leaves were lobed like oak and long like grass. Logical.
Lyre-leaved sage was a surprise here, along with a Japanese honeysuckle with pink flowers. We caught the Amorpha fruticosa flowering, a favorite of mine. There was yellow flag (Katie thought they were daffodils), and a deer, resting, just the other side of the canal, who didn't even bother to stand up as we went by. My favorite plant was dwarf plantain. The park is south of us, at the north edge of the area the 17-year cicadas have been, and as we were leaving I said to Katie that I guessed we were too far north. And I looked down and spotted one. Ultimately found a dozen. Only in that one spot, though.
5-30-21, Lake Nelson, Piscataway, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1043,25 miles total
categories: birds, flowering, critters.
Katie and I walked in the drizzle again today. This time I got wise and gave her her own camera to shoot birds with. But then I couldn't get her to leave! I saw (and shot) an oriole that she missed entirely. But she got crows that I never saw. Mostly though it was robins, blue jays, and blackbirds.
Plants here were not terribly exciting, though there was an unexpected ebony spleenwort and "another of those daffodil things" (yellow flag). The dam was producing huge quantities of foam, which was blowing around in the wind, a cool effect.
5-31-21. Prince Rodgers Park, Bridgewater, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1043.75 miles total
Categories: flowers, critters.
My husband and I explored the woods around the ball fields here. I found the first beardtongue and first moth mullein of the year. The privets have started blooming, and so were the honey locusts. And there was a very nice jelly ear-type fungus.
Adicionar um Comentário