June 2021: Describe your walk by adding a comment below

6/1/21. Tucker Rd, Calais, VT, Railroad Bed East, Marshfield, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 4.6 miles today, 3276.2 miles total.
Categories: birds,blooms, and arthropods

This morning I started with a walk along Tucker Rd looking for birds. It was quite chilly (35F) and still a bit foggy when I went out. I saw a mourning dove, a phoebe, some veeries, a hermit thrush, a robin, a white-throated sparrow, and some song sparrows, as well as a few red efts. In the afternoon my husband and I went to Marshfield for a "tricycle ride". That is, he rode his unicycle while I rode my bike. I dropped him off at Fiddlehead Pond in Marshfield, then drove down to Jerusalem Rd and rode uphill on the rail trail looking for insects, blooms, leafminers, and galls. In bloom were blue bead lily, Canada mayflower, twisted stalk, and moosewood. I find some bees on strawberry blossoms, a shiny beetle, a white butterfly and a bug I've never seen before, a stinkbug perhaps, but with a curvy profile. I also tried to chase down a mourning cloak butterfly and it landed on my shirt. So I had to photograph it with my phone, selfie-style. I found a leafminer on parasol whitetop as well as stem gall, and leaf galls on pin cherry and beech.

By evening the temperature had finally warmed up to a pleasant 65F so I had plenty of visitors at the moth light. I had a plagodis, a curved tip geometer, several grays, a variable carpet and a beautiful walnut sphinx that spent the entire day hanging out on the screen, then began shivering and waking up just as I was making my rounds. I found a Canadian agonopterix, several more wide micros, a leaf mining micro, a click beetle, another beetle, and lots of flies including several different kinds of midges and a mosquito.

6/3/21. Adamant, VT, & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3280.7 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods

This morning I drove down to Adamant for a walk up Quarry Rd and then along Sodom Pond. I decided to try a bit of recording instead of just taking photos. I recorded northern parula, crows, loons, an olive-sided flycatcher, an alder flycatcher, a warbling vireo, a catbird, a veery, a goldfinch, and a Nashville warbler. I also shot a wood duck and some red-winged blackbirds.

In the evening I had good luck at the moth lights. It had rained most of the day, but the temperature was still in the 60s F. I had some grays, a pug, a rosy maple moth, a friendly probole, lots of micros (including a mating pair), and a good selection of midges.

6/5/21 - Socrates Sculpture Park and Hallet's Cove, Queens NY. 2.04 miles today, 2.04 miles total Categories: Invertebrates and flowering plants

Went down to my regular patch to look around for new additions to the Yard Squad challenge. The tide was in so the cove was mostly for the birds (literally) but the park itself was more productive as it's been wet and warm. A good-sized brown-lipped snail was no surprise but I always enjoy seeing them. Also managed to identify a few weedy plants that recently came into bloom, notably alfalfa, Virginia pepperweed, and wild indigo. Found a handful of unidentified non-flying objects along the way as well.

Back home I got a bonus insect (also unidentified, but I got a good enough photo that I have hopes) sunning on the brick wall while I had my iced coffee.

6-1-21. North Branch Park, Brachburg, and Green Acres Park, North Plainfield, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 1045 miles total
Categories: blooming, critters.

In the morning I had to get ink for my printer from Staples, so I walked at the nearby County 4-H fairgrounds (or rather the edge of them). I found roses with tons of aphids, Asian lady beetle larvae, and, yes, mating lady beetles (my daughter Katie is no longer offended by bug reproduction, oh well). Then there was porcelainberry with baby spotted lanternflies, cleavers with aphids as well. There was a pretty orbweaver, lots of different kinds of fruiting sedges, a red-seeded dandelion, a white campion growing out of the crook of a tree, mating golden-backed snipe flies, I think an adult emerald ash borer, and Virginia bluebells in fruit (something I'd never seen before),

In the evening I walked with my son, Carl, and Katie at a little park along a brook with a pond and a very old spring in an older urban area. There was a group at the basketball courts in the middle playing music so loudly you could feel the bass in your chest, but there were still a few birds and a lot of plants and bugs to find. I gave Katie a camera again. There were more spotted lanternfly larvae, more mating lady beetles, a stink bug, a water strider, water-willow (a very unusual one for me), some big goslings (and geese, of course), yellow flag, forget me not, water hemlock, poison hemlock, lizard's tail, and some odd, gray fungi. And all the while the pounding music.

6-3-21. Washington Ave., Green Brook, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1045.75 miles total
categories: blooming, critters.

There's a little notch in the side of the almost-cliff south face of the First Watchung Mountain with a little pull-out and a culvert to carry a steam under Washington Ave. And that stream's source is a tiny little (but 30 foot tall) waterfall. So I pulled-out and walked around exploring the little notch. It's actually pretty disturbed with almost 100% alien plants, aside from the trees at the edges. But still interesting. And I found baby lanternflies here, too. The most interesting plant was some wild comfrey.

Welcome Carrie! Great to see the start of your journey here! We are looking forward to photos of your adventures along the way.

6/5/21. Lightening Ridge Rd, Calais, VT, Montpelier bike trail, Montpelier, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 3.8 miles today, 3291.1 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods

This morning I walked along Lightening Ridge Rd looking for birds. Right after I arrived at the Chickering Bog parking lot, someone else drove in, first overshooting George Rd where the lot is actually located. A lone hiker got out of the car and scooted right up the bog trail while I was still counting birds in the shrubs along the top of the field. I didn't see anyone else along the road until I stopped in the middle of the road to photograph the house wren on the metal sculpture again and my doctor breezed by on his bike. Birds along the road included alder flycatchers, red-eyed vireos, including a parent feeding a fledgling, some veeries, some robins, goldfinches, a dark-eyed junco, some song sparrows, a black-and-white warbler, some common yellowthroats, a cardinal, and some indigo buntings. Roadkill included a red-bellied snake, a red eft, and a detached frog leg. But the find of the day was a planarian moseying along the road.

In the afternoon, my husband and I set off for adventure with our canoe on the roof, and unicycle and electric scooter in the car. We first drove to Adamant to see if we could catch the Blackfly Festival, which is usually the village's largest event of the year. It didn't happen last year, and this year was supposed to be a drive by. But with Covid numbers looking good and all but the youngest kids vaccinated, they got together several hours of live music on the lawn and a bake sale this afternoon, which we just missed. But we did get to see and talk unmasked to several friends we haven't seen in person in a year. We had intended on plunking the canoe in the water on Sodom Pond, but a thunderstorm was threatening, so we continued on into Montpelier and arrived in the midst of a heavy rain storm. We parked by the bike trail but it was still raining. So then we parked in the center of town to get some ice cream as we waited the storm out. My, my! Our first food not prepared by us at home in over a year! By the time we finished our ice cream, the rain had stopped, so my husband and I hit the trail, he on his unicycle, and me on my electric scooter. I had hoped to find some bees on the golden Alexanders I had seen last week, but there weren't many pollinators out yet after the rain. Eventually, I found a bee on the golden Alexanders, but the bugs of the day were dusky cockroaches and loads of wood louses. I also found leafminers on sweetclover and honeysuckle.

In the evening, conditions were perfect for mothing, temperature around 70F and a very light misty rain. There were moths buzzing everywhere, in my hair, landing on my lips, my camera, etc. The June bug crawling across my leg was a bit annoying with its claws. But I was not pleased with the burying beetle that flew back and forth in front of my nose because it stank like the carrion it had been feeding on. I had many rosy maple moths and my first lettered habrosyne of the year. I also had my first cecropia moth of the year, quite a thrill. Other moths included grays of several types, yellow dusted creams, white spring moth, carpet moths, several greens, micros, a lightning bug, several other beetles, a tiny wasp, and quite a few different kinds of midges.

What a great moth and arthropod harvest! You must have lots of woods near by.

Hi @srall - thanks for the ids! I've never been to that part of NJ but the wildlife bridges in Montana when I lived there were similarly landscaped.

6/6/21 - Astoria neighborhood. .75 miles today, 2.79 miles total. Category: Plants vs. pavement

The heat had me feeling ill (a great time for our AC to be in the shop!) but I had to go pick up CSA veggies so I got a little walking in, at least. I decided to look for plants that had grown through gaps in the sidewalk, road, or other paved areas. Resilience!

Since I was carrying stuff, I only photographed a few species for later id, but I also saw a lot of familiar ones, including common purslane, dandelion, knotweeds, and tree of heaven.

6/7/21. Chickering Rd, East Montpelier, VT, Buck Lake, Woodbury, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 3 miles today, 3297.3 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods

I started the day this morning by walking Chickering Rd looking for birds. It was pleasantly warm at 6 AM with plenty of sun. The birds have moved on to nesting, so it was a bit quieter with less of the frantic feeding activity and calls of the migrants. I saw robins, song sparrows, chickadees, and I caught the olive-sided flycatcher singing from a tree close to the road. I also found a pair of black ducks in the first pond across from the Chickering homestead. While I was in the woods I saw dozens of live red efts and just a few dead ones. I also found half a cecropia being eaten by ants. I rescued it from the ants and brought it home for my roadkill museum. Surprisingly, there was quite a lot of traffic on the road today. On a typical early morning on Chickering Rd I might see one car but probably not. This morning there were multiple cars moving from each of the houses including the 2 Chickering houses, plus a dog walker down at the Airbnb A-frame on the corner. Maybe folks were trying to beat the heat by getting up early.

After breakfast my husband and I returned to Buck Lake in Woodbury. My husband was interested in trying out the trail on his unicycle. The trail got too technical for the unicycle quite soon, so he ended up on the road, which was also technical but rideable. I walked the trail along the lake and found leafminers on wild sarsaparilla and big-leaved aster, leaf galls on basswood, and lady’s slipper and false hellebore in bloom.

In the evening the conditions were decent for mothing, although it was dry. I found yellow-dusted cream, large purplish gray, a pug, green leuconycta, many different kinds of micros, a June beetle, a large black beetle, some small brown beetles, a bug, and lots of midges.

I think a lot of moth watchers start out with birds, move to butterflies, and then to moths, so the micros seem vastly different. But I have to say I get very frustrated by caddisflies and then a lot of those little micro moths. I wish it were easier to put them in families or some group below "Lepidoptera".

@erikamitchell Your mothing adventures sound lovely - my sister who lives in Vermont also gets great moths, and has a lot of luck with amphibians as well, which makes me a little jealous.

6/8/21 - Socrates Sculpture Park and Hallet's Cove. 1.61 miles today, 4.4 miles total. Categories: Time and Place.

Another short walk because of the heat. I set out early, and the first two plants that caught my eye were a morning glory sp. and a nightshade sp. - so I thought of organisms that had time in their name, and what goes with that? Place!

This turned out to be kind of unbalanced because there are only a handful of organisms with times in their name compared to places, especially if you count both geographic designations and more general place descriptors. I missed Asiatic dayflower and Black-crowned Night-heron, which both would have qualified. I saw but didn't get a picture of Chimney Swift, which would have counted for the place team, but they still 'won' by a margin of 8 to 2. I suppose that makes sense, since where you saw an organism is more of a species differentiator than when you saw it! But I think of things like islands that were named by colonizers after the holidays when they were 'discovered'. So if I'd seen a Christmas Frigatebird, say, aside from causing a mob of birders the likes of which have never been seen in Queens before, which category would that fall into?

Conclusion: Categories are inherently funny. But still useful.

Time and place--what cool categories to work with! Yes, a Christmas frigatebird would have been a perfect find for the day!

6/11/21 - Socrates Park, Rainey Park, and Queensbridge Park. 4.59 miles today, 10.72 miles total.
Categories: Insects and the Plants Who Love Them

Much better weather for walking today, including some cloud cover. My category ended up taking in mostly pollinators but I also meant to include insects who are predators of plant pests - as it turned out, the only example I found of that was Asian lady beetle, but they were as always abundant. I'm excited to perhaps get some IDs and learn more about pollinators beyond the usual bees and butterflies (though I saw some of those too - including a few too fast to photograph).

I'm also turning in eBird checklists for the New York State Breeding Bird Atlas these days, and though I had mostly the usual suspects today, I was excited to find a singing Northern Cardinal in Socrates... they've been singing in other locations around the neighborhood for some time now so I suspect he may be working on a second brood at this point.

6/11/21. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3307.4 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods

This morning I walked along Pekin Brook Rd heading east looking for birds. It was about 55F and cloudy. For the last few weeks I've been walking with a North Branch Nature Center group on Fridays, but now their walks are over for the season. I needed a new place to walk close to home. Pekin Brook is always good for birds, but much better on weekends when there is so much less traffic. I found plenty of birds today, but the traffic was not much fun, so I think I'll look for a new location for my Friday walks. I was greeted by a jake turkey as soon as I stepped out the door. We feed a flock in the yard in the winter, and he must have remembered that and come back for a snack. I gave him a handful of food, but he ignored it and followed me down the driveway. Other birds that I saw were a blue jay and a common yellowthroat, and I finally caught the winter wren that sings along our driveway. Meanwhile, I recorded a black-throated green, a parula, a black-and-white warbler, a white throated sparrow, and a yellow-bellied sapsucker serenading our neighbors at 7:00AM on their tin roof.

In the evening when I went out for mothing at 9:15 there was still too much light out for moths. I managed to shoot a single Scoparia. No midges tonight, too early and too cool.

6-6-21. Burlington County, NJ. 2.25 miles today, 1049 miles total
Categories: new or unusual for me

I spent Sunday (despite the 93 degree heat and high humidity) exploring several parks in Burlington County. First was the top end of Franklin Parker Preserve, where I found 6 plants I'd never seen before: Carolina ipecac, spoon leaved purple everlasting, some kind of 3-awn grass, sidebeak pencilflower, narrow leaved whitetop aster, and hairy pinweed. Then 3 I'd never seen in flower before: canada frostweed, goat's rue, and pine barrens sandwort. Plus an ergot on a grass, galls on blackjack oak, Maryland tick trefoil, pine barrens goldentheather just past blooming, proliferous pink, golden club.

Next stop was the south end of Franklin Parker, where I saw the most brilliantly colored Fowler's toad I've ever seen, plus what I think was Heller's rosette grass and my first male calico pennant, the first sheep laurel I've ever seen in bloom, spoonleaved sundew, and several corporal dragonflies, mostly one of the blue ones, but also a white corporal.

I passed a road-killed racoon, so stopped to take a photo.

Next stop was Oswego Lake, where the mountain laurel was blooming profusely, and I saw my first ever cranberry flowers, and my first blooming staggerbush.

After that was Pakin Pond, the highlight of which was a huge, blooming, turkey beard. Also here was a possible three-way sedge, thread-leaved sundew, and purple pitcher plant. There were also lots of gypsy moths, which may be what attracted the weird bird I heard calling that turned out to be a yellow-bellied cuckoo. And when I got home, I found out the neat, little, coil-tipped plant I photographed was curly grass fern, another new one for me.

My final stop was the Michael Huber Prairie Warbler Preserve. But it was a long hike in to the interesting parts, and I was just not up to it. Still, an excellent day overall.

6/12/21. Lightening Ridge Rd, Calais, VT, Stranahan Forest, Marshfield, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2.9 miles today, 3310.3 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods

This morning I walked along Lightening Ridge Rd looking for birds. I began with a quick trip to the farm field in the east where I heard a very loud family group of corvids. I thought they sounded like ravens, but they looked more like crows. So they're probably crows, but I'll need to let the experts decide. Along the road there were mourning doves everywhere today, 9 in total, plus a hummingbird, a phoebe, some robins, some waxwings, a goldfinch, a chestnut-sided warbler, and the house wren in the front yard of the house with the daylily garden out front. I also recorded a black-and-white warbler, an ovenbird, a veery, a blue-headed vireo, a yellow-bellied sapsucker, a Blackburnian warbler, an alder flycatcher, and an indigo bunting.

Later in the morning I went to the Stranahan Town Forest in Marshfield to meet up with the Vermont Entomological Society and the Vermont Center for Ecostudies Lady Beetle Bioblitz event. This was led by Michael Sabourin from the VES and Julia Pupko from the VCE. There were about 12 of us in the group, including myself and my 2 bug walk friends, Eve and Ed. We began with an hour of walking through the large hayfield beside the parking lot beating with bug nets, where we managed to find 2 ladybugs, an Asian and a native (I forget the native species). Then we walked through the woods where Julia spotted a twice stabbed ladybeetle on a beech tree with beech bark disease. Other finds during the walk included some bees, some orange beetles, lots of flies, including some robberflies, some spiders, including a 6-spotted orbweaver, and galls on pin cherry fruits, basswood leaves, sugar maple leaves, trembling aspen leaves, ash leaves, and pin cherry leaves. And I found some leafminers on honeysuckle and wild sarsaparilla.

In the evening I was up late working and missed my lights which turn off automatically at 9:30 PM. Still, when I went out around 10 PM, I had a large purplish gray, a mossy glyph, a ruby tiger moth, a click beetle, a large midge, and a small horsefly.

6/13/21. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT, Dog Pond, Woodbury, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 4.4 miles today, 3314.7 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods

This morning I walked along Pekin Brook Rd looking for birds. The road was quite pleasant for walking this morning with only 1-2 cars during the entire walk--such a contrast with Friday when all the early morning folk were heading off to work. I saw some common yellowthroats, a great blue heron, some phoebes, a blue jay, some crows, some chickadees, a veery, a pair of cedar waxwings, loads of song sparrows, a red-winged blackbird, and a hairy woodpecker. I also recorded a chestnut-sided warbler, a gray catbird, a blue-headed vireo, and a magnolia warbler.

Later in the morning, my husband and I took the canoe up to Dog Pond in Woodbury. Dog Pond is a relatively large pond for the area surrounded by deep softwoods and no roads. There are some camps around the pond, but they are spread out, not on top of each other. Public access to the pond is from a tiny dirt road that looks like a driveway. So if you don't know the pond is there, you'll never stumble across it. Even though it was Sunday with beautiful weather, we were the only ones parked at the public access put in and almost the only ones paddling on the pond. A few of the cabins were occupied, but not many. They tend to be upscale, so the owners probably are quite distant and don't get to visit much. Most of the cabins had large motor boats by the water, but none were being used, so the pond was quite quiet, except for the loons. We also saw robins and grackles, and a recorded a blue-headed vireo and a northern waterthrush. In bloom were sheep laurel and twinflower. The dominant vegetation around the pond was eastern hemlock and sweetgale.

In the evening, my lights went out before I went out (I need to fix that, at least for high summer). But I still found a white spring moth, a green pug, another pug, a melanolophia, a looper, a black-dotted glyph, a black-smudged chionodes, a pine cone borer, a midge, a money spider, and a harvestman.

Wild edibles is a great category!

6/15/21. Tucker Rd, George Rd, Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3316.8 miles total.
Categories: birds, arthropods, road crossers

This morning the weather was much better for bird watching, so I walked along Tucker Rd. I found a flock of geese on the big hay field on Lightening Ridge Rd, then a lone turkey on Lilley's farm seen from Tucker Rd. I also saw a sapsucker, a phoebe, some robins, some goldfinches, a chestnut-sided warbler and some song sparrows. I recorded a winter wren, an ovenbird, a magnolia warbler, a northern parula, and an indigo bunting. I also got passed by a bicyclist who wasn't my doctor for a change. I got distracted by leafminers on the way back and found miners on elm, trillium, lilacs and yellow birch. Road crossers today were a golden ground beetle, some red efts, and a very dark caterpillar.

In the afternoon I set out to visit Chickering Bog, but when I got out of the car, thunder was rumbling not to distantly and the wind was picking up, so I hung out in the parking lot wavering about whether to head up the trail. Meanwhile, I scouted the weeds and wild flowers on the edges of the lot searching for insects. I found lots of bees in the red clover, but the thunder seemed to be getting closer, so that's all I got for a walk.

In the early evening we had some rain, which fortunately stopped when I went out to check my moth lights. The rain brought lots of insects out, and I found a white spring moth, a melanolophia, a pug, a black-dotted glyph, several large pepper moths, a garden tortrix, a yellow-dusted cream, a ruby tiger, a green leuconycta, a Virginian tiger, a click beetle, a May beetle, an orange beetle, some cool yellow may flies and the usual collection of midges.

6/17/21. Admant, VT, Kettle Pond, Groton, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 4.2 miles today, 3325.3 miles total.
Categories: birds, arthropods, galls and leafminers

This morning I drove down to Adamant for my morning walk. I began with a jaunt up Quarry Rd, where I tallied 37 different species on eBird. I photographed a mourning dove, a chestnut-sided warbler, a common yellowthroat, a yellow-bellied sapsucker, some chickadees, and a gray catbird, and recorded a northern parula, a Nashville warbler, a black-throated blue warbler, a blue-headed vireo, and a veery. I also got to greet a friend who I haven't seen in months who stopped along the road to say hi.

Later in the morning my husband and I drove to Kettle Pond so that he could ride his unicycle on the rail trail down to Plainfield. In the meantime, I got out my bike and rode through the Kettle Pond campground to the trail head for the trail that goes around the pond. To my surprise, the campground was packed. Just about every site was loaded with young people. What a joy to see so many people outdoors! I tucked my bike behind a tree just past the trail head and walked the trail looking for leafminers and insects. There weren't that many miners on this side of the pond, probably because the species diversity was limited, and also because it's still early in the season. This area is boreal forest, mainly spruce and fir, with some sugar maples, yellow birch, and hemlock mixed in. I found miners in wild sarsaparilla, red trillium, and whorled wood aster. There were very few blooms, so no pollinators. I found a few flies, and when I stopped for a picnic lunch along the shore, I found a tattered yellow swallowtail permanently perched on tree branch. On my way back to the car I managed to get a close enough view of a magnolia warbler to shoot it with the 100 mm lens I had on my camera. I also recorded a common yellowthroat, hermit thrush, and black-throated green warbler.

In the evening there wasn't much action at the moth lights. The temperature was below 60F with clear skies and wind. I had a pug, a snowy shouldered acleris, and a couple of midges.

Erika, with every one of your posts your area sounds more and more amazing!

6/15/21 - Socrates Sculpture Park and Hallet's Cove. 1.81 miles today, 14.31 miles total.
Category: Plants vs. Pavement, Round 2!

Since I had fun with this category around the neighborhood I decided to take it to the park! Where there are more plants, of course, but fewer pavements. Still found some cool things, though, including a volunteer tomato plant growing between our front steps and the neighbor's railing, Queen Anne's lace nearly in bloom, galinsoga, and bindweed.

I also had some unusual photographic opportunities on the animal front, including a very confiding painted lady on a flowering privet and a couple of house mice who were more interested in the bird seed that one of the neighbors spreads each morning than in worrying about me. Not much new breeding bird survey wise but I did see a second-year red-tailed hawk with the red just starting to appear in the tail.

Great find with the volunteer tomato plant! I always keep an eye out for them. I've also found some volunteer cilantro on occasion. The trick is to find them together. Volunteer salsa!

our volunteer pavement plant this year was a sunflower between the bricks in our patio (presumably from birdseed).

6-10-21. D&R Canal, South Bound Brook, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 1050.5 miles total
Categories: blooming, critters.

I walked at the canal in the morning, and then after dinner ended up back here with my husband. My favorite find of the day was yellow salsify both blooming and especially fruiting, the enormous puffballs make me smile every time. There were spotted lanternfly nymphs everywhere, I found them on more than half a dozen different plants. Milkweed, St. John's wort, and horsenettle have just started blooming, and I found a dame's rocket still barely hanging in there. Something was eating the catalpa trees, and I couldn't figure out what, partly because the lady beetles had done a good job of eating IT.

6-14-21. Mountain Park, Liberty Corner, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1051 miles total.
Categories: blooming, critters.

A quick walk at a local park but I ran into two separate old friends here. Very unusual for me to meet people I know while out walking and there were two! Lots of tufted vetch blooming here, and more pale spike lobelia. Various dogwoods were flowering and beardtongue, the milkweeds are getting started. Once again there were spotted lanternfly larvae everywhere. We're going to have an "interesting" fall when they grow into adults.

6-16-21. Middlebrook Trail, Martinsville, NJ. 1.5 miles today, 1054 miles total
Categories: blooming, critters.

This trail is sort of officially closed, as one of the bridges is broken with no good way around, but one can still walk carefully across the broken section and so many people do that the signs get taken down as soon as the town puts them back up. The creeping Jenny was blooming here, and very cheerful. There's also tons of sedges, only a few of which I can guess at an ID for. Fringed loosestrife was blooming, and winterberry was about to. Water hemlock was finishing up. I found deerberry fruit, something I've never seen here before. But the neatest plant for me was blooming poison sumac, something I've never seen at all before.

Critter-wise there were lots of lanternflies, blackfly eggs, a big spider I can't ID, several skippers and damselflies, dense colonies of wooly, gray aphids on vetch, leaf mines on grape, snakeroot, deertongue, and violet, and a couple bees and an azure.

6-19-21. Cataract Park, Schooleys Mountain, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1055.5 miles total
Categories: blooming, critters

Molly is working at sleep-away camp this summer, about 45 minutes away. At 10 pm on Friday night her car broke down on the way to Walmart. She got a ride back to camp, but Saturday morning I drove out to deal with getting the thing towed. While waiting, I photographed the nearby weeds. Only dandelion, clover, avens, pimpernel, medic and smartweed were blooming. There were mines in snakeroot and elm.

On the way home, I stopped to walk (straight up the side of Schooleys Mountain, as it turned out) at Cataract Park. The deer here are intense and there's almost nothing growing on the forest floor, though I found some blooming spotted wintergreen. At the brook at the bottom of the hill there was some sedge and wood nettle blooming, and I found what I think is a darkling beetle. Still, I was not impressed, and the sounds of the busy road were very prevalent.

6/20/21 - Astoria Neighborhood. .82 miles today, 16.75 miles total.
Category: Trees and shrubs

Most of the trees I see in NYC are cultivated - the street trees, the trees in the yards of people lucky enough to have yards, even the ones in the parks. But a few species are fast and hardy and lucky enough to make a go of it on their own. I looked out for those while I took a short walk to pick up my CSA veggies.

The big success story here is mulberry - no surprise, considering how the Robins, Cedar Waxwings, Mockingbirds, Catbirds, and Blue Jays all go for the berries. The seeds must be spread far and wide! I think all the specimens I saw were white mulberry but I'm still getting a handle on the wide variety of forms their leaves can take. Some others, like the pear and the redbud, were most likely volunteer offspring of nearby street trees.

Speaking of volunteers, I found that the sidewalk spider flower I spotted last week is in glorious bloom today... couldn't be prettier if it was cultivated! And nearby some moss-rose purslane is budding.

6/20/21. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT, Dog Pond, Woodbury, VT, Lanesboro, Marshfield, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 5 miles today, 3333.1 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods

This morning I walked along Pekin Brook Rd looking for birds. I was quite pleased that there was very little traffic, such a contrast with weekdays. I saw an alder flycatcher, a phoebe, a kingbird, some red-eyed vireos, a pair of tree swallows, a pack of starlings, some robins, some waxwings, several purple finch (at our feeder), some song sparrows, some red-winged blackbirds, and a chestnut-sided warbler. I also recorded winter wren, an ovenbird, a hermit thrush, an indigo bunting, a veery, a redstart, a white-throated sparrow, a parula, and a catbird. I paused to admire some fresh coyote scat in the middle of the road and also saw some deer tracks. The thimbleberry is in bloom, and also the bush honeysuckle.

After breakfast, my husband and I took the canoe back to Dog Pond, where I had noticed a separate hidden pond on the satellite map. It is connected by a tiny stream about 6' long and 4' wide, and 2" deep. We portaged up the stream to explore the small pond, which my husband deemed Puppy Pond. It was quite beautiful and quiet, but my camera battery was dead and I forgot my phone. There was some swamp loosestrife, swamp milkweed, and skullcap in bloom along Puppy Pond, so we need to return with a working camera. We also a large snapper and many painted turtles, as well as perch, pumpkinseeds, and large-mouthed bass.

In the afternoon I drove my husband up to Fiddlehead Pond so he could ride his unicycle down to Plainfield. Meanwhile, I continued on to Lanesboro, the straight stretch of railroad bed between 2 beavers ponds on the outskirts of Groton State forest. I was looking for some bees that specialize in native loosestrife and dogbane. I quickly found some dogbane that is just starting to open and also found bees in it. Later I found some whorled loosestrife, but no bees. I also saw a white admiral butterfly, a crescent butterfly, a Cantharis lividus beetle, a pin cherry bud gall, and a leafminer in meadowsweet. I recorded a hermit thrush, a Canada warbler, a ruby-crowned kinglet, a song sparrow, a common yellowthroat, a green frog, a bullfrog, a black-throated blue warbler, and a scarlet tanager.

In the evening I had good luck at my moth lights. I found a yellow-dusted cream, a three-lined balsa, a green pug, a ruby tiger moth, a black-smudged chionodes, some other micros, some ground beetles, a Cantharis lividus, a small brown beetle, some midges, some fungus gnats, a caddisfly, a grass bug, and a huge fishing spider.

Puppy Pond! I love it!

I've already found some interesting galls on the street and park trees this spring: witch hazel cone gall, poplar leaf stem gall, maple bladdergall, some tetraneuras, red nail gall, and a variety of leaf curl fungi.

6/22/21. Tucker Rd & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3337.5 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods

This morning was gray, misty and cool when I went out for my bird walk. I walked along Tucker Rd after parking at the Chickering Bog parking lot. I found a turkey in the big hay field along Lightening Ridge. On Tucker I found a red-eyed vireo, a blue jay, some noisy ravens, some chickadees, a robin, some waxwings, some goldfinches, a song sparrow, and a red-winged blackbird. I also recorded a white-throated sparrow, an ovenbird, a black-and-white warbler, a chestnut-sided warbler, a Canada warbler, and an indigo bunting. It was mostly quiet along the road with no traffic, at least early. Then a tandem logging truck came through, half-loaded. He squeezed past me, tearing down leaves that were overhanging the road all along his route. A few minutes later a pickup truck came by. And then the logging truck came back, no doubt heading for the log landing a little beyond where I usual walk. I could hear him loading near the turnaround point of the walk. Loading at 6:45 AM. The neighbors must love it.

It was gray and cool all day, so I stayed in and worked. In the evening when I checked my lights I found the first small magpie of the year, and oak leaffolder, a garden tortrix, several other micros, a selection of Chironomus midges and some tiny green midges.

6-20-21. Papaianni Park, Edison, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1056 miles total.
Categories: flowers, birds.

Katie and I walked at this suburban park with a pond because it always has at least geese and ducks. We also found a cormorant plus robins, morning doves, grackles and innumerable house sparrows. oh, and a domestic goose in with the Canada.

For me the most interesting plants were bracted plantain and silver cinquefoil.

6-22-21. Tempe Wick Preserve, Mendham, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1056.75 miles total.
Category: flowering

It was drizzling on the way home from taking Katie for her second vaccine (the last of my children). We stopped at this maintained meadow to see what was blooming. Katie shot a chipping sparrow and a blackbird from the car. I got the umbrella and found dogbane, buttercup, fleabane, bedstraw, plantain, heal all, daisy, trefoil, and two kinds of clover blooming. I didn't last long. Katie commented on my tiny umbrella, which I mostly used to keep the camera dry, thus getting my backside wet every time I bent over for a better shot.

6/22/21 - Socrates Sculpture Park to the ferry terminal. 2.04 miles today, 18.79 miles total.
Category: Eye level

This is kind of a weird category, but I realized that I'd been spending a lot of time looking way up for birds and down at the ground for small plants. What about in between? I included anything that I didn't have to stoop or crane my neck to spot or to take a picture of.

Because of Erika's suggestion I looked closely at the leaves and trunks of the ornamental trees, finding some (annoyingly fast) mystery bugs as well as lichen and spiderwebs; the ornamental shrubs were even better - my favorite find was a red-banded leafhopper on the mallows, and there were also bees on the hydrangeas and insects of all kinds on the butterfly bush. A couple of Northern Mockingbirds came down to eye level in the corner of the park with the serviceberries - all the mockingbirds in the park are acting very nervous lately (I saw the other pair swooping and chasing one of the local feral cats, who I assume deserved it) so I think their young must be close to fledging. And there are many weedy plants that managed to qualify - from tall Queen Anne's lace and white sweetclover to grapes and trumpetflower hanging from the fences.

6/23/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT, Eagle Ledge Rd, Worcester, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 4.6 miles today, 3342.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, blooms and arthropods

This morning I took a walk up Peck Hill looking for birds. The temperature was not quite 50F, so I was glad to find my gloves in my jacket pockets. No mosquitoes! As I stepped out the front door, I found a titmouse, red-breasted nuthatch, purple finches,hairy woodpecker, and a white-throated sparrow at our feeder. Other birds along the way included phoebe, red-eyed vireo, blue jay, tree swallows, robins, waxwings, song sparrows, black-and-white warbler, common yellowthroat, and indigo bunting. I also recorded a golden-crowned kinglet on our driveway, a chestnut-sided warbler, a lone spring peeper in the lemna pond in front of the farmhouse on the corner, a common yellowthroat, a northern parula, and a redstart. And I found a pile of very fresh coyote scat in just about the same place I saw the coyote last week.

In the afternoon, my husband and I went to Eagle Ledge Rd in Worcester, he with his unicycle and me walking. This is a road in name only. It is marked town trail, vehicle access only by permit. Sort of like a town park, except only the road itself is public. It runs through a narrow valley filled with a line of beaver ponds, sprinkled with a few hunting camps. As it turned out, a beaver dam about 1.1 miles in had flooded the road and the day was too cool for wading (62F), so we turned around there. I found leafminers on wild sarsaparilla, meadowsweet, parasol whitetop, dock, and cinquefoil. I also found lots of bees on daisies, flower beetles, a collection of flies, and some soldier beetles. Blooming were mountain maple, thimbleberry, daisies, and false helleborine. Roadkill was a garter snake.

In the evening, there was very little action at the moth lights, perhaps because it was cool and dry and there was a bit of light left in the sky at 9:30. I only had an angle moth and a single large midge.

6/23/21 - Socrates Sculpture Park and Hallet's Cove. 1.73 miles today, 20.52 miles total.
Category: Insects

This morning while I was walking the dog a leafhopper briefly landed on my phone, setting the category for the day - and I got its picture once it hopped to a wall, too.

I ended up with a nice variety, including common picture-winged fly, European drone fly, golden tortoise beetle (a new one for me!), Western honey bee, margined calligrapher, and an assortment of as-yet unidentified flies, bees, and moths. There were a lot of dragonflies around as well, but my photographic skill and equipment isn't yet equal to capturing them in flight.

There is drama at the feral cat colony. A new, young-seeming, and relatively friendly cat showed up; she promptly had kittens and seems otherwise in need of vetting. I talked with the woman who feeds them (I know, I know, but there's an element of maintaining community goodwill here) about getting her vetted and adopted. I can help with the vetting but I don't think my elderly dog would appreciate a new cat (nor would my boyfriend - also named Chuk!) - although I am tempted. While I watched, she (the cat, not cat-feeder) caught a young house mouse - fine if it's an invasive species, I guess, but there are the mockingbirds and catbirds and robins to think of.

Erika, we have a lot of mockingbirds but I never get tired of them. I also love how they adapt city noises like car alarms and sirens into their songs.

6/24/21. Adamant, VT, Dog River Recreational Fields, Montpelier, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 3.1 miles today, 3345.2 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods

This morning I drove down to Adamant to look for birds. I started with a jaunt up Quarry Rd, where I logged 39 species on ebird, including wood ducks and a great blue heron on Adamant pond, a mourning dove, some yellow-bellied sapsuckers, a phoebe, a kingbird, a red-eyed vireo, a chickadee, a nuthatch, a robin, some waxwings, a goldfinch, a song sparrow, and some Nashville warblers. I also recorded a veery, a brown creeper, a black-throated blue warbler, a Northern parula, a hermit thrush, and a winter wren. By the time I got back to the Adamant Coop where I had parked my car I was running late on time. I knew I should skip the walk along Sodom Pond, but I just couldn't bring myself to do that. Folks come from all over to look watch birds on Sodom Pond, which is an ebird hotspot. So how could I skip the main event? Walking quickly, I found wood ducks, a mallard, a kingbird, a blue jay, some tree swallows, lots of red-winged blackbirds, and a yellow warbler. As I neared the turn-around point, I heard an unfamiliar waterbird call. I wondered if it could be a Virginia rail in the marsh plants. I played the call on my phone to remember what it sounds like, and the bird called back immediately, very loudly, and kept calling for the rest of the time I was in earshot, at least 15 minutes. Ooops!

Later in the morning my husband and I drove down to Montpelier. While he rode his unicycle on the bike path, I met up with Eve, Ed, and Melissa for our weekly bugwalk. @beeboy had suggested checking out the hemp dogbane in the Dog River Rec fields for some specialist bees. We started out down the path through the Japanese knotweed jungle. No dogbane there, but we did find a few bees resting on the knotweed leaves. Out on the rocky beech by the river bank, we found a few patches of dogbane, but not a lot of bee action. Still, we managed to find a few native bees, and well as flea beetles, leaf beetles, and 2 kinds of lady bugs, the Asian and a native with 2 spots. Then we walked the margins of the rec field, which was in the process of being mowed with 2 industrial mowers. Typically at this site, we find lots of bees on the dandelions and clovers in the field, but the grass was down to about 1/2" inch. The insects that had been in the grass who survived were hanging out on the knotweed leaves rimming the field wondering what the heck happened. We found lots of mating rose chafers and 2 more kinds of lady beetles, a yellow one and a 12-spot, although we didn't get photos of the 12-spot. Then we went down another trail to the river and found some more dogbane with plenty of action. But by then we were tired, it was lunch time, and my camera battery had died. The blue vervain along the shore was blooming, and I found leafminers in jewelweed and dock.

In the evening there was some decent action at my moth lights. I had a three-lined balsa, a yellow-dusted cream, another white geometer, a green pug, another pug, and my first snowy urola of the year. Plus 3 kinds of leafhoppers, 2 kinds of midges, a cloud of fungus gnats, and a caddisfly.

6/26/21. Lightening Ridge Rd, Calais, VT, Paine Mountain, Northfield, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 3.1 miles today, 3345.2 miles total.
Categories: birds, bog life, and arthropods

This morning I walked along Lightening Ridge Rd looking for birds. I started by heading east out to the hay field to check for big birds like turkeys, geese, or ravens, but the field was empty. Then I headed east up to the day lily garden to check on the house wren. It was there, singing away, but I never caught sight of it, so I just recorded it. I also recorded a cowbird, a black-throated blue warbler, a northern parula, a blue-haded vireo, and a white-throated sparrow. I saw a mourning dove, a hummingbird, some yellow-bellied sapsuckers, an eastern phoebe, a blue jay, some crows, some chickadees, a catbird, some robins, a common yellowthroat, a chestnut-sided warbler, and a female indigo bunting.

Later in the morning, I drove down to Northfield for an outing with the Vermont Entomological Society. We visited the hunting camp of one our members, Doug Burnham. In today's group were 12 people, including my friends Eve, Ed, and Melissa, also Spencer Hardy, and Michael Sabourin. The camp was a rustic camp on the edge of a pond on Paine Mountain. The highlight of the visit was an intermediate fen up above the cabin, with patches of showy ladyslippers. Also in the fen we found buckbean, swamp currant, swamp goldenrod, sneezewort, blue flags and royal fern. When we first arrived at the camp, we found a turtle laying eggs in the driveway. We also found some chalk-fronted corporals, widow skimmers, bluets, sprites, European skippers, hobomok skippers, stoneflies, a Tegragnatha spider eating a harvestman, and a wolf spider carrying babies. I found leafminers in wild sarsaparilla, violets, nettles, and swamp goldenrod.

It began raining just as we finished our hike back down from the fen, and continued the rest of the day until evening. It was also warm and muggy, so I should have had plenty of visitors at the moth lights, but I didn't make it out until the lights went off. Still, I had a bog bibarembla, some micro moths, a crane fly, a bizarre (that's the name of the family) caddisfly, a green lacewing, a click beetle, a tiny brown beetle, and some leafhoppers.

6/28/21. Chickering Rd, East Montpelier, VT, Ricker Pond, Groton, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2.1 miles today, 3349.3 miles total.
Categories: birds, road crossers and arthropods

This morning I walked along Chickering Rd looking for birds. I found some yellow-bellied sapsuckers, a phoebe, some blue jays, some chickadees, a tree swallow, some robins, some waxwings, some goldfinch, a white-throated sparrow, a song sparrow, and a common yellowthroat. Above the first pond I also saw a hawk in the top of a tree, but I couldn't tell what species. I also recorded a blue-headed vireo, an ovenbird, a black-throated green warbler, a scarlet tanager, a black-throated blue warbler, a winter wren, a northern parula, a hermit thrush, and a chestnut-sided warbler. As I was entering the forested section of the road, I noticed what appeared the tracks of bare feet in the road. Bear? But I got distracted by birds and forgot about the tracks. On my return I heard some crashing of branches in the woods. And got distracted by some birds again. And then the yearling bear ran down the road right in front me. Fortunately, he seemed quite afraid of me and ran off into the woods. I got a few photos, but I don't know if the bear is recognizable in the photos.

Later in the morning, my husband and I took my mother, who is staying with us for a week, out to Ricker Pond in Groton. While my husband rode his unicycle down from Fiddlehead Pond, my mother and I swam near the Ricker Dam. I brought my underwater camera with the intention of doing some snorkeling and fish chasing, but I forgot my swim mask. So I shot a leafminer in wild sarsaparilla instead.

In the evening it was still a little light when I checked the moth lights at 9:15 PM. I found a single inornate carpet, some micros, a Lygus bug, a click beetle, lots of striped leafhoppers, a potato leafhopper, a red leafhopper, and some midges.

6/30/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT, Sodom Pond Rd, Adamant, VT & Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 2.5 miles today, 3354.0 miles total.
Categories: birds and arthropods

I slept in so my morning walk was quite brisk...for a bird walk, 2 miles in one hour. I found some purple finches on our bird feeder and a belted kingfisher on the barn roof at the farm. I also found some chickadees, some robins, some goldfinches, some song sparrows, some red-winged blackbirds, a hummingbird, some common yellowthroats, and a flock of 15 birds that were probably starlings. I also recorded a veery, a common yellowthroat, a chestnut-sided warbler, and an indigo bunting.

Later in the morning I took my mother down to Adamant where we met up with Eve and Ed for our weekly birdwalk. We walked along the north east edge of the pond on what we call dragonfly ally. We found bluets, spreadwings, and a widow skimmer, plus a deer fly, a Toxomerus syrphid, a couple of bees, a ladybug, and some orbweavers. The weather was hot but quite breezy with sprinkles. I found lots of leafminers, including some on fireweed, jewelweed, meadowsweet, dandelion, parasol whitetop, meadow rue, burdock, and red clover.

In the evening, it was warm and humid after a thunderstorm, but I didn't make it out to the lights until they had gone off. I found a yellow-dusted cream, a ribboned carpet, a green mossy glyph, a black dotted glyph, a Scoparia, some Crambids, some other micros, a brown weevil, a green immigrant weevil, 3 kinds of leafhoppers, several midges, including an yellow one with orange stripes, a small crane fly, and some tiny caddisflies.

6-24-21. Stamford Nature Center, Stamford, and Crandall's Park, Tolland, CT. 1 mile today, 1059 miles total
Categories: birds, bugs, flowers

Katie and I left for our New England trip this morning. First night would be with my sister, Kate (it gets a little confusing, there's even yet another Katie in the family as well), outside of Boston. First stop was a park with a pond, a nature center, a petting zoo, boardwalks through a swamp, a nature themed playground, and a sculpture garden. Very busy but interesting. Katie loves birds, so I spent more time looking at those than usual. She found Muscovy and domestic ducks, a cowbird, plus the more typical Canada goose, robin, starling crow, cardinal, chipping sparrow and house sparrow. I found Japanese Mazus and some bottlebrush buckeyes, plus the beech trees here have the beech leaf disease that's spreading from just north of New York City. Sad.

Our second stop was at a park with two ponds. We walked a bit along each. At the second Katie and I spotted a kingbird, her first. Unusual things for me included a black firefly, cow wheat, bush honeysuckle, paper birch, a purple sawfly larva of some kind, a bladderwort, watershield, a speckled sharpshooter, American chestnut sapling, what I think was narrow leaved everlasting pea, and a dragonfly exuviae.

Eider ducks with chicks! What a find! A few years ago I saw some Eider ducks off the Maine coast, but not with chicks. Good spotting on the chestnut sapling!

6-27-21. Horatio Colony, Keene, NH; Montshire Museum, Norwich, VT; Pillsbury Park, Washington, NH; Dublin Pond, Dublin, NH; and Cheshire Rail Trail, Keene, NH. 0.75 miles today, 1062.5 miles total
Categories: birds, bugs, blooms

Katie slept in this morning but I was up, so I checked out a local preserve. However the heat and humidity were already high, and the mosquitoes were fierce, despite repellant, and I didn't last long. There were some neat fungi and a litter moth. I was saddened to see the hemlocks here were covered in adelgids; I hadn't realized they'd made it this far north.

The main point of today was to drive up to Norwich to the Montshire Museum, traditionally a favorite of Katie's, though she's about grown out of science museums, and the weather was very uncomfortable. I did find a dogwood spittle bug and a bluet here.

On the way back, we stopped at Pillsbury State Park, and this was much more successful. We found our first ever red squirrel, a female purple finch, our first yellowthroat, a kingbird, and a goose with goslings. Then there were chalk-fronted corporals, whitetails, ebony jewelwings, mating violet dancers, a calico pennant, some kind of spreadwing damselfly, a rose chafer, whirligig beetles, plus orange hawkweed, little floatingheart, a pondweed in flower, blueflag, striped maple, a trillium, sundew, hazel, pipewort, cranberry, white baneberry, bog myrtle, and a narrow leaved bullreed. Definitely my favorite stop of the whole trip.

In the evening we swam with my parents at Dublin Pond and then walked briefly across the old stone bridge on the Cheshire trail. Here there was a variegated ground spider, plus sweet fern, whorled loosestrife, and an anemone of some kind.

6-30-21. Sons of Liberty Park, Liberty Corner, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 1064.5 miles total
Category: caught my eye.

I walked with my friend Laura today, despite the awful hot, humid weather. I didn't stop to take many photos, but found a miner in violet leaves, ghost pipes, comfrey fruit, and an almost-ripe mayapple.

6/26/21 - St. Michael's Cemetery. 6.81 miles today, 28.97 miles total.
Category: Bugs and blooms, redux

After more than a month away, I decided it was time to return to St. Michael's Cemetery and see what was new over there, with an eye for additions to both the NY Breeding Bird Atlas and the Empire State Native Pollinators Survey.

I confirmed breeding of some fairly expected birds - starlings and house sparrows, robins and American crows - but the highlight was a single European goldfinch feeding on dandelion seeds. By itself this bird is a probable escape. And acquaintance in Brooklyn found what seemed to be evidence of breeding this year though - a group of unbanded juveniles traveling in a group - and it does make one wonder...

The insects were few but spectacular: yellow-fringed dolichomia and elm spanworm moth, spotted cucumber beetle and some kind of Neurocolpus, grape phylloxera and hackberry nipplegall psyllid (the last two identified from galls). The blooms were a bit more abundant and I was happy to see some healthy-looking common milkweed. Also found silverleaf cinquefoil, white campion, chicory, and yellow sweetclover. And it seems like a dangerous place for dogs, at least in terms of nomenclature - I spotted both dogbane and dog-strangling vine (swallowwort).

Carrie: What a great find with the fourteen-spotted ladybeetle. And that's an interesting observation about the molting geese. We usually have loads of geese in downtown Adamant, but I haven't seen any this year. Great work on the breeding bird survey. The European goldfinch was quite a find--such a pretty bird, even if it doesn't belong here. The yellow-fringed dolichomia was neat, too.