July 2022
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
July 30, 2022. From Warren, NJ to Somerville, MA.
Today I drove to New England on my way to a week-long seminar at Eagle Hill. On I-287 in NJ I passed a crew watering the sound barriers. Or perhaps spraying them with herbicide? If so, it was a very inexact application. Often Virginia creeper grows over them and looks lovely, but I have no idea what they were doing this time.
I stopped on the Connecticut Turnpike and saw narrow-leaved bird's foot trefoil. There was a great egret that flew along the highway for a bit, and I got stuck in traffic in Bridgeport and spotted Oriental bittersweet growing out of the top of a ruined building. Stopped again outside of new Haven, but the most interesting thing here was a bumble bee.
I stopped on I-84 between Hartford and Massachusetts at the rest area and found my first autumn hawkbit of the trip (this was going to be a standard weed in Maine), plus silvery cinquefoil, rabbitsfoot clover, and snakecotton. One more stop, on the Mass Pike, where I found a Chenopodium or relative I haven't keyed out, and a blue dasher, both in a series of big stagnent puddles that had been there long enough to grow green algae (and presumably lots of mosquitoes). Someone really should fix the drainage there, but it was nice hunting for me.
Despite all the stops, I made it to my sister's before lunch. She was staying with a friend in Somerville while her house is being renovated. The friend's back yard had a lovely selection of weeds (as well as both flowers and veggies, which I ignored). I found buckwheat, swallowwort, hoary alyssum, and my first two leaf mines of the trip, one on pilewort and one on grape.
We drove over to Lexington to explore Cotton Farm Park, which she'd passed but not been in before. It was wooded, with a bit of a stream, and just the right size for me with my knees not up to much over a mile of walking. Here there was buckthorn, Jack in the pulpit, yew, Solomon's seal, jet bead, a small St. John's wort (not flowering), and a yellow aster-family plant I couldn't figure out. There was also a blue-green mushroom-shaped mystery at the base of a skunk cabbage plant, overhanging the water. I found 5 leaf mines and a gall, plus cherry lace bugs and whirligig beetles.
July 31, 2022. Maine (mostly)
This morning I drove to the Eagle Hill Institute. My first stop was still inside Massachusetts, at Maudsley State Park. I didn't go far, just wandered the edge of the parking lot and saw several long-ledgged flies and an eastern pondhawk. Next stop was a rest area in New Hampshire which had everlasting pea, cypress spurge, and lovegrass.
My first stop in Maine was at the top of Mount Agamenticus, where you can see the White Mountains and the ocean at the same time. Very pretty. Here I saw my first lignonberry, sweetfern, and first Virginia rose, all of which were common on the trip. There were three different galls on oak and beech, and a towhee. On the way down the mountain I stopped again, next to a family with some very unhappy children. I just walked the edge of the parking lot and found white meadowsweet, bracken, and script lichen, all of which were also common further north, plus a wooly beech aphid.
Next stop was the Rachel Carson Preserve, which skirts a salt marsh. I went partway down the trail and spotted someone else posting a photo to iNaturalist on their phone. She was looking at an odd pouch gall on what turned out to be Amelanchier. I found beaked hazelnut, bunchberry, goldthread, velvet blueberry, bluebead lily, salt hay, whorled wood aster, raspberry, spreading dogbane, and nannyberry.
Then I headed over to the Seashore Trolley Museum and rode a trolley. We passed a lot of bog cotton, but too swiftly for me to get a good photo, and I never saw it again that trip. I did, however, see pineweed, a margined calligrapher on blue toadflax, and trailing arbutus. After lunch, I drove to the Maine wildlife park, where there was a lynx, as well as a moose which was right up against the fence, nearly close enough to touch. here I also saw rough cinquefoil, large leaved aster and wild sarsaparilla. And in Bangor I stopped at the Cole Land Transport Museum (which was lots of fun) and saw quaking aspen and tansy which was covered with plant bugs and bumble bees.
I passed my first dead porcupine (this was by far the most common roadkill in Maine; nearly as common as deer in New Jersey) and got an ice cream at a roadside stand in Ellsworth, where they had oakmoss growing on the trees, and got to Eagle Hill in time for dinner (where it then took me 20 minutes to find anyone who could tell me where I was staying!) Here I saw Lungwort, Diervilla, wild raisin, and the prettiest little Sweet William catchfly. I was staying in a little room in the classroom building there.
Oh my, oh my! I sure wish I had known you were going to that course at Eagle Hill. I certainly would have signed up--we could have car-pooled from Somerville. Now I need to look up Mount Agamenticus to see if I can fit it in to my next trip to Eagle Hill. That sounds so much more interesting than the rest stop on the turnpike.
7/1/22 Tucker Rd, Calais, VT and Ricker State Park, Groton, VT. 3.4 miles today. 4208.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects, galls, leafminers
This morning I drove up to the Chickering Bog parking lot and took a bird walk along Tucker Rd. I found cedar waxwing, cardinal, goldfinch, common yellowthroat, American crow, white-breasted nuthatch, red-breasted nuthatch, indigo bunting, robin, brown creeper, black-and-white warbler, phoebe, and black-capped chickadee. I also recorded blue-headed vireo, great crested flycatcher, winter wren, and chipping sparrow.
After lunch I drove up to Groton with my husband. I dropped him off at Marshfield Pond with his unicycle, then continued on down to Ricker Pond where I got on my scooter for a quick trip up the back trail to the dam at the bottom of Lake Groton. Up near the dam I found American cranberry plants, a broad-winged hawk, and a catbird. Insects near the dam included goldenrod crab spider, mason bee, stripe-legged robberfly, Lauxania shewelli, Macaria moth, Rhagonchya beetle, bluet, chalk-fronted corporal, grasshopper nymph, and Rhagovelia obesa water bug. I found leafminers on gray birch, Canada mayflower, winterberry, and starflower, and galls on beech, grape, and chokecherry.
After my walk, I scooted back down to Ricker Pond where I went for a quick swim with my snorkel gear. To my surprise, there were absolutely no fish at all. However, I did find some fresh-water sponges near the dam, bright green, which completely made my day.
7/2/22 Lake Osmore, Groton, VT. 1.9 miles today. 4210.3 miles total.
Categories: insects, leafminers, galls
This afternoon my husband and I returned to Groton. While he rode his unicycle on the rail trail, I took my scooter down to Lake Osmore, then took a walk around the southern end of the pond looking for bugs. I found ebony jewelwing, Malthodes stonefly, corrupt barklouse, Ahtous click beetle, deerfly, and Rhagonycha sawfly. I also found leafminers on wild sarsaparilla, bunchberry, painted trillium, and yellow birch, and galls on blueberry. The partridgeberry was in full bloom in the woods.
7/3/22 Chickering Bog, Calais, VT. 2.3 miles today. 4212.6 miles total.
Categories: insects, leafminers, galls, birds, amphibians
This afternoon I took a walk out to Chickering Bog to check on the orchids. I was delighted to find the grasspinks and rose pogonias in full bloom. I also had great luck finding insects today, collecting photos of red milkweed beetle, flesh fly, silky field ant, bumblebee, obscure plant bug, metallic sweat bee, bristle fly, bramble mason wasp, Ancistrocerus, Eudasyphora fly, Macaria moth, Condylostylus caudatus, pure green sweat bee, Trypoxylon sawfly, Ichneumonid wasp, grass miner moth, Laphria sericea robberfly, Panorpa, Leptoceletes basalis beetle, azure butterfly, Aedes mosquito, long dash butterfly, house flies, Pimplini wasp, aphids on meadowsweet, red-cross shield bug, bowl-and-doily spider, common whitetail, spotted bee fly, Roesel’s bush cricket nymph, little wood satyr butterfly, question mark butterfly, Omalus sawfly, pond spreadwing, and common whitetail. I found leafminers on jewelweed, foamflower, milkweed, meadowsweet, striped maple, and false Solomon’s seal, and galls on sugar maple. As I walked, I recorded hermit thrush, Nashville warbler, scarlet tanager, winter wren, black-throated green warbler, and black-throated blue warbler. Out at the bog, I found bullfrog, green frog, painted turtle, and ring-necked snake.
7/4/22 Alexander Rd, Dunbarton, NH. 0.1 miles today. 4212.7 miles total.
Categories: galls
This afternoon I took a short break from the family festivities at my mother’s house to go on a short gall walk around the property. I found galls on alternate-leaved dogwood, red oak, black cherry, and grapes.
7/5/22 Stinson Rd, Dunbarton, NH. 2.3 miles today. 4215 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects, leafminers, galls
This morning I took a walk up the road to the “new” development on Stinson Rd. It’s probably 30-40 years old now, but it still feels new to us. There were a couple of small groups of people out walking the road with their dogs, even at this early bird walking hour (before 7 AM). I managed to photograph catbird, house sparrow, cardinal, cedar waxwing, robin, house finch, chipping sparrow, goldfinch, nuthatch, titmouse, and bluebird, and record wood thrush, least flycatcher, and veery. I found leafminers on trembling aspen, boneset, milkweed, elm, and galls on elm, and trembling aspen. Insects this morning included a fourteen-spotted lady beetle larva, damselfly, and some fall webworm moth caterpillars. Roadkill was a chipping sparrow, quite fresh.
7/7/22 Lanesboro, Groton, VT. 1.9 miles today. 4216.9 miles total.
Categories: insects, leafminers, galls, birds
This afternoon my husband and I went up to Groton for an adventure. While he rode his unicycle from Marshfield Pond down to Ricker Pond, I walked the section of the rail trail between the beaver ponds near Lanesboro. This section is quite straight and in full sun. It has some wonderful flowers and weeds, and is a great place for insect hunting. I found tufted vetch aphids, wrinkled soldier beetle, carrot wasp, field ants, masked bee, long dash, pair of eastern phantom crane flies, northern pearly eye butterfly, Bellardia fly, goldenrod crab spider, Uroleucon aphids, hover fly, imported willow leaf beetle, Lygus bug, Wilke’s mining bee, half-black bumblebee, common eastern bumblebee, Ectemnius wasp, Scirtes cibialis beetle, azure butterfly, Chrysops sackeni deerfly, balloonfly, pair of Polemius laticornis beetles, metallic sweat bee, Gasteruption wasp, white admiral butterfly, Atlantis fritillary, long dash butterfly, bristle fly, tricolored bumblebee, Psenini sawfly, sedge sprite damselfly, Asian lady beetle (with green beetle hanger fungus), Zeugophora beetle, and brown leaf weevil. I found galls on willow, goldenrod, elm, meadowsweet, chokecherry, sugar maple, white ash, speckled alder, and flat-topped aster, and leafminers on plantain, white ash, virgin’s bower, and trembling aspen. Birds along the ponds included red-winged blackbird, blue jay (photos) and blue-headed vireo (recording).
7/8/22 George Rd, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today. 4217 miles total.
Categories: insects
This afternoon I drove up to the Chickering Bog parking lot intending to take a walk out to the bog, but just as I got there, a thunderstorm started approaching. I walked around the margin of the parking lot, then decided to play it safe and head home. Still, there were lots of bugs in the weeds around the parking lot, so I didn’t have to go home empty-handed. I found trigonarthis beetle, square-headed wasp, dusky birch sawfly larvae, Mordella beetle, European drone fly, Japanese beetle, Macaria moth, honeybee, Musca fly, Lasioglossum bee, stripe-legged robberfly, metallic sweat bee, black-etched prominent moth caterpillar, yellow-banded bumblebee (being eaten by a goldenrod crab spider, Phaonia fly, blacklet fly, field ant, flesh fly, ursine spurleg lady beetle, Polemius laticornis beetle, and northern amber bumblebee.
7/9/22 Louden, NH. 0.2 miles today. 4217.2 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, insects
This afternoon I drove my mother over to visit her cousin in Louden. Her cousin has a daylily farm, and the daylilies were in full bloom. We had a wonderful visit and tour of the gardens. I found American copper, honeybee, skipper, cabbage white, and transverse banded flower fly. I also found galls on raspberry and elm, and leafminers on daylily, elm, and magnolia (a first for me).
7/11/22 Lake Groton, Groton, VT. 2.2 miles today. 4219.2 miles total.
Categories: insects, leafminers, galls
This afternoon my husband and I drove up to Groton. While he rode his unicycle from Marshfield Pond to Ricker, I drove down to Lake Groton and walked along the short stretch of Boulder Beach Rd that I hadn’t walked before. The road was busy with lots of traffic, not a lot of fun, but I did manage to fill in a blank spot on the road map. I found Erotides sculptilis beetle, yellow-legged flower fly, dun skipper, wrinkled soldier beetle, Hercules carpenter ant, metallic sweat bee, dogbane leaf beetle, goldenrod crab spider eating a bumblebee, yellow-banded bumblebee, tricolored bumblebee, Bassaniana spider, common eastern bumblebee, and Asian lady beetle. I also found leafminers on hazelnut, colt’s foot, white ash, trembling aspen, wild sarsaparilla, and bracken fern and galls on trembling aspen. Roadkill today was a garter snake.
7/12/22 Chickering Bog, Calais, VT. 2.7 miles today. 4221.9 miles total.
Categories: insects, galls, leafminers, roadkill
This afternoon I decided to go visit Chickering Bog, searching for galls and leafminers. Once at the Bog, I decided to follow the Spur Trail, then return via Rich Czaplinki’s 100 Acre Woods, which comes out on Lightening Ridge Rd. I found field ants, Strangalepta flower longhorn beetle, red milkweed beetle, honeybee, muscoid fly, flesh fly, European drone fly, Alydus eurinus bug, and Condylostylus patibulatus. Leafminers today were on Joe Pye weed, blue wood aster, grape, goldenrod, burdock, bracken fern, raspberry, and whorled wood aster, while galls were on chokecherry, calico aster, basswood, white ash, red spruce, meadowsweet, and butternut. Roadkill along Lightening Ridge Rd on my return were a garter snake and a chipmunk.
7/13/22 Ricker State Park, Groton, VT. 2 miles today. 4223.9 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls
This afternoon my husband and I went up to Groton once again. While my husband rode his unicycle from Marshfield Pond to Ricker Pond, I drove down to Ricker, then rode my scooter through the campground and on up to the access trail to the dam at the bottom of Lake Groton. I tucked the scooter in the woods, then went hunting for leafminers and galls. I found galls on chokecherry, striped maple, beech, red maple, blueberry, wild sarsaparilla, and leatherleaf, and leafminers on Canada mayflower and bunchberry.
7/15/22 Big Deer State Park, Groton, VT. 3.1 miles today. 4227 miles total.
Categories: birds, leafminers, galls, insects
This afternoon my husband and I went to Groton for more fun adventures. While he rode his unicycle from Marshfield Pond down to Ricker Pond, I drove to Boulder Beach Rd and parked near Big Deer campground. I strolled through the campground looking for insects, leafminers, and galls. I also kept my ears open and recorded black-throated blue warbler, pewee, black-throated green warbler, and rose-breasted grosbeak, and saw some moose tracks. Leafminers today were on goldenrod, wild sarsaparilla, Joe Pye weed, virgin’s bower, interrupted fern, plantain, jewelweed, whorled wood aster, sensitive fern, cinquefoil, and raspberry, while galls were on meadowsweet, blueberry, beech, aster, striped maple, and grape. My insects today were muscoid fly, Athous click beetle, tiger crane fly, Dictyna spider, Odiellus pictus harvestman, Chrysops macquarti deerfly, aphids, great spangled fritillary, Condylostylus patibulatus, dance fly, Phasia fly, flower beetle, Lygus bug, bumblebee, dun skipper, European alder spittlebug, masked bee, three-spotted fillip moth, and a mustard white.
7/16/22 Clough State Park, Dunbarton, NH. 0.1 miles today. 4227.1 miles total.
Categories: beach life
This afternoon I went to the beach at Clough State Park with my sister and mother. After a lovely swim in the reservoir, I went for a walk along the edge of the beach where I found some pickerelweed. When I got back to our towels, I found an Oriental beetle hanging out on my mother’s towel.
7/19/22 Ricker Pond, Groton, VT. 0.9 miles today. 4228 miles total.
Categories: insects, leafminers, galls
This afternoon my husband and I returned to Groton for an afternoon’s entertainment. While my husband rode down to Ricker Pond on his unicycle, I parked at the bottom of Ricker Pond and rode up to the far edge of the campground on my electric scooter. I parked the scooter at the beginning of the nature trail with high hopes of finding the road that I have seen on the maps to the private camps on the pond out beyond the campground. I followed the trail to the bridge across the stream to the campground. But that took me into the yard of one of the camps with no sign of a public trail. The camp was occupied, with folks sitting down by the water, so I quietly return back across the bridge with hopes of more exploring on some other day. Just seeing that trail on the map with no iNaturalist observations on it is eating me, though. Today I found a Dolichopus fly, harvestmen, eastern forktail, Galgupha beetle, tricolored bumblebee, frosted whiteface, common eastern bumblebee, dun skipper, aquatic leaf beetle, spotted pink ladybeetle, eastern calligrapher fly, bluet, brachonic wasp, Bembidion beetle, black dwarf spider, and a midge. Leafminers were on silverrod, wild sarsaparilla, sweet gale, and columbine, and galls were on red maple, beech, and meadowsweet. Roadkill was a green frog along the camp road.
7/20/22 Dover Rd, Montpelier, VT. 2.3 miles today. 4230.3 miles total.
Categories: insects, galls, leafminers
This morning I drove into Montpelier to meet up with Eve and Ed for our weekly bugwalk. We started in Ed’s front yard, where we were delighted to find an amber snail with the Leucohloridium paradoxum parasite. The snail no doubt wasn’t nearly as happy, but his flashing green antennae (if that’s what they’re called on snails) were fascinating. We walked around Ed’s yard and checked out the pollinators in the garden, then crossed the street to a friend’s house and walked through her gardens, where the highlight was an Efferia aestuaans robber fly laying eggs in a cat tail flower head. From there we walked up to the water tower and back. We had a very productive day for bugs, and tallied the following: eastern calligrapher, oriental beetle, flesh fly, muscoid fly, common compost fly, deer fly, drone fly, Virginia ctenucha moth, common drone fly, modest masked bee, honeybee, field ant, dark firefly, Mordella fly, Ancistrocerus wasp, horse fly, two-spotted bumblebee, tricolored bumblebee, Lasioglossum bee, striped sweat bee, Leuchalictus bee, yellow goldenrod crab spider on queen anne’s lace, Graphocephala leafhopper, shining flower beetle, thin-legged wolf spider, gold marked thread-waisted wasp, ligated furrow bee, wavy-lined emerald moth caterpillar, sand-loving wasp, great spangled fritillary, great golden digger wasp, ligated furrow bee, white-margined burrow bug, Neurocolpus bug, Myrmica ants, greenbottle fly, dark paper wasp, Rhagio fly, transverse-banded flower fly, robust ground cricket, American rose chafer, Mordella fly, Lopidea instabilis bug, Japanese beetle, edge-striped shield bug, Uroleucon aphids, two-spotted bumblebee, field ants, ligated furrow bee, banded longhorn beetle, strip-legged robber fly, Eutomostethus ephippium sawfly, museum beetle, European earwig, Phalangioidea harvestmen, honeysuckle moth, grasshopper nymph, Hemicrepidius click beetle, Rhodendendron leafhopper, bristle fly, Atomosia puella robber fly, and a common house spider eating an Oriental beetle. Galls today were on goldenrod and box elder, while leafminers were on gray birch, crown vetch, lupine, hazelnut, and honeysuckle.
7/21/22 Groton State Park, Groton, VT. 3.8 miles today. 4234.1 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, insects, birds
This afternoon my husband and I drove up to Groton. While he rode his unicycle down from Marshfield Pond to Ricker Pond, I drove down to Depot Brook Rd, which runs parallel to the highway between Boulder Beach Rd and Noyes Pond. I drove as far as I dared (perhaps ¼ mile), then parked the car in a field and continued on on my scooter. I rode down to the intersection I had reached a month or 2 ago, then set off on foot to see how far I could get towards Noyes Pond. As I got closer to Noyes Pond, I realized that I had, in fact, walked this section of the trail last year, but from the Noyes Pond Rd up to Depot Brook Rd. In any case, the road (that is, trail) was quite scenic and quiet. I found leafminers on plaintain, wild sarsaparilla, jewelweed, yellow birch, gray birch, brackenviolet, flat-topped aster, raspberry, and sensitive fern, and galls on red maple, goldenrod, striped maple, beech, and black cherry. Insects today were deer fly, six-spotted tiger beetle, marsh snipe fly, Machimus robber fly, fan foot moth, and a goldenrod crab spider eating a fly. I recorded hermit thrush, black-throated blue warbler, black-throated green warbler, and scarlet tanager along the trail.
7/22/22 Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.3 miles today. 4234.4 miles total.
Categories: insects, galls, leafminers
This afternoon I took a short walk along our driveway looking for insects. I found Metopius wasp, Condylostylus patibulatus, eye-spotted lady beetle, crab spider, great spotted fritillary, alder spittlebug, monarch caterpillar, dark paper wasp, tricolored bumblebee, Asian ladybeetle, and a honeybee. Leafminers today were on ash, goldenrod, thimbleberry, blue wood aster, burdock, wild sarsaparilla, and bracken fern. I also found galls on blue wood aster and goldenrod.
7/25/22 Adamant Pond, Adamant, VT. 0.6 miles today. 4235 miles total.
Categories: birds
This evening my husband and I celebrated our anniversary in Adamant with an Adamant dinner cruise. We accidentally started this tradition more than 10 years ago when we took a picnic dinner out on the pond. We stopped in at the Adamant store on our way to pick up a can of whipped cream for our desert, and the clerk asked us what we were up to. When we told her we were taking a picnic dinner out on our canoe for our anniversary, she immediately commented that it was obviously a dinner cruise! The following year, we put up some posters in Adamant inviting others to join us for the dinner cruise, and we dressed for the event. Only a few people came out for the cruise that second year, but in following years, we had as many as 30 boats full of revelers for the most dangerous potluck of the summer (we pass dishes from boat to boat). During Covid, we ended up doing serial cruises, 2 boats at a time, kept well apart. This year, though, we put up posters again. We had just 3-4 boats show up, but we also had some folks who came without boats to the shore party, so we dined on shore and afterwards went out for a cruise around the waterlily choked pond. We managed to see a belted kingfisher and hooded merganser on the pond.
7/26/22 George Rd, Calais, VT. 0.8 miles today. 4235.8 miles total.
Categories: insects, birds, galls, leafminers
This afternoon I drove up to the Chickering Bog parking lot to check out the pollinators in the margin of the lot on the abundant Queen Anne’s lace and other weeds. From the parking lot, I decided to look for bugs in the tiny cemetery across the street, and then I took a notion to check out the beaver pond that I had once glimpsed downhill from the cemetery. On private land, but curiosity got the better of me, and I know the land owner. The beaver pond was about 100 feet down the steep, thickly wooded slope. Curiosity satisfied, I climbed back up the road, crossed the road and checked out the small cemetery where Ike Hudson, the former land owner now rests with his son. I found a bumblebee, bristle fly, Lygus bug, ligated furrow bee, masked bee, muscoid fly, field ants, Japanese beetle, metallic sweat bee, Stonemyia rasa fly, Dolerus sawfly, green bottle fly, Asian lady beetle, Villa fly, pug moth caterpillar, meadow spittlebug, black-etched prominent moth caterpillar, European earwig, Clemens’ false skeletonizer moth, Condylostylus caudatus fly, flesh fly, blunt knapweed flower weevil, elegant grass veneer, monarch caterpillar, two-spotted bumblebee, grass skimmer fly, Strangalepta flower longhorn beetle, and a small milkweed bug. Galls today were on willow, chokecherry, goldenrod, alternate-leaved dogwood, elm, sugar maple, and white ash, while leafminers were on apple, willow, goldenrod, burdock, spotted Joe Pye weed. I also saw a phoebe, kingbird, and a brown bird down by the beaver pond that was too blurry to be identifiable.
7/27/22 Ricker Pond, Groton VT. 0.1 miles today. 4235.9 miles total.
Categories: leafminers
This afternoon my husband and I drove up to Groton with high hopes for another adventure on the bike trail for him and on Ricker Pond in my kayak for me. However, just as I got my kayak out of the car onto the shore, I began to hear thunder, too close for comfort. I ended up packing up my kayak right away and sheltering in the car. I was worried about my husband out on the trail. Eventually he showed up, rather soaked from a shower, but fortunately, he hadn’t seen any lightning. I managed to shoot a single leafminer today near the pond, on a wild sarasaparilla.
7/28/22 Pratt Rd, Worcester, VT. 0.1 miles today. 4236 miles total.
Categories: leafminers and galls
This afternoon I drove down to Worcester to pick up our CSA. On my way back up the hill to Calais, I stopped at Pratt Rd, a small side road off of the Calais Rd that I had never walked before. But almost as soon as I got out of the car, it started to rain. I managed to find a leafminer on Joe Pye weed and a gall on American elm, then had to call it quits for the day.
7/29/22 Vermont College, Montpelier, VT, and Depot Brook Rd, Groton, VT. 1.4 miles today. 4237.4 miles total.
Categories: insects, leafminers, galls, mammals, fungi
This morning I drove into town to meet Eve and Ed for our weekly bugwalk. We walked the back part of the Vermont College parking lot, starting with the back of the gym, which is generally a good place to find jumping spiders. Today we were thrilled to find a great golden digger wasp digging in the dirt beside the building, while a Timula vagans red velvet ant watched. A short distance away we found a great tiger moth in fine condition sleeping on some junk metal. It withstood quite a bit of poking and prodding as well all tried to get photos worthy of its beauty. Yet another highlight was a flock of thistle tortoise beetle larvae, carrying their poop on their backs. So attractive! Other bugs for the day were Oriental beetle, Asian lady beetle, greenbottle fly, European paper wasp, two-spotted bumblebee, Lygus bug, honeybee, tricolored bumblebee, Ichneumonid wasp, Braconid wasp, metallic sweat bee, common aerial yellowjacket, dark paper wasp, ligated furrow bee, red-headed flea beetle, dun skipper, Megachile inermis, Condylostylus patibulatus fly, Condylostylus caudatus fly, grass spider, muscoid fly, common striped woodlouse, clymene moth, two-horned treehopper, and Ophraella beetle. I found galls on Oak-leaved goosefoot, Norway maple, boxelder, American elm, and goldenrod, and leafminers on Burdock, lambsquarters, buckthorn, Virginia creeper, American elm, jewelweed, goldenrod, Bidens. Plus a pair of mating Succinea snails.
In the afternoon my husband and I drove up to Groton. After letting him off at Marshfield Pond with his unicycle to ride down to Ricker Pond, I drove to Depot Brook Rd, parked the car in the field again, then started following a beaver brook up hill through the woods towards the illusive Pigeon Pond. That pond is still making me itch. It’s the only pond on the map near Groton that I haven’t been able to visit, that has absolutely no iNaturalist observations. My hike today was quite scenic, taking me through a series of remote beaver ponds and streams. But after an hour, I had made it no more than ¼ of the way towards Pigeon Pond. I was moving in more or less a straight line in the right direction, but I can see it will take a lot more time than I have on a typical hiking day to get there this way. I found a viceroy caterpillar today, and leafminers on trembling aspen, wild sarsaparilla, jewelweed, bunchberry, and red maple. Galls today were on white ash and lowbush blueberry. Since I was mostly moving through deep woods, I didn’t see many insects. Instead I looked for fungi and found a Cladonia lichen, orange earthtongue, ornate stalked bolete, yellow slime mold, yellow patches, and orange jelly spot. I found a toad, plus some moose scat in the woods near a beaver pond. I also came to an area rich with fresh bear prints of different sizes, plus a lot of bear scat. I didn’t dilly dally there but moved straight through with purpose (after collecting a photo of some scat).
7/30/22 Railroad Bed East, Marshfield, VT. 0.7 miles today. 4238.1 miles total.
Categories: insects, galls, leafminers
This afternoon my husband and I returned to Groton for yet more fun. While he rode his unicycle down to Ricker Pond from Marshfield Pond, I stopped on a side road just past Marshfield Pond for a bug walk. I was first distracted by a great blue heron flying overhead. Then I started searching for bugs. I found a Neoitamus Orphne fly, Mirini bug, net-winged beetle, Tebenna onustana moth, Argid sawfly, field ants, aphids, Hercules carpenter ants, Panorpa, damsel bug, shining dichomeris moth, spotted orbweaver, and a Japanese beetle. I also found leafminers on flat-topped aster, gray birch, pearly everlasting, hazelnut, yellow birch, big-toothed aspen, red maple, blackberry, swamp aster, paper birch, and bush honesuckle, plus galls on big-toothed aspen, goldenrod, witch-hazel, willow, sugar maple, and meadowsweet. Roadkill today was a toad.
7/31/22 Cold Water Brook Rd, Groton VT. 1.8 miles today. 4239.9 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, insects, amphibians
This afternoon my husband and I drove up to Groton for our usual adventure. While he rode his unicycle from Marshfield Pond down to Ricker Pond, I went down Boulder Beach Rd and turned left just before the Boulder Beach parking area. I guess this road is supposed to be a trail, not a road, but the gate was open, and I had four-wheel. I drove to the gravel pit, which is used for skeet shooting sometimes, parked the car there, then explored a section of the road that I had not walked before, heading up towards some trails to Osmore Pond. I found leafminers on whorled wood aster, wild sarsaparilla, tall blue lettuce, interrupted fern, paper birch, balsam poplar, jewelweed, hazelnut, bigtooth aspen, sugar maple, and yellow birch, and galls on big-toothed aspen, red maple, willow, blackberry, and meadowsweet. I also found quite a few insects, including a Machimus sadyates robberfly, American pelecinid wasp, Melanopis grasshopper, New York carpenter ant, Japanese beelte, black blister beetle, crab spider, banded longhorn beetlw, common sawfly, large lace-border moth, Gerris water bug, common aerial yellowjacket, Rhagonycha beetle, metallic sweat bee, masked bee, Arge sawfly, six-spotted tiger beetle, Ectemnius wasp, spotted cuckoo spider wasp, plume moth, Inerness twitcher moth, deer fly, and a northern amber bumblebee. I found a green frog in a puddle, a toad in the road, and bullfrog back down by Ricker Pond while I was waiting for my husband to arrive with his unicycle.
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