June 2023
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
6/4/23 Cape Cod Canal trail, Sandwich, MA. 0.8 miles, today, 4760.6 total.
Categories: southern plants, insects
This afternoon Eve and I explored the trail from our cottage in Sandwich down to the Cape Cod Canal trail. This trail started from the lower parking lot of the inn next door and headed straight down through the woods to the train tracks, across the tracks, and on to the Canal trail. There were a few signs along the way saying that it was part of some sort of land trust. I found the woods remarkable, thick and untrammeled, despite being in such a heavily populated area. The temperature was barely 50F and a light misty rain was falling. We didn't think we'd find much, but we turned up lots of flies, some sawflies (both adults and larvae), several bumblebees and several ticks questing on grass blades in the middle of the trail. We also found at least 4 kinds of oak galls and a leafminer on honeysuckle. Southern plants today included bayberry, pitch pine, greenbrier, glossy buckthorn, a Rubus that I didn't recognize, privet, and multiflora rose.
6/6/23 Adamant, VT, 0.4 miles today, 4761 total.
Categories: insects
This afternoon my husband and I drove down to Adamant for an outing. While he rode his unicycle around Sodom Pond, I took a walk through the church yard and gardens. I found the walking a bit challenging--my first walk on grass. Still, I stayed vertical the entire time, so it was a win. There were quite a few blackflies biting, but I wasn't able to shoot any because they mushed too easily. I did shoot several bumble bees, quite a few flies, a small black caddisfly, some beetles walking on the flat rocks that serve as paths through the gardens, an interesting beetle with lots of red on its elytra, a couple of micro moths, a chalk-shouldered corporal and a dragon in flight.
6/9/23 Montpelier Bike Trail, Montpelier, VT. 0.9 miles today, 4761.9 miles total.
Categories: insects and blooms
This afternoon my husband and I drove into Montpelier so that I could walk the bike path with my walker while he rode his unicycle. It was raining hard when we left the house, but on the way to Montpelier I had to put on sunglasses. As I started down the trail we had more rain, which became heavy for a while, but then cleared up. Nevertheless, I managed to find a few bugs, especially on the poison ivy lining the river side of the trail. I found quite a few flies, a tussock moth, and a weevil, but no pollinators at all. Blooming today were poison ivy, grapes, bouncing bet, garlic mustard, golden Alexanders, and wild chervil.
6/10/23 North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, VT. 0.3 miles today, 4762.2 miles total.
Categories: insects
This morning I drove down to the Nature Center to check out their Biodiversity Jamboree. They had lots of themed walks scheduled throughout the day. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to join any of them--still not up for that yet. I managed to hobble across the grass with my cane down to the fungus tent and got to hear about an exciting new fungus inventory project that they are starting. While I was at the fungus tent, I found a beetle and shot a crescent butterfly.
6/11/23 Ricker Pond, Groton, VT. 3 miles today, 4765.2 miles total.
Categories: insects, blooms, birds
This afternoon my husband and I took advantage of the warm, sunny weather, the first in a week, to head up to Groton. While he rode his unicycle on the bike path, I went out on Ricker Pond with my kayak. In bloom today were strawberries, choke cherries, red osier dogwood, yellow pondweed, bunchberry, aronia, sheep laurel, huckleberry, and purple irises. I found galls on choke cherries, alders, and elm. There were lots of dragonflies eclosing on the emergent plants, especially basket tails. I also found eastern forktail, chalk-fronted corporal, clubtails, six-spotted cucumber spiders, a bumblebee, a fishing spider, a Tetragnatha spider, and an arched hooktip, plus a caddisfly laying eggs on Phragmites. Birds today included winter wren, grackle, song sparrow, loons, common merganser, phoebe, yellow-rumped warbler, hermit thrush, cedar waxwing, and eastern kingbird. I also saw a tiny baby turtle and strands of amphibian eggs in the water.
6/12/23 Joe's Pond, West Danville, VT. 1.5 miles today, 4766.7 miles total.
Categories: blooms, galls, bugs
This afternoon my husband and I drove up to Joe's Pond, where he headed east on his unicycle, and I headed down the trail after him with my cane. For once, my ankle wasn't excessively bothersome, so I got to walk quite a distance and see catch some pollinators in the flowers. Blooming today were cow vetch, false Solomon's seal, red osier dogwood, bird's foot trefoil, purple clover, blue-eyed grass, daisy, fleabane, speedwell, strawberries, golden Alexander, colt's foot, English plantain, Rosa rugosa, wild chervil, and mountain maple. I also found some asparagus and chives along the trail (not in the same place). I don't think I've found escaped asparagus east of the Green Mountains before. And the chives were nowhere near a garden or other cultivated area. I found galls on poplar, ash, and sugar maple. Insect finds today included a weevil, sun beetle, syrphids, bees, skippers, a June bug (dead), queen ant, six-spotted cucumber spider, rove beetle, harvestman, and cranefly.
6/15/23 Sodom Pond, Adamant, VT. 1.4 miles today, 4768.1 miles total.
Categories: blooms, galls, bugs
This afternoon I drove down to Adamant to get some fresh air. I parked at the church and walked along Sodom Pond all the way to the East Montpelier line. I didn't find a lot of new blooms today, but there was some water Geum and a single skullcap. I found a few bees pollinating the buttercups, but I forgot my macro lens, so my photos probably didn't turn out that great. I found that the swamp white oak in front of the church still hasn't put out many new leaves. The oaks and beeches got burned a few weeks ago in a hard frost. They lost all their leaves, but perhaps too late in the season to resprout new leaves.
6/16/23 Sodom Pond, Adamant, VT. 1.7 miles today, 4769.8 miles total.
Categories: insects, herps
This afternoon my husband and I drove down to Adamant for an outing. He took off on his unicycle to circumnavigate Sodom Pond, while I started down the road following the same route as yesterday. It was raining lightly when we arrived but then 10 minutes later I began to hear thunder. I headed back up the road to the car so I could go rescue my husband. But when I found him on the other side of the pond, he said it wasn't raining there at all and he hadn't heard thunder. We returned together to Adamant in the car. By then, the rain and thunder had stopped, so we each set out again. He completed a full loop around the pond, plus the half loop before I "rescued" him. I managed to walk just a little more than yesterday, with only a cane. I found quite a few insects along the way, including a tiny orange and black bug, some bumblebees and lots of small bees, some ants, a grass veneer, a chalk-fronted corporal and a baskettail, some eastern forktails, and several ticks including a mating pair hanging out on blades of grass at the edge of the road. Other pairs today included some rose chafers and some ladybugs. It was egg laying season for the turtles. I helped 2 across the road, found a squished baby, and also quietly walked past a mother laying eggs on the edge of the road. I think she was over far enough--I hope so.
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