July 2020: Describe your walk by adding a comment below
Each time you go out and make observations for this project, describe your walk by adding a comment to this post. Include the date, distance walked, and categories that you used for this walk.
Suggested format:
Date. Place. Distance walked today. Total distance for this project.
Categories.
Brief description of the area, what you saw, what you learned, who was with you, or any other details you care to share.
Comments
7/1/20. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT 2 miles today, 2623.5 miles total.
Categories: birds, road kill
This morning I took my bird walk along Pekin Brook Rd towards the east. It had rained during the night so it was foggy and damp, but not raining during the walk. Pekin Brook Rd was loaded with unbelievable numbers of snails and slugs, although I didn't shoot any. For birds today I found some song sparrows, chestnut-sided warblers, robins, a common yellowthroat, a hairy woodpecker. Also a northern flicker chick sticking its bill out of a hole in a tree right over the road. It looked old enough to fledge. I found a bumblebee working some dogbane as well. Road kill today consisted of several flat frog/toads and some red efts.
7/2/20. Chickering Rd, East Montpelier, VT. 1.7 miles today, 2625.2 miles total.
Categories: birds, road kill, road crossers
This morning I walked up Chickering Rd, a road that has become one of my favorites for bird walks. It is a dead-end dirt road, well-maintained, with just 4 full-time houses and 3 unoccupied summer cabins. I've never met a car there yet. The road goes through deep forest and has a small bit of partially open area near some wetlands, plus 2 small ponds. The birding was grand, as usual. I tallied 41 species for the day on iNaturalist, although I didn't shoot nearly as many. For photos, I found a cat bird, lots of common yellowthroats, a song sparrow, a veery, and a juvenile sapsucker, as well as a grouse when I was driving down my driveway. I also found a patch of comfrey on the driveway of a property just put up for sale, and some Joe Pye weed budding up. This road is great for red efts--I found 7 alive, several dead, and some dead frog/toads. Just as I arrived back at my car at the end of the walk, I found a snowshoe hare graising near my car tires.
7/3/20 Adamant, VT 2 miles today, 2627.2 miles total.
Categories: birds, roadkill
This morning I walked through most of Adamant. I started by walking out to the Music School gate across Quarry Rd. Since the Music School is closed this summer, they have kept their gate locked across the end of Quarry Rd. They also put big signs up saying private property. The former groundskeeper gave community members permission to hike the property any time they wanted. But I haven’t met the new guy so I’m trying to remember to stay on the public side of the gate. Some shrubs and stump sprouts have started greening up the area along the road that the power line crew clear-cut. At least when I’m birding it’s easier to look up and ignore the murdered plants. There were clouds of deer flies out this morning, but I was quite pleased that my new “sun” hat kept them entirely off my neck. I could feel them bounce off the neck shield on the back of my neck, but no bites, a miracle. I found robins, sapsuckers, chickadees, a wood duck, a goldfinch, catbirds, and a bullfrog up Quarry Rd. Next I took a short walk up Haggett towards Adamant Pond to check on the geese. There were 25 of them today in about 5 family groups. The young ones were sleeping on the road while the adults kept watch. I greeted a neighbor who was out trimming his garden by the geese. He and I watched the beaver slap its tail at us in the beaver pond below the main pond. Then I took a short walk around the top part of Sodom Pond, were I found more catbirds, wood ducks, mallards, waxwings, red-wings, and a kingbird. I also got some fine photos of a deer that crossed the road in front of me, and of a horsefly that managed to bite my arm. Road kill today was a pair of flattened frog/toads and a single green frog (fresh).
7/3/20. Portal Rd, Middlesex, VT. 0.1 miles today, 2627.3 miles total.
Categories: arthropods, amphibians
Later in the morning I went out to a friend’s house in Middlesex for our weekly bug walk, joined by two other friends in masks. We spent 2 hours shooting insects in the front yard and along the frog pond and never even made it to the back yard. We found mining bees, wasps, damselflies, dragonfly skins, damselfly larvae in the pond, dragonfly larvae in the pond, beetles, bugs, a large caddisfly, and lots of spiders, including a beautiful Tetragnatha. In the pond we found bullfrogs, greenfrogs, and salamanders, as well as boatmen and pond skimmers.
7/3/20. Dog River Fields, Montpelier, VT. 0.4 miles today, 2627.7 miles total.
Categories: insects, blooms
After bug walk, I stopped by the Dog River Fields to take some meteorological measurements beside the river. I’m interested in the magnitude of the temperature, humidity, and wind speed differences between 1.5 m above the ground and 1 cm above the ground (for my spiders on snow studies). So I’m collecting simultaneous measurements in various kinds of habitats to see what kinds of differences I might find. Today I took measurements on the gravel plain beside the river, along the river, and on the trail through the Japanese knotweed forest. And of course, while I had the trail blocked with my equipment, someone came along up the trail. But he happened to be a retired atmospheric scientist from NASA, so he was cool about waiting for me to finish. One of those Vermont moments…While I waited for my instruments, I collected more bugs and blooms. I found purple loosestrife and dogbane in bloom, and boneset just opening up. I found a few more beetles, including a native lady beetle. But there were a lot fewer insects out on the hot gravel plain than in the yard in Middlesex. And even fewer in the knotweed forest.
7/4/20. Pekin Brook Rd and Sodom Pond Rd, Calais VT, 2.7 miles today, 2628.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, butterflies, road kill
This morning I walked along Lightening Ridge Rd in Calais, heading out first to check out a large field, then going up the hill into the woods. For once, the field was relatively quiet, no crows, turkeys or ravens grazing. I found black-throated greens, catbird, chestnut sided warblers, goldfinch, song sparrows, phoebe, waxwings, and a chipping sparrow. Also, a deer, a red squirrel, a snowshoe hare, and a chipmunk. Along the road I found a large wolf spider, several green worms including a rosy maple moth caterpillar, and a stone fly, which unfortunately got squashed moments after I photographed it by a Volkswagen Beetle. I found a fresh dead green frog and a dried up frog/toad. In the deep woods part of the road I heard a toad singing and tried to hunt it down. No luck with the toad, but I found a large bit of dog vomit slime mold on a log, so I was happy. When I got back to my car, I paused to survey the early morning insects pollinating the milkweed flowers by the parking lot. I found bald-faced hornets, a maple angle moth, yellowjackets, and bumblebees.
In the evening I went on a walk through downtown Adamant with my husband. We paused to inspect the beaver pond by Adamant Pond, but no beaver was visible this evening. The geese were somewhere else as well. Then we walked around the northern edge of Sodom Pond just enjoying the quiet golden hour. A couple of blue herons were also enjoying the light on the edge of the pond. They flew off when they saw us, but not before I shot them. I also shot some ducks on the water, a chalk-fronted corporal, and an orange bluet.
7/5/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2630.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, surprising plants
This morning I walked up Peck Hill looking for birds. I paused first in our carport to check on the robin’s nest that is on top of a box suspended near the roof. No mother robin was sitting on the nest today. Instead, I saw 3 large yellow beaks poking over the edge. Progress! The highlight of today’s walk was a black-and-white warbler that gave me quite a photoshoot, up close, with worms in its mouth. I also got some nice views of a common yellowthroat and a chipping sparrow. The folks on Peck Hill have a chipping sparrow family nesting in their yard this summer, by the looks. Other birds today were a cedar waxwing, some song sparrows, a hermit thrush, and a few robins. And I finally got some decent shots of the noisy raven family that I hear most mornings up on Lightening Ridge Rd. They flew over a group of 5. For surprising plants today I found some Physalis getting ready to bloom, and some spikenard in bloom along the edge of Peck Hill Rd.
7/6/20. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2632.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects, road kill
This morning was quite foggy and very loud along Pekin Brook. I think perhaps the dawn chorus was delayed a bit due to the fog. Birds were singing everywhere. At one point I looked up to see a very large pure white bird in the shape of a turkey vulture glide by. What could that be? When I finally got a chance to download my photos and adjust them in photo shop, I could see that indeed it was a turkey vulture, but black, not white. It just looked white due to the fog. Some of my favorite birds of the day were a phoebe who posed nicely on a log over the brook, and a veery that wouldn’t shut up. Also, a red-eyed vireo and an indigo bunting singing from the tops of trees. Other birds today included robins, starlings, and song sparrows. I found several insects along the road, including a wounded yellowjacket, a translucent yellow caterpillar, and large green lacewing. Road kill today was a flat and crusty toad.
7/7/20. Tucker Rd, Calais, VT. 1.5 miles today, 2633.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects
This morning I walked along Tucker Rd looking for birds. I had slept in a bit, so the sky was already quite bright by the time I got out. Still, the first part of Tucker Rd is in the deep forest, so there was quite a bit of shade to deal with. I heard 35 birds this morning, but the only ones I managed to shoot were a chestnut warbler, a robin, some song sparrows, a phoebe, a hairy woodpecker, a yellow bellied sapsucker, a white-breasted nuthatch, and a red-eyed vireo. Midway along Tucker Rd I heard the buzzing of a bazillion flies and found a fly lek on some thimbleberry leaves in the sun. I also found a litter moth, a woody nymph and some fuzzy colored caterpillars. When I got back to the Chickering Bog parking lot where I had left my car, I paused to do a milkweed inspection. I found 3 kinds of bumblebees, some milkweed beetles, syrphid flies, micromoths, leafhoppers, yellow-jackets, bald-faced hornets, a march fly, a grape leaffolder moth, and an Asian ladybug. It’s milkweed season in Vermont!
7/8/20. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2635.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects
This morning I walked Pekin Brook Rd to the east. The sky was quite red when I went out, traveler’s warning. But who’s traveling? I paused to watch a deer in the field near the road. It wasn’t sure if it saw me. Then it moved to the back of the field, still in full view. But it just watched as I walked past instead of slipping into the woods. Several crows stopped on a dead branch above the road to check me out. I saw yellow warblers, magnolia warblers, phoebes, white-throated sparrows, a cat bird, a veery, chickadees, a family of sapsuckers with noisy fledglings, and some robins. I also shot some micromoths, a cranefly, some pyralid moths, and a bumblebee. I came across another fly lek, but this one wasn’t nearly as dense as the one I found yesterday.
7/9/20. Chickering Rd, East Montpelier, VT. 1.4 miles today, 2637.3 miles total.
Categories: Birds, efts
This morning I walked Chickering Rd in the fog. My first sight on the road was a mother deer and fawn who took their time moving down the road before running off. Birds today were an alder flycatcher, a northern flicker, a blue jay family with noisy fledglings and a sapsucker family with noisy fledglings, a mallard, a pair of cedar waxwings, and a robin. I found a total of 6 live red efts in the road and 2 squashed ones, plus a dead toad.
7/10/20. Adamant, VT. 1.5 miles today, 2638.5 miles total.
Categories: insects, birds, roadkill
This morning I walked through downtown Adamant. I started with a walk up Quarry Rd to the gate, then back to Adamant Pond to look for the geese, then around the top of Sodom Pond. The first find of the day was a centipede, then 2 piles of dog vomit slime mold, an auspicious start! Birds today were some chickadees, yellow throats, a snipe whir-whir-whirring overhead, some robins, catbirds, goldfinches, a grackle, a kingbird, a red-winged blackbird, some wood ducks with nearly grown chicks, yellow warblers, cedar waxwings, song sparrows and crows. Road kill was a toad and a green frog.
After breakfast I went out for a bug walk by myself. I intended to visit the gardens in Adamant, but I stopped first at the Chickering Bog parking lot to check on the milkweeds and never got back in the car. The milkweeds are at their peak, and they are buzzing with pollinators. The wild parsnips are also coming into bloom, and so are the Queen Anne’s lace. I found syrphid flies (mating), robber flies, a orgy of Japanese beetles, leaf beetles, a lady bug, lightning bugs (mating), bumble bees, bald-faced hornets, honeybees, mining bees, sweat bees, a carder bee, a leaf cutter bee with a big chunk of leaf, yellow jackets, paper wasps, a mud dauber wasp, leaf bugs, Carolina cricket nymphs, some leaf hoppers, comma butterflies, a skipper butterfly, angle moths, a plume moth, an underwing moth, a Virginia ctenucha, some micro moths, a skimmer dragonfly, a crab spider eating a fly, and harvestmen. I also found leaf galls on elms, ashes, basswood, cherries, willows, and box elders, and leaf miners on grapes, burdock, and violet. Road kill was a spotted stone fly and a chipmunk. I also found a red eft crossing the road, still very much alive.
7/11/20 Lightening Ridge Rd, Calais VT. 2.6 miles today, 2641.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects, road kill
This morning I drove up to the Chickering Bog parking lot again and walked Lightening Ridge Rd, this time looking for birds. I found an indigo bunting, a song sparrow, some robins, a hairy woodpecker, a red-eyed vireo, a pair of king birds on a telephone pole, a cedar waxwing, a white-breasted nuthatch, a phoebe, a family of house wrens, a sapsucker, a pair of brown-headed cowbirds, a hummingbird, a song sparrow, and a mourning dove. In the dried up wetlands beside the road I found a purple iris in bloom. Along the road I found a green worm. Then back at the parking lot in the milkweed I found yellow jackets, bald-faced hornets, milkweed beetles (mating), that is, lots of wasps in the flowers but not so many bees. I wonder if the flowers are going by. Road kill today was a red-bellied snake and a garter snake.
It began raining after I got back from the walk. Late in the afternoon after the weather had cleared I went back out for a walk up Peck Hill in search of bees for my online bee class. In class I heard about some specialists on Physalis, and I noticed quite a patch of Physalis in a neighbor’s unmowed yard up there. But by the time I got to the end of my driveway, thunder was rumbling, so I just did a bug walk along the driveway. Maybe tomorrow I’ll make it up to Peck Hill. Our driveway is simply lovely for bugs right now. We have large patches of both white and yellow sweet clover that are filled with pollinators. And our milkweed is in bloom now. I found some blue butterflies, a yellow butterfly, milkweed beetles, paper wasps, yellow jackets, a click beetle, ladybugs (mating), aphids on burdock, a red leaf bug, a large stick mimic caterpillar, a brown leafhopper, thread-waisted wasps, several robber flies with prey, a thyratirid moth, a micro moth, flower beetles, a Japanese beetle, a spear-marked black moth, a big black fuzzy fly, some black leaf beetles, a stink bug, several bumblebees, a honeybee, and some miner bees. I also found a crown gall in flat-top goldenrod and leaf miners on burdock and milkweed.
7/12/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2643.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects, road kill
This morning it was raining when I woke up, so I postponed the morning bird walk. I think this is only the 2nd time since I began the bird walks in April that the walk was rained out. And the first time was in April. A very dry summer! By about 11 AM, though, the rain was clearing. I headed out for a combination bird/bug walk. Those Physalis plants up on Peck Hill were calling me for bee inspection. I found a hairy wood pecker, a white-breasted nuthatch, a kestrel, some robins, some cedar waxwings, an indigo bunting, and a phoebe. Insects today were a yellow sawfly worm, leaf bugs, a green beetle, a Japanese beetle, a blue butterfly, a yellow butterfly, a fritillary, a comma, a mustard white, a dun skipper, a pair of tiger swallowtails, a thyratirid moth, micro moths, an angle moth, a Virginia ctenucha, black and gold wasps, ebony jewelwings, a widow skimmer, a 12-spotted skimmer, syrphid flies, a pair of grasshoppers sharing a black-eyed susan, a leafhopper, a crab spider eating a wasp, and a thread-waisted wasp. Bees were a Wilke’s mining bee, a carder bee, a northern amber bumblebee, and some sweat bees. I also found some warty leaf galls on grape and box elder. Road kill today was a green frog.
7/13/20 Pekin Brook Rd, Calais VT 2 miles today, 2645.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, bugs
This morning was quite foggy when I got up. The dawn chorus seemed to be continuing once again, a confusing cacophony from which it was hard to pick out individual voices. I managed to find a hummingbird, a blue jay, several robins, quite a few cedar waxwings, some song sparrows, a red-winged blackbird, several yellowthroats, a veery (singing in the open), a great blue heron, a red-eyed vireo, a chickadee, and a purple finch. Along the road I found a white admiral butterfly, my first tussock moth caterpillar of the season, a green caterpillar, a tissue moth, and several wasps in a basswood tree that was blooming over the road. No road kill today!
7/13/20. Adamant Pond, Adamant, VT. 0.2 miles today, 2645.3 miles total.
Categories: insects
This afternoon I took my kayak out on Adamant Pond while my husband went unicycling around Sodom Pond. I had in mind to look for some bee pollinators on pickerelweed. Adamant Pond is certainly covered with lily pads right now. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen any pickerelweed there, but I thought perhaps there might be other pollinators to look for in the water lilies. As soon as I got out on the pond, I remembered that white water lilies close up before lunch. Oh well. I managed to find a paper wasp, some eggs on winterberry leaves, a pond skimmer dragonfly, a syrphid fly, and some beetles in yellow pond lily. I also saw some green frogs and the loon. I found some warty willow leaf galls and a leaf miner on watershield. I was getting blown around the lake, even when I thought I’d be securely tied up by the lily pads. But crack, some lightning flashed close by and I high-tailed it off the pond. I’m not sure where the storm came from. I was wearing sunglasses when I got on the water, but it was definitely raining by the time I got off.
7/14/20. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2647.3 miles total.
Categories: insects, birds
This morning there was quite a bit of rumbling thunder when I woke up, so I skipped my morning walk. The thunder and rain continued until late afternoon, so stayed inside all day. Finally, after dinner, the thunder stopped and the sun came out, so I went for a combination bug and bird walk up Peck Hill with my husband. We found bumblebees, bald-faced hornets, yellow jackets, ladybugs (mating), a Japanese beetle with mites, syrphid flies (mating), a fuzzy white caterpillar, a yellow crab spider, a brown crab spider eating an ant, leaf bugs, a micro moth, a flower beetle, a ground beetle, and a robber fly. For birds we found a robin, a cedar waxwing, a phoebe, and a black-and-white warbler (a lifer for my husband). We saw 2 deer at the top of our walk on Peck Hill. Road kill today was a yellow caterpillar.
7/15/20. Tucker Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 2649.3 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects, road kill
This morning it was both foggy and cloudy when I woke up. Even though I got a late start for my bird walk, it was still rather dark for photographs. Still, I managed to shoot an indigo bunting, common yellowthroats, crows, song sparrows, cedar waxwings, a robin, and a red-eyed vireo. I found a green caterpillar and a ground beetle in the road. As I returned to the Chickering Bog parking lot, I actually saw another birder. It looked like he was just returning from the Bog. I wonder how the birding was up the trail. I’ve been careful to stay on road this year rather than trails to avoid ticks. So far, so good. Back at the parking lot, I found a yellow jackets, a box elder bug, bald-faced hornets, a ladybug, brown flower beetles, and a milkweed beetle. Road kill today was a red eft.
7/15/20. Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.2 miles today, 2649.5 miles total.
Categories: insects
Later in the morning I went out to our orchard to pick berries. And I took my camera along, just in case. I found the raspberries bushes near the garden fence buzzing loudly with yellow jackets. The canes are full of fruit, but they are also flowering at the same time. Other insects out in the orchard were a skipper, a yellow and black bug, a twice-stabbed stinkbug, a sawfly, a Palpita moth, a scorpionfly, bald-faced hornets and paper wasps eating the raspberry fruits, a green caterpillar, and a Lasioglossum bee.
7/15/20. Curtis Pond, Calais, VT. 0.6 miles today, 2650.1 miles total.
Categories: insects, fruits
This afternoon I took my kayak out to Curtis Pond in hopes of finding some bees on pickerelweed. But when I got there, the pickerelweed that I remembered wasn’t there, so I probably didn’t remember it after all. I think I should check my pickerelweed observations to see exactly where to look next time. Still, I had a very enjoyable float on the lake. I saw the loon, and checked on the progress of the butternuts and black raspberries. A red squirrel was quite pleased with the progress of the beaked hazelnuts as he jumped from bush to bush plucking them. Insects along the pond edges were a bald-faced hornet mimic fly, a yellow and black flower beetle, orange bluets (mating), a pond skimmer and a spider (one was eating the other, but I’m not sure which one), a white faced skimmer, a widow skimmer, and a spreadwing. I also some pumpkinseeds in the water.
7/16/20. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais VT. 1.8 miles today, 2651.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects, road kill
This morning I walked along Pekin Brook Rd. I found some red-eyed vireos, a blue jay, a chickadee, a pair of kingbirds on a telephone wire, a red-winged blackbird, some crow who flew over to check me out, some common yellowthroats, an indigo bunting singing from the top of a tree, a chestnut-sided warbler, and a song sparrow. Insects were some brown caterpillars, a green caterpillar, a yellow jacket, a dogbane beetle, some syrphid flies, an ebony jewelwing, a woolly bear, and some bumblebees. Road kill was a frog, probably green.
7/17/20. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, VT. 0.2 miles today, 2652.1 miles total.
Categories: insects
Later in the morning I joined 2 masked friends at the Nature Center for a bug walk. All 3 of us are taking the bee course at the Nature Center, so we were on the look-out for bees. We found bumblebees, mining bees, masked bees, sweat bees, and leaf cutter bees. Other Hymenoptera included Ectemnius wasps and yellow jackets. We found Virginia ctenucha moths, a monarch, a Haploa moth, micro moths, a plume moth, a hairstreak butterfly, some orange flies, syrphid flies, scorpionflies, long-legged flies, box elder bug, black seed bug, black-margined burrowing bug, twice-stabbed stinkbug, flower bug, yellow and black bug, stinkbugs, a six-spotted orb weaver, a harvestman, a blue leafhopper, a big brown leafhopper, a brown grasshopper, a skimmer dragonfly, milkweed beetles (mating), Japanese beetle, lightning bug, yellow beetle, orange beetle, click beetle, Asian beetle, ladybug, black beetle with an orange “neck”. But the find of the day was a giant long-horned beetle posing on the end of a branch. Galls today were a goldenrod with both a stem gall and a crown gall, a round fuzzy gall on a grape leaf, and warty gall on willow leaf. I also couldn’t help but shoot an eye-catching tall sedge, and a Canada lily in full bloom.
I have also got a hat for deerflies now, and what a difference it makes, though I still wince a little when I hear them buzzing around my head. I love the idea of young geese sleeping in the road; not something that's likely to happen here by me! Milkweed is in full bloom here as well and Queen Anne's lace starting to come out, both with tons of insects. I love the auspicious dog vomit slime mold. I only see it rarely and then only on woodchips in playgrounds (and I'm spending far less time on playgrounds these days, now my children are older). I'll have to keep an eye out. We do not have raspberries here other than wineberries (not that I'm complaining; wineberries are delicious). and no red squirrels at all, with hazelnuts also being a rare find.
7-5-20. Various sites in Chester, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 795.5 miles total
Categories: flowering, mines
We hosted two large parties (in the backyard, with masks) for Independence Day, so I didn't get out to walk for over a week. So Sunday I drove half an hour north, to Chester. I stopped twice on the way. At the first pullout, near a cedar wood surrounding a pond, I found only yarrow in bloom, and mines in plantain and purselain, but also one of my favorite beetles: a 14-spotted lady (the pattern on their back looks like a pixelated smiley face to me, when seen from the tail end).
Next stop, a pull off by some old fields under a powerline yielded blooming chicory, white clover, yellow sweet clover, bedstraw, crown vetch, butter and eggs, medic, plantain, pimpernel, trefoil and spurge. There were no mines, though, and only one gall, on elm.
In Chester itself I stopped at the parking lot for a rail trail but walked along the road to the bridge over a sluggish stream. I've been here before and it's always a good spot for wetland plants. Blooming I found: pink, nipplewort, pimpernel, clover, fleabane, mightshade, meadow rue, avens, Queen Anne's lace, pickerelweed, cattails, white sweet clover, swamp rose, chickory, day lily, yarrow, buttercup, and enchanter's nightshade. Mines only in goldenrod and grape, but also a flock of sawfly larvae on birch, lots of fall webworms, and a tree cricket.
I stopped again at an abandoned building I'd never passed before but blooming was only yellow sweet clover and English plantain, and the only mine was in the plantain.
Next was a park I'd not been to before, Tanners Brook. I really only explored the area by the parking lot, as I can't go far in my boot. Blooming I found pinks, chicory, pimpernel, medic, and jewelweed. Mines were in thistle and white snakeroot.
I passed a parking area I didn't know about and stopped there, at Black River. This was a mowed parking area and some thick woods, but I did not go far. Blooming were nipplewort, bladder campion (just done blooming), bedstraw, clover, fleabane, St. John's wort, and wild basil. Mines were on deertongue, oak, goldenrod, poison ivy, and honeysuckle, and I also found oak treehoppers, one with horn and one without.
My final stop was at the Coooper mill, where I'd been before. There's nice wet woods here and a pond. Blooming here was fleabane, forget me not, clover, heal all, Queen Anne's lace, northern bush honeysuckle (the only place I've ever seen it down here in NJ, I suspect it was planted), sulfur cinquefoil, avens, enchanter's nightshade, basil, St. John's wort, daisy, black eyed susan, pickerel weed, a Rorippa sp., and daylilies. Mines included ones on tulip poplar, aster, honeysuckle, jewelweed, elm, forget me not, and clover. I saw the first Japanese beetles of the year, and there were the brand new purple loosestrife leaf beetles making minemeat of the purple loosestrife.
Having said yesterday that I never see dog vomit slime mold, today I went to water a friend's new shrub while they are away, and guess what was all over her new mulch? The first dog vomit slime mold in my hometown on iNat (or it will be, one I post it!)
7-7-20, Highland Park Environmental Education Center, Highland Park, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 795.75 miles total
categories: blooming, mines
Molly and I walked at this native plant garden and then through some woods to the bank of the Raritan River. Blooming were bergamot (planted), fleabane, false sunflower (planted), blazing stars (planted), poke, moth mullein, germander (planted), avens, chickory, garlic, and smartweed. Mines in goldenrod, snakeroot, hackberry, elm, and dandelion.
7-8-20 Mountain Park, Liberty Corner, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 796.5 miles total
categories: blooming, mines.
Molly and I walked through a meadow and up a hill which is starting to fill in with forest, then back along the edge of the playing fields. Mines were in blackberry, jewelweed, deertongue, white snakeroot, goldenrod, aster, oak, poison ivy, and milkweed. Blooming were enchanter's nightshade, St. John's wort, avens, stickseed, yarrow, Queen Anne's Lace, trefoil, fleabane, dogbane, red clover, garlic, thistle, mountain mint, vetch, coneflower, sundrops, jewelweed, marsh woundwort (there were about 2 dozen of these and I'd never seen them before), milkweed, mullein, campion, butter and eggs, crown vetch, sweet clover, hop clover, bedstraw, and white vervain.
And just as we got back to the car, Molly found a (slightly damaged by the mower) four leaf clover! (She's got a real eye for spotting them)
7-9-20. South Plainfield, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 797 miles total
Categories: blooming, mines
I drove through South Plainfield today, stopping at 4 different spots. First was the Shakespeare Garden in Cedar Brook Park. Lots of lovely things were blooming including love-in-a-mist, elecampine, and poppies, none of which I see often (and none grow wild here).
Next was a pond in Cedar Brook Park, which I wish I'd had time and endurance to walk all the way around. It was full of native wetland plants, perhaps helped along by plantings, but hard to tell. I saw lizard's tail, arrowhead, pickerelweed, and swamp milkweed, plus some wild bergamot.
Then over to Edith Stevens, which is low woods fronted by a field. Blooming were milkweed, enchanter's nightshade, smartweed, honewort, dayflower, chickory, dandelion, trefoi. garlic, and fleabane. I found a grape skeletonizer on the milkweed.
Last was Highland Woods, some swampy woodland, where I found some dwarf snapdragon and pepperbush as well as mating net winged beetles.
7-11-20. Hicks Tract, Long Hill, NJ. 1 mile today, 798 miles total
Categories: blooming, mines
Molly, Katie and I walked in these rich woods this evening, and got dripped on a bit, though it didn't rain much. Blooming I saw honeysuckle, smartweed, clover, trefoil, daisy, nipplwort, enchanter's nightshade, and stickseed. There were mines on aster and snakeroot.
7-11-20. Mountain Park, Long Hill, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 798.25 miles total
categories: blooming, mines
In the evening I walked alone among old fields with lots of flowers. Blooming were trefoil, clovers, thistle, horsenettle, fleabane, enchanter's nightshade, bedstraw, milkweed, daisy, yarrow, sweet clover, Queen Anne's lace, mountain mint, coneflower, plantain, hop clover, sundrops, lobelia, vetch, garlic, heal all, dogbane, knotweed, medic, and spurge. I found mines in oak. clematis, grape, and aster, and I found mating pairs of ambush bugs, Japanese beetles, small milkweed bugs, and milkweed beetles.
7-12-20 Chimney Rock Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 798.5 miles total
categories: blooming and mines
I walked alone this afternoon down to see if the bugloss was still growing here (I'd missed it last year, but seen it the year before) and it was, indeed. Also flowering were carpet weed, clover, spurge, chickweed, bittersweet, thistle, garlic, fleabane, crown vetch, Queen Anne's lace, dogbane, and heal all. I didn't find any mines, but there was a very nice ground beetle running across the sidewalk.
7-13-20. Stirling Rd., Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 798.75 miles total
categories: blooming, mines
I stopped on the way to pick up take out for the family for dinner at this swampy section of an old development on the edge of town. I found a surprise: blooming clustered mountainmint, something I don't see often at all and never before in Warren. Also flowering were garlic, purple loosestrife, garlic, yarrow, crown vetch, St. John's wort, groundsel, spurge, chickory, pinks, fleabane, and Queen Anne's lace. there were mines in clover and deertongue, and a zillion teeny tiny grasshoppers in the road.
7-14-20. Millstone Aqueduct, Princeton, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 799 miles total
Categories: blooming, mines
I walked along the Delaware Canal and Lake Carnegie today before going to a doctor's appointment in Princeton. A neat find for me was marsh (I think) skullcap in bloom, and the first indian tobacco of the year (someone has asked me to note whether the flowers have styles exerted or not, the answer here was not). As I walked across the bridge I came to first false indigo, then black locust, then senna, all with very similar leaves (though the senna was flowering prettily and the indigo had fruit). I found mines in locust, plantain and grape.
7-14-20. Mountain Park, Liberty Corner, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 799.5 miles total
categories: insects
Someone asked me to go take more photos of an interesting grape gall I found here a few days ago, so Molly and I went back to find it. We did so, and also came across mating red necked cane beetles, leafmines in clover, a manits, a citris planthopper, some leafhopper, mating Japanese beetles, an azure, a fly, a thistle tortoise beetle nymph that was not covered in feces (for once), mating milkweed beetles, and a broad headed sharpshooter.
7-15-20 Eastbrook, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 799.75 miles total.
Category: flowering
Tonight I just wanted some time alone in the woods, so drove to this, pretty much the closest spot to my house, and wandered along the brook. Blooming I saw St. John's wort, forget me not, yarrow, crownvetch , garlic, fleabane, trefoil, clover, chickory, and milkweed.
7-16-20. Ringwood State Park, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 801 miles total
Category: unusual
Sandy Wolkenberg and I walked at the state botanical gardens today, taking pictures of absolutely everything. Some of my favorites included ninebark, bottle brush buckeye, dark mullein, yellow corydalis, herb robert, lots of flowering hostas, fringed loosestrife, and meadowsweet (the Fillipendula kind), none of which I see often (if ever before). So nice to sped a day with someone who knows her plants and doesn't mind my turtle-like pace.
7-20-20. Lamington River, Bedminster, NJ. 0.25 mile today 801.25 miles total
Categories: blooming, mines
I stopped and walked along this river on my way to a different grocery store in search of my son's favorite cake (his birthday was Wednesday). Blooming I found only clover, quickweed, and, interestingly, cupplant (a rare one for me). Mine-wise there were ones in deertongue, lamb's quarters, clover, mugwort, and giant ragweed (another plant I don't see terribly often).
7-21-20. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 801.5 miles total
Category: arthropods
I took a quick walk late in the afternoon in this local park, looking for "bugs". I found: a spraegueia moth, a resin bee, a masked bee, a tumbling flower beetle, Japanese beetles, a plant hopper, two spiders, and and ebony bug, Plus 3 leaf mines.
7-23-20. Hoffheimer Pond, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today. 803 miles total
Categories: blooming, arthropods
I was hoping to find bladderwort here and to check out the "weird" shrub I'd seen once. I didn't find either, unless said shrub was just shrubby St. John's Wort (possible), at any rate I don't see that often and it was blooming. Also in flower were spotted St. John's wort, scarlet pimpernel, white clover, and carpetweed.
"Bug" -wise I found mines in honeysuckle, snakeroot, buttercup, aster and ironweed
7-27-20 Camp Hoover, Stillwater, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 802.5 miles total
Category: whatever I could find
I took the girls and two of their friends to the Girl Scout camp (they were renting to "family groups") for three nights and today we walked around by the waterfront (and went swimming). I also sailed for the first time since 1983.
Things I don't often see included: lizard's tail, helleborine, a bunch of sawfly larvae eating a dogwood leaf, a mine in a dandelion leaf, thimbleweed, pointed leaved tick trefoil, cypress spurge, hepatica, bladdernut, plantain leaved pussytoes, bur oak, coontail, water milfoil, and what might be dog pelt lichen
7-28-20. Camp Hoover, Stillwater and Little Swartzwood Lake, Hampton, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 803.25 miles total
Category: whatever I could find
Today I escaped twice from the girls. Once I walked around the ballfield, and once I walked by a local pond (while waiting for our dinner to be made).
Unusual finds at the ballfield included: oak petiole gall wasp, sheep sorrel, mile-a-minute, nimblewill, arrow leaved violet, hay scented fern, wild licorice, banded net-winged beetle, and mockernut hickory.
At Little Swartzwood interesting items were: a diamondbacked moth, a pelecinid wasp, a leafmine in panicled trefoil, licorice bedstraw, hepatica, fragrant bedstraw, snowberry, teaberry, pointed leaved tick trefoil, maddog skullcap, woodland sunflower, a pickerel frog, water milfoil, yellow loosestrife, and bracken.
7-29-20. Dingman's Falls, Dingman's Ferry, PA. 0.5 miles today, 803.75 miles total
Category: whatever I could find
Today we drove up to PA to walk up to Dingman's Falls, only the parking lot was closed. So we drove around behind them and accidentally found the back route to the falls. The girls hiked the 3/4 mile in, I went less than half way, though, as I'm still in the blasted boot.
Interesting finds in the woods here included: meadow buttercup, northern bush honeysuckle, starflower, hemlock scale and adelgids, teaberry, ghost pipes, and several interesting fungi that I can't ID.
7/17/20, Adamant, VT. 2.6 miles today, 2654.7 miles total.
Categories: insects, birds
This morning was rainy, so I postponed my morning bird walk until after lunch when I went down to Adamant to do a combined bird and bug walk. That was tough since it’s hard to look far and close at the same time. I guess I was more focused on insects most of the time, except when I heard birds nearby. I found flower weevil, blister beetle, Donacia beetle, Japanese beetles, firefly, Nemognatha beetle, Ectorofus subhumatas flower beetle, Melanoplus grasshopper, ligated furrow bees, Ceratina bee, sweat bee, European wool carder bee, yellowjackets, Pyrobombus bumble bee, common eastern bumblebee, two-spotted bumblebee, Crabonid wasps, Ectemnius arculatus wasp, Lasioglossum, northern amber bumblebee, weevil wasp, Gasteruption wasp, cuckoo wasp, umbrella paper wasp, yellow-banded bumblebee, green sweat bees, blackjacket, tricolored bumblebee, honeybee, Physocephala furcillata fly, transver-banded flower fly, Eristalis fly, margined calligraphers (mating), Gymnosoma fly, Schizophoran fly, Architas aterrimus fly, common drone fly, globetail fly, flesh fly, tarnished plant bug, aphids, Adelinae caddisfly, yellow geometer moth caterpillar, dun skipper, northern pearly eye, banded scythris moth, monarch, summer azure, Virginia ctenucha moth, white admiral, snowberry clearwing caterpillar, common wood nymph, green drake mayfly, bluets, eastern forktail, common whitetail, chalk-fronted corporal, meadowhawk, variable dancer, amber-winged spreadwing, widow skimmer, meadowhawk, European earwig, and 2 goldenrod crab spiders flies. Birds today were yellow warblers, phoebe, robin, flycatcher, kingbird, song sparrow, cedar waxwing, hairy woodpecker, red-winged blackbird, black-capped chickadee, and wood ducks. The helleborine was blooming. Roadkill was a frog, a chipmunk, and a yellowjacket.
7/18/20, Chickering Rd, East Montpelier, VT, Craftsbury, Woodbury, & Montpelier, VT. 4.4 miles today, 2659.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, herps, insects, blooms
I started the day this morning with a walk along Chickering Rd looking for birds. I have usually been walking Chickering Rd on Thursday mornings, but I had to shift things around this week due to rain. Chickering is one of my favorite walks and I didn’t want to miss it this week. I found song sparrow, white-throated sparrow, common yellowthroat, cedar waxwing, northern flicker, red-eyed virio, Blackburnian warbler, red-breasted nuthatch, goldfinch, chickadee, blue jay, phoebe, and cat bird. Road crossers were red eft (6), Rudioria trimaculata millipede, green caterpillar, and snowshoe hare. Road kill was 2 dead toads.
After breakfast I drove down to the nature center in Montpelier to meet for an in-person field amphibian class. I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea of an in-person class, but I had signed up before the pandemic began and they decided to go through with the course. The nature center director promised they would take precautions regarding distancing and masks. But when I showed up at the center, they had benches set up to sit on in a circle, 4’ feet apart, and not everyone was wearing a mask. I decided to stand outside the circle with my mask on. The weather report called for the hottest weather of the summer, temperatures in the 90s for both days of the workshop. Although masks were recommended whenever people were together, given the heat, they weren’t required except for indoors. As it turned out, most of the participants wore them all the time, but the instructor only had a bandana, and he only wore that some of the time (complicated by one of the participants being quite hard of hearing). And the TA and nature center assistant hardly wore theirs at all. Throughout the workshop, I kept finding myself hanging back, stepping back in order to get a comfortable distance, which made it hard to see the animals we were finding.
We started out in Craftsbury where we saw a demonstration of radio telemetry for a wood turtle study. I didn’t post any wood turtle photos since we worn sworn to secrecy about the location, but we found 2. I also found Pyrobombus bumblebee, Gymnosoma fly, Schizophoran fly, common wood nymph, Haploa moth, tarnished plant bug, clouded sulphur, Japanese beetle, club-horned sawfly, American rose chafer, rose stem gall wasp, and thistle stem gall. Blooming were alfalfa, blue vervain, marsh skullcap, wall lettuce.
Next we drove to downtown Woodbury to check some turtle traps that the instructor had set in the town ponds. We found several huge snapping turtles and a painted turtle and got instructions on how to hold them. I also found slaty skimmer, blue dasher, eastern forktail, robber fly, dogbane leaf beetle, gnat ogre, Japanese beetle, and blackberry knot gall.
Our final stop for the day was at a community garden near the nature center. There we found a garter snake and a robin. I also found honeybee, Colorado potato beetle larva, Carolina grasshopper, hyaline grass bug, tarnished plant bug, red milkweed beetle, and Baltimore checkerspot.
7/19/20, Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT, Dog Pond Rd, Woodbury, VT & Bear Swamp Rd, Middlesex, VT. 4.4 miles today, 2663.5 miles total.
Categories: birds, herps, insects, blooms
I started the day this morning with a quick bird walk up Peck Hill Rd. I found blue jay, robin, song sparrow, tree swallow, Nashville warbler, phoebe, red-winged blackbird, and hairy woodpecker. I had an early breakfast, then drove up to Dog Pond Rd in Woodbury for an early start to our herp seminar. We moved up all activities for the day by an hour to try to beat the heat a little. Our first location was a small private pond where we looking for frogs and snakes. We found a toad, ring-necked snake, green frog, bullfrog, and a crayfish. I had been surprised when the instructor started passing around the toad for people to hold. No, I didn’t need to hold the toad and cause it more stress—I’ve held enough toads in my life. Others in the group were excited though. Then I was the one to find the green frog and bullfrog, so maybe others hadn’t been out frog hunting much. I also spotted a pickerel frog but wasn’t fast enough to catch it, which was a disappointment for the instructor who had been hoping to bag a pickerel frog to complete the list of local frogs for the workshop. Insects near the pond were white-margined burrowing bug, robus ground cricket, margined calligrapher, Ectemnius maculosus, widow skimmer, eastern forktail, spreadwing, spotted cucumber beetle, Strangalepta flower longhorn beetle, tawny-edged skipper, sawfly larva, Crabonid wasp, autumn meadowhawk, and Phalaenostola moth. Blooming were Alleghany monkeyflower, swamp candles, boneset, swamp milkweed, broadleaf arrowhead, rose, Kalm’s lobelia, water hemlock, marsh cinquefoil, and shinleaf.
From Woodbury we drove to some trails off Bear Swamp Rd in Middlesex to hunt for salamanders in a stream. We found red-backed salamander, northern two-lined salamander, wood frog (my catch), and spring salamanders (a lifer for me). I also found robberfly, white-striped black moth, white admiral, summer azure, Rheumaptera moth, bristle fly, Pyrobombus bumblebee, twelve-spotted skimmer, red eft, blackjacket. One of the participants stepped on a wasp’s nest on the way up to the trail out of the stream and got stung multiple times. He was a sixteen year old kid, and he handled it amazingly well. It was fortunate he didn’t have an allergic reaction, especially with so many stings. Road kill was a toad and a yellowjacket near the parking lot.
7/20/20, Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT & Adamant, VT. 2.4 miles today, 2665.9 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects, road kill
This morning I took a walk out Pekin Brook Rd heading west looking for birds. I found red-winged blackbird, phoebe, catbird, robin, yellowthroat, cedar waxwing, song sparrow, flycatcher, chickadee, common yellowthroat, and lots of kingbirds, several of which were eating dragonflies. Road kill was 3 toads and a frog.
In the afternoon I went down to Adamant to pick up provisions from the co-op. I added a short bug walk to the trip, stopping to inspect the gardens by Adamant Pond. I found plume moth, blister beetle, tricolored bumblebee, variable dancer, yellow-banded bumblebee, megachilid bee, Virginia ctenucha moth, Lasioglossum bee, ligated furrow bee, geometer moth caterpillar, yellowjacket, European wood carder, and Pyrobombus bumblebee, and a turkey vulture soared overhead.
7/21/20, Tucker Rd, Calais, VT & Norwich University Campus, Northfield, VT. 2.1 miles today, 2668 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects, road kill
This morning I walked out Tucker Rd looking for birds. I found song sparrow, hermit thrush, common yellowthroat, chestnut-sided warbler, song sparrow, robin, and American crow, as well as a deer and a red squirrel. The road was crawling with caterpillars today, especially prominent moth caterpillars. I found Heterocampinae caterpillar, maple dagger, several saddled prominents, and linden prominent. Road kill was toad (2), red eft, green frog, and a sphinx moth caterpillar.
I spent the day at the university helping my husband set up his lab for fall classes. He wanted to get the setup done before students started showing up for quarantine in a few weeks. After the setup was done, I took a quick walk around the campus looking for insects and birds. I found two-spotted bumblebee, perplexing bumblebee, Pyrobombus bumblebee, furrow bees, honeybees, Crabronid wasp, umbrella paper wasp and a single robin. I also found a nice patch of silvery bryum in a brick wall.
7/22/20, Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT. 2.2 miles today, 2670.2 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects
This morning I took a walk along Pekin Brook Rd heading east looking for birds. I found ruby-throated hummingbird, song sparrow, robin, cedar waxwing, black-throated blue warbler, indigo bunding, wood duck, blackburnian warbler, red-eyed vireo, common raven, pine warbler, yellow-bellied sapsucker, red-breasted nuthatch, phoebe, house finch, chickadee, and blue jay. I also found a rain beetle and a green arches moth.
7/23/20, Chickering Rd, East Montpelier, VT & Adamant, VT. 2.3 miles today, 2672.5 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects
This morning I took a walk along Chickering Rd looking for birds. I found robin, cedar waxwing, song sparrow, raven, yellowthroat, chickadee, belted kingfisher, northern flicker, white-throated sparrow, dark-eyed junco, chestnut-sided warbler. I also found a red eft and a linden prominent caterpillar crossing the road. Blooming was fireweed.
In the afternoon I went down to Adamant to pick up some produce at the co-op. I did a quick inspection tour of the gardens near Adamant Pond to look for insects. I’m taking an online native bee course and getting quite excited about looking for bees. And other insects. I found Philanthus bilanatus wasp, ligated furrow bee, common eastern bumblebee, tricolored bumble, yellow-banded bumblebee, honeybee, Lasioglossum bee, masked bee, Fernald’s cuckoo bumblebee (first for me), green sweat bee, northern amber bumblebee, common drone fly, European drone fly, Physocephala furcillata, transverse-banded flower fly, Phasiinae fly, thick-legged hoverfly, tarnished plant bug, small milkweed bug, two-striped grasshopper, plume moth, swallowtail, Lucia azure, blister beetle, willow calligrapher beetle, spotted cucumber beetle, spurleg lady beetle, Japanese beetles (mating), eastern forktail, meadowhawk, variable dancer (mating), smeared dagger caterpillar, and a geometer moth caterpillar. Out on the pond I saw Canada goose, loon, and a bullfrog. Road kill was a garter snake.
7/24/20, Adamant, VT, North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, VT & Marshfield Pond, Marshfield VT. 2.5 miles today, 2675 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects
This morning I took a short walk in Adamant looking for birds on Sodom Pond. We had dense fog, though, which made visibility a challenge. I saw belted kingfisher, eastern kingbird (lots), red-winged blackbird, cedar waxwing, wood ducks, mallards, great blue heron, catbirds, and a broad-winged hawk. Road kill was 2 frogs.
Later in the morning I met up with my 2 masked friends for a bug walk around the Nature Center property in Montpelier. Both of my friends are taking the online bee course, so we had great fun hunting for bees together. We found masked bees, ligated furrow bee, Cerceris insolita wasp, weevil wasp, sweat bees, Lasioglossum bee, hairy banded mining bee, Ectemnius maculosus wasp, Ectemnius arcuatus wasp, Gasteruption, Cerodontina bees, dun skipper, common wood-nymph, swallowtail, orange sulphur, white admiral, reticulated fruitworm moth, wild-indigo duskywing, crescent, ambush bugs, tarnished plant bug, Alydas bug, Trotenor belfragei bug, leaf beetles, red milkweed beetle, Trirhabda beetle, dogwood leaf beetle, goldenrod leaf miner beetle, convergent lady beetle, flower weevil, rove beetle, case-bearing leaf beetle larva, click beetle, Perillus circumcinctus beetle, marsh meadow grasshopper, Physocephala furciliata, Gymnosomoa fly, mudsucker fly, Poecilanthrax tegminipennis fly, gnat ogre, cutworm caterpillar, orbweaver, and jumping spiders.
After lunch I drove up to Marshfield Pond with my husband. I took my kayak out on the pond while he rode the railroad bed on his unicycle. I was looking for some Pontedaria so I could search for some Pontedaria bee specialists. I found a big patch of Pontedaria right by the put-in. And I found Pyrobombus bumblebee, tricolored bumblebee, yellow-banded bumblebee, common eastern bumblebee, slaty skimmer, eastern forktail, eastern amberwing and a smeared dagger caterpillar, but not the Pontedaria pollinator specialists I was looking for. I was exhausted and found myself nodding off at the helm, so I paddled into a shaded area and napped in the kayak until our agree upon return time.
7/25/20, Lightening Ridge Rd, Robinson Hill Rd, Adamant Pond, Calais VT. 4.1 miles today, 2679.1 miles total.
Categories: birds, insects
I started the day this morning with a bird walk along Lightening Ridge Rd. I found chickadee, song sparrow, blue jay, chestnut-sided warbler, robin, cedar waxwing, phoebe, common yellowthroat, red-eyed vireo, catbird, yellow-bellied sapsucker, mourning dove. Road kill was an unidentifiable bird, a garter snake, a red eft, and a red-bellied snake.
After breakfast I went out to Curtis Pond to meet up with our Saturday walking group for the first time since April. This time we limited our numbers to 5 (last time was a mob scene with 9), all masked. There was some discussion about whether we needed to wear masks since we were outdoors and distanced. The state guidelines say you need a mask indoors or out if you can’t keep 6’ apart. I say common sense requires a mask and distancing if you are with other people, indoors or out. One person said she would just keep a good distance and not wear a mask. I said fine, but I would walk elsewhere by myself. Then the other person relented and we all walked together, masked. And if someone got too close, others would shout out a warning. After we figured out our new ground rules, we had a great time walking and visiting with each other. We found oyster mushrooms and chanterelles which we collected and taken home for dinner by some folks. We also found caterpillars: Spilosomina caterpillar, rosy maple moth, American dagger moth caterpillar, saddled prominent caterpillar, and maple looper moth. I found lots of insects: Lasioglossum bee, tricolored bee, Xanthosarus bee, flower weevil, Villa syrphid, green sweat bee, common eastern bumblebee, plume moth, leafcutter bees, Lygus bug nymph, banded scythris moth, monarch, meadowhawk, hairy-eyed bee mimic, red-shouldered pine borer, yellowjacket, Physocephala furcillata fly, widow skimmer, blackjacket, weevil wasp, ligated furrow bee, tricolored bumble, yellow-banded bumblebee, and banded tussock moth. Blooming was orange day lily, soapwort, and purple fringed orchid in a small roadside bog.
In the evening, my husband and I celebrated our anniversary with a scaled-down Adamant dinner cruise. About 15 years ago we first celebrated our anniversary with a canoe picnic on Adamant Pond. The following year, we invited others, and it became one of the social events of the season in Adamant, with folks dressed up in formal clothes from the waist up and bathing suits down below, and a potluck balanced in canoes and potlucks, with up to 35 boats. This year we decided to do a serial bring-your-own everything cruise, meeting up with one other household at a time for a distanced dinner on the pond. While we ate this evening, we were watched by a belted kingfisher and a hooded merganser.
What an awesome way to celebrate your anniversary!
7/26/20, Peck Rd, Calais VT, and Cranberry Meadow Pond, Woodbury, VT. 3.4 miles today, 2682.3 miles total.
Categories: birds, road crossers, blooming, arthropods
This morning I took a walk up Peck Hill and had great luck looking for birds. I found kingbirds, mourning doves, red-winged blackbirds, cedar waxwings, robins, black-and-white warblers, a family of ravens, song sparrows, turkeys, common yellowthroat, red-breasted nuthatch, blue jay, red-eyed vireo, chestnut-sided warbler, phoebe, white-breasted nuthatch, hummingbird, Nashville warbler, Canada warblers, yellow-bellied sapsucker, Tennessee warbler, house wren, goldfinch, and purple finch. Up in the farm field I also found a VW camper parked in the middle of the field. Hmm…by permission? It was surrounded by turkeys. Road crossers were a woolly bear, Harpalina beetle, Xystodesminae millipede, red eft, and Virginia tiger moth caterpillar. Road kill was a toad.
After lunch I went up to Cranberry Meadow with my husband. While he rode his unicycle, I paddled the pond. I found white waterlily, bladderworts, and lesser purple fringed orchid in bloom, and serviceberry in fruit. Insects on the pond were slaty skimmer, honey bee, chalk-fronted corporal, skimming bluet, dun skimmer, and common white tail. There was also a mallard on the pond. As I got off the water, I ran into a friend who was just arriving to swim. I hadn’t seen him since the start of the pandemic, so it was great catching up after all this time.
7/27/20, Quarry Rd, Adamant, VT. 1.7 miles today, 2684 miles total.
Categories: arthropods, birds
This morning it was raining for a change, so I skipped my morning bird walk. After lunch I went down to Adamant for provisions, so I did a combined bird/bug walk up Quarry Rd. Except, I was so interested in finding bees that I mostly forgot to look for birds. I did find some geese and a robin. And lots of bees and wasps: confusing furrow bee, common eastern bumblebee, northern amber bumblebee, Lasioglossom, ligated furrow bee, dark paper wasp, Pyrobombus,honeybee, sand-loving wasp, sweat bee, Eumelissodes, tricolored bumblebee. Other arthropods were lucia azure, northern pearly eye, orange mint moth and variable dancer. Road kill was a rosy maple moth caterpillar and a toad.
Reading these summer observations I'm reminding myself, this, too, shall pass, and things will grow again soon. I would love to see a fringed orchid; I never have. And bladderworts are quite unusual for me, too. And so many insects!
7/28/20, Tucker Rd, Calais VT & Ricker Pond, Groton, VT. 3.5 miles today, 2687.5 miles total.
Categories: birds, arthropods, blooming
This morning I took a walk up Tucker Rd looking for birds, but I forgot to download my photos before deleting them from my disk. My ebird list for the walk has: mourning dove, hummingbird, yellow-bellied sapsucker, hairy woodpecker, northern flicker, alder flycatcher, phoebe, blue-headed vireo, red-eyed vireo, blue jay, crow, raven, chickadees, red-breasted nuthatch, brown creeper, winter wren, hermit thrush, robin, purple finch, goldfinch, chipping sparrow, dark-eyed junco, song sparrow, black-and-white warbler, Nashville warbler, common yellowthroat, yellow-rumped warbler, and indigo buntings.
In the afternoon I went my husband up to Groton so he could unicycle the railtrail. While he was riding, I took my kayak out on Ricker Pond in search of a specialist bee that pollinates purple pond weed. I found plenty of pond weed, but no luck with my hunt for the pollinator. Instead, I found whiteface skimmer, a Helophiina fly, slaty skimmer, Calico pennant, bluets, common eastern bumblebee, spreadwings, snowberry clearwing, Pyrobombus, tricolored bumblebee, variable dancer. Birds around the pond were mallard, eastern kingbird, and spotted sandpiper. Blooming were common pipewort, purple bladderwort, and lesser purple fringed orchid. Fruiting was Canada yew.
In the evening I wandered our property inspecting my blueberry covers for insects. I found spotted bee fly and Villa fly.
7/29/20, Lightening Ridge Rd, Calais, VT, Owl’s Head, Groton, VT, Kettle Pond, Groton, VT, and Jack Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 3.9 miles today, 2691.4 miles total.
Categories: bird, arthropods, flowering
This morning I took a walk along Lightening Ridge Rd since our access to Pekin Brook Rd is cut off by some culvert work. I found a chipmunk, and then blue jay, alder flycatcher, raven, yellow-bellied sapsucker, European starlings, robin, pigeons, song sparrow, and goldfinch. Interesting plants were a health garlic mustard growing 5’ off the ground in a crotch of a sugar maple and a Flavoparmelia caperata lichen on a portable speed monitor.
Later in the morning I drove out to Groton to get some weather measurements on the granite cliffs on top of Owl’s Head mountain. While I was up there, I found a red squirrel, a Villa fly, common yellowjacket, and Odiellus pictus harvestman. Blooming on the mountain were three-toothed cinquefoil, checkerberry, and ghost pipes.
I decided to have lunch in the marsh along Kettle pond, where I found some Indian tobacco. A grad student from Canada had asked for close-ups of Indian tobacco flowers this summer so he could check their parts, so I guess I’ll be shooting a lot of them. I also found metallic sweat bee, meadowhawk, Lambdina caterpillar, pink-striped oakworm moth caterpillar, Sphecodes, Zadontomerus, Dialictus, Pyrobombus, and tarnished plant bug at my picnic site.
In the evening, my husband and I went over to a neighbor’s to go berry picking with them, 2 adults and 1 of their 2 daughters home from college during Covid times. They own 100 acres that stretches over the top of a west facing hill with terrific views. Since they are home so much this summer, they have been hiking quite a bit on their hill and discovered raspberries and blackberries there for the first time. In addition to the berries, I found maiden pink, European barberry, Japanese barberry, and steeplebush. I also found ground crab spider, Japanese beetle, ichneumon wasp, flower longhorn beetle, and green immigrant leaf weevil but didn’t tell our friends because the wife is quite squeamish about creepy crawly things.
7/30/20, Chickering Rd, East Montpelier, VT and Quarry Rd, Adamant, VT. 3 miles today, 2694.4 miles total.
Categories: birds, arthropods, road kill
This morning I walked along Chickering Rd looking for birds. On the way there, I stopped to see the juvenile broad-winged hawk that has been hanging out along George Rd. Once I got to Chickering Rd, I found turkey, robin, yellowthroat, house finch, olive-sided flycatcher, black-capped chickadee, belted kingfisher, bluejay, white-breasted nuthatch, hermit thrush. I also found a variable fanfoot moth in the road. Roadkill was a toad and a squished frog/toad.
After lunch I went down to Adamant for some provisions. I took a bug walk through Adamant and up Quarry Rd as long as I was there. For bees I found pure green sweat bee, tricolored bumblebee, honey bee, European wool carder bee, Eumellisodes, common eastern bumblebee, Neotrypetes, Zadontomerus, modest masked bee, metallic sweat bee, bellflower resin bee, ligated furrow bee, Triepeolus, two-spotted bumblebee. Other arthropods were cabbage white, willow calligrapher beetle, orange-legged drone fly, Ectemnius maculosus, ebony jewelwing, goldenrod crab spider, sawfly, spotted lady beetle, fall webworm caterpillar, potter wasp, and chalk-fronted corporal. Road kill was a toad.
I, too, took a lot of Indian tobacco photos for the grad student this summer. I like the greenshield on the speed monitor; I've found it in some odd places as well. And the squeamish friend made me laugh. I know a number of people like that, where I simply won't mention to them that I see a wasp or a spider or whatnot when we are out together, things just go more smoothly that way.
7/31/20, Quarry Rd, Adamant, VT & Sabin’s Pasture, Montpelier, VT. 2.3 miles today, 2696.7 miles total.
Categories: birds, arthropods
This morning I returned to Quarry Rd for a bird walk. I found kingbird, white-throated sparrow, broad-winged hawk, common yellowthroat, robin, red-breasted nuthatch, Canada goose, belted kingfisher, blue jay, common grackle, raven, great blue heron, pied-billed grebe, wood duck, red-winged blackbird, gray catbird, mallard, song sparrow, cedar waxwing, Carolina wren, and pileated woodpecker. I also found a common eastern bumblebee and a red eft crawling in the road.
Later in the morning I went into Montpelier for a bug walk with my 2 friends, who are also taking the online bee course at North Branch Nature Center. We were joined by a third friend who is in her 90s and just wants to get out and see people. Our pace for bug walk suited her just fine. We headed down into Sabin’s pasture in search of a patch of mint where our bee teacher had mentioned he had seen some mint specialist bees. The trail down was rather steep, which made it difficult for our older friend, but she managed. We found the mint patch, but not the mint specialist bee. Still, we did find quite a few bees: Lasioglossum, unarmed leafcutter bee, pure green sweat bee, Zadontomerus, ligated furrow bee, Agapostomon, Callandrena, Wilke’s mining bee, bicolored striped sweat bee, confusing furrow bee, honeybee, hairy sweat bee, common eastern bumblebee, two-spotted bumblebee, metallic epauletted, sweat bee, armoured resin bee, Eumelissodes, and spurred carpenter bee. Other insects were citrus flatid planthopper, Herpteogramma abdominalis moth, Oriental beetle, great spangled fritillary, Poecilanthrax tegminipennis, tarnished plant bug, Virginia ctenucha moth, silver-spotted skipper, coppery leafhopper, eastern calligrapher, Japanese beetle, jagged ambush bug, weevil wasp, yellow-collard scape moth, beewolves, thick-legged hover fly, great black digger wasp, mint moth, plume moth, green sink bug nymph, Ancistrocerus wasp, lesser meadow katydid, Glischrochilus beetle, blackjacket, Neurocolpus bug, ichneumon wasp, monarch, wild indigo duskywing, spotted lady beetle, Rhopalomyia capitata, and burdock leafminer. And a further arthropod was a crayfish that we caught and pulled out of the brook to examine for a few minutes. Blooming was Elecampane, and spearmint.
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