(there’s 1:15 of not much happening in the second one before I pop up)

Would have been nicer if I wasn’t swinging and missing as much.

Thanks to Meena Haribal for posting these videos.

Carolina Saddlebags:

He wouldn’t slow down enough to get a shot off, so I just caught him for a few seconds.

Atlantic Bluet (presumably) and Beetle:

Frosted Whiteface:

Martha’s Pennant:

Skimming Bluet guarding:

They were mostly in tandem pairs. This one appeared to be ovipositing. The male appeared to drag the female headfirst into the water down to some aquatic plant before letting go. He then hovered above the plant and appeared to be guarding while she disappeared. I’m not sure if she’s visible in either photo (I did see her climbing along the plant before I starting taking photos but haven’t found her in either one yet). Both can be enlarged by clicking and then on All Sizes.

And one of 4 Black Ducks on the pond, I’m wondering if they could have bred there.

Horn Pond Mountain’s a great place to explore but with the recent two weeks of lousy weather it was on the quiet stuff. We did see most of the expected stuff but in low numbers. However, almost everything was spectacularly fresh, obviously having emerged in the last day or so at the earliest.

A couple highlights:

Summer Azure basking with wings open (they almost never do so)

And no longer basking

This Banded Hairstreak was nearby

And this Edward’s Hairstreak was stunning.

Saturday, I headed out to do my first concentrated odeing of the year. I started at the heron rookery in Littleton (which has dwindled quite a bit). Lots of bugs including many dragonflies (12+ species including FOY Chalk-fronted Corporal, Marsh Bluet, Sedge Sprite, and Eastern Pondhawk), a few butterflies, and assorted other things including 2 true bugs and my first Robber Flies of the year (photos of the last few aren’t good enough to show off).

The only cooperative ode was this pair of Aurora Damsels (actually many pairs were cooperative but this is the one I stopped to photo):

After that, it was on to Fort Pond Brook. I headed for the stream, where I picked up my first River Jewelwings of the year. There were some clubtails buzzing up and down along with many baskettails, but I couldn’t get a swing off. Working back out to the path, I found a mating pair of Stream Cruisers that posed very nicely:

And another Robbery Fly that didn’t photograph well. After restocking on tissues, I headed up the hill where there were lots of butterflies and dragonflies. Butterflies included my first Ringlets and Dusted Skippers of the year and dragonflies included many Lancet Clubtails and first of year Spangled Skimmers and Turquoise Bluets.

Things clouded up and started to look a bit threatening, so I decided not to check one last spot and headed home.

Sunday, I headed to Prospect Hill to check out a few birds. I was quite successful with that. Insect highlights included my first Twelve-spotted Skimmer of the year, an Eight-spotted Forester, and 16 species of butterfly including first of year Northern Cloudywing and Viceroy along with Dusted Skippers for the first time in a couple years on the hill and at least 4 American Ladies.

Twelve-spot

Eight-spot

The birds will have to wait for another time…

Salmon Brook was loaded with odes, including tons of Lancet Clubtails and tons of River Jewelwings.

Although those were good (first time I’ve seen them in numbers), the single Sparkling Jewelwing was better.

After mucking around there for an hour or so, getting soaked and coated in pollen in the process, I moved on to the pond in the center of town. Not much for birds, but more clubtails and a few darners flying around. I spent awhile working on getting a shot of one of the darners and didn’t really succeed.

Watching with binoculars, I think I got enough to say it’s a Cyrano Darner. It had big green stripes on the thorax, which would be either Cyrano or Swamp and I think they were too thick for Swamp. I also didn’t notice any rings on the abdomen, which should have been noticeable if it were a Swamp.

After giving up on that, I drove around a bit and finally found some conservation land way up on High St. almost at the New Hampshire border. Walking in, a spiketail immediately flew by. Fortunately, it landed. Unfortunately it was way high up and I could only see the lower side. I took a quick shot then tried to back up but it took off again and disappeared.

Not sure which one it is, although from the little I can make out, Twin-spotted seems most probable. 20081231: After going through every photo I could find, I believe it to be an Arrowhead Spiketail.

The area was quite interesting with a good variety of habitat. In an open area, I found another scutellaris Tiger Beetle.

Further on, this moth flew by. It appears to be one of the Chytolita species, but I don’t know which one yet.

On my way back, I heard a Pileated Woodpecker and had a couple American Ladies and Eastern Pine Elfins. Back at the spiketail spot, no luck finding that, but 2 young hawks were nice (now to figure out broad-wing versus red-shoulder and what that means for the atlas).

Back at the car, I cranked up the ac and sat for a couple minutes. Of course, not 10 seconds after I turned the car on did the spiketail buzz past. Oh well, back to Salmon Brook to chase some of the bugs around.

Back at Salmon Brook, I was quite surprised to find a Meadowhawk immediately. Seems rather early.

I mucked around for probably 45 minutes, not really finding much new. Lots of Turquoise Bluets with a few Stream thrown in and a few Violet Dancers as well. The jewelwings were putting on all sorts of displays hovering and flopping in the water. My first Viceroy of the year was good as well. Back at the car, I noticed a pair of mating tiger moths.

Now to figure out which ones.

Considering the heat, not a bad day at all.

Starting at Dunback, lots of Pearl Crescents, a few Little Wood Satyrs, and a baskettail or two. Looking for birds, I did hear a cuckoo but never found it. Finally double-checked the songs just now and it’s a FOY Yellow-billed (which appears to be my first in Lexington(?!). Down to the left, Willow Flycatchers were calling, also new for the year. Otherwise, there wasn’t much.

Way down at Blossomcrest, I found a neat bee mimic. It appears to be Merodon equestris:

Back at the intersection, a small skipper attracted my attention. It was dark and didn’t ring any bells. Unfortunately, it would land and instantly spread its wings, so I never got a good look at the underside. I snapped a few photos and with those was able to ID it as a Pepper-and-salt (looks better with the -’s to me). Interestingly, reviewing my pile of unknown skipper photos, I found another one from Dunback from 2005.

So I sort of did get a bit of underside there, but not quite.

After a stop at home, I headed out to the Littleton Rookery. I was hoping for similar results to last year, but no such luck. Along the tracks was very little. One sprite (probably Sedge but it got away), a few forktails, a few baskettails, and a Pine Elfin was about it. At the rookery, I enjoyed watching several nests for a couple minutes, noting how grown the young were. Turning my attention to the bugs, it started slow. A teneral whiteface popped up and then a Common Green Darner. The sun was going in and out, but once it came out for a few minutes, it picked up a bit. Lots of Four-spotted Skimmers, including several ovipositing, a few Dot-tailed Whitefaces, and a few damsels. One was a very teneral spreadwing, that I called Swamp on size. There were a couple female bluets, I’d guess Marsh but can’t say for sure. And one of the things I wanted, a tandem pair of Aurora Damsels. Just yesterday, Nick Donnelly posted a request for high quality pictures of pairs in order to understand how all the appendages fit together. High quality may not be what I got, but it’s a start (I did put the close-focus filter on but they flew off before I could work in closer).

Heading back out, I started to check the wet spot on the opposite side of the tracks, but it clouded up. Back in the open, it looked really dark and potentially stormy, so I moved faster. Being cloudy, there wasn’t much out. Bluebirds at the car were nice. I sat around eating for a few minutes and it became clear that the clouds were moving through. I headed to Fort Pond Brook and decided to find the south entrance as that would take a little longer and get me further from the clouds.

It was pretty much clear by the time I arrived and bugs were back out. In the shaded section, lots of Ebony Jewelwings and a few Little Wood Satyrs were buzzing back and forth. Out in the open, I found my first Lancet Clubtails and a nice Tiger Beetle, which turned out to be Cicindela scutellaris lecontei, which I’d only seen once before.

Also in the area was an interesting moth. It appears to be in genus Drasteria but I haven’t gotten a firm ID yet. It’s clearly an underwing relative, whatever it is.

Still in the sandy section, I started seeing a few elfins. Once one finally landed, I could see it was a Frosted and not the Henry’s I had seen here last month. They turned out to be more distinct than the books made them look. With last weekend’s Hessel’s, 32 regulars to go or so.

In the more wooded area, the clubtails were all over, including several mating pairs.

Lots of other odes including many baskettails, a couple bluets that appear to be female Turquoise, several dancers (presuming Variable), and lots of Jewelwings including my first River of the year. Butterflies included a bunch of duskywings (all large, so assuming Juvenal’s), a Spicebush Swallowtail, and a couple Azures. And another Pepper-and-salt!

That one showed the underside nicely. All the way down by route 2, I didn’t find much and it started clouding up again so I started back instead of working my way along the brook. On the way up, I found my first Hobomok and Dusted Skippers of the year. Further on, I enjoyed a Mourning Cloak chasing a Spicebush Swallowtail, especially when the patrolling baskettail joined the chase. The open area wasn’t terribly exciting, although Brown Thrasher was nice.

I decided to make one more stop at the St. Anne’s Fields in Lincoln. Starting across the street, I spent a bit of time chasing Pearl Crescents trying to make them into something better. No luck with that, but a Snowberry Clearwing posed perfectly.

Crossing over to the St. Anne’s Fields, I found lots of Common Ringlets, more crescents, and not much else. A Cooper’s Hawk being chased off by 15 grackles was nice, especially after seeing similar with a Red-tail at Horn Pond last weekend. The sun was mostly in, so rather than push my luck, I headed home.

Here’s a couple shots of that guy:

Ventral:

Dorsal

And the odd one:

Note that the wing is slightly damaged, so you can see a bit of the upperside. Is this one a late ladon or another serotina? It seems a bit dirtier than the others.

As a reminder that you can click on any photo and then click the “All Sizes” button to get a slightly larger view.

After the Cerulean Thursday and lots of good stuff not refinding it Friday, Saturday started out cloudy. Between it being dark and with a chance of rain still, I left the camera at home. I headed to the Arlington Reservoir, hoping for good swallows and other migrants. Lots of birds around, but not necessarily what I had hoped for. Two Scarlet Tanagers were nice, as were the boatload of sandpipers, including 2 Lesser Yellowlegs, several Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers, and about 20 Least Sandpipers. I did find my first Bank Swallows of the year but couldn’t find any Cliff and numbers were on the low side. Warblers were limited with a few singing near the bridge but nothing too exciting.

After the res, I decided to walk along the Mystic Lakes. Almost immediately upon arrival, I found more warblers in the small wood lot than there were all along the res. Lots of Yellow-rumps, Yellow, Black-and-white, Parulas, and others. I spent a few minutes tracking down an odd song and got a quick look at what I thought was a Cape May. I moved for an angle with better light but lost the bird. Backtracking, I did get a nice male Black-throated Blue but still couldn’t find the singer. I circled around a bit and suddenly there was a male Cape May Warbler hopping around right at eye level! I was able to study it for a few minutes before it moved back up to the treetops.

There was another odd song in the area that I started to track down. Unfortunately I only saw it as it was chased away by another warbler. I started wandering down the path and quickly saw my first Black-crowned Night-Heron of the year. There were more warblers and a Blue-headed Vireo by the boat club but nothing unusual. Down at Sandy Beach, I added gnatcatchers, a Solitary Sandpiper, and Savannah Sparrows but couldn’t find a Pine Warbler. Continuing along the path that ends near Wellington Station, I added an American Redstart (a very nice adult male) and a first-year male Orchard Oriole. There were also lots of Yellow Warblers, some singing slightly odd songs.

It was a quick walk back, only stopping for Cedar Waxwings and an Osprey. I checked for the screech-owls that had been reported along the way, but didn’t remember the directions correctly and didn’t find the spot. Back at the wood lot, I finally tracked down the oddball. I had thought it sounded vaguely like a Prairie, but it turned out to just be a Northern Parula. That proved handy to know Sunday.

So on Sunday morning, I headed to Met State to bump up the Field Sparrow to probable breeder (the one that I skipped on Thursday and found the Cerulean instead). I started going straight up the hill. Lots of song including Ovenbird, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and 3 species of woodpeckers. The warblers were loud but not cooperating at first.

At the top of the hill, I immediately found a singing Nashville and then a very nice Rose-breasted Grosbeak:

I heard the Field Sparrow pretty quickly, so that’s now probable with code S (singing for more than 7 days). However, today it was joined by a Blue-winged Warbler and two Indigo Buntings!

The warblers cooperated as I worked my way town the trail. I’m not quite sure how many as some seemed to be following me but I had Magnolia, Black-and-white, Parula, Black-throated Green, lots of Yellow-rumps, and a late Palm along the way.

There was also a pheasant calling and when I poked along a side trail, I did hear a Prairie. A new bird for Waltham and another likely breeder at the spot. Guess I wasn’t thorough last year.

Eventually, I reached the base of the hill where a Wood Thrush dropped onto the trail to feed. It was fairly distant, but I lucked into getting a good shot as it flew off:

I checked the spot just to the right with the downed utility poles. More of the same warblers with the addition of a first-year male Redstart. But the big surprise was a Purple Finch. It was female-plumaged but after seeing it I realized I may have been hearing one sing, so it could have still been a first year male (they’re not easily separable until their 2nd October according to Pyle).

Back along the cemetery, one tree was loaded with Yellow-rumps, a Parula, and a Black-and-white or two. Just before the wet spot was my first American Lady of the year.

In the wet spot I found the expected Solitary Sandpiper but there wasn’t anything above. I wandered in the direction of Rock Meadow.

Crossing the bridge, I quickly added Common Yellowthroat and Yellow Warbler and then had an Eastern Towhee. Tree Swallows were all over, often landing on piles of wood chips. Circling the garden, I had a Brown Thrasher singing and then one carrying a large stick. An Eastern Bluebird was hanging around the furthest two boxes. At first, I thought it was likely nesting in the right one, but when two Tree Swallows came towards the left, it hopped over there, so I’m not sure now.

Circling the rest of Rock Meadow didn’t add much, so back to Met State to look for owls. On the way I ran into the Bakers, who had another pair of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks. I sent them in the direction of all the warblers and then worked my way towards the presumed owl nesting area. No luck with that, but more grosbeaks, ovenbirds, another wood thrush, and similar. A couple Juvenal’s Duskywings were out as well.

After wandering down to the field and back up I heard a Brown Thrasher and spent a few minutes trying to find him without any luck. Several Azures were flying around here, including one that was basking with wings open (post upcoming on these).

I worked my way back, adding even more Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and not much else. A quick stop at Beaver Brook didn’t come up with a Cerulean Warbler or White-eyed Vireo (or anything new on the day) but it was an excellent morning.

Started with the Dreamy Duskywing above and then lots of Little Wood Satyrs, Ringlets, Peck’s Skippers, a single American Copper, some Silver-spotted Skippers, and the Hobomok Skipper above.

On the way out, I had this very nice Long Dash.

After finishing up with Green and Black-crowned Night-Herons on the pond, I headed to the Beaver Brook Duck Ponds to do an ode survey. It had clouded up a bit, so I walked down and around the stream a bit before starting. Once it cleared up, I got going but didn’t find all that much. The mystery clubtail from last week’s survey didn’t show, but I did get a few decent pictures of Skimming Bluet:

After a lunch stop, it was still sunny (furthering my belief that it’s best to ignore the weathermen and just do things until it’s no longer possible), so I headed out to do some more odeing. I decided to investigate the Littleton heron rookery and got there around 1:30.

As soon as I started down the train tracks, a train came so I ducked into the brush. There were a bunch of teneral spreadwings, but I didn’t want to handle them, so they were left unidentified. Once the train passed, I continued down the tracks. A fairly large orange butterfly flew by. It wasn’t stopping, so I figured it was just another American Lady (funny saying that after last year) but that turned out to be a mistake.

It soon landed and was no American Lady. Not only was it a life butterfly, but the Variegated Fritillary was posing very nicely. I would have liked an underside shot, but no complaints.

I eventually continued on (and the fritillary followed) and soon reached the pond. On the way in, I picked up a bunch of first-of-season skimmers. At the pond, it was fairly quiet, except for numerous Marsh Bluets.

I watched the herons for a few minutes and looked for the Red-headed Woodpecker (possibly heard, but not seen). Other than the bluets, the only other odes were a few Four-spotted Skimmers and a Common Green Darner. Eventually I began working my way back.

When I first came here, I had thought I was hearing the woodpecker on the other side of the tracks, which was also very swampy. I took a walk in and found an Aurora Damsel and a Sedge Sprite, neither of which wanted to pose. On the way back, I took a few swings at some baskettails that didn’t get close enough and refound the fritillary, now showing its underside.

Back at the car, it was still nice, so I decided to stop at Fort Pond Brook on the Acton/Concord line on the way home. I wandered around for a while, finding some Lancet Clubtails, many Spangled Skimmers, a Prince Baskettail, and some nice butterflies.

After making the loop straight out, I walked the trail along the edge of the brook. I finally caught a few baskettails, all of which were Common. Down on the Concord side, I found a bluet that I eventually figured out as Turquoise, which was a new one for me.

As I left, I found one last interesting sight, the remains of an Ebony Jewelwing on the ground.

A fun day to be out.