Category: nature

I took today off to do some atlas work at my block in Dunstable, so of course I have a pile of insect photos and almost no birds.

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.

Out and about today. The plan was to start at Dunback hoping for late migrants and then go look for odes and stuff. Turns out there weren’t any late migrants but the butterflies at Dunback were good, so the whole day was for bugs.

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.