Thursday, July 05, 2018

A Wetland Walk

I went for a walk in the Brookside Ave. wetland this morning after running an errand. It's been a wet Spring and early Summer, and the ground is so wet in there that they can't get a mower in to clear the trails, so they've just let it go wild. Exactly how I like it! It's very lush, and many of the streamlets in that maze are hidden by the grasses and the sedges and the cattails that have grown up so thickly. And the collection pond is full as well. It's very humid out and I was soaked with sweat in my first five minutes of beating my way through the trackless waste. But it was worth it! Butterflies, dragonflies, all kinds of birds; the place was teeming. The birds were staying out of my range, especially the Red-winged Blackbirds; apparently their young just recently fledged, and the young'uns were all over the place with their flustered parents yelling at me if I got too close. But I did get one prize bird - a Green Heron perched on a dead tree in the pond. It was a good day!

An Appalachian Brown Satyr butterfly
Yarrow growing by the collection pond
A Green Heron kept a wary eye on me from his perch on a dead tree in the pond
Bindweed grows all through the wetland
A Clouded Sulphur butterfly sipping on some Canada Thistle
An Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly
This Painted Skimmer dragonfly landed right in front of me and posed politely
This Blue Dasher, on the other hand, took forever to find a spot to settle
 © 2018 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

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