Small World

I went for a walk on the Rail Trail this morning and ended up spending a lot of time in a bank of Multiflora Roses observing nature in miniature. In that single bank I ended up counting five Orchard Orb Weaver spiders in their webs; these are my favorite small critters in the woods, a small green dot to the naked eye, and a rainbow observed up close. I also found a Multicolored Asian Ladybug munching on the leaves of those roses. Come take a look.

Walking along the Rail Trail

Leucauge venusta, the colorful Orchard Orb Weaver

The same Venusta escaping my camera

Harmonia axyridis, the Multicolored Asian Ladybug

A small section of that large bank of Multiflora Roses

© 2020 by A. Roy Hilbinger

Scenes from the Sunday Constitutional

On this week's Sunday walk in the park the Fall color change is becoming noticeable, mostly yellows. All the Fall Asters are up and blooming - White Wood Asters, New York Asters, Calico Asters, Spotted Knapweed - all over both the wetland area and the upland meadow, and they're being visited by all manner of small winged critters. The north duck pond was especially photogenic today, as was one particular Calico Aster bush up on the meadow. Come and see!

Calico Asters along the Dykeman Walking Trail in the wetland

Touches of autumnal color around the north duck pond

A Dwarf Bumblebee on Spotted Knapweed by the pond

This Painted Turtle was giving me the stink eye from a safe spot in the middle of the pond

A pair of Mallards on the north duck pond

A Pearl Crescent butterfly on Calico Aster up on the meadow

I spotted this Firefly on a blade of grass as I left the park on the east end of the meadow

© 2018 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Welcome to Autumn!

The Autumnal Equinox occurred around 9:00 yesterday evening, and today is the first full day of my favorite season. The Dark Half of the year begins, and the earth slowly cools and sheds its fancy clothes before sliding under the snowy quilt of the long Winter sleep. After a warm and unusually wet Summer things are still very green and lush, but some tinges of color have begun to appear, and the various Fall Asters have begun to bloom. The season has begun!

Unfortunately, the Mosquitos didn't get the memo about the change of season. On my weekly Sunday walk in Dykeman Park this morning they were ferocious! They were traveling in swarms, and whenever I paused to get a shot of something they descended on me. Because the temperature dropped overnight I had a jacket on against the morning chill, but they went right for my open spots, my hands and face. When you get to the photo of the Calico Asters below you'll see one of the culprits in the lower right corner.

A fallen Black Walnut leaf along the Dykeman Walking Trail in the wetland

The wetland is starting to show a tinge of seasonal color

White Wood Asters in the wetland woods

Calico Asters by the north duck pond. Yes, that's a *#$@*! mosquito in the lower right corner

An unidentified small moth up in the meadow

For me, Autumn has always been a particularly Pagan time, when I love to wander in the woods among the rough trunks and falling leaves, looking for Ents and gnomes sitting under mushrooms. What better way to celebrate it than with the title song of Jethro Tull's unabashedly Pagan album "Songs from the Wood". Enjoy!

Photos © 2018 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

This Week's Walk in the Park

The Autumnal Equinox is fast approaching (Friday), and there are signs of the approaching season, but it still looks more like Summer because of the warm, wet Summer we had this year. And there's more rain yet to come as the remnants of Hurricane Florence approach early in the coming week. There are still plenty of flowers in this week's walk, including some early Fall bloomers, as well as plenty of bugs. And there were two surprises: a squash vine growing by the parking lot and beginning of the Dykeman Walking Trail that has sprouted blossoms (one with a visitor); and a juvenile Great Blue Heron hanging out by the north duck pond.

A note on how the final pictures emerge... The first shot below started out as a shot of the complete blossom and part of the vegetation, but as I cropped and tweaked it became obvious that the star of the show was the little pollen-covered critter in the middle. So one more crop and the real picture from that shot emerged.

A Dwarf Bumblebee gathering goodies in a Squash blossom

White Snakeroot growing along the Dykeman Walking Trail

Arrowwood Viburnum with berries along the Dykeman Walking Trail. When the berries ripen they'll be a dark blue/black.

A juvenile Great Blue Heron by the north duck pond

The resident pair of Muscovy ducks by the north duck pond

A faded Painted Lady butterfly on Snakeroot up on the meadow

© 2018 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

More Wings

After finding all those butterflies in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park yesterday, I decided to head over to the Burd Run wetland at Brookside Ave. today, which is usually a treasure trove of butterflies. Well... There were lots of Cabbage Whites, but not much else as far as butterflies go. But there was a plethora of dragonflies there today. It was tough getting shots of them because they rarely sit still for long (except for the Ebony Jewelwing we start out with; they can usually be found perched next to water), but some were obliging enough for me to get some decent shots. Not the Eight-spotted Skimmer I followed around for close to 20 minutes; I just couldn't get that brat into focus! Oh well... Meanwhile, I did manage to get some decent shots of other critters. 

An Ebony Jewelwing damselfly hanging out by one of the wetland's many streamlets

A Cabbage White butterfly on Goldenrod

A Blue Dasher dragonfly balancing on the tip of a dead reed

A Common Baskettail dragonfly

© 2018 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

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 

Wings on Burd Run

Today I popped over to the Burd Run area, both at the Brookside Ave. wetland and the Riparian Restoration Project park further downstream, and the focus today was on wings - birds, butterflies, and dragonflies. We had an unusually warm Winter and a fairly wet Spring, so the vegetation has absolutely exploded this Summer, and with it the insect population. Here are the best shots of the day.

A Clouded Sulphur butterfly at Brookside Ave.

An Eight-spotted Skimmer dragonfly at Brookside Ave.

A Pearl Crescent butterfly at Brookside Ave.

A Carolina Wren playing hide-and-seek with me among the Willows by Burd Run

A Meadow Fritillary butterfly  by Burd Run in the Riparian Restoration park

An Ebony Jewelwing damselfly on the banks of Burd Run

© 2017 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Miniatures

A brief walk in the Dykeman Spring Nature Park this morning before the heat settled in for the day. And I found these two small things which were very photogenic. That thing that looks like a mandala is actually the flower bud of a Nodding Thistle. And the Dragonfly population is large and diverse this Summer.

Natural mandala - the flower bud of the Nodding Thistle demonstrates the Fibonacci sequence

A Northern Bluet damselfly in the sedges by the north pond

© 2017 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

A Drying Wetland

I decided to head over to the Brookside Ave. wetland yesterday to check out the situation; it's not good. The network of little streamlets is still running, but at a much lower level and very sluggishly. Burd Run is down to a trickle. But worst of all, the collection pond in the middle of the wetland is bone dry. There are no waterfowl hanging out; the usual population of Canada Geese, Mallards, Great Blue Herons, and Killdeer are just gone, off to find water elsewhere.

Despite all the dryness, the place is still remarkably green; even the Cattails in the dried-out pond are alive and well. And the wildflowers in the meadows are blooming up a storm - Goldenrod, Boneset, New York Ironweed, Purple Loosestrife all provide a colorful palette to the place. And all those flowers have attracted an amazing variety of butterflies. So today I'll show you all the ones I managed to capture yesterday morning. Enjoy!

The bone dry collection pond; the former bottom mud is dry and cracked

European Skipper

Variegated Fritillary

Cabbage White

Clouded Sulphur

Common Buckeye

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger 

Clouds, and a Butterfly

On my weekly walk to the grocery store this morning there just didn't seem to be much the camera could catch as I walked through the Dykeman Spring Nature Park. There were lots of butterflies, and even a female Ruby-throated Hummingbird, but none of them seemed to want to sit still enough to get their portrait done. However, when I got up to the meadow I saw that the humidity and the heat had created some pretty impressive clouds. So I got some cloud pictures. And I also came across an Eyed Brown butterfly on the railroad overpass on Baltimore Rd. on the way home from the grocery store. Finally, a subject willing to sit patiently while I moved around to get the best angle!

© 2016 by A. Roy Hilbinger