Arcadia Mgmnt Area, Exeter/Hope Valley, RI - 7/13/19
About nine miles in the area south of Beach Pond, around the Deep Pond and Dye Hill areas. Some of the trails seemed like they hadn't been hiked in years. The rain over the last few days made some of the areas flooded and impassable. A mix between wet lowlands along the Bushy Brook; steep and rocky ledges and hillsides; and dry, sunny meadow areas on the tops of the hills.
One flower - the white aster-type - doesn't key out in any of the sources that I have. It has at least 18 white ray flowers with slight notches at the tips, no central disk flowers, small auricular leaves on the stem in an opposite configuration, and was about 18" tall. Perhaps a white Chicory?
The large Robber Fly looking like a Carpenter Bee is a new one to me - perhaps before I always thought they were Carpenter Bees and never saw any difference. I see now that the eyes give it away - much smaller and set differently than a bumblebee's.
The Rattlesnake Plantain was also a nice surprise. I haven't seen one in a couple of years.
I ran straight into a huge spiderweb (ugh...) and the spider on it was a HUGE grey orbweaver, almost the size of a small mouse (at least to my arachnophobic eyes). Unfortunately, I couldn't get a picture of it, as my iPhone would not focus on it with the leafy forest background. I see it still in my nightmares, though.
