August 2022
Each time you go out and make observations for this project, describe your walk by adding a comment to this post. Include the date, distance walked, and categories that you used for this walk.
Suggested format:
Date. Place. Distance walked today. Total distance for this project.
Categories.
Brief description of the area, what you saw, what you learned, who was with you, or any other details you care to share.
Comments
August 1, 2022. Eagle Hill Institute, Steuben, ME.
Today was the first day of Tracks and Signs of Insects and Other Invertebrates with Charley Eiseman. There were 9 of us in the class, and we started with a lecture on life cycles. But before that I walked around the grounds in the early morning. I found some interesting fungi left over from the previous week's mushroom class, a Chalepus walshi leaf beetle, tiger flies, nannyberry, creeping bellflowers, paper birch, starflower, a white Eulithis moth, bristly sarsaparilla and a musk mallow, plus leaf mines in birch, wild sarsaparilla, Diervilla, and bunchberry.
After lecture we walked as a group along the driveway I'd explored in the morning and found lots more: 8 mines, 4 galls, 14 other insects including a whole group of Arge sawflies, some barklice eggs, and my first tricolored bumble bee (it became a favorite of mine). And Canada hawkweed, some poppy fruit, and willowherb.
After lunch we drove just down the road to the quarry. It was very hot and sunny, but we found lots more. There were 5 mines, 5 galls, 21 other insects, plus green alder, Fraser fir, striped maple, a blooming nabalus, both pinweed and pineweed, an Usnea, and a rag lichen.
Before dinner, I drove to Stueben itself to mail a letter to Katie (who was at sleep away camp) I stopped near a brook there and saw spreading dogbane, Virginia rose, Sorbaria, choke cherry, highbush cranberry, flattopped white aster, and European meadowsweet.
Oh my word! I was so on the fence about whether I could find time to take the class. If I had known you would be there, that would have tipped the scale. I'm so glad you had a great time there!
Wish you had come, it was a great class. I'm hoping to take something next summer as well. Maybe we can meet up then!
August 2, 2022. Steuben, Gouldsboro, and Millbridge, ME.
I believe today's class was on eggs and pupae. I walked before breakfast, lunch, and dinner, checking out the areas around the dining hall, and found a bowl and doily spider, a different mine on birch, some giant Cladonia, whorled loose strife, mines on mountain holly, which Charley took home to rear, 6 more mines, 2 galls, a spider egg sac, a lacewing egg, and 5 more insects.
In the afternoon we drove over to Gouldsboro to walk along a brook, where I found 3-toothed cinquefoil, ergot on a grass, eyebright, sweetgale, rhodora and wood horsetail, and I ate European raspberries (delicious). We found 11 mines, 3 galls, and 22 other insects.
Then we headed nearby to the Frances Wood Preserve. Here I saw dewdrop, tamarisk, northern bugleweed, 5 mines, 1 gall, and 29 more insects/spiders or their eggs. The sign here had a little roof which was particularly good for spiders and eggs.
In the evening I figured I'd drive to Millbridge to mail my daily letter for a change. Only I was completely unable to find the post office or even a public mailbox. I stopped in two places by the river, though, and found heath groundsel, Bebb's willow, and Valerian (plus 5 more insects). In the end I mailed my letter back in Steuben but didn't take any photos there.
In all my trips to Eagle Hill, I don't think I've been to Frances Wood Preserve. It sounds like a great place, or at least a place full of some great insects!
8/2/22 Cold Water Brook Rd, Groton, VT. 2.1 miles today. 4242 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, insects
This afternoon my husband and I drove up to Groton so that he could ride his unicycle from Marshfield Pond down to Ricker Pond. Menwhile, I decided to fill in another gap in the Groton trail system, from the very end of Cold Water Brook Rd south. I drove the car as far as I could, which was almost to the end of the road. The youth conservation corps have been doing projects down this road and driving it regularly, it seems. They have painted the tops of the worst rocks blue, which makes them a bit easier to avoid. Still, the driving was quite technical, and I was glad to have high ground clearance in our Rav4. I crept along at about 3 miles per hour. At the end of the road, I started down the path across a small wooden bridge to see where it would take me. Eventually, it hooked up to the Coldwater Brook Trail near the back of Big Deer State Park. I found leafminers on wild sarsaparilla, whorled wood aster, big-toothed aspen, blackberry, paper birch, bracken, and goldenrod, and galls on beech, black cherry, and serviceberry. Arthropods today were a Politum harvestman, wolf spider, Nordman’s orbweaver, root-maggot fly, Rhagonycha beetle, fan-foot moth, bumblebee, American snout fly, eastern treehole mosquito, field ant, fall webworm, Japanese beetle with winsome fly, Chrysops macquarti, and a greenbottle fly. I also found a lovely patch of yellow slime mold.
8/3/22 Jasper Hill Brewery, Montpelier, VT. 0.6 miles today. 4242.6 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, insects
This morning I met up with Eve and Ed at the Jasper Hill Brewery parking lot for some bug hunting. Around the edges of the parking lot are some great weed fields, just above the river, all in full sun. We had very good luck on our bug hunt, turning up two-spotted bumblebee, margined calligrapher, Euraresta fly, goldenrod leaf miner beetle, aphids, Lopidea instabilis bug, red-headed flea beetle, bold jumping spider, jagged ambush bug, Oriental beetle, tricolored bumblebee, alfafa plant bug, striped leafhopper, banded longhorn beetle, spider wasp, ligated furrow bee, lined orbweaver, variegated lady beetle, pigeon horntail sawfly, gnat ogre, globetail, Asian lady beetle, wild indigo dusky wing oblong woolcarder bee, Carolina grasshopper, muscoid fly, Japanese beetle, Condylostylus caudatus, honeybee, European paper wasp, Herpetogramma moth, mayfly, alfalfa plant bug, eastern miner bee, common ringlet, green bottle fly, robust ground cricket, variegated ladybeetle, dark paper wasp, Orthops scutellatus bug, field ant, meadow spittlebug, masked bee, metallic sweat bee, notch-backed cellophane cuckoo bee, white-margined burrower bug, cluster fly, immigrant pavement ant, silver spotted skipper, green lacewing larva, and goldenrod leaf beetle. I also found a leaf miner in the cultivated river birch beside the parking lot, and a gall in some Canada thistle.
8/4/22 Groton State Park, Groton, VT. 2.1 miles today. 4244.7 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, insects, birds
This afternoon I drove up to Groton with my husband. I let him off at Marshfield Pond to ride his unicycle down to Ricker Pond. Then I drove up to Coldwater Brook Rd and parked near the gravel pit. From there I got on my electric scooter for some off-road scootering to the end of the road—quite fun. Then I hike a different trail through the woods, heading up Coldwater Brook towards the southern end of Osmore Pond. I found galls on goldenrod and beech, and leafminers on wild sarsaparilla, jewelweed, fly honeysuckle, sugar maple, Canada mayflower, bunchberry, whorled wood aster, beech, and rattlesnake root. My insect finds for the day included Sumitrosis inaequalis, dwarf spiders, woodland fuzzy ant, house fly, crane fly, Tortricid leafroller moth, litter moth, Chrysoplus rotundipennis fly, Leiobunum politum harvestman, Cixius bark louse, root maggot fly, horse fly, lesser maple spanworm, hemlock looper moth caterpillar, and Rhagonycha beetle. I recorded hermit thrush, chickadee, vireo, and red squirrel. I also collected a ghost pipe flower head for grad student doing research on ghost pipe thrips.
8/5/22 East Montpelier Trail System, East Montpelier, VT. 0.7 miles today. 4245.4 miles total.
Categories: insects, galls, leafminers
This afternoon I took a short walk along the East Montpelier Trail System, from Center Rd west to the bridge through the vernal pools. Near the beginning of my walk, I was delighted to find a pile of slightly aged dog poop. Not delighted to see the dog poop on the trail, but delighted because a gold-and-brown rove beetle and some American carrion beetle had found it first. The gold-and-brown rove beetle is such a beauty, even if its diet is a bit smelly. I also found root maggot flies, Lauxaniid fly, flesh fly, stripe-legged robberfly, Asian lady beetle, and Dolichonabis bug. Galls today were on black cherry, goldenrod, and elm, and leafminers on yellow birch, elm, and turtlehead.
8/6/22 Alexander Rd, Dunbarton, NH. 0.1 miles today. 4245.5 miles total.
Categories: around the yard
This afternoon I managed to get up for a short tour of around the yard of my mother’s house. I found some orpine and some hemlock woolly adelgid.
8/7/22 New Hampshire Audubon, Concord, NH. 0.7 miles today. 4246.2 miles total.
Categories: insects, leafminers, galls
This afternoon my mother and I went for a walk through the trails of the New Hampshire Audubon property. It was a lovely warm sunny day, and the pollinators were out in force in the gardens near the main building. We found hummingbird clearwing, great golden digger wasp, eastern carpenter bee, common eastern bumblebee, gold-marked thread-wasted wasp, dark paper wasp, great black digger wasp, spongy moth, European paper wasp, hemlock looper moth, and Eriophyes paraviburni. Leafminers today were on wild sarsaparilla, American chestnut, columbine, Canada mayflower, hazelnut, witchhazel, and American burnweed, while galls were on beech, oak, and witchhazel.
8/8/22 Clough State Park, Dunbarton, NH. 2.2 miles today. 4248.4 miles total.
Categories: insects, leafminers, galls
This morning I took my mother for a drive down memory lane through old East Weare. Probably there aren’t many people around anymore who have any memories of the town before it was cleared out as part of the flood control project. She showed me the site of the church that she used to attend, and where her cousin’s house used to stand nearby. I also introduced her to the fun of hunting for leafminers, and together, we found leafminers on Joe Pye weed, goldenrod, paper birch, hog-peanut, red maple, gray birch, hazelnut, aster, and Virginia creeper, and galls on Aster, red oak, greenbrier, goldenrod, and witch-hazel. Insect finds today included cellophane bee, flea beetle, honeybee, white admiral, Japanese beelte, Zadontomerus bee, poison ivy, and weevil wasp.
8/10/22 Wrightsville Reservoir, Middlesex, VT. 0.3 miles today. 4248.7 miles total.
Categories: insects, leafminers, galls
This morning I met up with Eve, Ed, and Melissa at the boat put-in at Wrightsville Reservoir for a bug walk. We had a very enjoyable morning chasing all manner of insects together, but hardly made it out of the parking lot. We found an Ichneumon wasp, bristle fly, dogwood sawfly, eastern calligrapher, Dictya fly, running crab spider, Alysson sawfly, Asian lady beetle, Dolichopus fly, dagger moth caterpillar, small grass fly, Sepsis fly, Diaphorini fly, Empidini fly, crab spider, common eastern bumblebee, black swallowtail caterpillar, honeybee, aphids, American thintail fly, tiger cranefly, Euraresta bella flies pairing, pug moth caterpillar, swamp milkweed leaf beetle larva, olive-shaded bird-dropping moth caterpillar, northern amber bumblebee, Amphigonalia gothica leaf hopper, black-ledged sharpshooter, Graminelia fitchii leafhopper, Dolichopus fly, North American tarnished plant bug with a huge red mite, and some Olibrus beetles pairing. I found galls on jewelweed, grapes, swamp aster, dotted hawthorn, meadowsweet, and goldenrod, and leafminers on grapes and dwarf St. Johnswort.
8/11/22 Jerusalem Rd, Marshfield, VT. 2.5 miles today. 4251.2 miles total.
Categories: insects, leafminers, galls, tracks
This afternoon my husband and I went up to Groton for our usual ride and hike. While he rode his unicycle down from Marshfield Pond to Ricker Pond, I parked at Marshfield Pond and headed up the dirt road through the new industrial sap woods. Some big syndicate bought up a bunch of property in Marshfield a few years back and are tapping not only sugar maples but also birches and beeches and anything else they can tap. There used to be a trail coming down from Jerusalem Rd that leads to the Twinfield School, still shown as Jerusalem Rd on some maps. Now the old trail is a bonafide road, used to haul sap down from the woods, except, it is blocked at the bottom with giant boulders to try to keep the yahoos out. Nevertheless, I ran into some yahoos coming down on the hill on motorcycles as I was hiking up. One of the first items of interest that I found on the road today was a strip of coyote scat with a bit of freshness about it, just enough to attract a red-spotted rove beetle, and some Protenor belfragei bugs. Delightful! A little further along I found a green frog in a puddle, then some recently dried up puddles with lots of tracks in the mud, including racoon, corvid, ruffed grouse, bobcat, racoon, canid, and white-tailed deer. Insects today included tricolored bumblebee, Asian lady beetle, Atlantis fritillary, great spangled frittilary, cluster fly, Carolina grasshopper, meadow spittlebug, Condylostylus caudatus, Machimus sadyates robberfly, Megachile inermis bee, eastern harvestman, goldenrod crab spider, definite tussock moth caterpillar, American lady, and twelve-spotted tiger beetle. I found leafminers on hazelnut, yellow birch, trembling aspen, rattlesnake root, sugar maple, wild sarsaparilla, yellow birch, beech, and hop hornbeam, and galls on trembling aspen, sugar maple, white ash, basswood, and beech.
8/12/22 Jerusalem Rd, Marshfield, VT. 3.6 miles today. 4254.8 miles total.
Categories: insects, leafminers, galls
I had such a good time exploring the upper reaches of Jerusalem Rd yesterday that I decided to return again today. After dropping my husband off at Marshfield Pond for his ride down to Ricker Pond on his unicycle, I headed back up Jerusalem Rd, this time walking quickly past the section I had walked yesterday and starting to take photos only when I reached yesterday’s turn-around point. Today I found leafminers on sugar maple, red maple, pearly everlasting, flat-top white aster, jewelweed, raspberry, goldenrod, yellow birch, paper birch, basswood, violets, coltsfoot, trembling aspen, wild sarsaparilla, bull thistle, burdock, white ash, beech, Joe Pye weed, and yellow birch, and galls on Goldenrod, beech, jewelweed, staghorn sumac, striped maple, flat-topped goldenrod, beaked hazelnut, and meadowsweet. Insect finds today included pale green assassin bug, brown stink bug, yellow-collared scape moth, rhododendron leafhopper, Soldier fly, aphid, white-striped black, Nabis bug, Arabesque orbweaver, eastern harvestmen, Agrimony anacampsis moth, tricolored bumblebee, crab spider, Ichneumonid wasp, bristle fly, and Arge sawfly.
8/13/22 Stump Dump, Montpelier, VT, Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT, and Quarry Theater, Adamant, VT. 2.1 miles today. 4256.9 miles total.
Categories: insects, leafminers, galls
This morning I took a scouting walk through the stump dump near the nature center in Montpelier. I found a gall on goldenrod, and a bald-faced hornet fly.
In the afternoon, I went for a walk along our driveway looking for leafminers and galls. I found leafminers on white ash, strawberry, beaked hazelnut, and alternate leaved dogwood, and galls on chokecherry, calico aster, white ash, dotted hawthorn, and alder.
In the evening, my husband and I attended a play at Quarry Theater. Usually, their plays are quite good, but tonight’s production (written by a committee of cast members) was just about the worst theatrical experience I have ever sat through. Still, being up at the theater allowed me to hunt for leafminers and galls around the quarry, and I came up with a gall on paper birch, and leafminers on sugar maple, sunflower, and lupine. I also found some aphids.
8/14/22 Osmore Pond, Groton, VT. 0.4 miles today. 4257.3 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, insects, birds
This afternoon my husband was out of town visiting some family. I decided to go up to Groton for a picnic at Osmore Pond. I was fortunate enough to get the “prime” spot, the picnic site on the edge of the pond with views up and down the pond. I saw a loon and a double-crested cormorant, as well as American copper butterfly, Machimus sadyates robberfly, and variable dancer damselfly. I found leafminers on mountain holly, white clover, yellow birch, bunchberry, and wild sarsaparilla, and galls on blueberry and red maple. After lunch, I took a short hike up Little Deer. On the way up the hill, I collected another ghost pipe flower head for the student studying thrips.
8/15/22 Groton State Park, Groton, VT. 1.7 miles today. 4259 miles total.
Categories: insects, leafminers, galls
This afternoon my husband and I drove up to Groton. While he rode his unicycle from Marshfield Pond down to Ricker Pond, I drove over to the North Lot on the Rt 232 and took my scooter in the back road to New Discovery Campground. I crossed the campground and parked the scooter in the freshly (2-3 years ago) logged area near the trailhead for Big Deer Mountain. The clearcut has grown in with lots of blackberries, and I ate my fill (and then some) as I walked along a new to me section of trail/road. The road eventually came out at the highway, just above the entrance to New Discovery. This cleared up a big mystery for me, how the people with camps on this side of Peacham Pond access their properties—through this road. It also gave me an idea—perhaps I could drive our car in this road and park here, giving me closer access to the trails between Osmore Pond and Peacham Pond that I haven’t walked yet.
I found quite a few insects out in the sunny open clearcut today, including orange-legged furrow bee, common ringlet, tricolored bumblebee, Phasinae fly, Odontocorynus salebrosus beetle, Zadontomerus bee, New York carpenter ant, Augochlorine sweat bee, Ichneumonid wasp, carrot wasp, meadowhawk, metallic sweat bee, three-banded lady beetle, Macaria moth, Philodromus spider, Ancistrocerus wasp, Carolina grasshopper, Alydus eurinus bug, bramble mason wasp, and Stonemyia fly. Leafminers were on trembling aspen, sugar maple, yellow birch, violets, colt’s foot, paper birch, wild sarsaparilla, whorled wood aster, red maple, black cherry, and false Solomon’s seal, while galls were on flat-topped goldenrod, yellow birch, red maple, red spruce, and beech. I found a green frog in a road puddle and some fresh moose tracks. I also took a short stroll off the road through the woods and collected 2 more ghost pipe heads, enough now to send to the thrips student.
8/16/22 Stump Dump, Montpelier, VT and Ricker Pond, Groton, VT. 1 miles today. 4260 miles total.
Categories: insects, galls, leafminers, pond life
This morning I met up with Eve, Ed, Melissa, and a visiting friend of Eve’s for a bugwalk through the Stump Dump, the municipal road maintenance area across the street from the nature center. It was a hot, sunny day, and at first we had trouble finding insects, so Ed returned home early. Eve, Melissa, and I pushed on through the weeds into the small wetland on the east side of the lot. There we found some interesting bugs, and after a while Melissa’s daughter also joined us. We found variegated lady beetle, dark paper wasp, locust borer, aster eucosma moth, common compost fly, alfalfa plant bug, Olibrus beetle, Asian lady beetle, sawfly larva, dog-day cicada, katydid, striped leafhopper, bristle fly, globetail fly, and Zadontomerus bee. I also found galls on goldenrod and flat-topped aster. As we finished up, back at the car, we all tried some packaged dried crickets to see what they tasted like. Greasy sawdust.
After lunch, I drove up to Groton with my husband. While he rode his unicycle down to Ricker Pond from Marshfield Pond, I took my kayak out on Ricker Pond searching for bugs and interesting plants. I found a slender spreadwing damselfly, milkweed tussock moth, and variable dancer damselfly, plus a bullfrog, painted turtle, loon, and a green frog. I found galls on willow, meadowsweet, and beech and leafminers on willow, bush honeysuckle, chokecherry, silverrod, wild sarsaparilla, and beaked hazelnut. Special plants around the pond included buttonbush, pipewort, white waterlily, sundew, and ring pellia liverwort.
8/17/22 Elm St, Montpelier, VT. 0.3 miles today. 4260.3 miles total.
Categories: insects, galls, leafminers
This afternoon I had to run some errands in town, but when the errands were done, I kept an eye for insects along Elms St. I was quite pleased to find 2 different kinds of lady beetles (Asian and variegated) as well as a greenbottle fly in this urban neighborhood. I also found leafminers on lamb’s quarters, beggarticks, and wild blue indigo, galls on box elder.
8/19/22 Osmore Pond, Groton, VT. 4 miles today. 4264.3 miles total.
Categories: insects, galls, leafminers
This afternoon I went up to Groton with my husband. While he rode his unicycle down to Ricker Pond, I drove to the North parking lot on Route 232 and from there rode my electric scooter down to Osmore Pond. Today I circumnavigated the entire pond, my first time all the way around the pond in quite a while. I found galls on goldenrod, blueberry, and blackberry, and leafminers on whorled wood aster and red maple. Arthropods today were lesser maple spanworm and eastern harvestman. I also found a lovely small American toad in the trail.
8/21/22 Osmore Pond and Little Deer, Groton, VT. 2.9 miles today. 4267.2 miles total.
Categories: leafminers, galls, arthropods
Last night I camped at New Discovery campground with a friend who loves camping. Today I showed her the trail around Osmore Pond to Little Deer Mountain. Along the way, we found leafminers on mountain ash, paper birch, bracken, and violet, and galls on Red maple. I found a Philodromus spider and a Selandrinae sawfly larva, and also an American toad.
8/22/22 Ricker Pond, Groton, VT. 2 miles today. 4269.2 miles total.
Categories: insects, leafminers, pond life
This afternoon my husband and I returned to Groton. While he rode his unicycle from Marshfield Pond down to Ricker Pond, I took my kayak out on Ricker Pond. I found black-shouldered spinyleg dragonfly, calico pennant dragonfly, and skimming bluet damselfly. I also found a bbullfrog, spotted sandpiper, and painted turtle. Leafminers today were on Joe Pye weed and tall meadow rue.
8/25/22 Levi Pond, Groton, VT. 1.5 miles today. 4270.7 miles total.
Categories: plants, vertebrates, leafminers, arthropods
This afternoon I dropped my husband off at Marshfield Pond for his usual ride on his unicycle down to Ricker Pond. Then I drove up to Levi Pond, easier said than done. The road to Levi Pond is mostly passable, until the last 100 yards. Then it gets rather technical, and definitely only navigable in 4WD. The pond is a bit smaller than Osmore, and due to the limited access, gets very few visitors. There were no iNaturalist observations around the pond, except for a couple I made last year on a brief walking visit to the pond. Today I brought my kayak and explored every nook and cranny of the water. Plants around the pond included leatherleaf, steeplebush, pitcherplant, mountain holly, three-way sedge, common pipewort, sweet gale, winterberry, red spruce, Virginia St. John’s wort, balsam fir, meadowsweet, tamarack, floating-leaved pondweed, sundew, red maple, hemlock, huckleberry, lowbush blueberry, northern bugleweed, sheep laurel, white pine, chokecherry, great rhododendron, hobblebush, Labrador tea, bracken, and wild raisin. I found galls on leatherleaf and red maple. Insects for today were Asian ladybeetle and slaty skimmer dragonfly. There was a large beaver lodge on the pond, and I saw several painted turtles and a largemouth bass. As I was paddling near the far end of the pond, I noticed a hideous smell. Finally, I realized that the rock in front of me in the water was no rock—it was a dead moose, half emerged from the water, and pulsating with maggots. A turkey vulture was soaring overhead, but it never dropped down to check out the corpse. Maybe the moose was too far gone, even for a vulture?
8/28/22 Telephone Line Trail, Groton, VT. 2.2 miles today. 4272.9 miles total.
Categories: galls, leafminers, arthropods
This afternoon I dropped my husband off at Marshfield Pond for his unicycle ride down to Ricker Pond. Then I drove up to the North Parking lot on Route 232, where I switched to my electric scooter, which I rode down to the trail head for the Telephone Line Trail in New Discovery Park. I walked the trail until I came to the intersection with the Little Deer trail. I found quite a few arthropods today, including Fruit fly, Belytini wasp, bristle fly, marbled orbweaver, strawberry root weevil, Leiobunum harvestman with mites, Microrhopala excavate beetle, funnel weaver spider, common aerial yellowjacket, metallic sweat bee, Hemihalictus bee, Lasioglossum bee, Tachinus fimbriatus rove beetle, Cyrtopogon robber fly, Myrmica ant, Melanoplus grasshopper, oblique-banded pond fly, Machimus sadyates robber fly, tricolored bumblebee, muscoid fly, Lygus bug, Nordmann’s orbweaver, oil beetle, and gold-striped leaftier moth. Leafminers today were on Sugar maple, wild sarsaparilla, violet, blackberry, bush honeysuckle, sugar maple, goldenrod, and trembling aspen, while galls were on meadowsweet, willow, goldenrod, sugar maple, calico aster, striped maple, and red maple.
August 29, Frizzle Mountain, Calais, VT. 0.1 miles today, 4273 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
This morning I took a last walk around our yard as we finished packing our bags for our monthlong travels in the Southwest. I found a milkweed with 3 species of caterpillars on a single leaf: monarch, fall webworm, and milkweed tussock moth.
August 30, Redwing Marsh, Fort Collins, CO. 0.7 miles today, 4273.7 miles total.
Categories: plants, insects
This evening our friends took us on a short reconnaissance walk around their neighborhood and through Redwing Marsh. Behind their house is a “ditch”, which looks like a small canal or river, and a few acres of unkempt land, which is labeled as marsh and has a few trails through it. I stopped to admire the unfamiliar plants, including rubber rabbitbrush, Rocky Mountain juniper, prickly poppies, great plains yucca, fetid marigold, wild licorice, smooth brome, and lots of Russian olive. There was a damp portion of the marsh, and the mosquitoes started to get thick as soon as the sun started to sink.
August 31, Redwing Marsh, Fort Collins, CO. 3.2 miles today, 4275.9 miles total.
Categories: plants, insects
This morning I took a bird walk through Redwing Marsh heading south. I didn’t find as many birds as I thought I might while walking near water in a dry environment. There were a few early morning joggers, including a group of students from Colorado State University, and a lanky guy behind them who told me he was not as fast as them. I found some fox scat on the trail and a lady bug in some milkweed. I found lots of asparagus along the trail, along with some mullein and white sweet clover. I also found a row of Siberian elms, of which only one was still alive. A highlight of the walk was some galls on a cottonwood leaf.
Later in the morning, our friends took us on a walk to visit a friend’s fish hatchery on the edge of the actual marsh of Redwing Marsh. I shot some juniper along the way, as well as lots of pollinators in the sunflowers near the marsh.
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