Apparently my thing now is sharing pictures of crazy moths. Well, as long as they keep showing up at my porch, I'll keep taking pictures of them!
My new moth friend is this guy, who I met last night:
It's a Smaller Parasa (Parasa chloris), a type of slug moth -- a name which makes sense when you consider the totally weird caterpillars these moths come from. (I'd love to find one of those things someday!)
I really just think this moth is adorable. It's fairly small, probably about half an inch long, and it somehow reminds me of a cross between something hulking and fuzzy (a yak, or a yeti), a treefrog, and a bat. I especially see the bat component from this angle:
What a fun little creature!
Other moths hanging around last night were a little more normal-looking, but still gorgeous -- like this Lesser Maple Spanworm (Speranza pustularia):
Moths are cool!
It's been far too long since I was last in the woods. Between the super-hot summer weather, and my discovery that I'm most easily able to be productive in the mornings, there haven't been many decent stretches of time lately when I've wanted to be outside. But then I realized that there's actually quite a bit of time after dinner but before the sun goes down, when the day's cooled off and the animals are coming out... and so today I grabbed that time and went for my first real woods walk in weeks!
The Naugatuck State Forest is extraordinarily beautiful right now. I could barely make it through the path in some places, all the plants are so lush and expansive! There are jewelweed seedpods to explode, and ripe black raspberries to munch on (one of my favorites), and sweet flowery smells on the air. And I discovered that late afternoon is the perfect time to hang out on one particular stretch of the path, where a long edge of the forest becomes spotlighted by the lowering sun and tons of birds come out to play. I actually didn't do much walking today, since I got kind of stuck in this spot -- there was a lot to see!
A group of noisy Black-capped Chickadees, for instance, were foraging in a giant spruce tree, hopping around on those big sturdy branches and playing among the cones way up high:
Also in attendance was an equally raucous family of Chipping Sparrows, who kept flying down to pick around in the grass on the path, and then flying up again when I got too close:
The best part, though, was the brilliant male Rose-breasted Grosbeak who made his way along the tree line and stole the show -- I so rarely get to see these birds, although they're not uncommon around here, and I'm pretty sure this is the clearest view I've ever had of one before:
So yes, late afternoon is a great time to visit the woods -- it was cool and beautiful, although the setting sun does make picture-taking a little difficult! And I have to go on a little rant, just for a bit: While I do love these woods, and there are so many fantastic creatures to see, I continue to be put off by the people I tend to run into there. Most of them are quite nice and friendly, but there always seem to be a few who lack some basic consideration of other people also in the woods -- today it was a couple of incredibly loud/obnoxious/swearing people on horses (and here I thought horse riders were always pleasant), and a (perfectly friendly) fellow who had to constantly be yelling to his (perfectly friendly) dog to come back to him, which wouldn't have been necessary if the dog was on a leash. I know there's no real benefit to me complaining here, but the fact is I'm increasingly less likely to go to the Naugatuck State Forest -- which would otherwise be one of my favorite places ever -- and it's just because of things like this.
So, I didn't mean to end to post on a low note.... Yay, woods!
Two of these funky moths were under my porch light last night:
I'd never seen (or at least never noticed) one of these creatures before, and I'm loving that turquoise-and-gold hairdo! This is either a Banded Tussock Moth (Halysidota tessellaris) or a Sycamore Tussock Moth (Halysidota harrisii), two species which both occur in the eastern US and can apparently only be told apart by dissection (according to BugGuide.net). In either case, it's a gorgeous moth -- and the caterpillars have some pretty funky hair styles, too!
Silver Sands State Park was extra busy today, with people all over the beach enjoying the holiday. There were plenty of animals out and about, too, and I got totally distracted for a while, watching a dainty little Least Tern fishing in the shallow water right against the beach:
This is the first time I've seen Least Terns in Connecticut and known what to call them -- I learned to identify Least Terns only this past May, during our trip to Florida. (Incidentally, the Least Tern is listed as a threatened species in Connecticut.) This particular Least Tern was completely engaged in its fishing activities, and so I was able to get quite close to it to watch the proceedings. It would hover in the air for a few seconds, scoping out the water below. And then, when it had a target in sight...
Bombs away!
(Note the holiday-goers in the background -- they didn't mind the tern, and the tern didn't mind them! Also note the sudden decrease in picture quality when the bird's doing something as interesting as diving.... My action-shot skills still have a lot of room for improvement!)
Sometimes the tern would resurface from the waves with a small fish in its beak:
And within a few seconds, the fish would be good and swallowed (yum), and then a quick shake-off and it's back to hovering again, preparing for the next dive. I could have watched (and tried to photograph) this active little bird for much longer, but I had left Paul dozing in the sun on the beach, and it was time to wake him up and go get lunch. Aren't holidays fun?
Look at the monster that showed up on my porch last night!
(OK, I have small fingers, so this creature is probably not as big as it looks in this picture... but it was still pretty big!)
This is a male Reddish-brown Stag Beetle (Lucanus capreolus), and when I found him, he was on his back, waving his legs weakly in the air. I offered him a clump of dirt to cling onto, and he obliged. Those mandibles may look scary, but they're basically just so that male stag beetles can fight each other -- and anyway, this guy wasn't moving much, so I didn't really feel threatened.
Those are some very pretty colors you have, Mr. Beetle:
I thought this guy might have been reaching the end of his life, but when I looked out on my porch again later in the night, he was gone. What a cool creature to have hanging around!
