Paul's parents are visiting for the weekend, and today I got to show off some of our local woods. :) First, Paul's father and I took a trip to Naugatuck State Forest in the morning, and then later in the afternoon we all trekked out to Southford Falls State Park. We saw a bunch of cool stuff -- in this post, I'll just share some highlights from the first trip, but look for another post later!
We were hoping to see birds at Naugatuck State Forest, but they were staying mostly in the treetops and out of sight. We did, however, find some other fun creatures, like this glorious Red-spotted Purple that was sunning itself in the middle of the path:
The undersides of this butterfly's wings are not as luminescent as the top, but I think they're still very pretty -- perhaps this is where the "red-spotted" part of the name comes from.
This fuzzy little Hickory Tussock Moth caterpillar was crawling around next to the path:
And another of these caterpillars was performing aerial acrobatics nearby, hanging from a thread several feet above the path in the wide open air:
Of course, it wouldn't have been a woods walk without Eastern Chipmunks everywhere! Even though I see these guys all the time, I still haven't really gotten over how cute they are.
I learned some new flowers today, too. This adorable Rabbit-foot Clover (a visitor from Europe) was still bathed in dew when we found it:
This tiny flower is Indian-tobacco (Lobelia inflata), so pretty and very easy to miss:
I love this large patch of Green-headed Coneflower that we found growing on an open bank:
This thing isn't flowering right now, but it's probably one of the weirdest plants I've ever seen:
It's some sort of dodder (genus Cuscuta), a parasitic plant with no real leaves that absorbs its nutrients from the host plant it climbs all over. I love those neon-orange tendrils, thrown around haphazardly. Apparently there will be tiny flowers on this plant eventually, but not today.
Stay tuned for another post about today's adventures, featuring Southford Falls State Park (and salamanders and fungi)!
The three Groundhog babies in the yard across the street are growing up, but that doesn't make them any less fun to watch!
Did you know that a well-placed ladder is both (1) the perfect place to rest one's head, and (2) delicious?
Strike a pose, baby! (But stay close to that blue plastic, just in case it needs to be nibbled.)
Such fun little fat things. :D
Side Note: I did speak to the neighbors across the street, and they know about the Groundhogs living in their yard. They don't seem inclined to do anything to get rid of them, which is fine with me, because that just means we get to keep watching them! Just... don't cross the street and discover my garden, OK fat things? Thanks. :)
This morning I ventured into a new part of the Naugatuck State Forest. Here, there were wide expanses of fields, bursting with wildflowers and dotted with small shrubs (perfect for birds to perch on and hide in), and surrounded by the deep forest. It was a very different sort of place from the ponds and woods I usually visit, and I have to say, aside from the couple dozen ticks I brushed off of my pant legs over the course of the walk, it was a pretty fantastic experience.
The first thing I noticed when I arrived were all the colors.
Everywhere I looked, there was yellow Black-eyed Susan, white yarrow and fleabane, and scattered brilliant orange Butterfly Weed, a member of the milkweed family (which the butterflies seem to love).
I love Black-eyed Susans. Pretty, pretty.
So yes, I saw tons of flowers, and more on that later. But right now, I have to take a quick turn to talk about birds, because I saw some things here that I've never seen before.
Namely, American Woodcocks. These birds are soooo cool, and even though I knew they lived in this area, and that this field/forest combo was the perfect habitat for them, I never actually expected to see any. Yet as I was walking along the forest edge, I happened to look down and see a dumpy figure nestled in the dead leaves just a few feet from the path:
Can you see the bird in the middle there? That's some pretty amazing camouflage -- like I said, I never expected to see one of these guys. And it wasn't until I was going through my pictures that I realized that there are actually two woodcocks here! Hello out-of-focus bird in the bottom left corner!
I would've loved to maneuver around and get a better picture (silly tree branches), but after only a couple camera clicks, the woodcocks sprang up and flew (noisily!) off into another part of the wood. I did get a picture of a fluffed-up woodcock tail as they were on their way out, though!
Seriously, though, these birds are awesome. Do a Google image search so you can better see the bizarre shape of their beaks and heads. Apparently their long beak is just perfect for hunting underground worms, and it even has a flexible tip that the bird can control. Crazy!
So that was my favorite part of the trip, but I had plenty of other fun bird encounters as well. There were Eastern Towhees everywhere, the males singing from the tops of small trees ("drink your tee-ee-ea"). One dashing fellow even set up shop fairly close to where I was standing:
I spent a little while playing hide-and-seek with a very bold male Common Yellowthroat (a type of warbler) in the understory of some bushes right next to the path. He was so close, but he insisted on hopping behind branches and leaves -- thank goodness for my camera's manual focus option!
Peek-a-boo!
A plainer female yellowthroat was hanging around, too -- possibly his mate -- but she wasn't really interested in a close-up photo shoot:
OK, I can go back to the wildflowers now. Since this was such a different habitat from what I'm used to, there were plenty of flowers here that I'd never seen before. There was pretty Spreading Dogbane:
Fringed Loosestrife (I'm quickly deciding that I'm a loosestrife fan; these flowers are just so appealing to me):
Narrow-leaved Mountain-mint:
Showy Tick-trefoil (does it have to have "tick" in its name?):
And Seedbox:
And where there are flowers, there are insects. I love the colors on this inchworm caterpillar (some sort of moth species, possibly of the genus Eupithecia), so perfectly matched to the yarrow flower it's made its home:
And I don't usually like to be any closer to wasps than I have to be, but that's what zoom lenses are for! This impressively big creature is a Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus):
Call me crazy, but I actually think she's kind of cute (and no, I don't know for sure that this is a female):
The next time I feel up to braving the ticks, I will definitely be back here again. It was quite the adventure!
I can't help it -- I go out into the garden, I see cool bugs, and I just have to take pictures. Some of the creatures I saw today were quite beautiful. Others, not so much. But all were interesting!
Here's my favorite, a tiny little leafhopper (probably Graphocephala coccinea) -- of all the leafhoppers I've seen, I think these guys are the prettiest:
And speaking of pretty tiny things, now that I know about long-legged flies, I keep seeing them everywhere. This one has got a really nice metallic green-and-yellow color-scheme going on, and I love those fancy wings:
Even the "normal" flies are cool-looking when you get up close to them. I'm not sure exactly what type of fly this is (some sort of blow fly?), but it's got some nice metallic coloring that would be really easy to miss if I weren't sticking my camera in its face:
And this fly (a flesh fly, family Sarcophagidae... is that a scary name or what?) has those attractive gray and black stripes:
I thought at first that this was some sort of caterpillar:
But someone at BugGuide.net pointed out that it's actually a sawfly larvae -- not a butterfly or moth at all! I had no idea other insect larvae could resemble caterpillars so closely. Apparently one of the easiest ways to tell the difference is that most lepidopteran (butterfly/moth) larvae only have up to four pairs of "prolegs" (the suction-cup-like things) on the second half of its body, plus the pair of prolegs at the end, whereas sawfly larvae have more than that. I count at least seven pairs in this picture, so... not a caterpillar! Crazy!
Finally, here's my "artsy" photo of the day, as Paul called it. I think I accidentally gave this small beetle (a ground beetle?) a shower while I was putting the garden hose away:
At one point this morning, I also saw what looked like some sort of awesome hawk moth, but of course, as soon as I was ready to take a picture of it, it was gone. Ah well, I'll keep my eyes open and maybe it'll come back.
Update 7/18/11: No, don't come back! I happened to stumble across a picture of the moth I saw, and as it turns out, it was a Squash Vine Borer. I had no idea these devastating larvae were actually moths, let alone such cool-looking ones. I feel so betrayed. :( Also, it's not a type of hawk moth, but a clearwing moth, while I'm correcting myself. Now that I know these guys are around, I have to watch out for eggs on my squash stems, and signs of leaves wilting....
All in all, I'm having a lot of fun learning about what sorts of creatures live in my yard, even if I can't actually identify most of them. Also, my growing tendency to take pictures of things up close seems to suggest that I should get a macro lens at some point. :P
Today I made my triumphant return to the Naugatuck State Forest (after a week and a half away), and I even got up extra early to beat the heat. (That was pretty much essential.... It was already getting unbearable by the time I left at 10:00.)
The birds were quite active, especially at the beginning of my walk. I got stuck for a long time watching some smaller birds and a warbler I didn't know (and still don't, because I couldn't identify it). And then I heard some loud calls from the top of a tree across the lake:
There were three Northern Flickers up there -- that's a type of woodpecker -- and these birds were flying up and down, back and forth, calling and displaying to each other, and fanning their impressive tails. At least two of the birds were males, so I'm guessing there was some sort of territorial/nesting dispute going on, but I couldn't say for certain. All I know is they were putting on quite a show, and I only wish I could've had a closer view. (I do really like this picture, though, even if it's lacking some detail.) Also, flickers are awesome.
Next to the birds, the most active animals were the insects. Dragonflies were everywhere, as usual, and I was even able to identify two new species. Here's a lovely Slaty Skimmer:
And a Banded Pennant (what a cool pattern on those wings):
I recognized these tiny spiky creatures (they're like aliens!) as some sort of leaf-footed bug nymph:
Out of curiosity, I posted this picture and an ID request on BugGuide.net, and within an hour someone had replied with the species: Euthochtha galeator. Behold the wonders of the internet! :D
This dainty butterfly is a Little Wood Satyr (I'd never heard of such a thing before today, and it's quite elegant):
I snuck up on this grasshopper mid-buzz -- I think the sound it was making must have something to do with its wings, but the exact mechanics are unclear to me:
There were so many wildflowers blooming today that I'd never seen before, each beautiful in its own way. Large patches of Spotted Wintergreen were scattered across the forest floor:
This Meadowsweet (Spiraea alba, complete with a foraging longhorn beetle) was blooming along a bank:
And nearby, another member of the same genus, Steeplebush (Spiraea tomentosa):
Right at the end of one of the lakes, I found a single Swamp Milkweed plant:
I really like this Yellow Loosestrife (also called Swamp Candles):
And this Monkey Flower (Mimulus ringens) was putting on a nice show, with quite a few big sturdy plants growing together in a wet area next to the path:
It was a nice rambling walk, and I even got to stop and snack for a bit in a large Black Raspberry patch. Yum. :)
As I was leaving, a passing lady saw my binoculars and gave me a tip about another part of the Naugatuck State Forest, where there are shrubby fields, with warblers and woodcocks (boy, I'd love to see one of those funky creatures someday), among other birds. I believe her words were, "you'll be in heaven." I think I know where I'll be exploring next!
