A very short getaway, and a very short trip report to match.
I visited Hickory Hollow Natural Area Preserve in Lancaster County. I didn’t find evidence of the protected lady’s-slipper orchids, but then again, it was the wrong time of the year and I didn’t have any inside info. Crane-fly Orchids (Tipularia discolor) were blooming, however. It was a nice walk all the same. Finding Mutinus elegans was a nice surprise.
Chasing the next Virginia State Parks Trail Quest pin, I hit Caledon SP in King George County, and Culpeper Battlefields SP in Culpeper County, the latter visit “escrowed” until the park is built out and made part of the Trail Quest program. It would be nice to return to Caledon for a morning walk when I’m a little fresher and I can make it down the marsh trail to the river.
At Culpeper Battlefields, on the scraped out path to the top of Buford Knoll, I found a new-to-me robber fly, Triorla interrupta, and a new! to! me! tiger beetle, Cicindelidia punctulata. A few butterflies were flying, and some larger flying things were also in the air.