Stephanie also did what she could to debunk the notion that the female mantis devours the male as an afterpiece to mating. Some stories die hard.

posted: 3:21:43 PM  

Leta and I spent most of the daylight hours of Sunday botanizing, butterfly-chasing, birding, and generally naturalizing on a leisurely field trip to two locations along the Potomac River, led by Audubon Naturalist Society senior staffer Stephanie Mason. Stephanie is particularly skilled at using the field expertise of the people on the trip, in this case more than a dozen birders, edible wild plant specialists, and other frequenters of the outdoors.

At McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area (a/k/a Hughes Hollow), Stephanie pointed out Silky Dogwood (Cornus amomum) in berry and the two common dragonfly species in the area. Not a lot of bird activity in this pre-migration period, but the group found Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) and Yellow-Billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus), and a couple Green Herons (Butorides virescens) were squawking about. We also found the parastic Dodder (Cuscuta sp.) in bloom, its bizarre orange threads draped across its host plant. Frogs, snakes, and other orders of insects were also to be found.

Farther upriver at Noland's Ferry in Frederick County, we waded into the vegetation of an old field to find a gorgeous yellow and black orb weaver spider, as well as solider beetles mating. The perky blossoms of Sneezeweed (Helenium sp.) at the edge of the parking lot represented for the DYCs (the hard to identify damn yellow composites).

The weather was near-perfect, the group worked well together, and (for some unknown reason) hardly any mosquitoes showed up. I added three new butterflies to my list. At Noland's Ferry, for dessert, as it were, we found of couple of ripe pawpaws, and we shared around tastes of the sweet but puckery banana-textured flesh.

posted: 3:02:34 PM