Category: In the Field

I did a quick overnight to Charlottesville to visit two sites.

First up was James River State Park. This was supposed to be an easy stroll to get park #27 punched on my Trail Quest ticket. I didn’t intend to break out my camera with the long lens. But, walking along the River Trail, I found a damselfly that I didn’t recognize, so I scooted back to my car to get the camera. The damsel turned out to be male and female Smoky Rubyspots (Hetaerina titia). Pretty cool!

Then this morning I participated in a short two-hour bioblitz at the Nature Conservancy’s Fernbrook Natural Area. We worked in the parcel that was newly added to the property; it showed a long life as pasture and homestead, with a stupendous stand of bamboo! Fortunately, there were some natives to be found, and I added Paspalum laeve to the property’s iNaturalist project (as well as to my own list of species, I discovered to my slight surprise). And, alas, it looks like I am the first to document Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea stoebe) at the site.

Yet another trip to Occoquan Bay NWR, this time led by Ken Rosenthal of Reston Association’s Walker Nature Center. The birding was rather slow; I lugged my scope to get some decent views of Bald Eagle and Osprey.

Otherwise, I picked up some new personal species records for iNaturalist, including Rough Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium), Differential Grasshopper (Melanoplus differentialis), Sugarcane Beetle (Euetheola humilis), and Transverse-banded Flower Fly (Eristalis transversa) A lot of the interesting stuff was along the shore of the bay.

Two short walks on the lower reaches of rocky trails to Roanoke area specialties.

Bradley Simpson steered us on the trail to Dragon’s Tooth in Roanoke County—we didn’t traverse any of the truly rugged patches. The destination species here is Buffalo Nut (Pyrularia pubera), found in fruit by participant S between the parking area and the biffy. Buffalo Nut is kin to Piratebush in that both are hemiparasitic, and Piratebush can also be found at Dragon’s Tooth.

Other goodies included generous blooms of Collinsonia canadensis, Autumn Coralroot (Corallorhiza odontorhiza) in fruit, and a bit of Bowman’s Root (Gillenia trifoliata) (thanks, SA!) showing one spent flower. This Chestnut Oak (Quercus prinus) is giving some staying power vibes.

Nate Silver, helpful guide from last year, took us on part of the Slope Trail at Grassy Hill NAP. As with Dragon’s Tooth, much of the flora here was done flowering and fruiting, for example a skullcap (Scutellaria sp.), Clasping Milkweed (Asclepias amplexicaulis), Canadian Burnet (Sanguisorba canadensis), and Goat’s Rue (Tephrosia virginiana).

We didn’t get high enough to find the poster child for the Preserve, but Nate gave me a tip on where to find fameflower on my next trip to Franklin County. And he did locate a lovely patch of flowering Blue Monkshood (Aconitum uncinatum) for us.

On my drives downstate, I usually see a sign for some community activity that rings my WTF bells. This time it was cow pie bingo. Hmm, it looks like I wouldn’t have to travel far to play.

Finally closing out my reports for the Wood Duck and Hooded Merganser nesting season:

It’s not yet Labor Day, so I’m calling this report on time. Here’s our season totals.

Our Wood Ducks started one more clutch than 2024 (11 vs. 10), but lost 5 of them (3 to predation, 2 to abandonment). 111 eggs laid, 61 hatched, 55% estimated fledging success.

Our Hooded Mergansers started two more clutches than last year (4 vs. 2); 1 was lost to abandonment. 51 eggs laid, 33 hatched, 65% estimated fledging success.

It’s a typical pattern year-to-year that the HOMEs start fewer clutches but achieve about 10 points better fledging success.

Of the 16 boxes, 12 were used. We had double clutches in 3 of the boxes, with 5 of the 6 clutches successful — including one clutch that did not hatch until an estimated 8 July.

As I noted above, we lost 3 clutches to predation, presumably to Black Rat Snakes in all 3 cases. Plus, we found snakes in two other boxes; these may have consumed eggs that we didn’t have the opportunity to count.

Genevieve Wall led a walk for Nature Forward, meeting at Pennyfield Lock on the C&O Canal. I’ll switch it up a bit and blockquote the follow-up message I sent to her, with a bit of editing:

• Eastern Musk Turtle* (Sternotherus odoratus)
• American Nursery Web Spider* (Pisaurina mira)
• Powdered Dancer (Argia moesta)
• Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma)
• Hackberry Emperor (Asterocampa celtis), incorrectly ID’d by me in field as Appalachian Brown

Hackberry Emperor topside (dorsally) shows a pattern of white and dark spots across a ground of dark brown to tan. Appalachian Brown dorsally is more or less allover brown, except for the eyespots.

I said that checkerspots and Polygonia spp. are in separate groups — that’s incorrect. They’re both in the Nymphalidae (Brushfoots) family.

Thanks for the tip about red coloration in Johnson Grass.

I’ll ask around about that mystery vine with prickles that we looked at with C.

*New observations for me!

I returned for the second year to the Wildcat Mountain property as co-sector leader. (Hmm, I see that I didn’t post any trip report for the 2024 count.) We all survived the heat and humidity: MK and Lili had the smart idea to stage a vehicle at the bottom of the hill so that we didn’t have to trudge back up the slope.

Nothing too exciting. Scads of Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus); I got a look at but no photo of Red-banded Hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops); I got identifiable photos of Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor).

On a punishingly hot and muggy July day, we returned to a property that we had biolblitzed last summer. I was able to last about 90 minutes out in the gardens and meadow, and about an hour down where the Rush River joins the Thornton, but then I had to crash on our hosts’ porch. I was sucking wind just climbing a small rise.

In the garden, I documented my first Snowberry Clearwing (Hemaris diffinis). I tried to expand my horizons by looking for leaf miners.

At the rivers, iNaturalist honcho Carrie Seltzer and I found several species of myxomycetes, including the critter that acts like a puffball mushroom, Wolf’s Milk (Lycogala epidendrum). I got a look at a Rappahannock Darter (Etheostoma vexillare) (a Rapp endemic of cool, clean waters) before the rest of the team charged upstream—I just don’t have the footing to follow.

After dinner, activity at the lighted sheets was great. Our big charismatic beetle, Broad-necked Root Borer (Prionus laticollis), settled in at Jeff and Izabella’s setup and stayed all evening. The Scarlet-winged Lichen Moth (Hypoprepia miniata) was shockingly beautiful.

This is National Moth Week. I’m cogitating on getting my own setup for my cubby-hole of a back yard.

Sunday, more of the same heat. We managed about 3-1/2 hours at Leopold’s Preserve before packing it in. Team leader A.J. did find a few Bar-winged Skimmers (Libellula axilena) for us. We also turned up some puzzling spreadwings; here’s a Lestes in need of a species ID. I still struggle with distinguishing Calico and Halloween Pennants.

I decided to forgo my high boots in the interest of keeping cool, and I brought a couple of American Dog Ticks (Dermacentor variabilis) home with me as a result.

Continuing with his series of workshops on troublesome butterfly ID, Rick Borchelt took us to Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge in Kent County, Maryland on a hot and muggy Saturday. The refuge isn’t that far as the crow flies, but we drivers must either cross the swoopy Bay Bridge, then curl around to Chestertown to get across the Chester River, or take the long way around via Elkton.

Zebra Swallowtails were common to abundant. The headline observation was an Aaron’s Skipper (Poanes aaroni) on the same milkweed inflorescence as a couple Broad-winged Skippers (P. viator). I also got a lucky dorsal view of a Delaware Skipper (Anatrytone logan).

In non-butterfly news, I met the also-common Seaside Dragonlet (Erythrodiplax berenice).

Rick’s wrapup post includes a singularly unflattering picture of me (not that it’s difficult to accomplish) in full anti-solar gear.

Overall, fledging success has been good, but we have had direct observations of Black Ratsnakes in three of our sixteen boxes, plus an additional box from which all the eggs removed/consumed by an organism unidentified. From this week’s report:

Snakes alive! Yet more Black Ratsnake activity in the boxes. We checked box #7, which was hatching on 26 May, and estimated 9 fledglings. Box #6 had reports of snake activity in the period of 26 May to 2 June. Nevertheless, we found 9 WODU eggs in the box, but they were not yet being incubated. Box #1 now has 14 eggs incubating, with an estimated hatch date of 4 July. And N. and I. found a snake in Box #3. Too much drama.

So we have four remaining boxes with possible activity: #6, #1, #3, and #60 (estimated hatch 24 June).

Let’s do a work day on Sunday, 6 July to cover those four boxes, 8:30 AM as usual. Again, we won’t need to whole team: let me know whether you can come. We’ll try to keep cool.

The nesting season for our Wood Ducks and Hooded Mergansers has been a bit topsy-turvy:

Good news, bad news, what’s new? We have at least 3 new Wood Duck clutches started in the past 10 days or so. So part of the bad news is that we’ll probably be working in July. More bad news is that we lost at least one clutch to predation, and another to abandonment. Back on the plus side, 3 boxes hatched out in the past week, for a total of 6 for the season. And C and N found young in Box #7, which will make 7 boxes.

For our next work day, we’ll only need to check 5 boxes: #2, #7, #6, #1, and #3. Let’s set that date as Sunday, 8 June. We won’t need the full complement of the team. Let me know if you can make it on the 8th.

Then, depending on what we find on the 8th, we might go in late June or early July….

Vielen Dank!