theater, natural history and conservation, the utterly mundane, and Etruscan 8-tracks
Another visit to the Julie Metz Wetlands in Prince William County, this time with the Grass Bunch. Happy, abundant vegetation: here’s the view from J.’s favorite spot. Some fairly easy sedges, like Sallow Sedge (Carex lurida); an unexpected non-Tipula crane fly, Spectacled Crane Fly (Epiphragma solatrix).
Some of the paths through the wet areas are pretty janky: what I call Bring Your Own Boardwalk.
The latest update on nest box monitoring:
Ooh, lots of activity for the end of April! Four boxes have hatched (all of them off the main pond: #2, #10, #7, #6). For Box #2, I flushed the hen, who gave me a broken wing distraction display… because there were ducklings in the box! Camera snafu, so I was not able to get a photo.
Meanwhile, Box #13, which looked to have been abandoned with a single egg, is now incubating 14 eggs; Box #84 is a new nest, also incubating. We have five boxes incubating at this point.
For May, our work days will be 10 May and 24 May. We can make 10 May our last day to check all the boxes; on the 24th, we can spot check just those that are still incubating….
Scots Gaelic is in my Google Translate (I was checking a sus etymology): Tapadh leat!
N., one of my volunteer nest box monitors, wrote up the program for her Master Naturalists chapter. Good pix!
I put together a quick road trip to Williamsburg, anchored by a visit to the recently expanded Muscarelle Museum of Art on the William & Mary campus for its fine exhibition of women Abstract Expressionists.
After that, it was field trips:
a short walk along the Basset Trace Nature Trail, carefully tended by the Virginia Master Naturalists Historic Rivers Chapter; oddly, you drive through Colonial Williamsburg and park next to a hotel building to get to the trailhead;On the back roads of U.S. 17 and Virginia 3, I lost count of the number of Baptist churches, as well as yard signs urging YES or NO in the upcoming referendum [Narrator: David is against the measure].
An easy saunter up the C&O Canal from Carderock with Nature Forward’s Stephanie Mason, Genevieve Wall riding shotgun, and some familiar bird and plant people. We got stuck on “High Hopes,” most of us wrinklies remembering this novelty song from an animation seen on Captain Kangaroo, after watching two ants dragging a dead spider twice their size across the towpath.
Genevieve spotted a Silver-haired Bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) roosting. Stephanie pointed out Smooth Rockcress (Borodinia laevigata (= Boechera laevigata)), a new plant for me. We all heard Louisiana Waterthrush singing very clearly, but nobody got eyes on it. Another critter with high hopes: an American Beaver (Castor canadensis) swimming upstream in an arm of the Potomac.
Genevieve and I collaborated to reconstruct the chorus of New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle” (not “strange,” as I think I told the group) to serenade a trio of Wood Ducks, two drakes and a hen.
From this week’s report:
Rolling along. We’ve got 5 active nests, and depressions in several other boxes.
N. spotted a wee Ribbon Snake. The first Spring Beauties are starting to flower…
Until next Sunday,
First report of the season for our nestboxes for Wood Duck and Hooded Merganser:
As I (successfully, for once) predicted, our birds have not begun laying in our 16 boxes, due to the snow and cold in February. We added fresh chips to all and trimmed back vegetation around some of the boxes along Barnyard Run.
We have plenty of plastic bags in the shed for carrying chips; we have almost used up our supply of chips. I’ll make a note for next winter to request more chips.
I will bring supplies to touch up the numbers on a couple of the boxes.
L. spotted a handsome Dark Fishing Spider (Dolomedes tenebrosus) in the shed.
See you next Sunday, same time and place. Remember that we switch over to Daylight Saving Time at 2 AM that morning….
Thank you!
Most of my outings are walks rather than hikes these days.
Yet another middling successful season of monitoring nest boxes at Huntley Meadows Park, Fairfax County, Va. I performed invasive surveys and management in several locations in Northern Virginia, including the Nature Conservancy’s Fraser Preserve.
I’m backfilling iNaturalist with photos I posted to Flickr years ago, most of which I have good location information for. And I did some major traveling this year. So my species numbers are up.
Cold front blowing through at mid-day: a sprinkle of rain, then 20+ mph winds. The trees around the Ashburn Library pond were birdier than usual (I spotted a Ruby-crowned Kinglet), as if to compensate for the lack of interesting birds on the pond. The ponds at Graves Lane/Corder Place now have swan decoys posted, perhaps to discourage the Canada Geese, at which task they were moderately successful; unfortunately, they may have discouraged the interesting ducks, too.
We found a few Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) against the gray skies.
The CBC for the Seneca count circle took place on 14 December. Overnight left a frosting of snow, followed by dropping temperatures and wind. I lost two counters due to illness, a third to the weather, and a fourth to travel. Nevertheless, my team in sector 14 turned up 47 species (pending returns from one more feeder watcher). Lake Fairfax was nearly completely iced over, with nothing but Canada Geese loafing in the open water and a lonely Ring-necked Duck foraging. Our special birds were (pending review) Cackling Goose (Branta hutchinsii), Broad-winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus), and Orange-crowned Warbler (Leiothlypis celata).
I started an iNaturalist project to keep tabs on possible sightings on future counts. So I was at least able to add a Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) to the project.
Small accomplishments during the year, not otherwise accounted for. Not major milestones, but bigger than inchstones.
A quick stroll in woods and meadows of a section of Leopold’s Preserve that I hadn’t seen before, led by Marion Lobstein and Claudia Thompson-Deahl. We stopped for a look at the ruins of the Brent family homestead. Red-legged Grasshoppers (Melanoplus femurrubrum) were still hopping.
I’ve been to this bit of the C&O Canal at least once before back when I was starting to learn plants, probably more. Wednesday it was very quiet: I think we’re far enough upriver to be out of the flight paths for DCA. Sassafras showing fall reds and yellows, some lingering asters like Symphyotrichum cordifolium. I found an ichneumonid wasp, tentatively Coleocentrus rufus, and an oil beetle, Meloe sp. J. D. Pinto in BugGuide says, “It is difficult to distinguish females of Meloe americanus from M. impressus without examining pygidial structure (americanus females have a narrow apical flange).” (link added)
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.