Tag: photo

Two field trips for this year’s annual meeting, both of them in the vicinity of Stuarts Draft on the western slope of the Blue Ridge.

Gary Fleming led the walk to several sinkhole ponds in the Maple Flat area of the George Washington/Jefferson National Forest. Limestone/dolostone account for the sinkholes, but unlike the karst landscape of Lee County, here the soft stone is overlaid by alluvium/colluvium and a layer of clay. One of the specialties of this site is Boltonia montana, only recently scientifically described.

Nate Miller was our guide to Cowbane Prairie NAP, a wet meadow. I would have done well to bring my LaCrosse boots. I didn’t get great images of any of the specialties here (and they were not in flower, anyway). The group enjoyed multiple plants of Bottle Gentian (Gentiana clausa). On a goldenrod, a Spotted Cucumber Beetle (Diabrotica undecimpunctata) made for a nice image, after cropping. It’s probably time for me to start paying more attention to orthopterans.

The Alexandria count in 2023 at Huntley Meadows Park was pretty much washed out. Scouting for this year indicated that there wasn’t much in bloom on the boardwalk side, so I was reassigned to the hike-bike trail side and trip leader Ana. Oh, what a difference! Huge swaths of Bidens, full of skippers, including Ocola Skipper (Panoquina ocola) (new to me this count week) and Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus).

We did take an hour on the boardwalk as well: the highlight of this side was a thistle with a half dozen Great Spangled Fritillaries (Speyeria cybele) nectaring on it.

And snakes and spiders and shorebirds and more wildflowers and more butterflies.

Before returning home, I stayed over an extra day to bag one more state park under the Trail Quest program. Pocahontas State Park was rather quiet on a weekday. I rambled on the yellow-marked Forest Exploration trail in my backup car sneakers (as my usual sneakers were still drying out). Pocahontas has a network of trails designated and graded for mountain bikes, but the Forest Exploration trail is designated for foot traffic only. Much of the walking was on sandy substrate, with plentiful bits of isinglass scattered about. Gunfire, alas, from nearby private land was regularly audible. Not too much in bloom, but I found a solitary Indian Tobacco (Lobelia inflata) in flower and fruit.

Genevieve Wall led a two-day foray to several sites along the James River in Richmond and environs. We took a short walk in the area known as Pony Pasture, along the upper reaches of the whitewater that courses through the city. A fine Tawny Emperor (Asterocampa clyton) made an appearance. At a second site downriver, we crossed the humpty-backed footbridge to Belle Isle; the bridge is suspended from the Route 301 bridge.

The next day, now fully in the Coastal Plain, as we waited for the ferry to Presquile National Wildlife Refuge, some of us spotted an Atlantic Sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus) breaching. The refuge is now a grownup island, as long ago a channel was cut across the base of its peninsula to facilitate river barge traffic (the Turkey Island Cutoff). Meadows in the refuge are relatively clear of most non-native invasives; however, the management plan calls for letting natural succession to take place, which is expected to clear out the infestation of Clematis terniflora. Heavy morning dew on the mown paths plus poor planning on my part resulted in soggy feet for most of the day. An interesting ode caught our attention, but she turned out to be “just” a Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis). We wrapped up the day with a contemplative paddle in canoes from Deep Bottom Park.

The Grass Bunch met, in scattered fashion, at Dyke Marsh Wildlife Preserve, after waiting out a passing thundershower. In the past, field trips to Dyke Marsh (say, for birding) have usually petered out at about the point where the trail turns east. but this time, C and I walked the length of the trail, to the end of the boardwalk. There are some pleasant views from this point.


After scooting through the non-natives near the trailhead, we turned up a couple plants in flower that I had not recorded before, Cutleaf Coneflower (Rudbeckia lacinata) and Biennial Beeblossom (Oenothera gaura).

Bradley Simpson and Judy Fulton led a walk in Prince George’s County’s Jug Bay Natural Area.

Something something I think I had been here before, maybe in a boat? but when I saw the gigantic observation tower with lift, I was sure. Of course, it was eleven years ago. The Baldcypress trees are still there.

There were many stems of Crane-fly Orchid (Tipularia discolor) in bloom, so I was able to secure a good photograph; the Wild Rice (Zizania aquatica) was also blooming; an Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) was delivering lunch (a dragonfly having a bad day).

We struggled with the ID of a sedge-y looking plant that turned out to be not even a graminoid: it’s Arrow-leaved Tearthumb (Persicaria sagittata). Update 24 July 2024: Margaret Chatham convinced me that it was a sedge after all: Georgia Bulrush (Scirpus georgianus).

And in other iNaturalist-assisted IDs, I noted an almost lookalike of Water Pennywort, but it was a completely new genus for me: Kidney-leaf Mud Plantain (Heteranthera reniformis), in the Pontederiaceae.

Genevieve Wall with Nature Forward led a naturalists’ shuffle from Swain’s Lock on the C&O Canal. I have visited several sites in this long skinny park, but as far as I can tell, I have not dropped into Swain’s Lock before. Not too long a drive out River Road, short access road, smallish parking lot, good fit.

Many of us were hoping for more bird activity (we did pick up a distant Yellow-billed Cuckoo [Coccyzus americanus]), and I was looking for butterflies in preparation for Saturday’s count. Not much in the way of butterflies, but I did find what turned out to be a new dragonfly genus for me, a Black-shouldered Spinyleg (Dromogomphus spinosus), with some ID assistance from Lisa Shannon.

The primary objective of this road trip was two visits to nesting grounds of Kirtland’s Warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii), on tours led by Brant Georgia for the Michigan state bird alliance, to see this lifer bird. Success!

Brant explained that, as ground nesters, KIWAs are not dependent on youngish Jack Pines (Pinus banksiana) for food, but rather for the thicket of branches at the base of the stem, providing cover from predators. Blueberries also like to join the thicket party, and these fruits do provide warbler food. At left, you can see planted jacks (along with Red Pines for the loggers) that are about the right size for the birds (heard briefly here); at right, an older stand that reforested itself after an unintentional fire. We spotted our quarry at this location.

With some cropping, I also concocted a nice observation of Nashville Warbler (Leiothlypis ruficapilla)

The bracken fern in this part of Michigan reminds me of Maine; the sandy soil (we’re on a glacial outwash) suggests the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

I had an unscheduled afternoon, so I scooted over to Traverse City to visit The Dennos Museum Center, with its wonderful collection of Inuit art (three cheers for motel literature racks!), a delightful piece of cherry-raspberry pie at Grand Traverse Pie Company, and a quick stop at Grand Traverse Light.

Continuing chronologically, next up was a trip to the northern end of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, about which more presently. I did an overnight in Port Clinton, Ohio, followed by a walk at Magee Marsh Wildlife area, after all the crowds of birds and people had passed through.

i got some decent images of a friendly Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia). June is apparently the month for huge hatches of Hexagenia mayflies in this part of Ohio, up on Lake Erie. Utter carnage in the motel parking lot. A Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) snacked on the critters at Magee Marsh.

Gotta stop for the lighthouses.