A Hot Day's Walk

Temperature 87°F and rising, humidity 127% (not possible, I know, but it sure felt like it), no breeze, very hazy sun and some clouds. An ugly day for a walk on seldom-used roads through brushy areas and old fields. But it was also a good day for finding insect activity – in spite of the sweat that ran down my back and dripped on my glasses. And so I made a three mile loop and was back to the car before the heat became truly unbearable for this winter-loving naturalist.

The area is fairly flat with wet ditches and a couple of wetlands. It had been hot and rainless for several weeks, so mosquitoes were few and far between and the normally wet areas were dryer than usual. But it wasn’t dry enough to really impact any of the vegetation, and so there were flowers in bloom:

Monkey flower had opened its light blue flowers in a damp roadside ditch –

And the lavender flowers of wild bergamot bloomed in both widely scattered individual plants and large colonies. Wild bergamot appears to be the favored food plant of an interesting day-flying moth, the hummingbird clearwing –

 

Some areas are high and dry and it was there that the earliest of the goldenrods were beginning to bloom –

From the open areas of old fields and heavily logged woodland, the old road wound through wet woodland and a wooded swamp. For almost a half mile the road was covered with tall vegetation where at least one pickerel frog jumped away from my boots every four to six feet. There must have been hundreds of frogs, but only one landed in an open area that offered a chance for a photo –

The wet woodland had an extensive understory of spicebush which attracted spicebush swallowtails –

Further along the old road emerged into an open wetland where a line of flowering buttonbush occupied the border of the road –

The flowers attracted some monarch butterflies as well as a few smaller butterflies known as silver-spotted skippers –

 

Scattered among the buttonbush were some plants of Joe-pye-weed whose buds were ready to open –

And some spotted jewelweed –

Out in an area of open water a green heron worked its way down a long-fallen tree –

And then the road led back into an area of old fields and fencerows full of catbirds –

and Virginia creeper showing signs of fall –

It was good to get back to the air-conditioned car for the ride home.

Mr. Zippy

There I was, minding my own business, walking down an old road from the mid-1800s that still gets occasional use, perhaps one or two vehicles a week. As I came over a small rise there was a lump in the road – and it moved!

The camera’s zoom lens brought the moving lump into focus, revealing it to be a porcupine walking up the road –

Porcupines have always remind me of the cartoon character Mr. Magoo: beady-eyed, near-sighted, somewhat bumbling, but – except for their occasional meeting with a fisher, bobcat or vehicle – things work out well in the end.

As it kept walking up the road the time came to switch the camera to video mode.

The porcupine came on and on, pausing to examine a fallen branch. There was a bit of hesitation as it appeared to pick up my scent, and then on it came. The porcupine reached my alpenstock, examined that, came closer still. And then I moved my foot –

From the fallen log the porcupine went first to one tree, then to another, and on to a third – a hemlock which apparently was just right, for it climbed that tree –

As it fled, it was probably the fastest porcupine I’ve ever seen. Fleet-of-foot they are not, their only effective defense comes from the 30,000 quills adorning their bodies and tail, a muscular tail that is snapped from side to side to repel and punish potential predators with a serving of quills.

Dragons & Damsels

Dragons and damsels are members of the order Odonata, an ancient group of insects commonly known as dragonflies and damselflies. The two groups are often lumped together as dragonflies (or darning needles), but they are different and quite easy to tell apart.

The easiest way to distinguish between them is by how they hold their wings when at rest. Dragonflies hold their wings spread horizontally while most damselflies hold their wings together over their backs and appear more delicate; there’s a small group of damselflies called spreadwings whose wings are held in an intermediate position.

These dragons and damsels frequent wetlands of all kinds, from arctic bogs to sluggish tropical rivers. Here in northcentral Pennsylvania they’re most often found along the edges of lakes and ponds, but some species inhabit swift mountain streams, others the largest rivers. Nymphs of all dragonflies and damselflies are aquatic until they climb from the water and emerge as adults. While most of the adults frequent water bodies, some spend a lot of time hunting smaller insects far from any water.

Here are some of the northeast's most beautiful dragons and damsels –

These insects have been on earth for hundreds of millions of years (the species were different then, some were much, much larger than any living species) and they’re still here.