Welcome

To all those interested in the natural world. Please add your sightings.

In the woods we return to reason and faith-Emerson

Best-Lynn

Sunday, June 30, 2013

6-30
This hot pink and yellow creature with the sixties hairdo is a Rosy Maple moth.
And Canada Thistle, our commonest thistle, is in flower. Most are pale lilac but this one was the rarer white color phase.
John
Rosy Maple moth

Canada Thistle - white phase

Saturday, June 29, 2013

6-29
An array of boldly patterned moths including the Brown Angle Shades, Greater Black-lettered Dart, Chocolate Prominent and Leconte's Haploa were flying last night.
John
Leconte's Haploa

Chocolate Prominent

Greater Black-lettered Dart

Brown Angle Shades
6-29
Today Canada Lily, Pipsissewa and Blue Vervain were in flower.
And this doe and twin fawns were knee deep in bounty and on full alert.
John
Canada Lily

Pipsissewa

Blue Vervain

Doe and twins

Friday, June 28, 2013

6-28
The purple bearded stamens and orange anthers of Moth Mullein made identification easy despite the fact that both white and yellow varieties of this alien species are in flower today.
A Snapping Turtle was wandering across Camp Arden Road.
And Wrinkled Rose, so named for its wrinkly leaf surfaces, is in flower.
John
White Moth Mullein

Yellow Moth Mullein

Snapping Turtle

Wrinkled Rose


Thursday, June 27, 2013

6-27
Mating Crocus Geometer moths hang on a roadside bush near Route 5.
And in swampy areas, Marsh Hedge Nettle and Square-stemmed Monkeyflower are both starting to flower.
John
Crocus Geometer moths

Marsh Hedge Nettle

Monkeyflower
6-26
Beardtongue shows its namesake appendage in wet meadows and ditches.
Yellow Loosestrife AKA Swamp Candles lights wet places.
And Round-leaved Pyrola hangs nodding waxy flowers on roadside banks and in open woods.
John
Beardtongue

Yellow Loosestrife

Round-leaved Pyrola
6-25
A moth with the common name of Joyful Holomelina shows its colors.
And roadsides are graced with the aptly named Butter-and-eggs.
John
Joyful Holomelina

Butter-and-eggs
6-24
A flattish bladder envelopes the base of Yellow-rattle flowers. Later the seed filled bladder will dry out and rattle in the breezes.
And a Slime mild called Scrambled-egg Slime envelopes both dead and living organisms.
John
Yellow Rattle

Scrambled-egg Slime
6-23
Chicory and Viper's Bugloss grace the side of Route 30. Bladder Campion with its oddly swollen calyx sac dots the fields.
John
Viper's Bugloss

Bladder Campion

Chicory

Wednesday, June 26, 2013


Emerald Ash Borer Field Trip, 6/25, Vorheees, NY.
Photo shows Trish Hanson, VT State Entomologist,
using a drawknife to strip ash bark and uncover evidence of Emerald Ash Borer in an active infestation. At lower right is serpentine track of Ash Borer, a diagnostic.  At left in photo is Jim Esden, a forester with FP&R and instructor at several forest pest workshops sponsored by the Dummerston Conservation Commission. At right is Mark Whitmore, Forest Entomologist at Cornell University and a walking encyclopedia of information on EAB.
Stepping off the bus at the infestation site, the ash borer announced its presence with a flying adult smacking into the face of an FP&R staffer.
Whitmore said all the trees we saw at the site will be dead at this time next year.
For more information on the ash borer, visit vtinvasives.org. Here is url to a recent article on EAB I wrote for the Spring 2013 issue of the Vermont Coverts: Woodlands for Wildlife newsletter, http://vtcoverts.org/newsletters.php.

Morning mailbox walk discovered moose track entering driveway, walking across lawn, a wildflower seedbed and into the woods. Seedbed photo shows Lynn Levine’s Life Size Tracking Guide, with print and straddle information, used for comparison.
Seedbed is several hundred yards from a small pond, where a moose was submerged to its shoulders some years back.
Moose track a welcome change from a middle of the night, seemingly endless, chorus of spinning tires and a large engine. Driver of an 18 wheeler attempted to turn around in a Scott Farm field without first checking to note a dropoff. 



Friday, June 21, 2013

6-21
Today Tubercled Orchids are in flower. The lip of this orchid has a small bump or tubercle, thus the name.
A Goldenrod Crab Spider poised atop a Yarrow awaiting prey.
And, Common Mullein, best known for its rosettes of large hairy leaves, opened the lowest flowers on its shoulder high spikes. Its flowers open sequentially from the lowest to the highest.
John
Goldenrod Crab Spider

Mullein

Tubercled Orchid

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

6-18
Along the roadsides Blue Toadflax is in flower as is this tiny pink blossom which I've tentatively identified as Sand Spurrey.
And among the moths flying today is the Little Virgin Moth, one of the Tiger moths. The black and straw-yellow wing pattern of this moth camouflage it perfectly down in the densely tangled field grasses.
John
Little Virgin Moth (Tiger moth)

Blue Toadflax

Sand Spurrey (?)

Monday, June 17, 2013

6-17
Today, the round shiny leaves and paired yellow flowers of Moneywort brighten wet lawns, fields and ditches.
In cool, wet woods, Greenish- flowered Pyrola has opened its inconspicuous nodding flowers.
And Violet Wood-Sorrel, a low to the ground denizen of mossy woodland brooksides and seeps lifts its face under the light pre-empting tree canopy.
John
Violet Wood Sorrell

Greenish- flowered Pyrola

Moneywort

Sunday, June 16, 2013

6-16
Black-eyed Susans and Partridge berries are starting to flower.
John
Partridge berry flowers

Black-eyed Susan

Saturday, June 15, 2013

6-15
This handsome green Blister Beetle was crawling through the grass in my backyard. According to the Kaufman guide to insects of North America, "When squeezed adults exude skin blistering irritants in a defensive tactic called reflex bleeding." I did not squeeze this specimen.
Clammy Ground Cherry is in flower. The striking yellow and brown flowers dangle face down. I had to tip this one up to get a picture.
And the tiny tiny flowers of Trailing Pearlwort are open.
John
Pearlwort

Blister Beetle

Clammy Ground Cherry

Friday, June 14, 2013

6-14
Whorled Loosestrife - the first of several yellow loosestrifes to flower - was nodding in the breeze today. Moneywort, which is a near relative will be opening any minute!
And the fuzzy pinkish flowers of Motherwort - a mint family member - cluster in the leaf axils of this waist high plant.
John


Whorled Loosestrife
Motherwort

Thursday, June 13, 2013

6-13
On Prospect Hill Wednesday I saw the greatest single species concentration of moths that I have ever seen anywhere. Every step through the Low Bush Blueberries flushed twenty or thirty or fifty of the small drab relatively indistinguishable moths until waves of fluttering insects preceded me like bow waves running ahead of a boat!
The moths were subtly yellowish-tan, white or gray. Each had a 1 1/4 inch wingspan. All appeared to be of the same species despite their slight color variations.
They were (probably) Speranza argillacearia called the Mousy Itame in Peterson's Guide to Eastern Moths, a species whose larvae are known to be serious defoliators of low bush blueberries.
Seeing such a concentration of moths was fun, it was interesting, it was also lightly troubling; and it made me glad that I don't grow blueberries.
John

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

6-12
In my field the large white flowers of Hedge Bindweed drape over other species finding structure without making much investment.
John
Hedge Bindweed

Monday, June 10, 2013

6-10
Ninebark - a shrub overlooked in all of my previous rambles - was in flower today near the West River. Its very round flower clusters stood out like beacons!
The reflex petals of Bitterweet Nightshade flowers spangled the ditches.
And a zig-zag tail dragging groove and parallel claw tracks marked the site of a turtle's nesting on a secluded bit of sand not far from the river.
John
turtle nesting 

Ninebark

Bittersweet Nightshade