5-31

5-31
The tiny white flowers and mellon-striped calyx's of Sleepy Catchfly can be found in dry gravelly locations.
Invasives Black Swallowwort and Multi-flora Rose are starting to flower.
And Fistulous Goat's Beard AKA Yellow Salsify, and alien escape, is at its showy best.
John

Sleepy Catchfly

Black Swallowwort

Multiflora Rose

Fistulous Goat's Beard AKA Yellow Salsify

5-30

5-30
White Campion is starting to flower.
An amazing array of flower beetles feed on False Solomon's Seal.
And American Painted Lady butterflies are patrolling fields and weed patches.
John

White Campion

flower beetles on False solomon's Seal

Painted Lady

5-29

5-29
A Sweetfern Geometer moth decided that an old aluminum window sash was the perfect place to rest, matching its wing coloration nearly perfectly. Despite its name, host plants for this species include Alder, Beech and Blueberry among others.
And Small Sundrops were living up to their name, brightening a weedy hillside.
John

Sweetfern Geometer moth

Small Sundrops

5-28

5-28
Last night the uniquely marked little moth called the Olive Angle Shades was flying.
This morning Prairie Ringlet butterflies got airborne.
The aptly named Roadside Sand Spurrey flecked the sides of Route 30 with tiny 5 pointed pink flowers.
And in the woods the odd little flowers of Indian cucumber Root dangled below the upper of the plant's two whorls of leaves.
John

Olive Angle Shade

Prairie Ringlet

Roadside Sand Spurrey

Indian Cucumber Root

5-27

5-27
Yellow Hawkweed, Cow Vetch and Bird's foot Trefoil are among the roadside wildflowers blooming today.
John

Yellow Hawkweed

Cow Vetch

Bird's foot Trefoil

5-26

5-26
A moth called the Light Marathysa rolls its wings and contorts its abdomen while at rest presenting a very un-mothlike profile that fools many predators.
And the parasitic, whitish (or pale lavender) One-flowered Cancerroot, AKA Ghost Pipe, is in flower.
John

Light Marathysa moth

One-flowered Cancerroot

One-flowered Cancerroot

5-25

5-25
The large pink flowers of Bristly Locust, native of Virginia south but cultivated here, grace the roadsides.
The garden escape Dame's Rocket is starting to flower. Its four petaled flowers may be pink or purple.
And a sphinx moth known as the Lettered sphinx was among the moths flying last night.
John

Bristly Locust

Dame's Rocket

Lettered Sphinx moth

5-24

5-24
Both common and Swamp Buttercups are starting to flower as are Wild Roses - of one sort or another.
And in my yard early this morning a Bobcat that had failed to capture whatever it was stalking paused in the sun for a few minutes before slinking off.
John

Buttercup

Wild Rose

Bobcat

5-22

5-22
Today in a patch of rich woods Showy Orchis is flowering.
John

Showy Orchis

5-21

5-21
Today Starry False Solomon's Seal and Blue-Eyed Grass are among the species in flower.
John

Starry False Solomon's Seal

Blue-eyed Grass

5-20

5-20
A Locust Underwing moth, too cold to get airborne, flashes its brightly orange barred hindwings hoping to scare me off.
A brilliantly red net-winged beetle, Dictyopterus aurora, advertises its noxious qualities. The ridges in its leathery wings are hollow and rupture easily to release fluids. When handled roughly it also bleeds noxious fluids from its leg joints.
John

Locust Underwing moth

Red net-winged beetle

5-19

5-19
Today Field Peppergrass, a plant of roadsides and waste places, is in its robust glory.
And the first flowering of Yellow Wood Sorrel, also known as Sourgrass, is coloring my lawn.
John

Field Peppergrass

Yellow Wood Sorrel

Yellow wood sorrel leaves

5-18

5-18
Today the little white flowers of Grove Sandwort fleck roadside ditches.
American Copper butterflies are airborne.
Clintonia opened a few dangling yellow-green flowers.
And a few aquatic dragonfly nymphs left the water. I find their empty husks on vertical structures - in this case a phone wire on the side of a building.
John

Grove Sandwort

American Copper butterfly

Clintonia

Aquatic dragonfly nymph husk

5-17

5-17
Today I went looking for and found Pink Moccasin flowers on Black Mountain.
In the same area Black Chokeberry, a low growing shrub, was at its flowering peak.
On the summit quite a few of the Scrub Oaks were infested with what might be Woolly Oak Gall.
And nearby a little day flying moth, most likely an Arigera Flower moth, posed for a picture!
John

Pink Moccasin flower

Balck Chokeberry

Woolly Oak gall ?

Arigera Flower moth

5-16

5-16
Last night a moth called the Eyed Baileya was flying.
Philadelphia is starting to dot my lawn with pale lavender.
And along the West River in Brattleboro Flowering Dogwood - a State listed Threatened species - was at its flowering peak.
John

Eyed Baileya

Philadelphia Fleabane

Flowering Dogwood

5-15

5-15
Bunchberry, the littlest member of the Dogwood family, is in flower.
John

Bunchberry

5-14

5-14
Wild Madder's clusters of little 4 petaled flowers grace a roadside in my neighborhood.
The foamy globes of Red Baneberry find their place in roadside thickets.
Paired yellowish-green flowers dangle below the drooping stalks of Solomon's Seal.
A White Striped Black moth poses as if grateful for the shade cast by my camera.
And a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly was airborne … but not as obliging. I was unable to get a picture.
John

Wild Madder

Red Baneberry

Solomon's Seal

White Striped Black moth