May 21st. .A nice patch of Pink Lady's-slipper orchids (Cyprepedium acaule) just east of the Judd Brook bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Clover (Trifolium pratense).

 

Close up, each clover blossom is remarkable.

 

Probably Juvenal's Duskywing skipper (Erynnis juvenalis).

 

 

 

A female Common Whitetail dragonfly (Plathemis lydia).

 

 

 

Tadpoles in a trailside ditch.

 

Wild Geranium or "Cranesbill" (Geranium maculatum).

 

Playing host to a fly and a beetle; likely pollen feeders.

 

 

 

Cinnamon Fern (Osmunda cinnamomea) has separete cinnamon colored fertile fronds.

 

 

 

ID help please?

 

Limber or Glaucous Honeysuckle (Lonicera dioica).

 

False Solomon's-seal (Smilacina racemosa).

 

May 22nd.  False Solomon's-seal flowers up close.

 

The female Cecropia moth first seen on May 20th has moved to a lower perch.

 

 

 

To photograph the moth, I had to step over this Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina).  She was fully occupied in laying eggs; not interested in me.

 

 

 

 

 

A bit further west I found two more Cecropia Moths in the process of mating.  (They remain together for 12 hours or so.  Both had departed by the morning of May 23rd.)

 

When disturbed, they flex their wings in a figure-eight pattern.  If disturbed further, single moths will "shiver" their wings until their muscles are warm enough for flight.

 

 

 

Male with larger antennae and smaller body, is on the right.

 

The male's antennae can pick up the female's scent from a mile or more away.  They fly upwind until they find the female.  (This male only had to travel about 3 feet as it emerged from a cocoon in the same cherry shrub.)

 

 

 

I was lucky to capture a male Hairy Woodpecker (Picoides villosus) bringing food to the nest.

 

 

 

Hairy woodpeckers are larger than Downies and have a longer beak.

 

A male Fragile Forktail damselfly (Ischnura posita).  The green color and exclamation point markings on the thorax are diagnostic.

 

Nearby, a female Fragile Forktail damselfly (Ischnura posita). Her markings are similar but blue.

 

A Hawkweed; possibly Pale Hawkweed (Hieracium x floribundum) a hybrid "species".

 

Common Fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus).

 

Probably Swamp Dewberry (Rubus hispidus); certainly Rubus sp.  A creeper.

 

Morrow's Honeysuckly (Lonicera morrowii).

 

Wild Sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis).

 

 

 

Misc caterpillar.  Best guess the moth family Noctuidae.

 

May 24th.  Light rain.  A male Yellow Warbler (Dendroica petechia) at its nest.