June 17th.  Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) have been around lately.  I think they're taking Serviceberries as they begin to ripen.

 

 

 

Pasture or Carolina Rose (Rosa carolina).

 

 

 

 

 

Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota) should be in bloom a week or so from now.

 

Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria).

 

Best guess is a Delaware Skipper (Anatrytone logan).  At first I thought the dark stripe on the hind wing was a marking, but it turns out to be a tear.

 

And it's off!

 

Dragonfly eyes and face.

 

Most likely a female Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis).

 

June 18th. A midday visit to what was once a meadow and wood along the Jeremy RIver just downstream from Grayville Falls and the merger with Raymond Brook.

 

Nice riffles flowing past where teens have dammed the stream to create a wading area.

 

Succession has mostly obliterated the meadow but a few wildflowers hang on.  This is Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron annuus).

 

 

 

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta).

 

Northern Bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica) fruits are maturing.  Soon they'll be covered with a blue-grey way that can be used to msake candles.  Yellow-rumped Warblers are among the few birds that can digest the wax.

 

Stargrass (Hypoxis hirsuta) is being crowded out as the meadow matures.  Not a grass, but a lily.

 

Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos).

 

Little Wood-Satyr (Megisto cymela).

 

 

 

 

 

Best guess is a Clubtail dragonfly (Gomphus sp., perhaps a female G. exilis).  Tattered wings show its age.

 

A female Painted Skimmer (Libellula semifasciata).

 

 

 

 

 

A brief walk at two spots where the trail passes close by RIver Road in Colchester.  Wood-sorrel (Oxalis sp.)

 

Bedstraw (Galium sp.).  Tiny 4-petaled flowers and leaves usually in whorls of six at nodes.

 

Hmm, I know this moth but can't remember its name.  I'll get help.

 

Peppergrass (Lepidium sp.).

 

Pineapple-weed (Matricaria matricaroides).  Crush it and release the scent of ripe pineapple.

 

Blue Toadflax (Linaria canadensis).

 

Venus' Looking-glass (Specularia perfoliata).

 

Lots of Flower Flies (Family Syrphidae) on it.

 

 

 

Another kind of Flower Fly on Daisy Fleabane.

 

A very cool beetle.  Thanks to BugGuide.net, I know it's a Slender Lizard Beetle (Acropteroxys gracilis) in the Family Erotylidae (the Pleasing Fungus Beetles).

 

It was on a stem of Spotted Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium maculatum).

 

Photography was tricky: everytime I approached, the beetle circled to the far side of the stem.  Eventually, I tricked it into returning by wiggling my free hand on the far side.

 

June 20th.  Some macro test shots using my Canon SX-50 with Raynox DCR-250 close-up lens and my "Art Vaughan" flash diffusion set up.  This grasshopper nymph was barely bigger than a single Yarrow flower.

 

A different nymph, but similar sized.

 

The head and pronotum of a Longhorned Beetle (Family Cerambycidae) on Yarrow.  A messy pollen eater.

 

Deptford Pink (Dianthus armeria).