August 14th.  Late morning clouds that occasionally dropped heavy rain.  Puddles deep on the trail.  Cyclists with mud up their backs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) sunning.  Hind leg makes me laugh.

 

Make that two Painted Turtles.

 

Spotted Joe-Pye-weed (Eupatorium maculatum) sharing wet feet with Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis) where Raymond Brook crosses under Old Colchester Road.

 

 

 

A brief afternoon stop at Cranberry Bog.  Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodius).

 

Got an itch?

 

Gotta scratch.

 

Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) on Spotted Joe-Pye-weed (Eupatorium maculatum).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos).

 

Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Skipper; best guess is a Little Glassywing (Pompeius verna).

 

From this angle, could be a lot of little things...

 

...but in side view easily identified as a Woolly Bear (Pyrrharctia isabella).

 

Wild Sensitive-plant (Cassia hebecarpa).

 

 

 

 

 

August 15th.  Cultivated Day-lily (Hemerocalis sp.) at the Route 85 trail head.

 

 

 

 

 

Hazy morning but it soon burned off.

 

Virgin's-bower or Wild Clematis (Clematis virginiana).

 

 

 

An early afternoon stop at Cranberry Bog.  Seventeen Canada Geese (Branta canadensis).

 

Lots of exercise and...

 

splashing.

 

 

 

The goose at the left got overexcited and landed on its back.  Oops.

 

 

 

 

 

Next, a brief stop on the trail leading to the Blackledge River bridge.  American Copper (Lycaena phlaeas).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honey Bee (Apis mellifera).

 

A female Horse Fly (Family Tabanidae; perhaps Hybomitra sp.).

 

Dog-day Cicada (Tibicen canicularis).

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure that this is the caterpillar of the Agreeable Tiger Moth (Spilosoma congrua).  It doesn't look healthy, stretched out like this.

 

Update: The next day, the caterpillar was dead; liquifying it's internal structure in much the same way as many Gypsy Moth caterpillars died a month or two ago - the victim of a bacterial or fungal disease.

 

The caterpillar of the Banded Tussock Moth (Halysidota tessellaris).

 

Birdfoot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus).

 

The Viceroy (Limenitis archippus) butterfly emerged from its chrysalis today.  One of my neighbor's children got to release it.  (Pictures of the caterpillar and chrysalis are on earlier pages.)