August 31st. An afternoon walk east from Cook Hill Road in Lebanon. Cattle grazing in a large open field, not the barnyard.

 

 

 

Bull Thistles (Cirsium vulgare) by the barnyard. Spiny stems...

 

...and yellow-tipped spines on the bracts are definitive.

 

Bumble Bee (Family Bombidae) with a good load of pollen on its hind legs.

 

Lots of spotted Knapweed (Centaurea stoebe) still blooming.

 

 

 

 

 

Bumble Bees like it.

 

A Leafcutter Bee (Family Megachilidae). They carry pollen on the underside of the abdomen, not on their hind legs like many other bees.

 

 

 

Squaere-stemmed Monkey-flower (Mimulus ringens).

 

 

 

Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) buds, flowers, and developing fruits.

 

Mature fruits.

 

Purple Thorn-apple or Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium var. tatula). Poisonous, growing in the barnyard.

 

Developing "thorn-apple" fruit.

 

 

 

Velvet-leaf (Abutilon theophrasti) in the Mallow family Malvaceae.

 

 

 

 

 

Large Milkweed Bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus).

 

Viceroy (Limenitis archippus).

 

 

 

Common Cattail (Typha latifolia).

 

Packed with seeds...

 

...that look like fur when peeled from the stem...

 

...and explode in a cloud if whacked against a tree.

 

September 1st. Cool and dark just west of Grayville Road. Nothing stirring or blooming...

 

...so I doubled back and had a look at Grayville Falls. Testament to this summer's drought...

 

...Raymond Brook has been reduced to the barest trickle.

 

You could easily walk up the length of it and hardly get your feet wet.

 

A brief late afternoon stop at Cranberry Bog. Several family groups of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) still around.

 

A well-camouflaged female Common Pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis).

 

At the barnyard just east of Cranberry Bog.

 

 

 

 

 

September 3rd. Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus).

 

 

 

I think this is one of the Amanitas (Amanita sp.), but I'm very cautious and inexperienced at mushroom IDs. I didn't get on my knees to see if there was a veil.

 

 

 

September 4th. A walk east from Route 207 to the power lines in Lebanon. Amanita sp.

 

Another near by.

 

I won't guess this one.

 

Flowers blooming under the power lines that I don't see elsewhere. Field Milkwort (Polygala sanguinea).

 

Most were in pretty rough shape like this Slender Gerardia (Agalinis tenuifolia).

 

Indian Tobacco (Lobelia inflata).

 

Slender Bush-clover (Lespedeza virginica), well past its prime.

 

Fernleaf False Foxglove (Aureolaria pedicularia). All the open flowers had the upper petals damaged, I think by foraging Bumble Bees.

 

September 5th. Common Reed (Phragmites australis).