‘Quiet Place in NDG’ of weeks recent

Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina

Chipping Sparrow Spizella passerina

Eastern Phoebe Sayornis phoebe

Woodchuck/Groundhog/Siffleur Marmota monax

Grapevine Beetle Pelidnota punctata

Buck Moon

-->July 21, 2024

-Plenty of young Chipping Sparrows out and about, widely dispersed.

-Two Eastern Phoebes and several Red-eyed Vireos also notable.

-12 species in 90 minutes.

-Encountered Monarchs several times in NDG that week.

American Redstart Setophaga ruticilla

American Redstart Setophaga ruticilla

Woodchuck/Groundhog/Siffleur Marmota monax

feather from a Wild Turkey Meleagris gallopavo

feather from a Wild Turkey Meleagris gallopavo

Skillet Clubtail Gomphus ventricosus

House Sparrow dust bath

Groundhog highways

-->August 3, 2024
-Blazing hot and humid, but it’s supposed to break by Monday.

-Skipped a week, and it was pretty quiet at first in my local patch.

-In a shady spot in the woods, I lingered long on a log, whereas normally I move through. After about 10 minutes of sitting still, a small green-yellowish bird came a’skulking through the gnarled underbrush. American Redstart! First warbler in a while. It paid me no mind, fanning its tail to flush insects for several minutes. Hearing its delicate pip call, I suspect I heard one or more in the same area on July 21.

-No Chipping Sparrows until the end of my circuit. Loads of young birds still, but much less widely dispersed.

-No Vireos or Phoebes, but it was midday during a heat wave.

-Notably, I found a scattered collection of feathers belonging to a Wild Turkey (perhaps it ran afoul of a Red Fox?). There have been sightings of this species all over NDG in the past few years (and weeks), so it shouldn’t be surprising they’d settle in at this quiet wooded spot. This circumstantial evidence becomes personal species #68 for the site.

-Ticked a new dragonfly species, the endangered Skillet Clubtail. Got great bino looks, but only a terrible record shot.

-I was using a ‘web stick’ to carefully clear webs away from narrow trails where necessary, but I must have missed one. When I went to pay for something at a store on the way back, a long trail of dirty webbing and dead insects dangled off my wallet. I guess it was stuck to my pants. The cashier didn’t look impressed.

-10 species in 2 hours.