July 4th, 2007
an abbreviated walk at Mill Pond
On Monday, we visited Mill Pond Conservation Area with the intention of taking a long, slow walk along the Lime Kiln Trail. Unfortunately, that was not to be. Shortly after setting out, we met a family coming down the trail leading from the forest. Everyone had their sweaters pulled up over their heads with just their faces exposed. A couple of the kids shouted “The deerflies are horrible today!” It didn’t take long for us to verify this fact. Despite having sprayed a bit of repellent on our clothes and Sabrina’s coat, the deerflies soon attacked, burrowing into our clothing and through Sabrina’s long hair. Don and I were okay about slapping at flies, but it wasn’t fair to Sabrina to subject her to deerfly bites, so we turned around and headed back to the parking area before we had walked for more than ten minutes.
Despite the shortness of our walk, we spotted quite a few interesting things along the trail. I’ve picked a few of the nicest sightings and posted them here. On a patch of milkweed that was in bloom, I found several insects — the Banded Hairstreak butterfly in the top photo, and some of the insects below (click on all images for larger views. We saw many dragonflies along the way — species which I featured in a recent post after our last visit to Mill Pond, but particularly conspicuous this time round were many of the dark navy-colored Slaty Skimmers (Libellula incesta). Most were alongside the trail in an area of plantation Red Pine. As I approached each one to snap a photo, almost invariably, it would often shoot off its perch stick to fly at me, brushing against my face or hand with wings that made a sound like crumpling cellophane. Returning to its perch, it would pause to crunch down a deerfly that had been buzzing around me just moments before. The dragonfly in the above photo is just finishing up a meal of a captured fly.
Also encountered was this very nice-sized Northern Water snake (Nerodia sipedon). A good meter in length and quite heavy, it was basking among the cobblestones in a muddy spot on the trail. Don had wandered off, so I had an awkward time trying to hold Sabrina’s leash while moving in for a closer shot with my camera. I didn’t want to pull her toward the snake, so I ended up taking a one-armed photo from a little further away than I would have liked to be.
All along the trail, moths were seen flying ahead of us, often flushed up from the vegetation. The moth in the above photo, a Pale Beauty (Campaea perlata), was one of those less-than-obvious sightings where I notice a tiny wedge of pale wing sticking out from the edge of a leaf as I pass by. I carefully turned the leaf to reveal this wonderful little moth.
On the return walk, I stopped to check a patch of Common Milkweed near the parking area. At this time of the year, some of the most happening places for insect activity are milkweed patches, and this one was no exception. In addition to moths, butterflies, dragonflies, wasps, bees and the usual hoverflies, I found the above Clytus ruricola Longhorn Beetle.
And also this Soldier Fly which might be Odontomyia virgo, or a closely related species. The larvae of these flies are aquatic, and the flies are supposed to be found not far from water — which was true in this case. I’ve never seen a fly marked like this before, so it was a nice way to end our abbreviated walk.
Tags: Banded Hairstreak, Satyrium calanus, Slaty Skimmer, Libellula incesta, Pale Beauty moth, Campaea perlata, Northern Watersnake, Nerodia sipedon, Clytus ruricola, Odontomyia virgo