Sam and I joined several birders Saturday for an extended tour of Saul’s Fish Farm, Treadway Minnow Farm, and Bald Knob NWR. It was a beautiful days with lots of sunshine plus a Ruff (life bird for Sam) and a life butterfly, dragonfly, and damselfly for me. Plus an epic battle between a snake and a frog, the snake won. Sunday was cloudy and cold and more subdued but I managed a FOS Yellow-sided Skimmer.
A good morning at Bell Slough
I joined Tom Lewis and Karen Holliday for (primarily) butterflying this morning at a spot that Tom knew about beyond the main entrance to Bell Slough. Our target was Dusted Skipper. Besides finding those in quantity, we also found the following: Little Wood-Satyr, Spicebush Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Goatweed Leafwing, Eastern Tailed-Blue, Red-banded Hairstreak, Pearl Crescent, Snowberry Clearwing Moth, and what I think was a Horace’s Duskywing. Also seen was a Mink (by the quarry) and first of season Acadian Flycatcher and Red-eyed Vireo.
See the pictures from the day below and if you can identify some of those I couldn’t (or find I made a mistake) please let me know. Click the pictures for a larger view and then the back button to return.
Dragons of Spring
The dragons and damsels have started to appear. I saw my first last weekend and got my first pictures this weekend. The three here from the weekend of 3/24 were lifers for me.
