One Wonderful Hour in Wildwood

After missing a couple of days in Wildwood, I returned on Monday afternoon, entering at the Main Street entrance. I have learned that I need to get my camera out of its case before I get out of the car so that I don't miss a good photo op. As soon as I got around the gate, I was greeted by a fresh and lovely Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilo glaucus). It fluttered up to the top of a thistle plant that was higher than my head and tip-toed across the flower.

    

While I was shooting the butterfly, a humming bird almost bumped my nose with its beak - I don't know who was more surprised by that! Eastern Tigers have a wingspan of over four inches, and they are also Virginia's  official state insect.
I moved on around the wetland area and immediately saw a tiny flutter near my boot tops - Virginia's smallest butterfly, a Least Skipper ( Anclyoxypha numitor) was resting on a plant stem.

The tiny wings glow like bright orange sparkles in sunlight and this one even opened its wings to reveal the top side of those wings -  a sight that I had never seen before!

      And another later opened its wings even more. Ah, I saw some orange on the topside, also.

On a nearby leaf of bittersweet nightshade, my camera found an old friend - a Tater Bug (Leptinotarsa juncta) also known as a False Potato Beetle. Its handsome colors make it very photogenic.

Just above the Nighshade on a leaf of the taller Jewelweed , a Variable Dancer (Agria fummipennis) paused long enough for me to get a quick shot. It had a rich purple color in the filtered sunlight.

Moving on across the wetland, I soon spotted my newest favorite butterfly - a Giant Swallowtail (Papilo cresphotes). I really get excited when I see one of those - the wingspan can be as much as 5 1/2 inches. It's easy to see why it is one of the largest butterflies in North America. Until Monday, I hadn't gotten a very good look at those yellow underwings.

Earlier I had seen its rich chocolate brown upper wings and as it fluttered on the swamp milkweed flowers, I could get glimpses of each side all in one lively blur. I could even see the yellow "eye" on the tip of its tail and could hear the soft flap of its huge wings. 

 As I watched, another Giant joined the first, then another, and another - four in all! What an aerial show!
I eventually put my camera aside and just enjoyed the moment. A humming bird - perhaps the one that had almost collided with me - flew through the twirling butterflies, scattering them back to the flowers. I opened my camera again to capture the latest addition to the scene - a Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilo troilus).

 

Butterflies love Swamp Milkweed and so do tiny Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle larvae. While standing very close to a leaf, I saw one of those dear little creatures crawling slowly along a leaf and a stem. Slow crawlers help make good photos. Is that a shy smile that I see?

Just before storm clouds gathered enough to begin a sprinkle of rain and send me home to my husband Lou and the welcome dinner he usually has prepared for me, I reflected on the joyous hour I had spent with the Wildwood visitors and dwellers, and I knew that I could relive it in my mind with the help of my photographs. How privileged I felt...

GLEN ALTON OUTING

At this pond, you can often see many species of dragonfly. Today we saw few, but the snag trees were busy with birds, including hummers bossing everything around. Photo © Ray Callahan



A cloudy day, but an enjoyable, early morning trip to Glen Alton. Photo © Ray Callahan

Saturday morning (July 16th)at Glen Alton was cloudy and rather cool, relative to the hot weather of the last few days. It was cool enough that few insects were flying. Exceptions were bumblebees and they were everywhere even nectaring on plantain flowers.

Ray Callahan and I visited there to find dragonflies but found only two: a meadowhawk (Sympetrum) that was just emerging from the skin of its old nymph shell; and a female Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis). The Blue Dasher could barely fly because of the low temperature.

We did find a few species of damselfly:

Swamp Spreadwing (Lestes vigilax)
Aurora Damselfly (Chromagrion conditum)
Variable Dancer (Argia fumipennis)
Eastern Forktail (Ischnura verticalis)
Citrine Forktail (Ischnura hastata)

We saw only a few species of butterflies:

Eastern Tailed-Blue (Everes comyntas)
Northern Pearly-Eye (Enodia anthedon)
Common Wood-Nymph (Cercyonis pegala)

Birds were easy to locate, we found 45 species. Highlights included watching a pair of flickers feeding their babies. The young ones would stretch their heads slightly out of the nest cavity (in a large dead pine) and a parent would put food inside their mouths. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds were everywhere, saw twelve at least, probably a lot more. These were all crazy and feisty, diving at and chasing other birds from Scarlet Tanagers to Phoebes to warblers.

Glen Alton by the way is a great place for nature watching and discovery. It is located in Giles County. You can find five species of thrushes in nesting season: Eastern Bluebird, Veery, Hermit Thrush, Wood Thrush, & American Robin. Also Brown Creepers and Red-breasted Nuthatches are known to nest there. There are also scads of singing Blackburnian Warblers.

Many species of dragonfly and damselfly can be found there during the summer. Just not this morning.

Glen Alton is a great place for an easy stroll. There are several ponds for fishing. I plan on posting more about the place later this summer and fall. Stay tuned.



Appropriately enough several Barn Swallows would sally back and forth from this old barn. There were likely nests inside. Photo © Ray Callahan

Drama in Wildwood

WARNING: If you are squeamish or terribly tender-hearted  stop reading now!

On Tuesday, I took my camera to the Eighth Avenue entrance of Wildwood. Skipper butterflies love the Everlasting Peas (Lathryus latifolius) that grow there and often come to nectar. As soon as I arrived at the area, a Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis) greeted me and agreed to pose for photos for a few minutes in the gravels of the road, its colors glowing in the sunlight.

I ambled on to see what I could find in the peas and in the Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea maculosa) that had started flowering. 

Almost immediately I saw a male Sachem Skipper (Atalopedes campestris) resting on a leaf. 

He soon fluttered off to find a bloom, and I followed him with my camera. But wait - there was a green leaf blocking his tiny wing. As I reached carefully for the "leaf", I discovered that it was a leg - and it belonged to a young praying mantis!!!

Oh, no! That dear little butterfly had been captured by a predator.

Amazed, I continued snapping pictures.

 

Although I was heart-broken for the victim, I knew that the captor needed a good lunch. 

Such is the paradox of nature.