I arrived at 06:00 to start looking for birds. A few of us spent the next few hours looking and listening for resident birds.
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| Eastern Wood Peewee |
We did not find anything spectacular (and virtually no migrants yet). A pair of Scarlet Tanagers was a nice find at one point.
And, a family of noisy Tufted Titmouse was amusing to watch.
I tallied 34 species of birds on my eBird list, but some were flyovers. The best flyover was a Red-shouldered Hawk.
https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S58883991
Soon, others arrived to look for any living thing. A bioblitz is a survey performed by naturalists to look for anything and everything in a givern area on a given day. We had plant experts like Will Van Hemessen and Larry Lamb and Jeff Skevington for flies and insects.
One good find was this Virginia Flower Fly.
I recorded about 15 species of butterflies. There were lots of Wild Indigo Duskywings.
Columbine was present as well.
Hairstreaks included Hickory, Banded and Coral.
Some skippers included Tawny-edged, Silver-spotted, Dun and Northern Broken-Dash.
We also saw about nine species of dragonflies. Lance-tipped Darners were numerous.
Probably the most interesting dragonfly was a Royal River Cruiser that I spotted at one point. These things obviously tend to wander and this was no exception, as there is no water source very close!
Eastern Forktail was the only damselfly I saw. It can vary in colour.
Some plants included the resident Cylindrical Blazing Star and Rough Blazing Star.
At one point someone found a Northern Walkingstick. I had not seen one in a long time!
Green Milkweed was near the road, but not in very good shape.
Ebony Spleenwort was a nice find.
We were done by about 1 p.m. and then met for lunch down the road at Grog's, famous for their pizzas!
It was a fun day with near perfect weather and good comaradary.
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