Bugging and Musseling

 Today I stayed fairly local, visiting familiar haunts.  I started the day by doing some more bird atlassing north of here and walking at W. Darcy McKeough CA.  Then looking for insects and mussels!

Mosquitoes are finally getting annoying.  I did one interior point count and it was difficult to concentrate on the birds!

I checked on the situation at Reid CA and the Oak Hairtreaks are doing well.  Upon arrival I found eight.  With the hot temps, earlier in the day is better, as I found out when I went back mid-day there were few to be seen.

worn!

Some Banded Hairstreaks were seen as well.

One may have been a Hickory, but it was one of those "tweeners" that I did not get a good look at.

Next week I will be looking for Dukes' Skippers!

I then went up to Moore WMA for the first time this summer.  The Ragweed is doing well again!  Among some butterflies I saw the first Appalachian Brown of the year.

I went to the river's edge to look for mussels.  Blue-tipped Dancers are common here.

A Stream Bluet was in its usual pose.

There were not many mussels, as the river was still a bit high, but the first one was a nice Pink Heelspitter.

A few Maple Leaf and Deertoe were at the crossing, among Fragile Papershell.

Mapleleaf

Deertoe

I checked for hairstreaks, and the only one I saw was a Northern Oak!

I went back to Reid on the way home, and found the first Royal River Cruiser (my favourite) of the year.

Only two or three Oak Hairstreaks were seen in the afternoon heat.

Not too many odes today.

Pronghorn Clubtail