February 2021: Describe your walk by adding a comment below
Each time you go out and make observations for this project, describe your walk by adding a comment to this post. Include the date, distance walked, and categories that you used for this walk.
Suggested format:
Date. Place. Distance walked today. Total distance for this project.
Categories.
Brief description of the area, what you saw, what you learned, who was with you, or any other details you care to share.
Comentarios
2/1/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3091.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
The air temperature was up to 22F when I went out today, so I was hopeful, initially that I would find some arthropods. But when I measured the surface temperature, I found it was 14F, good old heat inertia effect with the snow. So I figured my chances of finding anything were pretty low after all. Much to my surprise, when I was walking down the driveway, I found a honeybee on the surface. It was quite, quite frozen. I brought it back to the house to see if it would revive. Nope. Perhaps it left the hive to defecate and froze to death. Do I have a wild hive at the end of the my driveway?
2/2/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3093.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
I was delighted today when the temperature warmed up and we got a little snow, about 4" of fluff. When I went out for my walk, the air temperature was about 30F, but the snow surface temperature was -3.5C. Still, with light and then heavy snow falling, conditions were pretty good for bug hunting. I found a winter stonefly near the brook, an Orbellia fly, 4 Chionea flies, a Tetragnatha spider, a Cicurina spider, and a Trichocera fly.
2/3/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3095.7 miles total.
Categories; arthropods on snow
The temperature was still around 30F today when I went out, and so was the snow surface temperature. It was overcast, but their was a stiff, cold breeze. I only found 4 insects: a caddisfly, a Chionea fly, and 2 Trichocera flies. Temperature is important, but it's not everything. Oddly, the Trichocera flies might be expected to be most affected by wind since they actually fly, but they were out while spiders were not. I think perhaps temperature is what is most important to Trichoceras. But spiders? Something else controls their appearance.
2-2-21. Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 941.25 miles total
Categories: fruiting, arthropods.
It started snowing on the 31st and didn't actually stop for more than an hour until the 3rd, but the vast majority of the snow (18 inches or so) was done by Tuesday morning (the 2nd) and I put my snowshoes on that afternoon and tramped through my backyard in the light flurries to see what I could see above the snow. It was weird to have my split rail fence only come up to my knees. Not an insect or spider was to be seen, not even in the more wooded section in the back of the yard. I had fun, though, photographing morning glory and velvet leaf fruits. And I notice for the first time ever that our 25-year-old dawn redwood made a few cones.
Wow! You folks got more snow than we've had all winter! I haven't put my snowshoes on yet this winter. Thanks for the report about lack of spiders--it's more data about where they are and where they aren't. Maybe here in Vermont we're in a hot zone for snow spiders. Congratulations on the dawn redwood cones!
2/4/21. Peck Hill, Rd. Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3097.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
This afternoon was sunny and warm (around 30F according to our wood shed thermometer in the shade). I found several winter stoneflies, several chionea, a Trichocera, a wolf spider sunning on the surface, and a Cicurina spider. When I took temperature measurements by the wolf spider, the air temperature at 1.5 m was +1.5C, at 1 cm it was +4.6C, and on the surface, -0.5C. Lots of reflectivity going on. The wolf spider seemed well aware of the heat gain near the surface in the sun.
2-3-21. North Rd., Warren, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 942 miles total.
Category: fruiting.
With the deep snow I didn't feel like breaking trails, so I left my car at the farmer's market and walked up the residential street there. It had been well plowed, but was narrower than usual, and most of it still had a thin layer of snow. There are some nice untended areas next to the market and then farther up a house that's been vacant for a while. No real surprises here. I found red cedar fruit, and Chinese silver grass, orchard grass, Tridens, goldenrod, mugwort, curly dock, privet, woolgrass, and an aster. I also saw a turkey vulture, mantis ootheca, and galls from honeysuckle aphids and ash flower galls.
On the way back to my car I was looking at some black knot in an ornamental Prunus of some kind and slipped on the snow, landing flat out on my side, but luckily I wasn't hurt. Still, I kept my eyes on the road for the rest of the walk.
2-4-21. Tea St. and Cedarcrest, Bound Brook, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 942.5 miles total.
Category: naturally occurring.
Today is Molly's 22nd birthday, and I drove to the big ShopRite as they have the best chocolate cake around, to get her one for dessert. With the snow still deep, I walked the residential streets nearby. These are modest houses very close together and everything is thoroughly landscaped (and covered with snow) I found a few mouse-ear chickweeds, some hairy bittercress in grass that had been exposed by someone's snow blower, a patch of mugwort in an untended corner, and some lichens and an evergreen bagworm on the street trees, but essentially nothing else that wasn't put there on purpose. Not even any birds (though I could hear a house sparrow, I couldn't see it). But still, I got to stretch my legs and I didn't fall, either. Some lady in the grocery store lot commented that "you sure must like to walk, huh?" And here I hadn't even walked very far!
Wow! It's very difficult to look for weeds with heavy snow on the ground. Glad you didn't get hurt when you fell! Thoreau's comment about winter being a good time to study lichens comes to mind.
2/5/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3099.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
We had another inch or 2 of light powdery snow last night and this morning. By the time I went out for my walk after lunch, the snow had stopped, but it was still overcast, and the air temperature was around 30F. The snow surface temperature was a little cooler, -2.5C. I guessed I would find a few Chionea flies, but I didn't know about spiders. Indeed, I found 5 Chioneas, a Trichocera fly, a stonefly, one Tetragnatha spider (brown), and very dispersed flock of springtails.
2-6-21. Technology Dr. North, Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 942.75 miles total
Category: fruit
I was scratching my head for somewhere to walk where I could legally park off the road and then walk where things had been plowed, there would not be much traffic, and at least some of the area would be wild. I settled on the post office. It's in a "new" (about 15 year old) development with just it, a very old small manufacturing plant, a big church, and some kind of office building with a gated lot. I walked along the road and was just about to cut (technically tresspassing) across the church parking lot to make a loop around the plant, when a police car drove slowly by. So I turned around and stayed on the public road. The church people are very nice, I can't imagine they called the cops, but I wasn't going to be defiant here.
As far as fruit goes, I found rose, mugwort, Queen Anne's lace, tulip tree, Japanese wisteria, and St. John's wort. I also spotted a nest and a mockingbird, the first I've photographed in 5 months (they don't come to my feeder).
Wow--such a culturally different area! I can't imagine drawing attention from the police for taking plant photos. Although, I have to say, when I was visiting North Carolina, someone got huffy with me when I was taking bird photos in the vacant lot beside their yard, all from the public road. I've been living in Vermont so long I forget that the rest of America doesn't live this way. Great spotting on the mockingbird. The last one I saw was in Massachusetts more than a year ago. I've never seen one in Vermont.
2/6/21. VAST Trails, Calais, VT. 3 miles today, 3102.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods, woody plants
This morning I met up with 2 friends from our Saturday hiking group at the Calais town hall. We walked up Emslie Rd to the VAST (snow mobile) trail, then followed the trail into the woods. Rather than keeping my eyes glued to the ground searching for arthropods, I tried to keep up with the others and not slow them down too much for photos. I grabbed a few shots along the way. When I did see a Chionea fly I called out to them so I could show the fly to them, but they were up ahead chatting about local history and didn't hear me. I shot a fir, a spruce, and a fine old yellow birch along the trail. I also was searching for galls, leafminers, and stem borers for my bugs in winter course with Charley Eiseman. I found a nice goldenrod bunch gall and wrinkly thing on a wild rose, but no luck with the stem borers.
In the afternoon, I went out with my husband to get some footage of him on his unicycle along the VAST trails. I was amazed to see him negotiate the steep hills in the snow. He's made great progress over the past year, but even more over the past 2 weeks since the VAST trails have opened. While I waited for him to pedal by, I searched for more leafminers and stem miners. I finally found a leafminer, Coleotechnites, in a hemlock. As we were getting back in the car, I spotted a grouse nibbling some buds in a tree high above the road.
2/7/21. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3104.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
This afternoon the air temperature was about 30F when I went out, and the snow surface temperature just a tad cooler, so I thought conditions might be good for finding some more Chionea flies, but no luck. The only arthropod I found on snow was a dead fuzzy caterpillar, perhaps Arctia caja with its very long hairs. Meanwhile, I did some more intense hunting for some stem miners and leaf miners. I found some egg shells on a hazelnut branch (stink bug?) and an empty pupa skin on a balsam poplar branch. I found another Coleotechnites shelter in some hemlock needles, plus another shelter in some fir needles that might be Coleotechnites or Epinotia. Still no stem borers, though.
2/8/21. Pekin Brook Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3106.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
The temperature was a chilly for arthropod hunting when I went out this afternoon, 21F at 1.5 m and -7.9C on the surface of the snow. I found some interesting tracks on the driveway, non-hooved mammal that was bounding in groups of 4. The size looked good for snowshoe hare, but it didn't have the long back paws. There were about 5-6' between bounds. I think it might be bobcat. Given the chilly snow temperature, I didn't expect to find any arthropods. But then up by the south facing farm field, the snow definitely felt warm in the bright sun. And just a little ways below the field, I found a brown tetragnatha. They seem to be the true cold weather spiders.
2-8-21. Acme, Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 943 miles total
Category: sticking out of the snow
We got another 7 inches on Sunday. I very much wanted some kind of nature today but I had a very busy schedule, so I simply walked around the edge of the parking lot and truck-access road behind the grocery store. They'd piled the snow some here but most of it was just the foot-and-a-half that we've got on the ground at the moment. There was burning bush (planted), Japanese honeysuckle, silky dogwood, a big blackberry, border privet (possibly planted), forsythia (planted), Japanese aralia, porcelainberry, box elder, staghorn sumac, pin oak, a honeysuckle with aphid damage, white pine (planted) and barberry (planted). And I spotted a white-throated sparrow sitting in some mugwort, apparently eating the fruit of it.
You found quite a bit to look at, despite the snow! I haven't seen a white-throated sparrow in quite a few months.
2/9/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3108.7 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
This afternoon when I went out, both the air and surface temperature were about 20F, with heavy, cold high moisture content snow falling. The fresh snow made it easy to scan the surface for arthropods, but I didn't find any, not a one. And no recognizable tracks, either. When I got back from my route, I went out into the yard for some turkey tracks, but even they weren't recognizable through the deep snow. So I had to settle for an ash seedling that I hadn't noticed before in the yard. I found it beside my temperature monitoring station, which the turkeys had pulled off its mount on a tree, just out of curiosity. I had intended to monitor the temperature of the snow at 20 cm above the ground simultaneously with the air temperature at 1.5 m throughout the winter. It's not working out, though, since the snow just got to 20 cm this week. And now the turkeys have discovered the snow stake and keep tugging at the pink ties I used to mark the 10 cm segments along the stake and even the temperature sensor.
I had no idea turkeys were such pains in the neck! Around here they mostly cause problems by standing in the road and refusing to move.
2-9-21. Pleasant Valley Park, Lyons, NJ. 0.75 mile today, 943.75 miles total.
category: fruiting
This was the longest walk I've taken all month, as I found that this park's trails had been plowed! So exciting. I actually got to walk through woods without snowshoes. And right at the start there was a very tame (but very active) golden-crowned kinglet, only the third I've ever (knowingly) seen, and the first I've photographed. (though I tend to aim high with my camera and the little guy was hopping all through the bushes, so I took a lot of photos with no recognizable bird in them).
Fruit-wise (and fruit remains) there was privet, mugwort, bull thistle, rose, burning bush, crabapple, aster, dock, poke, whtie snakeroot, poison ivy, blue vervain, black locust, and Bidens. And there were a lot of nice lichen as well.
2/10/11. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3110.7 miles total.
Categories: Tree debris on snow
This afternoon the temperature was 23F when I went out. We had snow showers in the morning with some white outs, so I expected to find a clear snow cover. But there had been some wind after the white outs, so there was tree debris everywhere, bits of bark and lichen. Between the cool temperatures and the continuing breeze, I didn't find any arthropods, so instead I shot some tree debris, a box elder samara and a balsam poplar leaf. As I was coming back up the driveway I found fresh deer tracks to shoot as well.
2-10-21. Papaianni Park, Edison, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 944.25 miles total.
Category: fruiting, birds
Carl suggested this somewhat urban park with a pond as likely to have plowed paths, and he was right. (He also likes it as it's right by the Northeast Corridor; we saw 3 Amtrak trains and a NJ Transit in the half hour we were here). We did the loop around the pond. Some of it was rather slippery but at least the snow wasn't falling in my shoes. The pond is not quite frozen solid, and there were masses of ring billed gulls, mallards, and geese near the open spot, nearly all snoozing in the sunshine. I also spotted a female house sparrow on a bluebird house.
Fruiting were bittersweet, mugwort, black locust, mullein, bush clover, white snakeroot, aster, dogbane, dogwood (well fruit stems at least), ironweed, evening primrose, clematis, and goldenrod. I wasn't looking for them, but also found a narrow-winged mantis ootheca (such a great word), locust borer moth gall, a fasciated Chinese bush clover, evergreen bagworm bag, and a goldenrod bunch gall.
2/11/21. Peck Hill Rd, George Rd, VAST Trails, Calais, VT. 3.5 miles today, 3114.2 miles total.
Categories: buds, leafminers
This afternoon is was 21F when I went out for my walk. The sun was shining brightly and there was a stiff breeze with no new snow since yesterday. I didn't even bother to carry my pack with my weather gear on my walk up Peck Hill since I figured I wouldn't find any bugs. Indeed, no bugs, so I shot a lone sugar maple leaf in the trail.
When I got back, I found a Consolidated Communications truck parked in at the bottom of the driveway. We're still trying to get the upgraded DSL that we ordered back in October installed, so the guy was here attempting the installation again. I was supposed to run some errands, but I needed to leave by 3 PM. The truck wasn't moving, so I couldn't get out of the driveway, and I couldn't go in the house either since the guy was a mask refuser wearing a dirty neck gaiter around his chin. Bonus walk time! I headed up George Rd and picked up the VAST trail at Leonard Rd for a loop back down to the farm through the woods. I haven't walked this section of the trail in several years, even though it is so close to the house. Too much Peck Hill walking, I guess. With my eyes trained on the vegetation instead of the snow, I managed to find 2 leafminers (fir and pine), plus a stem miner (hemlock). I also shot some buds: gray birch, yellow birch, buckthorn, mountain maple.
2/12/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3116.2 miles total.
Categories: tree debris
The temperature was -11C when I went out today, about the same in the air as on the ground. Even though there were no people around, I wore my mask for the whole walk just to keep warm. I had no luck finding arthropods, so I shot a beech leaf blowing in the road. Crispy, very crispy conditions today.
2-11-21. Bridgewater Promenade, Finderne, NJ. 1 mile today, 945.25 miles total.
Category: fruiting
I needed to go to Target, so parked at the far end of the strip mall and walked along the (helpfully shoveled) sidewalk, looking at the weeds along the fence line. Fruiting were Ailanthus, mugwort, grape, rose, broomsedge bluestem, goldenrod, dogbane, Tridens, aster, horseweed, poke, and evening primrose.
2-12-21. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 945.5 miles total.
Categories: buds, fruiting
I was on duty and the snow is still deep. So I parked in two different spots in this big park and just walked the perimeter of the parking lot plus a little ways up the road in the second. Budding I found hophornbeam, red maple, red oak, black oak, flowering dogwood, ash, sweet birch, autumn olive, and elm. Fruiting were rose, mugwort, goldenrod, barberry, privet, bittersweet, woolgrass.
2-14-21. Capik Nature Preserve, Sayreville, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 946.75 miles total.
Category: unusual
Carl and I drove half an hour down to this wooded park around some reservoirs. The trails turned out to be mechanically packed snow, which was very easy to walk on. Unusual (for me) things I found included river birch, pitch and Virginia pines, grey birch, blueberry (both high and low), winged sumac, bayberry, sweet fern (I almost never find this), round headed bush clover, glaucous greenbriar, and some kind of cocoon of leaves.
It's amazing to see how much snow you still have. Proper permanent snow cover! Cool trees in the Capik Nature preserve--river birch, pitch pine, Virginia pine. Students in my winter tree identification course have been observing these species. I have only seen them in person when far, far away from home.
2/13/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3118.2 miles total.
Categories: tree debris
The temperature was still cold today, but perhaps marginally warmer at 21F when I went out. The surface temperature was about the same. Once again, I didn't find any arthropods, so I shot a sprig of hemlock in the road. Then I found some clear fresh turkey tracks to add to the collection.
2/14/21. George Rd, Calais, VT. 2.1 miles today, 3120.3 miles total.
Categories: insect tracks
This afternoon I met up with 3 of my friends for our postponed Saturday morning hike. They felt yesterday morning would be too cold (3F in the morning). Getting soft in our old age, I guess. One of our group has stayed away for 2 weeks because there are Covid cases at her work site. Hopefully, she can join us next week. We walked the VAST trail from the top of George down to Leonard and met my husband along the trail on his unicycle. I found galls on rose and willow, and a leafminer on hemlock. I also found a fairly large Canada plum along the road that I have never noticed before.
3 F is pretty darn cold. Plus my camera battery doesn't last very long in those low temperatures. Scary to see COVID spreading everywhere, even up where you all are. And if there were a fairly large Canada plum by me it would likely continue to go unnoticed; I've only ever IDed one single plum tree (aside from beach plum down the shore), and that was only because it had fruit.
What drew my attention to the plum was the spurs. It is across the road from a scraggly plum that I have been watching for years. But this one is getting more sun seems to be growing quite well.
2/15/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3122.3 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
The temperature finally was amenable to arthropod hunting today, air temperature about 28F when I went out, and the same on the surface. We were getting just a few snow flurries, the start of the big storm that is supposed to hit tonight. I found a Chionea fly and a stonefly, so I was quite pleased.
2/16/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3124.3 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
Our promised snowstorm was a bust, just 3" out of the 6"-12" that we were promised. Still, the temperature was near 32F when I went out with a nice coat of fresh snow covering the tree debris, so I had good luck on my hunt. I found 8 live stoneflies and 1 roadkill stonefly with 2 mites. I also found 4 Trichocera flies, a Diamesa fly, and a Chionea fly. A good day for flies!
2/17/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3126.3 miles total.
Categories: arthropods
The temperature dipped again today, down to 20F when I went out. The surface temperature of the snow was -10C, a bit cooler. I didn't think I would find any bugs, but I managed to find a single dead spider, so I was glad for that. The spider was so crusty, I wondered if perhaps it was just a skin from a molt.
2-15-21. Pleasant Valley Park, Lyons, NJ. 1 mile today, 947.75 miles total
Category: blue
I picked this park because they cleared some of their paths. I walked a section in the back that I'd never been to before. I had fun looking for blue. I found dogwood, black raspberry, and box elder twigs, and privet, blackhaw, and juniper fruit.
2-16-21. Mountain Park. Liberty Corner, NJ. 0.75 mile today, 948.5 miles total.
Category: fruiting
It was in the 40s today and everything was melting, though we still had 6 or 8 inches of snow on the ground come evening. The trails here were plowed, though still had slushy/icy bits and much of them had become small streams with all the meltwater. My shoes got soaked. I walked the edge of the playing fields, looking into the shrubbery for species. Fruiting I found red cedar, Queen Anne's lace, blackberry, aster, grape, crabapple, honeysuckle, mugwort, goldenrod, bittersweet, privet, plantain, chicory, mountainmint, bluestem, Tridens, beardtongue, and yarrow. I also saw a big flock of fish crows, a turkey vulture, a black capped chickadee, plus a bagworm, two kinds of goldenrod gall, and ash flower galls.
2-17-21. Sandy Hook, Middletown, NJ. 2.25 miles today, 950.75 miles total.
Categories: birds, shells, fruit.
We were due for yet more snow (they are saying 6 inches, looks like it may be more) the next day, and I had nothing pressing this day, so I drove an hour to the shore to see what I could find. Nearly all the snow was gone here (though what was left was covered in sand and felt like rock when I stepped on it) but it was very breezy and only about 28 degrees. Cold, especially where there was no shelter. I stopped at 6 different spots, 5 of which I'd not been to before. I'm glad I don't live here, as there's not actually all that much variety in the vegetation, but nearly all of it is stuff I don't usually see, so very fun to visit.
Birds I photographed were brant (tons), song sparrow (2), bufflehead (8), black backed gull (1 ), herring gull (4), scoup (probably greater) (6), canada goose (4), black duck (10), red breasted merganser (3), plus two dead gulls (eaten, not roadkill) and a line on a far island of nearly 100 all facing with their backs to me.
Shells were quahog, ribbed and blue mussel, jingle, slipper, scallop, chestnut clam, mudsnail, and sharkeye. Some had been covered in spray that made ice, then tossed around in the surf, like sea glass, very odd-looking, and one large quahog had both halves still attached and was hung up in a bush about 8 feet off the ground, right on the edge of the bay beach. I think it may have gotten there in a storm surge; I can't see someone or even some animal climbing up there and doing it. Very odd, though.
Interesting plants were seaside goldenrod, sheep sorrel, spotted knapweed, winged sumac, poison ivy (or oak, I can't separate them in winter), bayberry, beach plum, sweet everlasting, salt hay (which iNat calls marshay cordgrass), Japanese sedge, rugosa rose, marram grass, Amelanchier, clotbur, prickly pear (they look so sad in the winter, all shriveled up), groundsel tree, cottonwood, and hackberry.
I had so much fun!
Wow! What a tremendous adventure to go to the beach in February! I can't imagine a better time to search for roosting quahogs.
2/18/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3128.3 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
The temperature was marginal when I went out today, about 25F in the air and colder on the surface, which is quite crusty. I was confident that I would find something do, and eventually I did, a single Diamesa fly up by the farm field. On my way back up the driveway I found a pile of ruffed grouse scat, and beside it a pile of thin orange scat that I didn't recognize. More ruffed grouse? Fox? Hmm...I need a scatologist.
I have a daughter (Becca) that I could see growing up to be a scatologist. She has just the right combination of attention to detail, curiosity, and complete disregard for "grossness".
2/19/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3130.3 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
Conditions were excellent for bug hunting this afternoon, 30F both in the air and on the surface, little wind, no sun, and a layer of fresh snow. I found 6 Diamesa flies, 6 Chionea flies, 3 Tetragnatha spiders, 1 snow scorpionfly, and 30 stoneflies. I think that's a record for the most stoneflies in one day.
2/20/21. Center Rd, Calais, VT. 2.2 miles today, 3132.5 miles total.
Categories: fast snaps
This morning I met up with my 4 Saturday morning walk buddies for a walk on the VAST trail from Center Rd. This was a new section of the trails for all of us, cutting across a field below the large yellow Center Rd barn and heading up towards Dodge Rd. We decided to turn around at a major vast trail intersection below the large field that the Dodge Rd trail accesses. I didn't want to slow the group down by stopping for too many photos, but there was a lot to see. Lots of buckthorn and common barberry, a grand old yellow birch with platy bark, a red maple, a striped maple with some wasp egg mass under a twig (which I shot for Charley's winter bugs class), some basswood buds, some winterberry buds, some white spruce bark, some bunny tracks, a pine tree with a stem borer (at last! I've been searching all winter for this one), and 2 spiders. All in all, a good day, and the conversation was great as well.
2/21/21. Peck Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3134.5 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
The temperature was about -2.5C when I went out for my walk this afternoon, with brilliant sunshine and some brisk wind. Not ideal, but I still managed to find some bugs, 5 stoneflies, of which I collected the first 2 for Dave Burton, the stonefly researcher from Canada. We can't cross the border yet, but maybe these bugs can. We'll see.
2/22/21. Peck Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3136.5 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
Warm again today, about 30F and overcast. The snow surface was a little cooler, about -3C. I found 8 stoneflies and collected 2. I also found a single Trichocera. I'm also trying to collect Chionea flies for a researcher in Washington, but no luck with them today.
2-20-21. Pleasant Valley Park, Lyons, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 951.25 miles total.
category: fruiting.
I walked the middle section of this park today, including a little section I'd never gone through before. We'd had yet more snow, but only a few inches so the walking was not too bad. Fruiting I found crabapple, bittersweet, mugwort, horseweed, avens, privet, rose, and some dried wineberries. More interesting were a pair of crows harassing a young red tailed hawk, and the tracks of a racoon which had walked up the trail I was on for quite a ways.
2-21-21. Voorhees State Park, High Bridge, NJ. 1.25 miles today, 952.5 miles total.
categories: fruiting, bark, buds
I drove half an hour to this state park that I'd not been to for over 20 years somehow. It's a CCC project that was just farm fields when they started and now is mostly a wooded hilltop. There are some scenic overlooks, and I'd intended to go there, but the road was closed. There's a loop road at the top of the hill, but only about a third of it was plowed, including two small parking lots. So I parked at the first and walked the road, and then at the second and walked a packed down path through the woods, until it hit a juncture and all the trails off were too "unpacked" for comfortable walking. Still, it was a beautiful sunny day and so nice to be out in the woods again at all.
Fruiting were rose, tulip tree, mugwort, bittersweet, larch, linden viburnum, barberry, privet, avens, and garlic mustard. I'm assuming the larch (European I think) was planted. Bark I photographed was yellow birch, American elm, shagbark hickory, bird cherry, hophornbeam, sassafras, flowering dogwood, black birch, grape, chestnut oak, hornbeam, and beech. Buds were red and sugar maples, blackhaw, hophornbeam, black birch, hickory, flowering dogwood, white ash, spicebush, hazel, autumn olive, and wineberry. And I saw a turkey vulture, horned oak galls, and poison ivy flower galls.
2-22-21. Mundy and Ridge Rds., Warren, NJ. 1 mile today, 953.5 miles total.
Category: naturally occurring
I had very little time this morning, so walked in the neighborhood. We still have around 8 inches of snow on the ground (and got another 3 that afternoon, followed by a little rain which melted it back down to 8 again). And this is all residential, so I was looking for any "wild" stuff I could find. I got honeysuckle, barberry, mulberry, tuliptree, wineberry, poke, and a bird nest. I also saw where some slug or snail made tracks on a plastic mailbox, clearing away the algae. And there were lichen: goldspeck, Phiscia, greenshield, orange-core, and rough-speckled.
Amazing to hear how much snow you still have and how it is still affecting your access to park trails. But at least you found some fun stuff. Poison ivy flower galls? That's one I've never seen.
2/23/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3138.5 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
The weather was warm today (40F) and overcast, with 2 inches of fresh snow. That is, great conditions for finding arthropods. The snow surface was 33F. I found a stonefly at the bottom of the driveway, and another, and another, and....by the end of the walk, over 600. They were crawling everywhere near the streams. I shot about 200 before I realized that there was just no way I could shoot them all. I think I'm going to have to adjust my research protocol. Perhaps shoot just the first 10 or so of a single genus and count the rest. Other finds today included 2 Chionea, which I collected for the researcher in Washington, but one managed to drown in the tube by the time I got home. He wants them alive. In addition, there were several Trichocera flies, several Diamesa flies, a snow scorpionfly, a Tetragnatha (brown), and 2 Entelegyne spiders.
600 stoneflies? Holy cow!
I've only on a few occasions been asked to mail someone an insect, but always dead ones, not live. How to you mail live flies?
2-23-21. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 954 miles total.
Category: fruiting
I walked today by the reservoir as a colleague had told me the packed snow trails were easy to walk on. Well, they've gotten a little softer than when he was there, but still not terrible. The brook, though, was very high and impossible to cross with dry feet, so I only went out a quarter mile to it and back again. I've walked her many, many times so there were no surprise plants. But in cropping a photo of rose fruit I found I'd accidentally photographed a fly, I think maybe a marsh fly. One of my first adult arthropods of the year.
2-24-21. Valley Rd. and Lurline plus Pleasant Valley Park, Lyons, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 955 miles total
Category: fruiting.
Once again I was back at Pleasant Valley for the plowed paths. I did the last little section I'd not covered before, and then continued along a plowed sidewalk until it ended and I had to walk down the main road for 100 yards before getting on a side street to make a loop back through the park. Fruiting were mugwort, bittersweet, goldenrod, privet, dock, Queen Anne's lace, woolgrass, aster, St. John's wort, garlic mustard, stickseed, hemlock, rose, beardtongue, and a black walnut lodged in a barberry shrub.
But the highlight of the day was an actual arthropod on snow! It was a winter cranefly, and I saw it first flying about, but then it landed on the snowbank and I was able to get a clear photo.
This is the second time I've been asked to mail some live ones. My instructions are to put them in a vial with a small piece of damp tissue. Apparently, the first ones arrived OK that I sent last year. But they were just for DNA analysis. These ones are actually supposed to engage in an experiment once they arrive. But as it turns out, I'll let the one from Monday go. I'm supposed to ship a minimum of 2 at a time, but I only found 2 on Monday and 1 died immediately. I didn't find any on Tuesday, and the hold time would be too long for Monday's survivor. So out into the wild he goes again. It may be too warm to get 2 at a time now.
Congratulations on the winter cranefly! What a find after an entire winter of searching!
2/24/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3140.5 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
This afternoon my 2 friends joined me for a bug walk along the Peck Hill route. They were quite excited by the first 2-3 winter stoneflies. After 10 or so the excitement waned. But they helped me count them all. We had just 167 today, a lot, but far fewer than yesterday. Conditions were equally good or even better, with air temperature about 42 and overcast. So I think yesterday was the big emergence day, at least for this species. We also found 2 spiders, both Entelegynes. Even though the diversity was low, we all had such a good time, they said they would like to come back next week and try again.
2-25-21. Community Place, Warren, and Dunham Park, Liberty Corner, NJ. 1.75 miles today, 956.75 miles total
Category: wild
I had a little time to kill before picking my daughter up today, so walked down the road to the fire department near her school. The snow is finally melting at the edges and I found mouse ear chickweed, white clover, Carolina geranium, and speedwell. And then there was a red-tailed hawk flying overhead and I was able to get some nice photos.
In the afternoon I walked with two friends, both of whom are faster than me, and neither is a naturalist. We also walked at a park that is mostly mowed lawn (covered in snow) with a few scattered shade trees. I did find a dogwood-like shrub with some kind of clustered fruit or gall or something on it. Almost like dodder, but there was no vine to it at all. hmm...
Wow! Green plants sighted in New Jersey! Spring is on the way...
2/25/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3142.5 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
This afternoon the temperature was about 30F, but a cold 30F with a strong breeze. The snow surface was -0.2C, and the sun was shining. I managed to find 20 stoneflies, but that was all. Perhaps the initial emergence was over, for that species, anyway. No other arthropods were venturing out.
how funny to think the snow was warmer than the air.
2/26/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3144.5 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
This afternoon the air temperature was about 33F when I went out, but the snow temperature measured just -5C in the shade. The sun was shining brightly so there was a lot of variability for the snow temperature. My husband decided to join me for the walk since the roads and trails are too icy for unicycling. I don't think he realized this was more of a research expedition than a walk, though. After I spent 15 minutes calibrating the weather instruments, then found a stonefly at the bottom of the driveway so stopped to take weather readings, he was getting a bit antsy. Finally, though, we got moving on the rest of the route, which was rather icy for the first time this year. I may need to get out my ice spikes for my shoes soon. We found 8 stoneflies total, plus my husband spotted a woolly bear, the first of the season. It was quite live, sunning on a slope at first, and then after I took photos it crawled away.
2/27/21. Center Rd VAST Trail, East Montpelier, VT. 2.8 miles today, 3147.3 miles total.
Categories: tracks
This morning I met up with my 4 friends for our Saturday morning hike. We met at a winter parking lot I didn't know about along Center Rd just south of Adamant. The VAST trail crosses the road below Peck Farm there. We struck out west along the trail towards the Center Rd trail crossing. The trail first crosses a section of corn field, then goes through a lovely softwood forest, then out into a larger cornfield farmed by Fairmont Farms, the large industrial dairy operation in East Montpelier. Along the way, I kept my eyes out for tracks of all kinds. I found deer tracks in the woods, then a ruffed grouse kill site at the edge of the second corn field, and some 4-footed tracks lopping away from the kill site. I also found willow full of pinecone galls and a sawfly coccoon.
2-27-21. Delaware Raritan Canal, South Bound Brook, NJ. 0.75 mile today, 957.5 miles total
Category: blooming! birds
It rained all day yesterday and has been warm all week. I still have six inches of snow in my front yard (north side of house) but there are patches of lawn showing everywhere now. I walked along the canal, as I knew there was whitlow grass and other early spring weeds growing by the parking lot and I hoped the snow had retreated and they would be blooming. I was kind of right, but most of the flowers were closed.
Blooming I found Whitlow grass, gray field speedwell, common groundsel, and purple deadnettle. Chickweed had buds with petals visible, and ivy-leaved speedwell had fruit but no flowers.
I also saw a large number (for me, away from the feeder) of birds: song sparrow, robin, starling, mourning dove, cardinal, junco. There were goose tracks (and goose poop). But the highlight of the day was back at the house: a flock of snow geese flew over; something I'd never photographed before.
Congrats on the snow geese! That is a real thrill. I think it will be at least 6 weeks before we may see something blooming. That means plenty of chances to find arthropods on snow, though.
2/28/21. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3149.3 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
I went out for a walk this morning so that I could be back in time for Michael Wojtech's Zoom lecture on bark. The air temperature was about 40F when I went out, but the snow surface temperature was 0C. The stoneflies were abundant again, and I managed to find 48 of them of at least 2 species (one was much smaller than the other). I also found a very large woolly bear, a winter firefly (first of the season), and a snow scorpionfly.
Other than maples, the first native plant to bloom here will be spring beauty, and it doesn't come until April, unless the spring is very early. So another 4-5 weeks for us, if not for invasive species.
The bark lecture sounds very interesting. I have his Bark book and enjoy it.
I didn't realize the winter fireflies would be out this early; I think of them as spring fireflies. Neat.
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