And one more trip report and I’m caught up until the weekend.
Clifton Institute is holding two bioblitzes on sponsor properties this summer. For the site visit on 15 June, we’re building on an established iNaturalist project. I was briefly on the leaderboard.
In the meadow leading up to the house, I found a Coral Hairstreak (Satyrium titus). Tiniest critter spotted turned out to be a White-margined Burrower Bug (Sehirus cinctus). On an adjoining property (friendly neighbors), a gneiss outcrop hosts a dryland specialty, Round-leaved Fameflower (Phemeranthus teretifolius), very cool.
After dark at the lights we had several species of sphinx moth. I am still getting the hang of photographing under the UV conditions, but I did snap a pic of a handsome Virginia Creeper Sphinx (Darapsa myron). And the iNat community taught me that a Large Maple Spanworm Moth (Prochoerodes lineola) is not the same as a Juniper Geometer Moth (Patalene olyzonaria), seen on last year’s bioblitz.
Most of the birds remained out of sight, but I got some reasonable audio recordings.
The Borrowers were following me around in the field on this trip. The wrist strap on my point-and-shoot came undone and disappeared, and the glass element worked itself out of my loupe for the last time and dropped to the forest floor. I think I even heard it drop and I looked back, but clear glass is kinda invisible.