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A meal for a monarch

July 31, 2013 - Purple milkweed is a later-flowering cousin to our common milkweed. The former opens its complicated blossoms in late Ju...
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They call me the wanderer

July 30, 2013 - First off, let me reassure everyone that no dragonfly was harmed in the course of capturing this image. Second, let me a...
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The BSSL is back

July 29, 2013 - For the past couple of weeks, I've been looking for this handsome fellow, known as a Black-shouldered Spinyleg (Dromogom...
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Just follow my lead, kiddo

July 27, 2013 - I've been watching the Great Blue Herons raise their children at the Avalonia Land Conservancy's Donald Henne preserve,...
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The end of National Moth Week

July 27, 2013 - Some days, it's relatively easy to pick an image to post and talk about in this humble blog, but today is not one of the...
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Wild fruit

July 26, 2013 - The heat wave finally gave up the ghost, and on my morning walk, I actually had to wear a long-sleeved shirt; it was no...
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The reddest reds

July 25, 2013 - Even I, red-green colorblind that I am, could see this lurid blossom amidst a sea of green. No doubt I'm not viewing thi...
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New butterflies

July 23, 2013 - Some of the bigger, showier, early summer butterflies are on the wane, but as we head into the last week of July, there'...
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The advent of the underwings

July 23, 2013 - Underwing moths, which belong to the genus Catocala, are easy-to-overlook night fliers whose front wings usually blend i...
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Insect hummingbirds

July 22, 2013 - National Moth Week, the celebration of those butterflies that work the night shift, got under way on Saturday, and since...
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The start of mushroom season

July 21, 2013 - In theory, a cold front passed through yesterday evening, with loud thunderstorms, torrential rain, and an end to the he...
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Not quite a complete plant

July 20, 2013 - I was scheduled to co-lead a natural history hike through a rocky woodland, and with the heat wave persisting, I was hav...
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Nymphs in season

July 19, 2013 - I've been looking for wood nymphs but all I've seen this year have been wood satyrs—well, butterflies. The wood nymphs a...
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Beat the heat technique

July 18, 2013 - The heat wave continues, and it's beginning to be clear that at least some of the local insects are having to adopt a ki...
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Photo-free day

July 17, 2013 - I spent the day, yet another scorcher, in court, where I was thoroughly vetted for possible jury duty. I didn't make the...
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Who Cares about the Heat?

July 16, 2013 - The temperature, as of about 10:30 this morning, was close to 110. Now, that, of course, is according to a quirky bimeta...
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Unwelcome visitor

July 15, 2013 - For much of the day, it's been too hot to venture outside for very long. But by the late afternoon, after a long day wri...
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Hard knock butterfly life

July 13, 2013 - In the continued heat, there are still Fritillaries working the flowers, but atop the hydrangea blooms, one Great Spangl...
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The annual fair

July 13, 2013 - Our annual agricultural fair is one of the first in the state, and it's a real community event. Honestly, you can't not...
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An interesting "failure"

July 11, 2013 - Sometimes failed images aren't quite the losers they first appear to be. Case in point: today was yet another wretched o...
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New moths

July 11, 2013 - Last year, in late July, I was at a Nature Conservancy refuge in Charlestown, Rhode Island, at a National Moth Week even...
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Streamside jewels

July 10, 2013 - Many odonates—dragonflies and damselflies—are sexually dimorphic. In fact, sometimes the males and females are so differ...
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Lighting up the sky

July 09, 2013 - It hasn't been a great year for fireflies. In fact, it hasn't been a particularly good century for these magical beetles...
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Up from the forest floor

July 07, 2013 - The weather continues hot, but not quite as humid, so the woods, since the deer flies are not yet too bad, offer an enti...
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A hint of Halloween

July 07, 2013 - Another hot, but reasonably dry, day—genuine summer weather. After I finished mowing the lawn, I rewarded myself with th...
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First cutting

July 06, 2013 - The meadow I love to walk through, a mixture of hip-high timothy, orchard, and sweet vernal grasses, was turned into mor...
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Hot, gorgeous, and a dilemma

July 05, 2013 - It was hot today, but relatively dry, so I was able to get out a lot. There were plenty of dragonflies in the air, numer...
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Turtle rescue

July 04, 2013 - Happy 4th of July, young snapping turtle, and you'll never know how close you came to losing your independence... perman...
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Back to the dragonfly beat

July 03, 2013 - The rain stopped, the sun came out, and, once I cleared the decks of writing projects, I was able to head outside. My de...
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It's tough to be on your own

July 02, 2013 - Despite the continuing heat, humidity, and, according to the Weather Channel, end of the world thunderstorms, I went out...
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A heron fly-by almost captured

July 01, 2013 - The soggy, humid weather has remained uninviting for outdoor photography—I should have bought the old model of waterproo...
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