rosebones's Journal

Quite literally a nature spot in the middle of town. I thought I had turned a wrong way when I saw nothing but suburban houses around me. I took a left and found myself in a small secluded campground. Parking was reviewed bad online but I didn't have any problems, though I went on a sunday morning and not peak hours. You have to park at their office then walk down through public camping although it seemed nobody else was walking from their car. An odd amount of people seemed to get angry and leave after asked to wear a mask in the nature museum there. Term museum is used loosely, small one room building with preserved bird nests, two pet snakes and a bunch of skulls. Not a place to see any undiscovered species or something super rare but definitely a good local spot

Spiders:
Golden silk spiders in webs high above the ground
Spiny- backed orbweaver in both yellow and white both on webs closer to ground level maybe eye level with me most of the time and I’m 5’2 for reference
Orchard Orbweaver or similar varying in size, beautiful green color with orange markings

Butterflies and Moths
I saw quite a few that eluded a photograph.
An Eastern Giant Swallowtail
Red spotted Admiral
Fall Webworm moth in larval stage
Carolina Satyr

Other insects
Common blue mud dauber wasp
Blue Dasher
Eastern black carpenter ant
Blue-tipped Dancer
Short-winged Green Grasshopper
Paper wasp
Unidentified stink bug

I also spotted some reptiles such as
Common five lined skink
Green anole
Common Slider

Field notes: squirrels have a diverse diet here, in my two hour visit I saw a squirrel eat a sweet gum nut,a mouthful of beauty berries, and one had even caught a dragon fly and was loudly munching on it. Lots of mosquitos. Perfect area for snakes and other small wildlife

The trap I laid for beetles was a bust, it didn't work. I replaced the apple bait with raw bacon and we shall see what happens. Went on my now near daily walk today and spotted some cool things.

1.Red Swamp Crayfish.
looked like an escaped Easter lunch as it was uncooked and uneaten. Poor guy

2.Blue Dasher
Another Female, perched near my favorite ditch

1. Eastern Pondhawk
   Now, this is exciting. I haven't documented this species before nor have I seen it in person. Beautiful female specimen. So vibrant

4.Western Mosquitofish
More of these, took more pictures because of how inflated the females are.

5.Common Pill Woodlouse
little roly poly, seemed lethargic. It was on the burning asphalt so it may of just been overheated, I guided it back into the long grass.

6.Broad-tipped Conehead
Got one picture before this guy flew off. Suppose he wasn't feeling very social. Still a lovely creature.

7.Fox Squirrel
I only noticed this squirrel because it was eating acorns so loud I heard it before I saw it.

8.European Starling
These pictures were hard to capture as the starlings were foraging a good distance away. I wonder if they got anything good

9.Northern Mockingbird
I only added this picture because this bird looks SO suspicious of me, gave me a good laugh

Encounters off camera: The usual, mockingbird, house sparrows, Northern Cardinal, and what I believe was a Carolina Wren but I couldn't get close enough to see. I did however accidentally spook a young Green Anole while misting my pitcher plant in the backyard. They had assumed a basking spot on the pot and I didn't see until they ran up the top of the swing it's hanged on. I don't know why it did this but it decided to basically jump for it's life off the swing and hit the ground. It scurried up the wall and gave me an odd eye. I felt bad for scaring him but it was just a spray bottle with water haha. I hope he makes it, he obviously is very good at evading predators.

Tomorrow, I shall see if my bacon bait has more luck than apples.

Note for myself: all observations captured were from 12:30- 1:10 PM temperature was around 78 degrees with a light breeze

Easter went good and bad for me. Family isn't fun to deal with for me but the animals were abundant.First, I spotted a male Northern Cardinal who refused to hold still for me to photograph his face. Then, I saw a mockingbird holding what looked like a spider in her mouth. She dived into a nearby bush which when later inspected held three small babies in a nest.It warms my heart to see that. I watched a pair of squirrels raid a bird feeder for several minutes. Those guys really pig out on that birdseed.

Once the squirrels had finally left, making quite some noise on the tree as they climbed up, scratching at the bark. I spotted a male house sparrow getting his fill from the feeder. Cute lil guy seemed like he had alot of personality. When I got home I spent an aching 30 minutes setting up a live beetle trap. I baited it with some apple and im excited to see what I might find tomorrow morning. Hopefully it's not full of ants or wasps.

In the front yard, my father was doing yardwork which summoned many wildlife to come out because of the loud noises and trimming of bushes. I found a Seven Spotted Lady Beetle first which was very exciting after years of seeing only Asian Lady Beetles. Then, my father accidentally cut a Dekay's Brownsnake in half with the weedwhacker. He felt bad about it. It was truly beautiful in the light though, I didn't know how pretty their scales were. It's nerves made it continue the move in my hand despite not having a front half. It was morbidly fascinating. Lastly, I found a Largus cinctus. I believe it is a cinctus because the tops of its legs were a vibrant red.

Tomorrow, I will be back with hopefully many observations of different insects from my trap. Wish me luck, INat.

Today started off good, with spotting a Mockingbird pecking in the grass in my yard, then moments later while washing dishes I spotted a female House sparrow take a piece of lint off the ground, then discarding it. I suppose it wasn't deemed good enough for her nest, wherever it may be. I can't help but wonder if it has to do with the male House Sparrow I saw disappearing into the loose shed roof in my neighbors yard yesterday, carrying a bundle of dried grass.

I found out I have a species in the Oxalis family behind our oak tree. How cool is that? It didn't take long for me to become bored holed up in my room on spring break so I decided i'd grab my camera and walk around the neighborhood. First I saw a beautiful mockingbird perched on a cable wire. A lady walking too nearby was probably wondering what on earth I was doing. I stopped under the shade of a large tree to see if the cracked bark was hiding anything interesting. Nothing I could see today. Except of course the massive fire ant pile nearby. Now, this was exciting. I got photos of a Blue Jay.

Blue Jays are hard to photograph because i've noticed they like to hide in dense brush or amongst the trees. i saw one through the low hanging branch of a random person yard. Perfect! This was the second time I ever got to photograph a blue jay. I made sure to stop at a ditch which is known to have some cool stuff living in it. First thing that caught my eye was a (assumed) female Blue Dasher. It was so close I got amazing photos of it. I turned my attention towards the water, more importantly, the small fish i'd always see in it. I thought they were minnows but upon posting here they're actually a kind of Mosquitofish. I'm having trouble figuring out if its an Eastern or a Western though as i'm certainly not an expert in fish. I'm unsure how they got there, they ditch runs a ways into the woods but as far as I know the woods ends pretty abruptly. Other than that I took some photos of other flowers I do not know, finished the lap and went home tired.Tomorrow I can go back out for more.