Biology for Naturalists Field Trip
With thanks to Jane.
This is the Northern Pearly-Eye Butterlfy.
Compare that with the underside of this Appalachian Brown. This is the best I could get of it's underwing, but see below.
Here is the top of the Appalachian Brown.
This is a skipper we saw in the wood. Anyone have an ID?
Here's the Red Admiral. Notice the tiny blue spots at the end of the hind wings.
Here is one of the Mourning Cloaks.
And this is a Red-spotted Purple.
We decided this was a female Tiger Swallowtail.
On further review, with Butterflies Through Binoculars in hand, I think this is a Spicebush Swallowtail. Any thoughts?
From this angle this might be a Silver-bordered Fritillary. I wanted to study the pictures of this one more to be sure.
From this angle you can see that it is a Great Spangled Fritillary.
This is Swamp Milkweed, in three stages of blooming.
Whorled Loosestrife.
We spent a lot of time on identifying this mint family plant, and settled on Hairy Skullcap. If you know what you are looking for in this picture you can see that between the two main flowers there was another flower that is gone, and what is left is quite distinctly a skullcap seed!
Before moving on from plants, here are those strange galls on the leaves of a tree.
Here is one of the TINY toads.
These are frog eggs.
This is a big tadpole.
Jeremiah -- that is, a bullfrog.
A turtle (painted?) climbing into the sun. Notice the foot and tail tracks.
Snapping turtles know camoflage.
A fishing spider.
Another view of the Great Blue Skimmer Dragonfly.
And yet another. Here is a female, taken last fall in Cape May, NJ.
A Variable Dancer Damselfly.
An Orange Bluet Damselfly.
A Great Blue Heron taking off.