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which_chick(Not about sex stuff, please get mind out of gutter and into swamp.)
I invited an internet friend over to play odes. From a facebook group, so this is a person I don't actually know. But he came and brought his girlfriend along. We went and played odes.
Overcast and cool is not great weather for playin' odes. But they'd driven from WVU which is a bit of a trek, so... we persevered. The Swamp has grey petaltails, like a lot of them. So we saw those because they were helpfully out and about doing their morning basking. And we saw a southern pygmy clubtail.
Internet Friend and GF are pro-birders (they get paid to do bird counts), so they did bird sounds too. I guess they got more than 50 different birds (mostly by song) during the day, which is impressive to me, a non-birder. I know about six birds but am now more inspired to learn birdsongs because apparently that is how you count birds. There's an app for that.
It was still cloudy (but supposed to get sunny soon) so we looked for exuvia and got lots of prince baskettail and regular common baskettail specimens, plus a few other interesting ones and the GF found a Slimy Salamander, I think.
By then it was lightly sunny or not-so-overcast, so we checked out the sunny clearing near my house and that uncovered lancets and a couple spangled skimmers and chalk-fronted corporals.
We went down to the old logging road / powerline cut near my Dad's house and looked at stuff there, including a Random Petaltail Encounter and a large garter snake and a box turtle.
Hiked out to the spillway, where IF chased a black racer snake (no win there).
Ran across an adult male dobsonfly, which was exciting for IF who doesn't get to see them very often. We took pictures.
Swamp down below the dam, not a whole lot, but dusky clubtail, ebony jewelwing, and an eastern red damsel. (Yes we have them. They were smaller and less... red than I thought they would be.)
Other side of the pond, not a whole lot but some things. Watersnake (caught by IF). Swamp spreadwing, FOY. Widow skimmer, FOY. Spangled Skimmer.
Back to lodge for lunch at like 12:30. Prince Baskettails and a bald eagle on the way to lunch. After lunch, it stayed sunny with a tiny bit of breeze, so we hiked back to the swamp to check it out one last time.
Twelve-spotted skimmer, FOY. Yellow-sided skimmer. Calico Pennant FOY. Brown spiketail. More grey petaltails. An endless number of chalk-fronteds. We checked out the lodge dock one last time. Adult male spangled, adult-coloration male widow.
Internet friend and GF were troopers, hiked along, looked at stuff. Good sports about the day, seemed to have a pretty good time of it.
Odes: Grey petaltail, Southern Pygmy Clubtail, Chalk-fronted Corporal, Brown Spiketail, Widow Skimmer, Lancet Clubtail, Dusky Clubtail, Spangled Skimmer, Swamp Spreadwing, Calico Pennant, Yellow-sided Skimmer, Common Baskettail, Eastern Red Damsel, Ebony Jewelwing, Prince Baskettail, Twelve-Spotted Skimmer, Common Whitetail, Eastern Amberwing, Aurora Damsel, and some bluets TBD. I may be missing a few, but it was a pretty decent day for what looked like a not-so-good day to start.
I'm glad it turned out as well as it did. One always worries about inviting Internet Friends to see your swamp that the swamp may not actually be sufficiently interesting or something. I talked it up a bit and I would have been hurt if they hadn't gotten to see interesting things after all that. I'm kind of sorry more of my king skimmers aren't out yet, but it's been a weird spring and things are a bit laggy. I feel they will be along soon.
I invited an internet friend over to play odes. From a facebook group, so this is a person I don't actually know. But he came and brought his girlfriend along. We went and played odes.
Overcast and cool is not great weather for playin' odes. But they'd driven from WVU which is a bit of a trek, so... we persevered. The Swamp has grey petaltails, like a lot of them. So we saw those because they were helpfully out and about doing their morning basking. And we saw a southern pygmy clubtail.
Internet Friend and GF are pro-birders (they get paid to do bird counts), so they did bird sounds too. I guess they got more than 50 different birds (mostly by song) during the day, which is impressive to me, a non-birder. I know about six birds but am now more inspired to learn birdsongs because apparently that is how you count birds. There's an app for that.
It was still cloudy (but supposed to get sunny soon) so we looked for exuvia and got lots of prince baskettail and regular common baskettail specimens, plus a few other interesting ones and the GF found a Slimy Salamander, I think.
By then it was lightly sunny or not-so-overcast, so we checked out the sunny clearing near my house and that uncovered lancets and a couple spangled skimmers and chalk-fronted corporals.
We went down to the old logging road / powerline cut near my Dad's house and looked at stuff there, including a Random Petaltail Encounter and a large garter snake and a box turtle.
Hiked out to the spillway, where IF chased a black racer snake (no win there).
Ran across an adult male dobsonfly, which was exciting for IF who doesn't get to see them very often. We took pictures.
Swamp down below the dam, not a whole lot, but dusky clubtail, ebony jewelwing, and an eastern red damsel. (Yes we have them. They were smaller and less... red than I thought they would be.)
Other side of the pond, not a whole lot but some things. Watersnake (caught by IF). Swamp spreadwing, FOY. Widow skimmer, FOY. Spangled Skimmer.
Back to lodge for lunch at like 12:30. Prince Baskettails and a bald eagle on the way to lunch. After lunch, it stayed sunny with a tiny bit of breeze, so we hiked back to the swamp to check it out one last time.
Twelve-spotted skimmer, FOY. Yellow-sided skimmer. Calico Pennant FOY. Brown spiketail. More grey petaltails. An endless number of chalk-fronteds. We checked out the lodge dock one last time. Adult male spangled, adult-coloration male widow.
Internet friend and GF were troopers, hiked along, looked at stuff. Good sports about the day, seemed to have a pretty good time of it.
Odes: Grey petaltail, Southern Pygmy Clubtail, Chalk-fronted Corporal, Brown Spiketail, Widow Skimmer, Lancet Clubtail, Dusky Clubtail, Spangled Skimmer, Swamp Spreadwing, Calico Pennant, Yellow-sided Skimmer, Common Baskettail, Eastern Red Damsel, Ebony Jewelwing, Prince Baskettail, Twelve-Spotted Skimmer, Common Whitetail, Eastern Amberwing, Aurora Damsel, and some bluets TBD. I may be missing a few, but it was a pretty decent day for what looked like a not-so-good day to start.
I'm glad it turned out as well as it did. One always worries about inviting Internet Friends to see your swamp that the swamp may not actually be sufficiently interesting or something. I talked it up a bit and I would have been hurt if they hadn't gotten to see interesting things after all that. I'm kind of sorry more of my king skimmers aren't out yet, but it's been a weird spring and things are a bit laggy. I feel they will be along soon.
