Diario de the_royes

Went to the park with the kids today and decided to explore the creek. Normally we've been to the creek in winter and early spring when nothing is growing. Today, the banks were covered with a mix of Jewelweed, thistles, cattails, and asters of all kinds. Therefore, our ability to explore was a bit circumscribed. The creek itself was also growing a massive crop of watercress, which I assume was planted there by the Christiansburg Parks service.

The most exciting part was my son spotting a frog just floating lazily down the stream.

There was a massive number of butterflies drinking from the damp sand. My abilities to capture all the varieties I saw was limited, of course, with many observations being only of closed wings. I still need to brush up on my butterfly identification but this will be good practice.

Still a distressing amount of broken glass to be found amid the rocks. One day when I don't have the kids I might put on waders and try to remove some of it.

-Joanna

Yesterday (9/20/2019), as the kids played outside on their swingset, I noticed that the large patch of Yellow Crownbeard was COVERED in pollinators. I saw at least four (possibly five) different types of bees, along with many Sachems, a ladybug and a fancy caterpillar. It was impressive to see about a hundred bees working their stingers off to get ready for winter. I particularly fell in love with the gigantic bumbler that the algorithm has suggested is an Eastern Carpenter Bee. I had no idea they were so huge!!

We also took some photos of a clickbeetle, the exciting sproingy mushrooms that are growing out of the woodchip, and our hawk which flew overhead.

It's shocking how many species live around us all the time, just waiting to be noticed. :)