January 2022: Describe your walk by adding a comment below
Each time you go out and make observations for this project, describe your walk by adding a comment to this post. Include the date, distance walked, and categories that you used for this walk.
Suggested format:
Date. Place. Distance walked today. Total distance for this project.
Categories.
Brief description of the area, what you saw, what you learned, who was with you, or any other details you care to share.
Comentarios
1-1-21. Dock Watch Hollow, Warren, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 1175.75 miles total
Today it was raining and gray and depressing, though not particularly cold. I would not have walked a mile or spent an hour doing it if it had not been for the New Year's Day bioblitz, but I'm glad I did. I walked in my yard and then up the street to the former hemlock gorge by me. And I actually found some surprises. First of all, forsythia, common ragwort, witch hazel, yarrow, and a tiny Veronica were all blooming! on January 1! Other surprises included poison hemlock in my yard (must have washed in with the flood) and a Dicranum moss that has probably been there a while but I'd never noticed before.
Way to go on the New Year's Day bioblitz! Those crazy surprises, made even more surprising by finding them mid-winter are what it's all about, of course, in addition to simply getting outside when the weather doesn't promising. Great finds with the blooming plants!
1/1/22. Frizzle Mountain and Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 3.2 miles today, 3734.6 miles total.
Categories: bioblitz and arthropods on snow
I did my New Year's Day bioblitz in the yard today. The temperature was about 38F with drizzle on top of 6" of crusty snow. The bioblitz was a great excuse to try to identify all the emergent weeds and epiphytes. Trees were balsam fir, red maple, American elm, beech, black cherry, white ash, white pine, red spruce, hemlock, yellow birch, white birch, trembling aspen, sugar maple, as well as striped maple, mountain maple, and basswood which I don't think I found on last year's New Year's Day bioblitz. Weeds were Morrow's honeysuckle, calico aster, virgin's bower, meadowsweet, red raspberry, blackberry, swamp aster, wrinkle-leaved goldenrod, European barberry, steeplebush, yarrow, bifid hemp nettle, mullein, alder seedling in the garden, blue-eyed grass, St. Johnswort, flat-topped aster, red elder, black elder, agrimony, greater plaintain, greater and lesser burdock, daphne, tall blue lettuce, moneywort, selfheal, thimbleberry, broad-leaved dock, and Japanese knotweed (along the road, not on our property, thank goodness!) Epiphytes included wrinkle lichens, tube lichens, crustose lichens, Cladonia, polypores, script lichen, hoof fungus, and Flavoparmelia caperata. Bryophytes were club pin cushion, Frullania, tree fringewort, wall scalewort, Anomodon attenuatus, Atrichum, Rhodobryum ontariense, Pogonatum pensilvanicum, and Pleurozium schreberi. Ferns today were New York fern, sensitive fern, marginal wood fern, and bracken fern. I found galls on virgin's bower, black knot, goldenrod, raspberry, alder, honeysuckle, blueberry, and alternate-leaved dogwood, and a leafminer on sugar maple. In the garden I found several active spiders in fresh webs, several Noctua pronuba caterpillars, and a Trichocera fly. I also found a cocoon on the bark of an apple tree. Tracks in the snow included red squirrel, white-tailed deer, fisher, and snowshoe hare.
In the afternoon I went out for my regular walk up Peck Hill. Conditions weren't great for arthropod hunting (warm and misty), but I managed to find a wolf spider, a Noctua Pronuba caterpillar, and a Trichocera fly.
1/2/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3736.6 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
This morning when I went out the temperature was near 32F with a light dusting of new snow on the ground and light snow falling, pretty much ideal conditions for arthropods. I began finding spiders while I was still calibrating my thermometers at the top of the driveway. I found lots of wolf spiders, Tetragnathas, money spiders, Linyphiids, and Eustalas, and lots of Tetragnathas as well. I also found some Orbellia flies and some some other flies, including some tiny 1-2 mm flies. I found a winter lighting bug, a ground beetle, a rove beetle, and several soldier beetle larva, lots of Noctua pronuba caterpillars, another Noctuid caterpillar with spines, and a Coleophora micro moth. In addition, there were 6-8 snow scorpionflies, a Lygus bug, a large (3 cm) larva of some kind, a stonefly, and an ant. Blessedly, there were no new dead honeybees.
Do you know, do worker honeybees generally survive the winter? I was under the impression that they live less than a year?
I wonder if there is a benefit to the insects to being on the snow. Are they maybe getting water from it?
As I understand it, honeybees as a hive usually do survive the winter. They form a tight ball and shiver inside their shelter. They move around in the ball from the outside to the inside as needed to re-warm. But on warmer days, they go out to defecate, and that's what seems to be striking down members of this hive. The temperature isn't as warm as they think, and they freeze to death before making it back to the shiver ball. I know dying while defecating isn't unusual, but I wonder if it's just the ordinary outcome, if some percentage of the hive always dies each winter while defecating.
That's a big question about benefits to being on the snow. I don't think snow is really beneficial, because when the snow cover is only partial, I hardly ever find any insects on it. But certainly, they are much more likely to wander about on fresh wet snow than old crusty dry snow.
1-2-21. Pleasant Valley Park, Basking Ridge, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1176.25 miles total
Category: colorful
Molly and Katie have tested positive for COVID, both are doing fine, it's like a regular head cold for them. My husband and I both developed sore throats this morning, We're waiting to test until the symptoms are a little more established, but in the meantime avoiding people, so I tried to pick a spot where very few would be walking. But it's also incredibly muddy out, so I wanted pavement. This is a popular park, but it's attached to a (closed) swimming pool, so I walked the paved access paths to the pool and the driveway and ended up only passing people twice. I think they must have sprayed some kind of weed killer on the lawns here. Nearly every type of lawn weed had red or yellow leaves among the green. Of plants normally green in winter with at least some discolored leaves I saw: dandelion, heal-all, dwarf cinquefoil, English plantain, sheep sorrel, white clover, common plantain, ground ivy, whitlow grass (with a flower bud present!), mugwort, and hawkweed. Also colorful, but expected at this time of year were pear, honeysuckle, privet, and the underside of some aster leaves. Colorful berries were rose, bittersweet, barberry, privet, and poke. There was a lovely yellow jelly fungus on a fence rail, and a blooming dandelion as well.
1-3-21. Greenwood Meadows, Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1176.5 miles total
Another gray day, but much colder, and I'm still not feeling well so went for short, paved walk away from people. This is the local sledding hill, but as there's no snow it was empty, and there's a lovely, untended border along the road. Somewhat unusual finds included Chinese silver grass, crabapple seedlings, butter and eggs, whitlow grass, and sheep sorrel. Nothing blooming today.
So sorry to hear about Covid coming to visit in your household! I hope you start feeling better soon! Thank goodness for the shots! It's amazing to hear that even though you're down, you are still able to get outside for a bit and wander. But the Pleasant Valley park with its weed control sounds depressing and frustrating. But hah! jelly fungus on a fence rail--they can't control decay. Great finds in Greenwood Meadows!
1/3/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3738.6 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
The temperature continued to decline since yesterday morning. The high for the day was 16F. When I went out for my walk after lunch, the scientific thermometers read -11C at 1.5 m above the ground. The surface of the snow was marginally warmer, -8.5C. I didn't think I would find very much out and about, but then I came across a green Tetragnatha wandering. They really are the most cold-hardy of the lot. I also found a Noctua pronuba caterpillar curled in a ball, and then 2 dead honeybees under the bee tree.
Did you know there was a hive in the tree before the bees started falling out of it?
No, I didn't know about the hive until the dead bees started showing up. They led me to it. I haven't seen the hive at all, but the bees all show up under one tree that is clearly ailing, so I'm guessing it has a hollow spot where the hive is.
1/4/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3740.6 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
The temperature was a little warmer today, about -7C both in the air and on the ground, with no fresh snow. For my arthropod predictions, I need to consider temperatures over the last 24 hours, though. Last night the temperature got down to 0F, and I think the snow surface may have been colder than the day before, even though the air temperature was warmer. Temperature inertia effects of some sort. In any case, today I only found 2 dead honeybees and a dead Virginia ctenucha caterpillar, nothing wandering about on the surface.
1/5/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3742.6 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
The temperature was no warmer than yesterday when I went out this morning. I managed to find just 2 more frozen honeybees. Each day when I find them, I pick them up and move them to a compact pile so that I can recognize any new arrivals. The pile actually isn't that compact anymore.
1/6/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3744.6 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
The temperature was back up to 32F today when I went out, under cloudy skies with light snow. But still, the snow surface was marginally cooler than the air and it didn't feel like it had truly warmed up. I found 2-3 wolf spiders, an entelegyne spider, 2 Orbellia flies, a Noctua pronuba caterpillar and several Trichocera flies. Plus 2 new dead honeybees.
1-4-22. Ferguson Rd., Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today 1176/75 miles total
Another gray day with COVID. I walked this closed road over the partly washed-out bridge and passed no one. This is one of the few places nearby that has brook sticklback lichen, and there are a few other lichen and a moss on these rocks that I've not been able to ID. I also found two different kinds of hickory nuts.
1-5-22. Warren Municipal Complex, Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1177 miles total
Today it was actively drizzling, and I'd forgotten to bring my phone, so I walked the loop road near the town public works garage. I didn't pass any people, but I got to watch someone learning to drive the ambulance (this is my old squad. not my current one), There were really no surprises here, aside from one plant I haven't managed to ID that the computer thinks is a pussytoes.
1-6-22. Philips Field, Watchung, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1177.5 miles total.
I walked around this ballfield today, checking out the brushy woods. It was only the second time the sun has shone so far this year. I saw what might have been a cooper's hawk, though it was too far away through trees for me to get a good photo. There was a piece of an old hornet's nest, several mantis oothecae, some black knot galls. I saw some linden viburnum in fruit, a mockernut opening up while still stuck to the branch, and a lot of fat crabapples.
Hickory nuts are so unfamiliar to me that I don't think I'd notice two different kinds, or one opening on a branch. Sorry to hear that you've still got Covid--hope that passes soon!
1/7/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3746.6 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
The temperature was about 28F when I went out today with light snow. Still, it didn't feel like perfect conditions, just a bit too raw. I found half a dozen spiders, all brown Tetragnathas or wolf spiders. I also found an Orbellia fly, 2 micro moths, a few Noctua pronuba caterpillars and several Trichocera flies.
Scary--after I pressed enter on this journal entry, I opened up a new browser window with Firefox, and there's an ad in the middle of the page for an article called "15 Trees Every Outdoor Lover Should Learn to Identify" with a big photo of some hickory nuts. Yikes.
LOL, well, perhaps not aimed at outdoor lovers up by the Northeast Kingdom.
1-7-22. off Strait Lane, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today 1178 miles total
We had our first shovel-able snow last night, and then this morning I needed to pick up something at the doctor's, so I walked the trails behind the office. There was only about 5 inches of snow. It was lovely. I did not see one arthropod on the snow, however. There was a kousa dogwood planted by the office, with half-formed fruit on it. In the field there were both brushy bluestem and steeplebush, neither of which is common for me. And there's an old stand of gray birch at the back, with polypores.
That's too bad about the lack of arthropods on the snow. Here in VT, I usually find them mostly in the woods. I wonder if the trails behind the office had deep enough woods for them, or if they simply are much rarer in NJ.
1/8/22. Jerusalem Rd, Marshfield VT. 2.6 miles today, 3749.2 miles total.
Categories: tracks
This morning I met up with my walking buddies for a stroll up Jerusalem Rd in Marshfield. We met at the Twinfield School and walked up from there, past the railroad bed trails and waterfalls. The weather was chilly, in the single digits, with several inches of fresh snow. The waterfalls were quite scenic draped in various textures of ice. We found tracks of snowshoe hare, white-tailed deer, coyote, fox?, and turkey along the road. I thoroughly enjoyed looking up at the trees along the road, which included red spruce, balsam fir, white pine, and mountain maple, although I think I only shot the maple. I've had my eyes glued to the ground looking for arthropods so much over the past few weeks that I've forgotten to enjoy the plants.
1-8-22. Bridgewater Train Station, Bridgewater, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1178.5 miles total
I'm running out of shoveled and people-free areas to walk. But the train station worked, as there is a nice brushy border there all along the tracks and the parking lot. Not a whole lot of variety, but still... I saw a mourning dove, a mockingbird (who flew in and perched not 5 feet from me) and I'm pretty sure a raven, from its call. Lots of invasive plants: mugwort, two kinds of honeysuckle, Ailanthus, and privet. But there was a surprising number of natives, too: redcedar, poison ivy, false buckwheat, two kinds of sumac, poke, sycamore, and grape.
The train station--what a nifty idea for a walk. What fun to be greeted by a mockingbird!
1/9/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3751.2 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
This morning the temperature was quite a bit warmer, about 26F when I went out, but we had freezing rain. All flat smooth surfaces were icy and treacherous, so I had to seek out the edges where was still some uncompressed snow to walk on. I need to learn more about meteorology, how precipitation in the form of freezing rain differs from snow. The arthropods seem to have it figured out, since they simply weren't out. The only arthropods I found today were a Trichocera fly and a Lonchoptera fly, both dead. I also found 5 dead honeybees. Perhaps when the ice hits their wings they are doomed. Nasty stuff, the ice.
Ice storms are rough. I remember one in Vermont where even the vertical surfaces were slippery and it was nearly impossible to go anywhere.
1-9-22. Mountain Park, Liberty Corner, NJ. 1.0 mile today, 1179.5 miles total.
Katie, Molly, and I went for a walk in this collection of ballfields with paved (and plowed) paths and scrubby borders in what we thought was a break in the rain. But it shortly started sprinkling just slightly and blowing the cold rain into our faces, so we changed course. I used a tiny umbrella over my camera to keep it dry (but it was mostly not over my head, as it was easier to carry it low). For once Katie was the one pointing out berries and things (we saw honeysuckle, privet, juniper, rose, and bittersweet) and as usual she was focused on birds There was a turkey vulture but I couldn't get my camera focused on it, plus white throated sparrows too deep in the bushes to photograph, and then a tree full of little birds. She was able to ID a robin in there but I had to wait to get home (she was right, and the rest were mostly house finches).
Sounds like a wet walk, but you saw some fun things anyway. For distant birds in the sky, I take a moment to focus first on the distant horizon, then holding the focus button down to lock the focus, I shift to the bird and refocus when I find it. That usually does the trick. But if I try to go straight for the bird without aiming for the horizon first, all I get is clouds. Our turkey vultures are long gone. The only big birds in the sky left here are ravens.
1/10/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3753.2 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
This afternoon the temperature was 20F and falling when I went out. I didn't think I'd find anything alive on the snow, but there it was, a brown Tetragnatha spider making its way laboriously across a partially covered footprint. It seemed to require great effort to move, pulling with its front legs to move its body forward. There was also a single new dead honeybee.
1/11/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3755.2 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
Today was a bit cooler, 0F, when I went out under crystal clear blue skies. I was pretty sure I wouldn't find any living arthropods crawling around, but negative data is important, too, in order to determine low temperature ranges. There was, indeed, nothing crawling on the snow. However, I did find a new dead honeybee. I don't think the temperature matters to them. Except, of course, it's all too low for them, if it's below 35F. Other arthropods don't venture out at such temperatures, but they do. They probably go out at warmer temperatures but make it back alive when it's warm enough (above 35F). I guess for them, I need to figure out the coolest temperature with snow on the ground when I don't find them.
1/12/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3757.2 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
Today was a bit warmer, near 20F again when I went out this afternoon. The air was humid and still felt quite cold, though. I didn't find a single arthropod, not even a dead honeybee, so there goes that idea that the honeybees come out every day. I shot the turkeys in the yard for lack of any other critters to shoot.
1/13/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3759.2 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
Today we had a heatwave, with temperatures near 35F when I went out. The skies were cloudy, but the surface of the snow was quite crusty. I was a bit surprised to find absolutely no live arthropods about, not even a Trichocera fly. However, I did find 5 new dead honeybees. I took advantage of the warm weather to service the trail cameras. It's so much more pleasant to deal with them without frozen fingers.
1/14/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3761.2 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
The temperature was on its way back down again today, 20F and quite windy when I went out. I started out with a simple knit hat on, but returned to get my fur hat with flaps in order to be comfortable. There were a few flurries in the air under cloudy skies. I didn't think I would find much, but then I found 6 brown Tetragnatha spiders of perhaps 2 species, all within 50' of one another near my turnaround point on Peck Hill Rd. I also found a single dead honeybee.
1-10-22. Pleasant Valley Park, Lyons, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1180.25 miles total
category: birds
I chose this park for the paved and mostly ice-free walkways. I was surprised by the number of birds I found, especially the first, a lovely great blue heron right by the path on the edge of what I would have thought was much too tiny a stream to have anything of interest in it. Then there were geese and mallards, a white throated sparrow, a very fluffly mockingbird and finally an accipiter of some kind, maybe Cooper's hawk.
1-11-22. Frontier Rd., Bridgewater, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1180.75 miles total
Once again I was looking for non-slippery places to walk. This is a fairly neglected road up behind the grocery, along the edge of property owned by a quarry, but they are building something new, I have no idea what, along the road, and I'd never have known if I hadn't decided to walk up this way. Not a lot of surprises here, about 80% of what I saw was mugwort or some kind of mowed and unidentifiable (by me) grass. But there were stem galls in the mugwort and a nice narrow-winged mantis ootheca. By the railroad tracks at the bottom of the hill I saw spotted knapweed, which is unusual here away from the seashore.
1-12-22. Great Swamp, Harding, NJ. 1 mile today 1180.75 miles total
This time I wanted more interesting plants on my non-slippery walk, so I drove up to the access road for this National Wildlife Preserve. And there was a lot more than just mugwort. I found thistle stem galls, oak bullet galls, horned oak galls, honeysuckle galls, geese, and two different mantis ootheca on the same twig, one Chinese and one narrow-winged.
Interesting plants included blueberry, winterberry, greenbriar with berries, Joe Pye weed, false nettle, willow herb, water plantain, mile-a-minute, and my favorite, ditch stonecrop.
1-13-22. East County Park, Warren and Municipal Complex, Gillette, NJ. 0.75 miles today 1181.5 miles total
The snow is melting so I was able to venture onto some grass today, along the sunny sections of two abandoned farm ponds in this local park. This is a popular dog-walking area and on the way in I found a little lump of a much-chewed-on mammal corpse, maybe a shrew, it was hard to tell.
There was a flock of song sparrows, I found seedbox, a favorite of mine, and then I spotted what sure looked like a muskrat lodge. I've been by here practically once a month and never noticed it before. How neat.
In the afternoon I had to drop my daughter off for play practice, then I walked at a nearby park in the floodplain of a river. Here there were juncos and white throated sparrows, a small St. John's wort (not common, I don't think), blackberry stem galls, goldenrod stem and bunch galls, and honeysuckle aphid damage.
1-14-22. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1181.75 miles total.
A short walk while I was on duty, just to get out in the fresh air. I walked along the brook in this park closest to my house. I found poison hemlock, which I'd not seen here before, lots of lesser celandine including the bulbs, and some golden alexander.
That sounds fun, finding an unexpected blue heron at a tiny stream. My mother's neighbors have trouble with blue herons at their tub of a raised pond (4' in diameter) in their urban backyard. Every year, a heron finds it and harvests some of their goldfish and koi. I had never heard about stem galls in mugwort until I read some of your journal entries. The first time I looked here, I found one, but none at all since. I think maybe they may be more common where you are. As for two kinds of mantis ootheca--that's sounds amazing. We don't have any mantises up here.
1/15/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3763.2 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow, bingo
Our Saturday morning walking group postponed our walk today due to cold weather. So I did my arthropod walk instead, although not expecting to find anything. The temperature was not quite 0F when I went out, with a stiff breeze and clear skies. No live bugs, although I did find a new dead honeybee. I also shot some deer tracks, just in case I didn't find any bugs. And a black cherry for my iNaturalist bingo card (https://nornagon.github.io/inat-bingo/#1069). If you want to try the bingo, change the location and sign in at the bottom.
How cool, I had no idea the iNat bingo existed, thank you! and 0 degrees--brrr! The honeybees must be desperate to poop to venture out in that weather, I'd think. I wonder if a number of them are successful?
1/16/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2.4 miles today, 3765.4 miles total.
Categories: bingo
This morning when I woke up the thermometer read -20F. By 10 AM when I went out for our postponed Saturday walk the temperature was up to -10F. Postponing for weather never works, which is why we usually don't try. As it turned out, only one other walker was able to make it. We were both well bundled and had a pleasant time anyway. There were no arthropods about, and no dead honeybees. I think most of them probably survive their poop runs--otherwise, there would be no one left by the end of the winter. I had red spruce, basswood, and hazelnut on my bingo card, all of which I captured today. Now if that titmouse that's been hanging around comes back to the feeder, I'll have 5 in a row. If not, I'll have to find a golden eagle, a pine grosbeak, or a great lakes gull, all of which would be lifers for me.
1/17/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3767.4 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
We had a heat wave today, with temperatures back up to 32F, as well as 6" of new snow. It was still snowing heavily when I went out, but the snow gradually petered out and stopped by the time I returned from my walk up Peck Hill. As the snow slowed down, the creatures began to come out. I found an entelegyne spider, a Trichocera fly, 2 snow scorpionflies, and 2 Chionea flies, which I scooped up into collection jars and sent out to Seattle for a Chionea study. I also found one dead honeybee, which had to have come out just minutes before I got to the bee tree since it wasn't yet covered with snow. It had melted a short hole down into the snow before it expired.
1-15-22. Coddington Farm, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1182.25 miles total
This is a preserved farm, mostly growing up to woods. It's one of the only places I see watercress or persimmon. There was also moth mullein and indian tobacco. But the birds were better than the plants: a song sparrow, a white throated sparrow, and only my second ever yellow bellied sapsucker (not a pretty bird, I have to say).
1-16-22. Washington Valley Rd., Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1182.5 miles total
It was nearly sunset and I realized I'd not gotten a walk in, so I took a very quick one up the road and back. Here there is lesser swine cress and everlasting pea, two things I rarely see elsewhere. But the light was fading and I didn't take many photos.
1-17-22. Dealaman Preserve, Warren, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1183 miles total
Category: bingo
It rained after being very cold for several days, and so the ground here was frozen but slushy on top. Not the best for walking. I'd intended to go to the western half of this park, which is not as wet, but the lot was closed, so I walked these wet woods instead. I was looking for things on my bingo card and found: white pine, beechdrops, monkey flower, beech, tulip tree, and multiflora rose. Which gave me three in a row in one direction, but no Bingo.
1-18-22. Deserted Village, Berkeley Heights, NJ. 0.75 miles today, 1183.75 miles total
Category: bingo
Another attempt at a non-slippery walk, as all yesterday's slush had frozen overnight. This park is near the lab where I had an ultrasound done early in the morning. As for bingo, I found: rose with rose rosette disease, garlic mustard, poison ivy, tulip tree, and star rosette lichen. Once again no more than three in a row. four if you count both days.
I also found a lot of linden viburnum that I hadn't realized was there, and an Usnea lichen, which is very unusual for me.
1/18/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3769.4 miles total.
Categories: tracks
The temperature was around 10F when I went out to today with a very stiff breeze. I wore a mask even though I was alone, just for warmth. That's something those cloth masks are still good for. No creatures of any sort were out and about, except for "our" turkeys. I shot some turkey tracks in the driveway and downloaded more bingo cards. Now I'm working on my town, county, and state. For the county, I just need some uncommon birds to get bingo. For the town, I need to drive to a pond to pick up some wetlands plants. On the state card, there are 3 water birds that I would have to drive to Lake Champlain to see and a frog. A frog? Other than that, I think it might be do-able with a little driving. But I haven't driven anywhere other than to the general store once a week since...maybe sometime in December.
It's fun that you found a yellow-bellied sapsucker. I always wondered where they went in winter. Lesser swine cress sounds like an interesting name for a plant--I need to look that one up, and linden viburnum as well.
1/19/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3771.4 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow and bingo
The temperature was -8C when I went out today, but still, and the skies were quite overcast. I didn't find any live arthropods, but there was one dead honeybee. At lunch time before I went out, the tufted titmouse came to the feeder, and that gave me bingo on my county bingo card. So started collecting for the town and state cards, commencing with a lovely specimen of great burdock in our driveway.
1/20/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3773.4 miles total.
Categories: tracks
The temperature was -11C when I went out today, with sunny skies. I was not surprised to find no creatures crawling on the snow, and no dead honeybees either. I shot some turkey tracks up by the farm field, probably from a different flock than the one that lives in our yard.
1/21/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3775.4 miles total.
Categories: tracks
The temperature was still cold for arthropods today when I went out, -12C. I didn't even find any dead honeybees on my brisk walk up Peck Hill and back, so I shot some snowshoe hare tracks in our driveway. I'm looking forward to some warmer temperatures, perhaps next week, if only to see some more snow creatures.
Hard to stay motivated when it's cold and it seems like I'm seeing the same things again and again (or not much at all).
1-19-22. Watchung Reservation, Mountainside, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1184.25 miles total
Categories: bingo, birds, odd plants
Bingo-wise I was in a different county so had a different board. I got mugwort, honeysuckle, clover, avens, and rose, which gave me four in a row (but no bingo).
birds were nothing but blue jays, including one that tried to convince me it was a cedar waxwing (but I was suspicious as there was only the one). But I saw (and photographed) a dead raccoon on the way there.
This is a neglected arboretum, so I found some interesting woody plants including Chinese holly, trumpet creeper, a Viburnum I can't figure out, Carolina sweetshrub, Japanese snowball, a Magnolia with big leaves, Japanese cedar, a larch, white cedar, Deutzia, and sourwood.
1-20-22. Top of the World Park, Green Brook, NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1184.75 miles total
We got an inch of snow in the morning, and in the afternoon I checked out this local park. The snow had not stuck to paved surfaces and the paths here are mostly paved, which made things easy. I had an eye out for Bingo items for the county, but found none whatsoever. Still the snow was pretty, particularly on the princess tree and barberry, and I found several birds including junco, white throated sparrow, mocking bird, blue jay, turkey vulture, and geese.
1-21-22. Crim Park, Bridgewater, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1185 miles total
I squeezed in a walk after a squad call this afternoon. There were little birds in the shrubbery and I shot them without seeing them clearly. Turned out to be titmice, which was a surprise, as well as a white throated sparrow. There were oak leaves with shothole mines and some pretty berries on the bittersweet and barberry, but otherwise not much to see.
Did the dead raccoon at least qualify for a square on the bingo card? A walk in an neglected arboretum has the potential for some very interesting finds, indeed. Great work on the titmice!
I frequently find myself thinking now, "Well if I were doing the bingo card, I would put x on it". Pretty much the whole time I'm out in the field, really.
1/22/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3777.4 miles total.
Categories: tracks
I started off the day with a 2 hour Zoom session with a French conservation group whose project had added a lot of my observations from Bordeaux and Martinique. I figured I would sit back and watch their powerpoint and quietly try to figure out what they were saying. But no, it was a brainstorming session with some participatory software and everyone had to contribute, even me. We had to fill out little post-it notes and maneuver them around a board and reach consensus about the clusters of notes. The software had very strong French spell-checking, so I couldn't get away with typing in English, but it turn my attempts at writing into properly spelled French words, although it didn't impose grammar onto them. After 2 hours of this, I went out for a brisk walk up Peck Hill. By then the temperature had risen from -25F to -2F. My friends were had decided to walk Peck Hill at 9:30. When I reached the Peck Hill intersection, I found their cars will still there, so I thought maybe I could meet them. I stepped up my pace, but I got all the way up to my turnaround point and no sign of them. By then I had noticed that I couldn't see many human footprints on the road, so I figured they must have gone up the Peck Hill VAST trail instead. I walked back down the hill, finding 2 dead honeybees along the way, then down to the VAST trail turn-off, but there were no tracks there at all. The cars were still there--but how could they still be hiking 2 1/2 hours after their start in such cold weather? I turned around and headed back up Peck Hill, and found them a little ways downhill from the bee tree. To my surprise, given the cold, they wanted to see the bees, so I took them back up and we looked at the bee tree together. We noted the thick turkey tracks under the tree, and they proposed that the turkeys must be eating dead bees there. Could be. When I got home, I checked my email and found out they had postponed the start of their walk until 11 because of the cold--that's why they weren't yet chilled by 12:30 when I found them.
Oh my goodness, that sounds like a challenging meeting! Even in English! If turkeys eat dead honeybees, wouldn't your turkeys have found your little pile of dead bees and eaten them up?
1-22-22. Green Brook Highlands, Green Brook NJ. 0.5 miles today, 1185.5 miles total
In trying to make a Bingo board for Green Brook (where I walked on the 20th) I found a geographical area called the Green Brook Hillside Natural Heritage Priority site. So I looked it up and it's just over the hill from me, and had a total of 6 observations. There's no trails that I could find, but the edges are developed, so I walked in two different places where there were roads but houses only on one side. I remember hearing that this hill had naturally occurring redbuds on it (this is way north of where I've ever seen them grow wild before) and, indeed, I found three clumps of old and unhappy looking redbuds. However none was terribly far from the road and I was not 100% sure they were not neglected plantings.
In the end, I could only use the county bingo board, and it's a very tough one, with one thing I've never seen before (white crowned sparrow) and five that I've only seen once or twice ever. Today I found three things on the board: dwarf cinquefoil, dame's rocket, and star rosette lichen. That brings my total species found on the county board to 5. No more than three in a row anywhere, though.
1-23-22. Randolph Rd. graveyard, Franklin, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1185.75 miles total.
I was mostly looking for cackling geese today by driving past several flocks in an area where they'd been spotted recently, but no luck. I found lots of Canada geese and a robin. Then I stopped at this little graveyard and checked things out. Oddly there was a clotbur in fruit here. I mostly see them down the shore, and this wasn't even a damp area. But most striking were both common chickweed and common groundsel in bloom, in January, when it was 12 degrees out!
I didn't add anything to the county bingo board, but the board itself changed since the last time I looked at it. Weird.
That's a good point about the turkeys eating the dead bees. The pile is always there waiting for me each day (unless it gets covered with snow), with fresh tracks around it. I think the turkeys are actually just poking about on the south facing hillside. There are actually some patches with no snow there because it gets so much concentrated sun. The heat of the sun may be why the bees are up and about on such cold days.
Great finds on the redbud, clotbur, and chickweed in bloom! I think one reason why I had an easy time with the bingo card is that I probably made a large percentage of the previous January observations myself, all except for the birds, which were rather difficult. In reading the forum discussion comments about the bingo game, the developer tweaked it (before we saw it) to include only species with at least 5 research grade observations. He must have tweaked it again, because I just reloaded my already bingoed card and got a bunch of new species to hunt for and no more bingo. At least it's a new game to play while the arthropod hunting is slow.
1/23/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3779.4 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
I had another day full of social Zooms and class, from 9AM to 8PM, but I managed to duck out at 11 for a quick jaunt up Peck Hill. By then the air temperature on our driveway was up to -5C, but the snow surface temperature was still -9C. I didn't find any live arthropods, but there were 4 more dead honeybees up under the bee tree, surrounded by more turkey tracks. At the top of the hill in the sun, the surface temperature was +2C.
1/24/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3781.4 miles total.
Categories: bingo
This afternoon was a little warmer when I went out, -8C with partly sunny skies. The snow surface temperature was still -12C, though, so I didn't find any arthropods, not even a dead bee. However, my new bingo card has a box elder, which was easy to find and shoot along this route.
I also have box elder on my card, and went to look for it, unsuccessfully, yesterday. It's neat how much the sun affects the surface temperature, even when there's snow on the ground.
1-24-22. Dock Watch Hollow, Warren, NJ 0.5 miles today, 1186.25 miles total
bingo
I walked a section of road that I don't usually look at as it's fast, narrow, and had blind corners with no shoulder (but I could generally step up into the vegetation) plus everything is pretty icy, with a dusting of snow. I found richweed which I rarely see elsewhere, plus silver grass, wood ears, and knapweed, which I didn't know were here. On the town bingo board I got four in a row and found tulip tree, poison ivy, garlic mustard beech, poison ivy gall, and rose. But I found absolutely nothing from the county board.
Great finds with both poison ivy and poison ivy gall! It sounds like you have a fun bingo card going!
1/25/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3783.4 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
Today we had warm temperatures, near 32F, with snow flurries on top of 2" inches of fresh fluffy snow. I expected to find a lot of critters on the new snow, but the wind was blustery and the temperature was dropping. I found a dead fly of some sort at the top of our driveway and 2 dead honeybees. However, I also came across the neighbor who I showed the spiders on snow to last week. She excitedly showed me a Chionea fly photo and video and took me to the spot where she had seen it, but it was no longer there. It seems she is now out searching for arthropods on snow as well. Next step is to get her to post them on iNaturalist.
1/26/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3785.4 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow and bingo
We had another blustery day today, with temperatures around 10F, and several degrees cooler on the snow surface. Still, I found 4 dead honeybees by the bee tree. I also found some Joe Pye weed and milkweed for my county bingo card.
1-25-22 and 1-26-22. Manville, Hillsborough, Hopewell, NJ
My knee is not doing well at all. I went out to take photos anyway, but did it from the driver's seat of my car. On Tuesday I drove to Dukes Parkway Park in Manville, to see if I could find box elder and cup plant, both on my bingo board for the county. I don't see cup plant often, but I'd seen it here before, and there it was. The box elder was easy. I also found mallards and geese. Cackling geese are on my bingo board, but I didn't see any. And then I found figwort (not on the board), something I virtually never see.
Wednesday I drove down to take a new car insurance card to Molly at college. On the way I pulled in at nearly every park I passed; well, every park with brushy edges to the parking lot, that is, and drove slowly along the edge taking photos out the window. Plant-wise there were no real surprises. I stopped specifically to get some bamboo, in the hopes that it's "fishpole bamboo" which is on the Somerset County bingo board. (As I consider all bamboo cultivated I never bothered to learn them.) I didn't find a single thing for the Mercer County board.
I did see several birds, most exciting being a big red tailed hawk in a tree overlooking the road, but also a robin, a downy, a turkey vulture, and a pair of mergansers. Winter is really starting to wear on me. 8 weeks exactly to the latest day I have on record for the first crocus to bloom in my yard, and I am very much hoping spring will be early this year!
So sorry to hear about your knee. A bum knee is a real bummer! But it's good to hear you're figuring out a way to see some things anyway. Cackling geese would be a lifer for me, so it's quite interesting to hear that they made it on your bingo card. This winter seems to be particularly cold, at least up here. I can't imagine crocuses blooming in just 8 weeks.
1/27/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3787.4 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow and bingo
Today was chilly again, about 10F when I went out, but I didn't need my mask to stay warm, so that was good. There were no live insects on the snow, but I found 4 more dead honeybees, which surprised me since it has been consistently cold for the last 24 hours. I ran into another neighbor who asked me to look for her purple glove. I didn't find the glove, but I managed to find some Queen Anne's lace for my bingo card.
I got a cortisone shot, so my knee is much improved. There are only three records of cackling goose in my county so I'm not sure how that got on there, either.
It sounds extremely cold up there. When I'm feeling sorry for myself in single (positive) digit temperatures (F) I think of you up there so much colder. But I also follow a blog of someone in Scotland who's got snowdrops already, whole swaths of them!
1/27/22 Manville, NJ
On the way to a doctor's appointment this morning I once again botanized from my car in a few spots in Manville, which is two towns away from where I was headed. I figured I'd take my photos then use the map on my phone to get over to my appointment, only to realize I'd left the phone at home! So I drove off in the right cardinal direction and just went until I hit the main north-south road, which worked in the end, whew.
In the meantime I saw much the usual stuff (honeysuckle, mugwort, poison ivy, greenbriar, asters, ailanthus, juniper, rose, autumn olive). But in a swale I found what I think was a Hydrocotyle (it was a little far away for a good shot) and an alder just covered in catkins. Plus on the way across town I spotted a crow perched in a treetop (and more geese, but not cackling).
I like practicing navigating by intuition...in the woods. Never in a car! That's too scary. At least you got to find a few plants along the way.
1/28/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3789.4 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
The temperature was a bit warmer today, with snow flurries. I thought I might find some live arthropods on the snow, but no such luck. On the other hand, I found 9 dead honeybees. It will be fun at the end of the season to go back and look at my temperature and bee mortality data. I think there will probably be some statistically significant correlations to discover.
1/28/22 Warren Municipal Grounds, Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1186.5 miles total
Thanks to the wonders of cortisone injection, I was able to take a very, very brief walk today. It wasn't even a quarter mile, but I rounded up. Still I found a linden tree I didn't know was there and there was white pine, rose, and poison ivy for the town bingo board, even box elder for the too-hard county one.
Poison ivy on the bingo board - hurray! At least that's one thing that makes finding poison ivy a joy!
1/29/22. George Rd and Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 4.8 miles today, 3794.2 miles total.
Categories: bingo and arthropods on snow
This morning I met up with 3 of my friends for our regular Saturday morning hike. The temperature was 3F, which was 15 degrees warmer than the last 2 Saturdays, so it was OK. We went up the VAST trail from George Rd heading north and found that the trail had been re-routed a bit to enable the farmer on the corner to do some logging. Also, at the George Rd/Leonard Rd intersection, we found the VAST trail on to Lightening Ridge Rd not is use. Wow--that's too bad because it's a beautiful stretch of trail. I found common juniper and poplar shelf fungus for my bingo card. I was looking for Christmas fern, but had no luck.
After lunch I went up Peck Hill looking for bugs. The temperature was still in the single digits with a very stiff breeze, so there were no insects around. I did find that Christmas fern, though, on the south facing hillside by the field along Peck Hill since there had been a bit of snow melt there. I also found 11 dead honeybees. At this rate, I don't see how the hive can survive until spring.
I just looked it up, and supposedly an average hive has between 20,000 and 80,000 bees. I don't think you've found quite that many!
1/30/22. Washington Valley Park, Martinsville, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1186.75 miles total
Once again I'm rounding up. We got 5 inches of snow the day before and I didn't get a walk in, but today the sun was out, the sky was blue. My knees are still not happy, though good enough for a very brief walk on safe footing, so I drove up to this parking lot I knew would be plowed, with a nice, brushy edge. I've just learned how to recognize birch seeds, and found them everywhere here, along with tulip tree fruit, on top of the fresh snow (but no arthropods). There was also a Hypericum that I don't remember noticing before, and an Indian tobacco as well. Otherwise no surprises, as I've walked here many, many times.
Thanks for the reassurance on the hive numbers. I was guessing about 2,000-3,500 individual bees, which was what was making me nervous. If you're seeing birch seeds on the snow, you would probably see arthropods, too, if they were only there.
1/30/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3796.2 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
We didn't get a flake of snow from the big storm, while my sister down in Medford, MA got to spend the entire day digging out from their 2' of snow. Instead, today was once again cold, with temperatures near 10F. There were no live arthropods out on the snow, but I found 3 dead bees.
1/31/22. Peck Hill Rd, Calais, VT. 2 miles today, 3798.2 miles total.
Categories: arthropods on snow
The temperature was noticeably warmer this afternoon, 23F, a heat wave! Still, the snow surface temperature was nearly 10 degrees F cooler. Once again, I didn't find any live arthropods, but I found 18 dead honeybees. I also found my neighbor out walking. She said she found her purple glove, as well as someone else's black glove, but was now looking for her mitten.
1-31-22. Glenhurst Meadows, Warren, NJ. 0.25 miles today, 1187 miles total
I made it over 3 times as far today as the day before, yay! This was another park with a brushy edge to the driveway/parking lot such that I could walk on pavement and stay out of the slippery snow yet still find something to photograph. It was another beautifully sunny day. I saw mostly the usual suspects: mugwort, red-cedar, pear, honeysuckle, goldenrod, blackberry, dogwood, walnut, ash, rose, garlic mustard, bittersweet, Frullania, poison ivy, Queen Anne's lace, evening primrose, aster, pin oak, grape, crown vetch, olive, and a golden rod stem gall. Plus there's a forgotten (but surely planted) yucca in the bushes here.
Slowly, but slowly--sounds like a great walk!
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