Looking Back: 3Q2015

New Butterflies:

Acadian Hairstreak
Red-Banded Hairstreak
Southern Cloudywing

My butterfly list to date for 2015 stands at 65, with the above new butterflies added to my life list!  My yard list for 2015 has slowly ticked up to 12.

New Places:

Attleboro Springs Wildlife Sanctuary, Attleboro, MA
Bristol Blake State Reservation, Norfolk, MA
Dinosaur Footprints, Holyoke, MA
Habitat Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary, Belmont, MA
Mount Sugarloaf State Reservation, So. Deerfield, MA
Oak Knoll Wildlife Sanctuary, Attleboro, MA
Rachel Carson National Wildlife Sanctuary, Wells, ME
Squantum Point Park, Quincy, MA
Thuya Garden, Northeast Harbor, ME
Wild Gardens of Acadia, Acadia National Park, ME

Great list this quarter!  I'm really glad that I keep pushing myself to see new places!

New Birds:

Cory's Shearwater
Dickcissel

My bird list to date for 2015 stands at 205 (my first time breaking 200 in a single year!), with the above new birds added to my life list !  My yard list for 2015 has slowly ticked up to 44. 

Favorite Photos:

Biggest Surprise:

I didn't really have any big surprises this quarter, but finding Rose Pogonia and Sundew along the trail at Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park was definitely a pleasant surprise!

Sunday Bluebirds

Yesterday was too busy to put a blog post together.  In the afternoon, I visited Tower Hill Botanic Garden, still beautiful in late September.  Early evening, I went to Farm Pond in Framingham to try to catch the rise of the Super Moon.  Then, around 9, I went to Chestnut Hill Farm in Southboro to witness the spectacular full eclipse of the moon.

Tower Hill Botanic Garden:

Autumn Crocus 

Blackberry Lily

(gone to seed and showing why it is so named)

Great Spangled Fritillary

Eastern Bluebird

Eastern Bluebird

Pine Warbler

Black-Capped Chickadee on sunflower

Eastern Bluebird

Farm Pond:

Mute Swans

They are not my favorite bird (invasive species, bad for native ducks), but I loved how close they were together and the rings they were making in the water.  (Click to enlarge)

While I was waiting for the moon to rise, the sky took on a beautiful pink hue as the sun went down behind me.  I find this scene prettier than it was after the moon came up!

I was hoping the moon was going to align with the beautiful Armenian Church steeple, but no!  It had to come up over an ugly brick building and some parking lot lights!  I'm sure the blame is fairly placed on the photographer and not on the moon!!!

So, the distant views were better than zooming in on ugly brick buildings...even though you can't really feel the super-size of the moon from these views.

Chestnut Hill Farm:

Now for the eclipse!  Chestnut Hill Farm stayed open late so that people could come and watch the eclipse, and someone set up a telescope!  George and I went from 9-11 and enjoyed the beautiful night sky, great weather (cool but clear) and stunning views of the eclipse!

It became harder and harder to focus my hand-held camera the more the shadow covered the face of the moon.

Late Season Butterflies

I made a few stops today in search of butterflies.  Here are the highlights:

Wayland Community Gardens

Dingy Cutworm Moth

 Monarch

Savannah Sparrow (I think)

 Odd Couple
Northern Mockingbird and Gray Catbird

 American Lady

Butterflies were few and far between, with the exception of Cabbage Whites, which were abundant.  I did also see:  

Black Swallowtail 1

Clouded Sulphur 2

Pearl Crescent 1

Mass Audubon Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary

 Great Spangled Fritillary (oh, so worn)

 American Lady

 Cabbage White

 American Copper

 Gray Hairstreak

Fall cleanup

Signs of Fall at the farm stand

House Sparrow

Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

Lotus pod

Did you know that some people have a fear of objects with small holes?  It's called trypophobia.  They would be horrified at the above photo (just a weird fact to go with the photo).  Does it bother you?

cute little dragonfly

 Great Spangled Fritillary

a view of the sky through a chewed up leaf

 Milkweed seed

 Great Egret