Checking in at Chestnut Hill Farm and Beals Preserve

I took my morning walk in Southboro again today, but this time chose to check on the Bobolink population at Chestnut Hill Farm.

Chestnut Hill Farm Birds:

American Robin
Baltimore Oriole
Barn Swallow
Bobolink
Mourning Dove
Northern Cardinal
Red-Winged Blackbird
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
Warbling Vireo
Wild Turkey

Barn Swallow

Bobolink pair in flight

female Bobolink

female Bobolink
(50x zoom)

If you look closely, she is eating a green caterpillar.  She appears to have a tick right next to her eye, too.  When I attended a bird banding program, they said that ticks will often bite birds on the head, where they can't reach to scratch.

As for butterflies, it was primarily Peck's Skippers showing up around the meadows.  There were a couple Little Wood Satyrs in the woods and an occasional Clouded Sulphur in the meadows as well.

 Peck's Skipper

There were several moths flying just down the wooded trail.

White-Banded Toothed Carpet moth

ditto

TBD

And a few other miscellaneous critters:

Snail

Springtime Darner (unconfirmed)

There were actually lots and lots of dragonflies, but I wasn't getting photographs of them.  Don't think that they are uncommon.  They were all along the dirt road, and flying all around the edge of the woods.

Horse Fly
(Hybomitra lasiophthalma)
Look at those eyes!

From there, I walked down Chestnut Hill Street to the Beals Preserve entrance on Route 30 and walked up the path, around Lone Wolf Trail and visited the Ice Pond.  It was pretty buggy, and I had not sprayed so I did not stay long.

Beals Preserve Birds:

Baltimore Oriole (calling in the WHIP area)
Indigo Bunting (also singing in the WHIP area)
Ovenbird (singing in the woods)
Red-Tailed Hawk (circling above Ice Pond)
Red-Winged Blackbird (near channel)
Song Sparrow

I sat for a while next to the pond, and I guess the frogs got used to me because they didn't immediately hop into the water when I moved a bit closer (as they have done every other visit).  I was able to take a few photos of them which I will contribute to the Southboro Open Land Foundation amphibian survey currently going on at Beals Preserve.