In an effort to beat the heat forecast for today, I got out nice and early and was already at the north end by 6:30 a.m. I don’t know if it was my early arrival or we were just due, but I finally found our first black swallowtail in Estabrook. It was waiting for the sun in the wildflowers that survived the mowing of the meadow, and sure, it looks a little “like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone,” but the parts that are left are darn pretty anyway.
As I was kneeling in the grass trying to get the best picture I could, look who came sneaking up the path to check me out.
I’ve seen this with youngsters before, and it is always a wonderfully mesmerizing experience, but this is the first time I’ve had an adult try to get close enough to catch a whiff. It appears that she eventually caught something, which I hope was mostly the insect repellant I’ve been bathing in for most of this wet, hot, and buggy summer, because then she turned and pranced off. “Sorry, Sweetie!”
Anyway, by the time I was able to turn my attention back to the swallowtail, it must have decided that there was enough sunlight to try catching some.
Another little critter I found snoozing in the weeds was this red-belted bumblebee, who looks a bit like the golden northern bumblebee we saw just yesterday, but with red belts on its tail instead of yellow.
That’s it for critters today, I’m afraid. Perhaps everyone was laying low in anticipation of the line of thunderstorms that rolled through around 9 a.m. Thus, I finally have room to share a picture of the work that MMSD has begun to reshape the falls so that native fish species can get back to their historical spawning grounds upstream. There is a great picture at the top of the stairs by the beer garden that shows the details of what they intend to do, which I was sure I could find online, but I’ve had no luck, so I’ll snap a picture of it for you tomorrow.
Since I still have a little room left, and I didn’t get a single bird picture today, here’s a spotted sandpiper on a little spit of sand in the river on Monday.
Finally, here’s another look at the monarch from yesterday, but this time on some swamp milkweed blossoms. I had great light at the time, and the monarch was very cooperative and/or hungry, so the image has good resolution, and you can see a lot more detail if you click on it to see the original on flickr and zoom in.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 