Fogged out…

Welp, the fog must have heard me whining about it yesterday, and said to its buddy, “hold my beer.” It was so thick this morning that I couldn’t see across the soccer fields or the river. Thank goodness there are still wood ducks on the pond.

Since I don’t have any more bird pictures to show you, here’s a look at that second kestrel I mentioned on Tuesday.

I was surprised to find, today of all days, that a fresh batch of damselflies appears to have just emerged from the river. I didn’t know that there were any left to emerge at this late date, but here’s one of them, an American rubyspot.

This next critter is a northern walkingstick (Diapheromera femorata) that a keen-eyed reader found on their screen door. Man, what I wouldn’t give to find one of these for myself in Estabrook Park.

Speaking of fantastical-looking bugs, here’s a yellow-collared scape moth (Cisseps fulvicollis), also from Tuesday.

Finally, here’s one more monarch butterfly, which I was surprised to find feeding on white snakeroot. Long-time readers may recall that the plant contains the toxin tremetol, which is poisonous to grazing animals and humans. “The poisoning is also called milk sickness, as humans often ingested the toxin by drinking the milk of cows that had eaten snakeroot.” Anyway, it appears that either the nectar does not contain tremetol or that tremetol is not poisonous to insects. Either way, it is touted as “a valuable late-season food source for pollinators like bees, butterflies, and moths.”

With any luck, we won’t have to worry about fog tomorrow morning because the forecast now calls for showers and thunderstorms. Woo hoo!