biscuit

So the weekend before last, at Pine Haven, I spotted a striking large moth during a bathroom stop. I only got one shot of it before it flew away, but I was quite excited about it. Then the next morning, there were no fewer than three individuals on the exterior of the bathroom, all well lit and cooperative. This weekend, as if to remind me, there was one more to be seen. Large Maple Spanworm (Prochoerodes lineola), Wentworth NH, 8/2, 8/3, 8/10/2014.

I've been struggling a bit with including reasonable scale references in pictures; making do with my fingers is troublesome to measure later, and tends to limit my ability to focus the camera accurately. I am considering making some custom-marked post-it notes to stick to the building - I will see how that goes.

I'm a little backlogged with the moth pictures; I shall be back at Pine Haven tomorrow night, and while I've identified many of last week's batch, sorting the images has been delayed. This little one (12mm wingspan) is a Spotted Grass Moth (Rivula propinqualis). Wentworth, NH 8/2/2014.

Monty and George and I went up to camp at Pine Haven, and visit with Denton on the Crew Weekend of his camp. Saturday morning, we weren't scheduled to be anywhere, and Monty wanted more sleep, so George and I went for a walk around and about, and ended up at the power line cut, chasing bugs and flipping logs. This delightful snake is a northern red-bellied snake (Storeria occipitomaculata occipitomaculata) - they are not scarce, but I had never seen one before. He did not flush when I moved the log - in fact, George and I spent a while looking at an ant's nest before spotting him - but once I grabbed him, he was lively and musked me abundantly.

I also managed a long moth photography session, plus some excellent amphibians, on this trip, so the daily moth posts will return once I have sorted the photos.

Wentworth, NH (power line cut above Pine Haven), 8/2/2014.

Yesterday we went to Great Meadows NWR in Concord. It was sunny, the water was low, and there was a lot of lush blooming wildflowers. I chased butterflies for a while, with somewhat mediocre photographic results. Anyhow, this one is a Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos), which is not new to me, but I still had to look it up to remember it by name. Concord MA, 7/26/2014.