Prelude to a Dirty Hot Summer

We had a brutally hot July fourth weekend, between mild times of cool and heavy thunderstorms, thanks to El Niño and climate change. But before the weather kept me under shade and in the pool, I managed a few outings to Black Run Preserve, and to Wissahickon park in Philadelphia with Philly Queer Birders. The group leader, Elise, has a great eye and ear for birds, and is a sniper with a laser pointer, helping novice and expert alike see the birds hiding in the canopy.

I photographed a lifer on that walk, an Acadian Flycatcher. A wee little bird who was misnamed as Acadian when it was first sighted, it doesn’t come from Nova Scotia or Louisiana for that matter. But it is a cute little fellow:

We also saw a Scarlet Tanager, high up in the trees and peering down. I got a great stretch yoga workout leaning back on the fence to get these shots. “Summer Tanager” and “Scarlet Tanager” always remind me of the Patti Smith song, “Summer Cannibals,” because of the similar cadence. So that’s the song for this week, fitting as we head out to barbecues and feasts. I saw Patti perform in a church a few years ago, and hearing her sing “Because the Night” in that space was quite the religious experience for me.

Jersey girl, don’t you know? Vineland. She wisely escaped to New York City. One of our great singers and poets, and I was taken by her humility, in a church surrounded by people who grew up loving her words and voice. She’s not for everybody, but she has a wide expressive range, covering beauty and longing and rage, and I find myself appreciating her more and more.

So here’s the Scarlet Tanager, cheep, cheep cheep:

That’s with full zoom and a crick in my spine. We also saw a Red-tailed Hawk, an Osprey flying over the creek, Red-bellied and Downy Woodpeckers, Robins, Blue Jays, and a Baltimore Oriole. It’s a wonderful park full of trails for hiking and biking, and I hope to visit it again.

At Black Run, I was greeted by the resident Great Crested Flycatcher, who shows up at the trailhead parking lot to scold you, if you are early enough. Not the best phone photo, but I had to share this bold little fighter, showing up to tell me this is his territory:

The lighting makes it look like a jungle, but that’s the Pine Barrens. We also have lizards, and that lovely Halloween Pennant dragonfly, who ignored me as it perched on a stalk of high grass. I got very close for that photo, and it didn’t care one whit. It had a good spot to hunt from.

The lizards are of the Eastern Fence variety, with heads maybe as big as a fingertip. Their camouflage is perfect for the desiccated pine bark and needle litter on the sandy ground; they are quite confident in it, until you get very close. Look at this one eyeing me:

Now let’s pull back and watch it dissolve into a branch:

Same with this close-up.

If they look right at you, their eyes disappear and their camouflage tricks your eyes into seeing them as the background.

At home, I’ve seen a lot more insects now that we have a garden and lots of lavender and marigold to distract mosquitos and occupy pollinators. I can spend an hour watching chunky bumblebees and carpenter bees hop from bud to bud, their weight making the purple frond bob in the wind. Lavender is my favorite color, and I’m also fond of the scent.

I’m also quite fond of our giant Tulip tree. Sometimes they are called poplars, but they are neither tulip nor poplar, but a large magnolia, one of the tallest trees on the eastern continent. It drops flowers, leaves, buds, seed cones, samaras or “helicopters,” and apparently a small fruit that resembles a flower, and is home to the Tulip-tree Silkmoth, a large brown moth that transforms from larva only to mate. I found one on the house under the tree, and moved it to the bark. I had a feeling it was at the end of its life, but figured it should die on the tree it loves, where it was less likely to be torn apart by hungry birds. A smaller skipper with similar coloring, the Tulip-tree Beauty, has appeared as well.

Wings fully spread, it would have a wingspan the length of my hand. To say, each wing could cover my palm. In the yard, I’ve found Skippers, Melyrids, Box Elder bugs, Cicada Killer Wasps, their prey cicadas, and of course Lantern Flies, which I stomp. I’m glad they have been less a threat to local flora than anticipated. Other insects other than mosquitos, I live and let live. I am very fond of spiders, but haven’t seen a Bold Jumping Spider this year. Instead, I found a large house spider in the shed. We have a lot of earwigs in the yard this year, probably because I didn’t ask the landscapers to do a yard cleanup and get rid of every bit of leaf litter and detritus. I cleaned it up a bit so the ticks didn’t have as many places to hide, and I’ve only found one so far, so that’s fine with me.

Earwigs are ugly, but harmless. We’ve seen a Praying Mantis, who like to eat earwigs, and birds and spiders certainly do, so I made a habit of kicking the LED lamps and other hiding spots so they flee into the light where they can be eaten.

Maybe I should bring home some Fence Lizards…