20 Jul, 2012 Author: Glorianna Davenport
June 30, 2012 Sharon Stichter looks for butterflies along river's edge credit: GDavenport
While the “Dog Days of summer” may impart a feeling of lassitude, forlornness or even forsakenness, they never seem lifeless or unproductive. There is just too much natural vitality to suggest resignation. For humans, getting up with the light, eating modestly, and roaming the by-ways of field and forest insures that we will have our share of noble encounters with nature-in-the-wild. No matter how hot and humid the day gets, memories of the most recent encounter never fail to re-affirm, energize and inspire.
Wildness is, of course, relative. Urban wildness occurs in tiny cracks in the pavement, as well as in rivers, streams and patches of natural wetlands that, despite all odds, remain in some urban settings. In the country, wildness often harkens back to a time when that same landscape was manipulated to support some human activity. In the case of Tidmarsh Farms, a large rock at the top of a knoll that has been colonized by little bluestem and blackberry briar speaks to the glacier that retreated from this place some 10,000 years ago; across the rest of the 2 km expanse, the bones of a cranberry farm are still everywhere in evidence.
As these dog-days wear on, we roam the land, encountering moments of complexity and perfection. An enormous snapping turtle basks in the river holding only its nose above water. A momma duck corals her clutch of 9, down one from yesterday. Two young deer fawns dart across the road and enter the woods; their mama follows. A great egret takes off suddenly (I have disturbed him), soars for a few minutes, and lands half a kilometer down stream. An otter clamors up a culvert. A bale of turtles, who are sunning themselves on river muck, quickly slip-off into the river as I pass by. An otter clamors up onto a culvert. As ever, these dog-days are filled with the festive explosion of distinctive butterflies and other winged species who perform amazing aerobatics from late June into mid-July as they search, swoop and land on nectar blooms of their choice.
June 30, 2012 Silver-bordered Fritillary with Least Skipper in flight
credit: MFaherty URL for Mark's photos
One of the great pleasures of managing this restoration project is to meet, hang out and learn from the many people who are lending their expertise to making this project the best it can be. On June 30, members of the Butterfly Club of Massachusetts arrived at Tidmarsh Farms to search for, observe and photograph butterflies. After a short introduction to the project, the group took off. For a few minutes, several explored the impoundment edge. In parallel, another member navigated his way down the bank to see what species might be active on the cranberry bloom. Soon they regrouped and walking along the road they discovered an amazing colony of Baltimore Checkerspots. Group wisdom concluded that the Baltimore Checkerspot hosted on the narrow leaved plantain that grows abundantly at the edge of the grassy knoll. In time, the group arrived at a large stand of Common milkweed, Ascelpias syriaca, also known as Butterfly flower, Silkweed, Silky Swalow-wort. Milkweed grows abundantly along the embankments of the former cranberry bogs. An important source for many nectar-seeking insects, and larval food for monarch butterflies, these patches of milkweed provided a treasure trove of fritillary specimens, including three variegated, two great spangled and a Silver-boardered Fritillary. As the excitement grew over these discoveries, I worried a little about how this plant would fare in the face of the restoration intervention. I also learned that we could perhaps enhance the population of monarch butterflies if we cut some of the milkweed down following the bloom, a practice I accidentaly follow in my garden. Cutting the milkweed at this time, allows the plant to send up the young succulent shoots that are preferred by the Monarch butterfly larva.
The more one focuses on wildness, the more one comes to appreciate the complexity and perfection of a cyclical system. For one thing, the cycle has existed for a very long time, well before the Greeks wrote about it. The name dates to the Romans who named these days after Sirius, the "Dog Star", the brightest star in the constellation, Canis Major (Large Dog). Perhaps they also wanted to reference household dog who may also languish in the heat of these summer days, days we all know will pass soon enough as the cycle continues: summer to winter, birth to death, migration and hibernation to a return and reawakening. As we struggle to retain our composure in this summer sauna, we do well to look beyond our discomfort and celebrate the many ways in which nature delights, thrives and rejuvenates itself cyclically.
Butterfly Club of Massachusetts
Tidmarsh Farms, Manomet, Plymouth.
June 30, 2012; 12:50 - 2:30 pm or so
Butterflies as reported by Sharon Stichter, President of The Butterfly Club of Massachusetts
Spicebush Swallowtail - 2
Cabbage White - 11
Clouded Sulphur - 4
Orange Sulphur - 9
American Copper - 20
Eastern Tailed-Blue - 2
VARIEGATED FRITILLARY - 3
Great Spangled Fritillary - 2 (part of a wing missing on one...)
Silver-bordered Fritillary - 1 (the second flight may be just starting here...)
Pearl Crescent - 2
Baltimore Checkerspot - 13 (This is a nice colony, host plant here is almost certainly the nearby lance-leaved plantain.)
American Lady - 7
Red Admiral - 4
Common Buckeye - 2
Monarch - 16
Silver-spotted Skipper - 5
Least Skipper - 5 (NO non-native European Skippers seen.)
Delaware Skipper - 1
July 7, 2012 Monarch on Milkweed credit: GDavenport
July 7, 2012 Common Buckeye credit: GDavenport