Echo Farm SP, day 2

[ctaylor at att.net]

Hi all -

I returned to Echo Farm State Park this morning, hoping the wind would be diminished from Saturday and that the Ringlets would sit for me.  The wind was still there, but not as strong as Saturday, and the Ringlets were far more cooperative.

I had initially planned to hit Echo, then go to Wapowog WMA and Babcock Pond, if I had the time (Debbie and Gracie were out for the morning).  Ha!   I spent 2 1/2 hours at Echo - there was something new to look at, chase, or photograph everywhere I looked.   A fun day.

Butterfly list -

Black Swallowtail - 5 (4 M, 1 F)
Tiger Swallowtail - 3
Clouded Sulphur 10+ (oh yes, please change my Orange Sulphurs from the 29th to Clouded - brain lock...)
American Copper - Lots
Eastern Tailed-Blue - 15
Pearl Crescent - 20+
Baltimore Checkerspot larvae - lots
American Lady - 10
Little Wood-Satyr - 20+
Common Ringlet - 50+
Southern Cloudywing - 1 (very poorly marked - looked almost like a Confused Cloudywing)
Northern Cloudywing - 4
Wild Indigo Duskywing - 1
Least Skipper - 4 (my FOTY)
Pecks Skipper - lots
Tawny-edged Skipper - 20+
Long Dash - 2 (my FOTY)
Hobomok Skipper - 10+
Dusted Skipper - 1 (my first one ever at Echo)

Bird sightings included the same male Orchard Oriole on station by the upper pond, tons of Indigo Buntings and E. Bluebirds, Yellow-throated Vireo, and a Red-shouldered Hawk that caught a bullfrog and was mobbed by Grackles and RWBBs as it flew away.  There were Bule-gray Gnatcatchers calling on both days by the trees at the entrance - a possible nest?  The local Mockingbird by the upper pond has an imressive repetoire of bird songs, but ONCE, and only once, I heard a strangely-given "Hip, Three Cheers!".   I looked for an Olive-sided Flycatcher, but never saw one - was it real, or was it Mocker?

Echo Farm State Park is accessible by foot or bicycle only - no motor vehicles.  It is om Echo Farm Road off Rt. 151 in East Haddam (actually, Moodus), just South of the Sunrise Resort.

Clay Taylor
Moodus, CT
ctaylor at att.net