Queen Annes County, MD (10/4)

Mark Walker MWalker at gensym.com
Wed Oct 4 23:47:31 EDT 2000


What a delightful day in the Capitol region.  High in the mid-80's F.  I
couldn't get out until after 2:00 p.m., but there were plenty of
butterflies.  I walked an old abandoned train track - tripped and fell when
my feet got tangled in vine and bramble.  I'm sure it looked pretty stupid -
but fortunately there were no humans to witness it.  When I got back up, I
was covered in these needle-like seed pods.  That made me look even more
stupid.  Took me an hour to pull them all out (terribly stuck in all the
nooks and crannies).

It's a good thing I didn't fall minutes before, while walking across the
dilapidated trestle.  Every fourth railroad tie was missing, and every other
tie was badly rotted.  The trestle was about 30 feet above very shallow
water - seeping with ooze and other nasties.  Plenty of vine and brambles
here, too.  And wasps!  Talk about stupid.

If you want to enjoy nature, you've gotta take your knocks.  It's certainly
not for the faint-hearted.  Apparently, not for the supremely-intelligent,
either.

It looks like the good weather is on it's way out.  Hail and thunderstorms
tonight, and 30 degree cooler temperatures slated for the weekend.  Anyway,
it was good to get out.

Here's the rather short list:

Papilio glaucus (Eastern Tiger Swallowtail)
Papilio troilus (Spicebush Swallowtail)

Pieris rapae (Cabbage White)
Colias philodice (Clouded Sulphur)
Colias eurytheme (Orange Sulphur)

Celastrina neglecta (Summer Azure)

Euptoieta claudia (Variegated Fritillary)
Phyciodes tharos (Pearl Crescentspot)
Vanessa cardui (Painted Lady)
Junonia coenia (Buckeye)
Limenitis arthemis (Red-Spotted Purple)

Danaus plexiippus (Monarch)

Mark Walker
at the Radisson, Camden, N.J.


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