an August notebook page

Some notes on an overcast early August morning:

There is a large burrow that has been excavated under a stump on a wooded path at the edge of the property (not deep woods but a semi-open spot). This is a good-sized hole that must have been made by a fair-sized animal (I'm thinking Red Fox although I suppose a Woodchuck/Groundhog would be a possibility).

Found a tiny Box Turtle -- with a carapace that is perhaps 1" across and just a bit longer in length -- creeping across one of our right-of-ways. I moved it to the adjacent woods. When we drive in and out, everyone knows to look for turtles but this baby is so small that it would never be seen from the inside of a car.

The numbers of Royal Terns working the creek (easily heard from the house and visible from the edge of the pond) has noticeably increased in the past few days. There are also quite a few Forster's Terns and the occasional Least and Common Terns. The Green Herons, both adults and young, are still around and calling and we have a resident Great Blue Heron; the numbers of other water birds seem to have decreased.

An odd warbler song turned out to be a young Common Yellowthroat -- its black mask just beginning to come in -- practicing its classic song and not yet getting it quite right. A few old friends are still conspicuous and active: Great Crested Flycatcher, White-breasted Nuthatch, House as well as Carolina Wren, and various woodpeckers (Downy, Red-bellied, N Flicker). The Red-bellied still occasionally drums on the gutter, a noise that gets everybody's attention.

A few more butterflies have appeared including American Lady (two eye-spots on the underwing) and Tiger Swallowtails.

Pilewort (also known as Fireweed) has joined Pokeweed and Seaside Orache to form the hurricane-induced understory. The proliferation of these plants is at least partly due to the increased amount of light that is reaching the forest floor due to the thinning of the canopy. Pilewort is an odd member of the daisy family that puts out a bud that looks like it's going to turn into a dandelion-like flower but it never actually opens; it just suddenly goes straight to a globular seed head.

Eric Salzman