The Marsh Project Week #26

With week #26, I'm halfway through my year long experiment.  When I started about six months ago, it certainly wasn't over 100 degrees outside, and I was seeing mostly birds with an occasional turtle or snake on a warm day.  Now it's all about the dragonflies, with a sprinkling of birds (they're harder to see with all the foliage), mammals, butterflies, snakes and frogs.  The lily pads in the pond are ever expanding; it seems like it's been weeks since there's been a good rain, and it's hot. Did I mention it was hot? I have a hat, bug spray, a bandana (for the sweat), sunscreen and plenty of water.  It's not just hot, it's brutally hot.  It's been a rough, hard week; the heat isn't going to stop me- at least, not yet.  Talk to me again in August about that. 

However, today was the first sighting of a common visitor last summer: the anhinga.  Last summer, there were three of them, which I sighted on a regular basis for several weeks and then they disappeared.  Today, an anhinga made its first appearance of 2018 on one of the ponds, and I was happy to see it.  While I was sitting at the blind, several green herons flew up out of the vegetation, but none seemed interested in coming to see me even though there was a great tree with branches right near me. 

I also found a dragonfly I've only seen out here once before, a four-striped leaftail.  Dragonflies are swarming all along the portion of the trail that goes along the river and at the trailhead; I have no idea how to capture it in a photo, if that could even be done.  Like lightning bugs, which I hardly ever see anymore, dragonflies swarming equals summer.  When one or two finally decide to settle on a branch or a leaf, the gold on the bodies of the spot-winged gliders and the wandering gliders glistens like gold in the sunlight.  For a brief moment I feel like a kid again, running barefoot in the grass around my grandmother's house.  

I had another exciting find- a few days ago, a summer tanager popped out of the trees just as I was headed back up to the parking lot.  He was willing to hang out with me for a few minutes, perched on a branch, as I took several photos.  Eventually we both realized we had other things to do (like go home, rehydrate, and eat dinner, in my case) and he flew off.  

Spotted on the trail: Wandering gliders, spot-winged glider, jade clubtail, widow skimmer, comanche skimmers, great blue skimmer, slaty skimmer, Eastern pondhawk, cobra clubtail, neon skimmer, swamp darner, raccoon, armadillo, painted bunting, indigo bunting, anhinga, summer tanager, northern cardinal, Carolina chickadee, little blue heron, green heron, great blue heron, great egret, cattle egret, snowy egret, sad underwing moth, green tree frog, broad-banded water snakes, queen butterfly, viceroy butterfly, question mark butterfly, funereal duskywing.