WILDLIFE AT HUNTLEY MEADOWS PARK

The last time we had a walk here a few weeks ago, we were fortunate enough to see quite a lot of wildlife, and I put together a collage to start off today's post.    

When I was taking photos of this butterfly, a gentleman came by and told me what it was.  He was carrying a camera and a tripod.  I wish I could remember his name!  He said he had taken a photograph of the butterfly and went through several on his phone to show me.  All his photos looks wonderful and he said he had an account on Flicker and mainly took videos, that I do remember.  Hopefully I will come across it one of these days.

He told me this was a Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly, and I found a blog with great photos here.  This is the first time I remember seeing one, or more likely had the chance to take notice.  The butterfly posed very nicely for a while.

It is sipping nectar from a Climbing hempvine, botanical name Mikania scandens.

Eileen at Viewing Nature with Eileen (you can see what she says in her comments attached to this post) identified this bird as a Juvenile Little Blue Heron.  Thank you Eileen.  I love how our blogging friends help out, and always appreciate correct identifications. 

You can learn more here.

Their habitat information was found at the above link: "you will find them at the edges of shallow water, particularly where there is adjacent emergent vegetation or overhanging bushes or trees."


A Great Egret is next.   Gregg took its photos.  There were several of them at the park when we were there...

many putting on a wonderful display in flight.

He also took there, two Great Blue Herons.  Unfortunately most of the birds were further than we would have liked, but always grateful for whatever we can get.  If you go to this YouTube link it will show you a great video of this bird.

In the next photo is a female Eastern Pond Hawk Dragonfly, Erythemis simplicicollis. You can see a photo of the male at this link.

The brown dragonfly is an Eastern Amberwing. 

The last one is the Common White Dragonfly.

This looks like a Meadow Katydid.

A Blue tailed Skink and you can see one here also.

It looks like it is growing a new tail.  The blogger said that although this is called a Blue-tailed skink in the US, it is actually an American Five-lined Skink.  He added that the actual Blue-tailed skink lives on Christmas Island in Australia.


There weren't many frogs to be seen on this visit, and I looked really hard to find one.  The only reason I saw the handsome fellow below, was I noticed a young girl with her family leaning precariously over the boardwalk.  I asked what they were looking at and the girl pointed to the frog.

He is above left of center in the first photo below.  I had to lean far over to see him as he was out of almost out of sight just under the boardwalk.  

This is a Snapping Turtle.  Its head was visible with the rest of him under water.  He is prehistoric looking isn't he?

I have seen them many times at various places, mostly in the water and one time on land.  They can be huge and I figured our landlubber was a grandfather of snappers.  I gave him a wide berth as I have read they can be particularly aggressive on land even before reading the same at this link.  Also, though most of the time you only see their head tucked into their shell, they have long necks that can swivel really fast, and that mouth would do terrible things to your fingers.  Sorry for that image but forewarned is forearmed.  I like these creatures and have always found them fascinating, but it is sensible to have a healthy respect for all wildlife and keep an appropriate distance.

I saved these for the last.  Many of us know about the Eastern Tent Caterpillar.   They aren't at all popular.  When we first moved into our house almost 30 years ago, I was told by a neighbor that these caterpillars killed a tree in our yard and much to the previous owner's dismay, it fell on our roof.  We noticed another tree that was dead.  It had been growing next to it, and had to have it cut down before it did the same.  

The actual moth is a cute little thing as you will see here.  I was surprised to see the caterpillars around.

It seems to me that this year I have seen a lot more of these 'tents'.  They are usually a common sight going down the highway, on side roads too.

This is the last of our recent Huntley Meadow trip.  Always a great place to amble around.  I enjoy the woods but my favorite part is the walkway across the wetland.