Semester over, rains begin

Now that the college semester is over, I was hoping to go birdwatching several times this week all over southeastern Mass, especially at Plymouth Beach and World's End in Hingham. Unfortunately the weather has not cooperated, so here is a selection of photos I managed to take during the few times I was able to go out during the hectic end of the semester. As always, click the pictures to see the larger version.

One of the biggest surprises of my first full year of naturewatching last year was that I did not see a single salamander. Determined to put an end to that, in late April I went outside with my trusty flashlight and camera on a misty cool night, desperately hoping to see salamanders and maybe a Ring-necked Snake. Little did I know last year that there were indeed salamanders right under my nose in my own backyard.

The first night I found 3 Red-backed Salamanders, and found 2 the following night. They were surprisingly easy to spot in the open, but disappeared under the clovers and grass with ease. It's a little alarming how well they are hidden; I'm now worried about stepping on them whenever I walk in my backyard, especially on misty/rainy nights. I tried to use the flash as little as possible so as not to blind them.

In early may I went to Ames Nowell State Park again, as well as Oak Knoll Wildlife Sanctuary several times (more on those trips later), where I managed to get a picture of two Spring Azures mating. Not sure about the exact taxonomy of these two (is anybody?) but I believe that they are two different forms. 

Spring Azures mating

In addition to about 15 Spring Azures, I also saw 3 of the smaller Eastern Tailed-Blues, one of which cooperated with me in the photo department.

Eastern Tailed-Blue with wings open

Eastern Tailed-Blue

None of the Cabbage Whites or sulphur butterflies that I've encountered have been even remotely cooperative. At both Ames Nowell and Oak Knoll, the dirt/leaf liter trails had many duskywing butterflies, which I have to say are some of the most skittish butterflies, or indeed any animal, that I have come across, possibly only losing to Seaside Dragonlet dragonflies in the skittishness contest. However, patience did pull off on one occasion:

Juvenal's Duskywing

On the bugguide.net page for Horace's Duskywing, it says that "Juvenal's Duskywing has gray scaling on the forewing" which fits this individual, so I'm fairly certain that above butterfly is a Juvenal's Duskywing.

Here's hoping the weather gets better so I'll have much better pictures to share and adventures to tell about.