This Week at Nixon Park - June 21-28

Clarke Green

29 Jun 2025 — 4 min read

In morning shadows a doe shepherds her fawn over the creek to the site where they bed down in the shade for the day.

A hot week. Enough said about that.

I like to walk slowly through the beech grove when the weather is hot (truth be told I walk slowly everywhere when the weather is hot). The canopy of trees shades the trail almost completely, and the undergrowth is lush, cool and green. A walk there is certain to be accompanied by the clear, flutelike song of the Wood Thrush, often from a hidden perch just feet away from where I stand.

Singing Wood Thrush, Cedar Waxwing, Robin, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, the Kingbird on its nest, Barn Swallow.

Eastern Bumble Bee on Spotted St. John's Wort, Four-toothed Mason Wasp, Two tiny Carpenter Bees.

We are getting towards the height of butterfly season. Orange Sulphur, Silver-spotted Skipper, Pearl Crescent, Cabbage White

This week's Damselflies; Variable Dancer, Mating Stream Bluets, Blue-fronted Dancer, Ebony Jewelwing.

Dragonflies are out in force this week; Eastern Pondhawk, Slaty Skimmer, Eastern Amberwing, Blue Dasher, Widow Skimmer, Cast-off skin of a dragonfly nymph after the final molt. Prince Baskettail.

Trumpet Vine is blooming this week. Trumpet vines have quinones, a chemical that can cause a poison ivy-like rash

The massive 60' tall Trumpet Vine is flowering too.

Mayapple progress; many have been browsed already, some are still getting bigger. Umbrella Magnolia seed pod developing. Ramps(or wild leeks) are now flowering, Chicory, Common Yarrow and close-up of common yarrow flowers, Water Hemlock, Broad-leafed Cattail

Lots of Cottontails, are the foxes on strike?

Dragonfly Life Cycle

This is the first of several posts about Odonata; an order of predatory flying insects that includes dragonflies (Anisoptera) and damselflies (Zygoptera). This is a generalized life cycle that points out stages you may observe at the park. You can see up to a dozen species of dragonflies along the

Swallows

Tree Swallows, Northern Rough-winged Swallows and Barn Swallows frequent the ponds and meadows of the park. Stand quietly and watch as they speed by, often just a few feet away, darting and weaving through the air so effortlessly you'd swear they're doing it just for fun.

This Week at Nixon Park - June 14-21

Another week of rain and unseasonably cool temperatures topped off by a strong storm with around an inch and a quarter of rain and 50 MPH wind gusts. When they swept through the park those winds felled a few trees and many branches.

This Week at Nixon Park - June 7-14

A warmer week than last. As the high temperatures reach the eighties for a couple of days in a row dragonfly nymphs are finally beginning to emerge after a cold, wet spring.

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Dragonfly Life Cycle

Swallows

This Week at Nixon Park - June 14-21

This Week at Nixon Park - June 7-14