This Week At Nixon Park 2025

This Week at Nixon Park - June 29 - July 6

Clarke Green

09 Jul 2025 — 3 min read

Barn Swallow hunting in the meadow.

This week I visited the meadow area that has grown to cover the old landfill site. Barn Swallows and Tree Swallows were hawking for insects, and there's a very active and vocal nesting community of Red-winged Blackbirds who, having spotted me at some distance, were not interested in posing.

Pearl Crescent, Monarch, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, and Red-spotted Purple butterflies

Common Eastern Bumble Bee, This tiny metallic flyer is likely a member of the Cuckoo Wasp family, Western Honeybee

Pond Slider, Eastern Painted Turtle, Eastern Musk turtle

Tree Swallows, Barn Swallow, (more about Swallows here) Elusive meadow-dwelling female Red-winged Blackbird mentioned earlier, Song Sparrow, Robin, lurking Kingbird (a Tyrant), Spotted Sandpiper (although a summer resident, a relatively rare sight at the park)

Fragile Forktail, Stream Bluet, and a mating pair of Slender Bluet Damselflies

This week's Dragonflies - Female Eastern Pondhawk, Widow Skimmer, Halloween Pennant, Common Whitetail, Slaty Skimmer, and a Dragon Hunter; the first sighting of a species I have not seen at the park perviously (thus the not-so-great photo)

Calligrapher Fly, Red Milkweed Beetle, a well-hidden Carolina Grasshopper, European Mantis, Common Green June Beetle (the June-bug of cuteness fame)

Swamp Milkweed and pollinators), Wineberry, Spicebush, Great Mullein

Last but not least; our weekly Cottontail.

This Week at Nixon Park - July 6 -13

It was a week for Kingbirds (more about Tyrant Flycatchers). Kingbirds aggressively defend their territories, even against the largest bird they are likely to run across at the park, the Great Blue Heron. I saw the chase pictured above a couple of times this week. I've been watching

Identifying Dragonflies

The other post in this series covers the Dragonfly Life Cycle These are the twelve species of dragonfly you are most likely to see at the park. I've arranged them into their various families and groups and included some basic points to identify them. male dragonflies are much

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

This Week at Nixon Park - June 21-28

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.

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This Week at Nixon Park - July 6 -13

Identifying Dragonflies

Dragonfly Life Cycle

This Week at Nixon Park - June 21-28