The Tree Sparrows provide quite a show. They spend all summer swooping around and skimming the ponds to satisfy their huge appetites (and those of their nestlings) for insects.
Right now it's all about pairing up and finding a nest. I saw this pair chattering away, swooping around, and generally trying to impress each other.
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
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.
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.
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.