A couple weeks ago I was invited to go birding at George Pierce Park, my first birding outing since moving to Georgia last month. It's a great spot with several miles of "greenway" and a diversity of habitats. I'll definitely be headed back there at some point. The highlight of the day was definitely the little blue heron who was hanging out in the wetland and hunting for several hours. But there were lots of great birds, flowers, insects, and more!
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| Little blue heron (Egretta caerulea) looking for their next meal... |
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| ... and success!! |
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| Still a heron, but a different genus: green heron (Butorides virescens). |
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| Also on the hunt for fish, the belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon), one of the few species named for a distinguishing feature on the female, the rusty belt across the chest, as pictured here. |
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| There were several adorable killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) on the opposite bank and flying about. |
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| A mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) feeding on the water, with a spider web in the foreground shrubs lit up in the early morning light. |
Meanwhile, in the forest...
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| Pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) doing its woodpecker thing. |
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| And a red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus). I promise it does have a red belly, but you almost never actually see it. |
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| Red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus). |
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| And the reddest bird of them all the ubiquitous (male) cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). |
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Gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis).
Slightly obscured by a fern, but you can just see the "cinnamon undertail". |
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| And last of the birds, a juvenile eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis). |
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| This beautiful gulf frittillary (Dione vanillae) was very cooperative. |
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| This eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) less so, although just sitting still for a moment is more cooperative than usual for a swallowtail! |
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| Ebony jewelwing (Calopteryx maculata), a lovely damselfly. |
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| This arrowhead orbweaver (Verrucosa arenata) is a very funky-looking native spider. |
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While this joro spider (Trichonephila clavata), also known as a "maiden spider" in Chinese (女郎蜘蛛) is sadly invasive. First seen in North
America (in Georgia) in 2013, it's now everywhere. There are multiple around the buildings at one of my work sites! |
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| I got a laugh out of watching this white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) scratch her ear. |
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| This appears to be the molt of a praying mantis, maybe a Carolina mantis (Stagmomantis carolina)? |
There were also lots of gorgeous wildflowers...
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| Some form or ironweed, maybe tall ironweed (Vernonia gigantea), but I'm not sure. |
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| Late boneset (Eupatorium serotinum) with ailanthus webworm moths on it...do you see them? |
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| This purple passionflower (Passiflora incarnata) was particularly lovely. |
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Asiatic dayflower (Commelina communis), also invasive in the U.S.
In Chinese it's called 鸭跖草, or "duck foot plant". |
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I learned about a new (to me) kind of wild grape: muscadine (Vitis rotundifolia).
They are much larger than the wild grapes that I'm used to...
and I've been wondering about harvesting and fermenting them, but haven't done it yet! |
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| Here's a landscape view of the wetland and forest. It's really a lovely spot! |
Okay, one final photo of the little blue, since I took a lot, and it was hard to pick. I like that the legs here look like a double helix!
More from the archive soon, I hope!
