Last of summer: Cloud of butterflies

Been warm.. fairly unrelenting. Nice 2.2 inch rain 10 days ago on the 8th but dry and warm since then.. most days in the low 90's. Now 3-4 days before autumnal equinox I went for a stroll in the Woods one of the last days of summer.. 10:30 am 81 deg F no wind.

At the NE Gate, ranks of Lespedeza were in white bloom. The trail was clear and I stepped along quickly to enter the quiet shield of the Woods and leave behind the traffic noise of a game day along Highway 9.

Late summer blooms of purple common weed, Elephantopsis; and Polygonum very common with tight small white flowers along leafless tall stem above large elliptical leaves. My favorite, Commelina day flower in bloom here and there.

A hundred meters into the Woods at the Pipeline Trail junction the soft heavy humidity damped the sound of cars and I could hear the silvery sounds of tree crickets' constant background trilling... with the loud squawk of a pair of jays flying overhead. Bird life along this trail section is more diverse than elsewhere in the Woods. The woodland border with the open field to the east is good habitat.

Mosquitoes were out in good numbers but with DEET, they were not a serious problem.

At the Elm Bridge the crossing was dry but a long pool stretched from just upstream for a hundred feet or more up the wash. It was perking with life.

I walked west on the Fence Line Trail and then took the Streamside Trail north to the Trans OWP Trail and that to the junction with the Northern Loop. Fair number of small branches down. I cleared from the trail but the trail was in good shape, if a little overgrown out to the East Pond. Lots of webs and I kept my spider stick out in front of me.

Pecans have started to fall abundantly in the NE Woods and leaf fall of elms and some green ash is getting underway. I stood and watched for some minutes as leaves drifted down from the canopy with no wind.

Across the Dune Trail armadillos have been busy burrowing on the north side. Westward along the South Border Trail a pile of gray feathers from a slaughtered dove(?) with a pair of hawks crying overhead (the likely culprits)?

By the SW Gate the sweet smell of Clematis bloom mixed with the odor of old garbage.

North along the Main SW Trail a good sized female Catocala gray underwing moth flitted from one side of a hackberry bole to another to escape me.

There was bright whitewash (owl? heron? other?) north of tree (snag) # 47.

At the Sympetrum perch there was nobody home and the configuration of dragonfly perches looked different as if some had fallen.

East up the Cut Off Trail to Tall Stump. West of Fence Corner a clump of a half dozen 2 meter tall green ash are being skeletonized by a colony of lepidoptera larvae. Eastward on to the Elm Bridge.

North back up the NE Trail just north of the ditch by the old redbud I startled a small cloud of a dozen or more nymphallid(?) butterflies beneath the Eleagnus and looking around spotted the only turtle I saw today. Out through the fence by 12:30. Small tick count eight (so far) on me and clothing.