July 5th. Lots of Canada Lilies (Lilium canadense) on a single stem.

 

Hmm, now with a Damselfly.

 

A Bluet (Enallagma sp., maybe a male Marsh Bluet E. ebrium).

 

Showy Tick-trefoil (Desmodium canadense).

 

Bumble Bee (Family Bombidae) working it.

 

 

 

Buttonbush or Honey-balls (Cephalanthus occidentalis).

 

Fragrant Water-lily (Nymphaea odorata).

 

 

 

A Hawk (Buteo sp.) being harassed by two Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata).

 

 

 

July 7th. Selfheal or Heal-all (Prunella vulgaris).

 

 

 

Lots of Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata).

 

More every year as the marsh gets shallower.

 

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodius) grooming amid Pickerelweed and Buttonbush.

 

Appalachian Brown (Satyrodes appalachia).

 

Meadowsweet (Spiraea latifolia).

 

 

 

July 8th. At Old Colchester Road, forms for the bridge's supporting walls are starting to be put in place.

 

 

 

Red Baneberry (Actaea rubra) in the woods just east of Route 207.

 

 

 

July 9th. Lousy picture of a distant hawk. I won't try to ID it.

 

A closer crop didn't help.

 

A short afternoon walk east of Cook Hill Road in Lebanon. Most of the critters were indoors.

 

Trail edges and most of the marsh grown over.

 

Looking west from the exit stream bridge.

 

An Andrenid Bee (Family Andrenidae, possibly Andrena nubecula)...

 

...with a load of pollen on it's hairy back legs.

 

The flower is Spotted Knapweed (Centaurea maculosa) based on the color of the spiny bracts.

 

I also saw my first adult Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) of the year, but it never landed.

 

July 10th. A warm and humid start to the day. Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodius) gular fluttering.

 

Same bird a little later.

 

 

 

A young male Wood Duck (Aix sponsa).

 

A mated pair of Little Wood-Satyrs (Megisto cymela).

 

 

 

July 10th. A stop at the East Haddam Boat launch to observe an eagle nest. (Thanks Pat for pointing it out.) The pictures I took were useless. But... I did see this nifty male Cherry Gall Azure (Celastrina serotina) gathering minerals from the soil to pass to a female in his spermatophore. Just a hint of its dramatic blue upper side.

 

Note the curved proboscis probing the damp soil.

 

Oh well, here's the only barely usable Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) picture I took - heavily edited.

 

Later, I stopped by Cranberry Bog and found Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) in bloom. See the butterfly at the lower left?

 

It's a Mulberry Wing Skipper (Pones massasoit).

 

The Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) were mostly in the shade.

 

I count 22 in this picture.

 

I can't tell if their wing feathers are fully developed yet.