Connor had a dentist appointment and then I had a call this morning, so I didn’t really spend much time outside until this afternoon. The marine layer moved in a bit during the first part of the morning, then burned off by mid-morning and it was sunny for the rest of the day with the usual breeze out of the northwest. Looking at the long term forecast, it’s seeming like there are hints the pattern that has held for much of May will finally change next week. It will be interesting to see if it re-establishes, or just what might happen for the rest of the summer.
Connor, Rowan, and I went up Verstovia to the first viewpoint before turning around. Originally I had said we would go up for an hour, then turn around. It took us 27 minutes to get to the viewpoint, and by that time my motivation had flagged a bit. They wanted to play with friends, so after a short break, we decided to turn around. Along the path we found a large beetle I had not seen before crawling on the ground. I thought it might be a ground beetle (but that turned out not to be the case).
This evening while the kids were playing with friends, I spent some time out at Halibut Point Rec with a friend to see if any Wandering Tattlers might be present (I’ve not seen one this year and heard that one had been around earlier in the week). No tattlers, but I did see what I think was a Milbert’s Tortoiseshell (Aglais milberti), though it’s hard to be sure since I didn’t get a great look at it. It was interesting to see how much difference it made to be on one side of the beach versus the other, as far as the wind was concerned. The area towards down from Magic Island was sheltered from the wind and it was calm and warm, just a short walk to the other side and it was quite breezy which made things feel quite chilly.
Other insects that I got pictures of today were mostly found by Connor around the yard.
(photos to come)
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