Indiana Part 2

   Continuing from our dramatic cliffhanger in the previous episode, we now start the end of this exciting saga on the morning of the 23rd. Again, I decided to kill my sleep schedule and woke up at 6. However, that day birding was slower and the only lifer was a species that would be seen multiple times later during the trip, the Carolina chickadee.

    We then went to take a glance at our old house that I lived in until I was 3. Following that, it was time to go to Eagle Creek Park, the best birding hotspot (according to ebird's hotspot explorer) in the area by a long shot. Interesting how when I lived in Indiana, I was a few blocks from Eagle Creek and now in California, I live a short distance from the Palo Alto Baylands, the biggest hotspot in Santa Clara County...
    Parking under tall sugar maples at the parking lot, we first went into the ornithology center. The small building had nice one-way windows that provided views to a feeder and of Eagle Creek Reservoir as well as many taxidermied local birds. I then familiarized myself with the path and started my hike.
    The first new bird appeared rather quickly with a Carolina wren that was feeding in the understory but hopped away before any pictures were taken. It would be a while before I got my next life bird, as the forest was surprisingly quiet, likely as the afternoon was approaching and winds were picking up.

Very interesting blue harvestman I saw near the parking lot.

Hackberry emperor. Look at that proboscis!

"The pink flush at the base of the ventral forewing on Vanessa virginiensis rivals the brightest pinks I know in the animal kingdom, more intense than any flamingo or mandrill's butt".

One of my favorite lines from one of my favorite books, Mariposa Road that is quite true for the identification of the American lady butterfly (the pink was brighter in real life).

    As I continued my lovely walk, I came upon the entrance to another area of wooded trail which I felt would be a nice place to explore. Indeed it was, as I saw several organisms of interest. One of the most stunning sights was what I first thought to be a jeweled rock in the middle of a trail, gleaming with green gems. However, as I moved closer, the "green gems" flew away and revealed that what I was seeing was some sort of animal scat completely covered in green bottle flies.

Another hackberry emperor, this time on a less natural medium.

Very raggedy pipevine swallowtail

Mourning cloak by a stream

Crossline skipper. 

In the middle of my walking, I thought a large leaf was floating down from the canopy. Turned out to be a huge Eastern eyed click beetle, perhaps evading a predator. 

Red-spotted purple. What a beauty.

Six-spotted tiger beetle, one of my favorite coleopterids of all.

Female ebony jewelwing.

Northern pearly-eye.

Finally, a picture of a bird. The indigo bunting seen here in terrible lighting was one of 2 males I saw. They truly are stunning birds.

Some sort of tent caterpillar nest. Too bad no cuckoos were here to feed on the hairy caterpillars.

Jade clubtail seen on way back.

    I then rested at the bubbling stream where I had seen the mourning cloak earlier. After sitting motionless for a moment, the forest seemed to come even more to life. Small fish twinkled in the moving water, a few red-spotted purples squabbled in the air, brilliantly flashing as they fluttered into the sunny areas of the dappled light, birds called in the background...time seemed to stop completely in this brief moment of peace.

Question mark butterfly

A stunning orchard orbweaver that crawled in front of me.

    It was now time to continue my original plan of circling the reservoir. The next area was the levee, a sunny area with water on both sides and dense patches of short vegetation with willow thickets and a few sycamores. This area proved to be very birdy, with several life birds obtained.

Widow skimmer

Embarrassingly enough, the yellow warbler was my first and only warbler seen during the whole trip. Additionally, it was a year bird... I really need to see one soon back home for this year.

Soon a family of ORCHARD ORIOLEs appeared. Here is the father carrying food for the young' uns. Soon afterward, a BALTIMORE ORIOLE appeared but moved too quickly for pictures.

Tree swallow

Eastern kingbird nest another friendly birder pointed out to me.

The daddy kingbird

American goldfinch

Dead and swollen catfish

Swamp milkweed

Wonderfully focused shot of my first RED-EYED VIREO. There were several more of the "preacher birds"  heard singing their classic question-answer-question-answer songs. This was the last life bird seen on the main hike along the reservoir. From there, we headed to the ice skating pond in hopes of seeing a wood thrush, cuckoo, or more optimistically, a least bittern.

Painted turtle covered in leeches. Usually I don't enjoy messing with nature but this time I made an exception and we removed the bloodsuckers before getting the turtle out of the road.

My first EASTERN BLUEBIRD beside the ice skating pond. Unlike the Western bluebirds that I'm so used to at home, this one is..........Eastern.

White-tailed deer enjoying a nice rest

    After a giant swallowtail flew by me in the ice skating pond's parking lot, it started to pour quite spectacularly out of nowhere. However, all was fine as a quite productive day had passed and the torrential rain was beautiful within this green gem of Indiana. 

    A few more things happened in the next two days but as I am super behind now and Eagle Creek was the main "meat" of this trip, I will postpone those events till some later post. Until next time, enjoy life and love nature!