Walk in the Woods at Niquette Bay State Park

While I was finding all those Monarch caterpillars I was also keeping my eyes peeled for large moth caterpillars.  I don't care much about regular moth rearing but if I could find a nice Cecropia or Luna moth caterpillar I would be thrilled!  The last time I had my hands on a big fat moth caterpillar was when I was oh, 12 or 13 years old.

Today I decided to take Autumn to Niquette Bay, our local state park here in Milton, because I was sick of sitting around inside and I can't walk locally right now.  We got headed out at 10:00am and after I missed the turn and had to reverse direction we got into the woods by 10:30.  It was beautiful, a little chilly but the crickets and birds were chirping and there was almost no one else there.  We took the Allen Trail which leads to the little sandy beach.

Allen Trail entrance

I'd never really gotten myself together before noon to go out in the woods so I got a cool surprise: spiderwebs!  Lots of glistening (but not dewy unfortunately) orb weaver webs everywhere!  The first one I saw had a milkweed fluff in it:

Way up high in the trees!

Then I saw some that I didn't have to crane my neck to see:

Bowl & Doily Spider

Assassin Bug

Orb Weaver

Hover Fly caught in a web

Now this was a head scratcher.  A leaf all rolled up and there was silk on it.  If I'd had a big ziplock I would have brought it home to see what was inside...

We continued on to the beach once Autumn got sick of me stopping every 5 steps to take pictures of spiderwebs.  

How nice to see another Heron!  I think that makes 6 I've seen this month!

Vulture

Autumn and I hopped across the little river that separates a big chunk of the beach from a small one and had a little picnic of goldfish crackers and cheerios.

Perfect day for fishing or just sailing.  Nice warm breeze, not a cloud in the sky, 70ish degrees. I could have stayed all day!

Autumn and I explored the beach a bit.  The water had an algae warning even though there was none present, but still it made it less fun.  The water level was also extremely low just like everywhere else.  I hadn't been there since Spring so I was kind of amazed at how much beach there was.

There is usually water where these are growing

Huge dead June beetle

Beetle or fly? 

You can see how low the lake is.  All that green stuff usually is under water.

Poplar-like plants growing where there should be water

Autumn digging in the mud with shells:

I was walking along in the mud when one of these fluttered up at me!  Is it one of my babies?  I am definitely going to tag the ones I raise next year.  You can get a kit for it online:

I tried so hard to photograph a butterfly in flight but it was next to impossible to get a clear shot.  They are not very predictable hahaha  This is the best shot focus-wise that I got, and of course it had to be only a partial:

Most of the pics look like this:

I'm sure those fishermen enjoyed watching me make a dork out of myself chasing Monarchs in the mud.  OH well who cares!!!

He's toying with me here.

Nothing about this looks like fun to me^

Autumn looking for me

I tried getting closer to the heron, and this was him before he decided I was too close and took off!

Yay more Narceus americanus millipedes!  They are all over this year.

Autumn thinks they are adorable.  I love her so much! 

I just love their funny little down-turned faces!

Haven't figured out what this is yet.  Anyone know?  Please leave a comment if so!

Bug's eye view of the beach :)

After about an hour Autumn had had enough beach and wanted to go home.  So we started back on our .5 mile trek.  She was very excited that she had found 2 giant acorns (couldn't get a clear picture of them today because she was clutching them tight).  She declared "Its my Lucky DAY!" Man, I wish finding 2 acorns would make me that happy!

We found another millipede and I tried desperately to photograph it without it being blurry.  Those things like the shade and move around a lot!

Onto the real disappointment of the hike and the point of the intro story that you probably already forgot about!  I looked down and saw a huge fat green caterpillar in the gravel on our way out.  I got all excited because I'd been wanting to find one for so long so I snatched it up only to find upon inspection that it has been parasitized by something.  It doesn't look like the traditional braconid wasp parasite eggs, more like something that WAS there but is gone now.  It's back is full of holes and there are strange white egg shaped things clinging to it's face:

It is some kind of sphinx moth caterpillar, but I'm not sure which one exactly.  Maybe the One-eyed Sphinx or the Blinded Sphinx.  Again, if anyone knows what it is and what those holes on it's back represent please let me know!