wildlife at Cleaveland Farm

Last Sunday was a great day for spotting wildlife. From upper left: a grasshopper that flies (adult Carolina grasshopper - aka black-winged grasshopper, Carolina locust - Dissosteira carolina. They fly very well, and once they land tend to be lost in the landscape due to their superb camouflage. Males of this species perform a spectacular, hovering courtship flight over prospective mates), dragonfly (Blue Dasher, Pachydiplax longipennis), garter snake, another dragonfly (With those black triangular spots on the abdomen, it looks like a female (or immature male) Meadowhawk.), milk snake, fox hole (?), another grasshopper ("Two-striped grasshopper? Hard to tell conclusively from this lateral view, but I would bet this is an adult female two-striped grasshopper, Melanoplus bivittatus. Fine shot!") and an Eastern towhee (who kept singing "drink your teeeeeee").

(All parenthetical IDs are from BugGuide: Eric R. Eaton and Stephen Cresswell)