Journal for April 2000

4/18/00
It was a lovely day, but too cool and cloudy for butterflies.  A Broad Winged Hawk flew over the bluff, over me.  Wood ducks, Yellow-rumped warblers, Kingfisher, and Tree-swallows along the creek.  The willows were full of yellow rumped warblers flycatching.  In the woods we saw: Ruby-crowned Kinglet (very brave), Yellow-rumped Warblers, Hairy Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Flicker, Brown Creeper, and Chickadees.  There was a Chipping Sparrow on the edge of a bluff prairie.  In the ditch along the farm road there were: lots of Juncos, Fox Sparrows, one Tree Sparrow, and Song Sparrows.  We heard strange noises in the woods – turkeys?

4/21/00
We saw Compton’s Tortoiseshells, at least 6 of them, on the farm roads; also several commas, and Spring Azures.  There was one lovely little moth, a “Grapevine Epimenis”  (Psychomorpha epimenis).  It feeds on grapes, and flys in late March to early May.