Bent-of-the-River: Southbury, CT (7/4)

Shannon and I spent the 4th of July at hiking at Bent-of-the-River. The entire day was pretty overcast and it actually started to drizzle at the start of our hike. But we were undeterred. And surprisingly there was still some butterfly activity even in the rain. We saw several Common Wood Nymphs flying around in the sheltered areas and Shannon even spotted a Great Spangled Fritillary when the skies cleared temporarily.

But the sanctuary was pretty quiet otherwise. Other than a Cooper's Hawk that we spooked off its perch on the edge of the main meadow, we didn't have any really memorable sightings. We even hiked up to the Pileated Woodpecker nest but we didn't hear or see any signs of the birds.

But regardless we still had a nice hike. And the weather had one benefit: we had the entire property to ourselves. Also the moist conditions were perfect for Red Efts. We found this little guy moving about in the leaf litter.