Bogs in the Fog

Milestone Bog with Steeplebush

The midsummer weather has swung into high gear, with steamy days in the eighties.   It was 80 degrees by 9 am yesterday and stayed in the eighties until 6 pm.  The nights are foggy and the early mornings, too, until the sun burns off the fog. 

I hiked in the early morning at Windswept Bog on Thursday and the Milestone Bogs today. Neither is today a producing cranberry bog, but the are wonderful wet, open spaces.   Milestone is close to 900 acres including the 190 acres that were the producing cranberry bog.  Windswept is smaller; together with Stump Pond,  it is 231 acres. 

At the Milestone bog,  baby geese were scurrying; parents honking.  The young ones are already 2/3 of adult height. Silk grass  (pityopsis falcata) , which used to be called sickle-leaves aster, is blooming at road edge.  The field grasses are blowing;  here is a wet area that was a field of colicroot (aletris farinosa)  in early July.  Now  the yellowy bases blend in with the grasses. There is a field of dried pasture  thistles.

In the fog,  there are fewer road and plane sounds.  Planes began to land at 7:58 at the Milestone Bog,  and at 9:02 at the Windswept.  I could hear the sound of cars on the milestone road; the bog is surrounded by human activity.  But here the sounds are the honking of the geese, the titters of the swallows,  and the occasional "kir" of the red-tailed hawks.

The Steeplebush (spirea tomentosa) and swamp loosestrife (Decodon verticillatus) are blooming at both the Milestone Bog and Windswept.  Windswept also has Virginia Meadowbeauties (rhexia virginica)  in several wet spots,  mixed with cross-leave milkwort (polygala cruciata), club moss,  and twisted yellow-eyed grass (xyris torta).  I caught a look at an Eastern Phoebe,  considered rare at this time of year,  at Windswept.

Rhexia Virginica

Xyris Torta

Polygala Cruciata

Club moss

A killdeer keening at Milestone draws me to observe ;  A swarm of red winged blackbirds rises up from the reeds.  I then chase  savannah sparrows before heading back to the car, home and the grandkids. 

Eastern Phoebe at Windswept Bog

Windswept Bog , July 21

Savannah sparrow

Killdeer