Lakehurst Railroad Tracks 7/18/22

 I continued my mid-summer dragonfly and damselfly roundup recently with a trip to the Lakehurst railroad tracks.  Historic Lakehurst, NJ, a small Ocean County town mostly surrounded by Manchester Township, is home to the Naval Air Engineering Center (NAEC).  NAEC is now part of the trio of military bases that make up Joint Base MDL (the other two are McGuire Air Force Base and Fort Dix).  NAEC is unfortunately known for the Hindenburg airship disaster that claimed 36 lives in 1937.  The base is also the largest breeding spot for endangered upland sandpipers in New Jersey.  Local birder groups hold annual organized visits there to see the sandpipers, and these visits require preregistration and background checks to enter the military installation.

Last week, however, I a walked the more locally known and much less restricted hotspot.  The trail is the abandoned tracks, running westerly from Union Avenue.  The trail offers a wide path through the pine forest.  In only the mile that I walked out, the trail crossed a swift moving stream, offered ephemeral water spots at its edges and passed along a few bogs.  Most of the birds I encountered seemed to have been recently fledged, including the two barred owls that I flushed from the edge of the trail.  Both startled me when they each flew out from bare trees only about 150 feet apart.  I obviously wasn’t in birding mode, if so, I would have been scanning ahead, especially after the first one.

My primary focus was finding new dragonflies and damselflies.  Most of my time was spent walking along the railroad tracks, plus a short visit at nearby Lake Horicon.  Between the two spots I did pretty well as the four-winged insects were buzzing all around.  Among the many I saw were ebony jewelwing, autumn meadowhawk, common sanddragon, Needham’s skimmer, variable dancer, blue-tipped dancer, orange bluet and eastern amberwing.

Left, female common whitetail.  Right, common sanddragon.  © S. Weiss

Left, blue-tipped dancer.  Right, autumn meadowhawk.  © S. Weiss

Left, eastern amberwing.  Right, Needham's skimmer.  © S. Weiss

Left, variable dancer.  Right, orange bluet.  © S. Weiss

Ebony jewelwing.  © S. Weiss

Another interesting insect I found did not look like one at all when I first saw it.  At first, I thought I saw a type of thistle-like seed floating around near the ground in the light breeze.  Then I noticed it looked like it was actually moving from one spot to another.  It was extremely difficult to get a focused photo of it since it was so thin and delicate, and without the right light, it seemed to disappear.  It was hard to relocate when looking through the camera view.  When I finally got a decent enough photo, I ran it through the Seek app and it came back as an eastern phantom crane fly.  The fly moves about close to the ground with its legs spread out.  The bottom of each leg is inflated, allowing it to use them like sails to catch the breeze.
Eastern phantom crane fly.  © S. Weiss

With the exception of the two barred owls and a calling broad-winged hawk, not many other birds were around.  In spring, this is a good spot for warblers and other migrants.  But it was a typical hot summer day, and unlike me, the birds chose to stay quiet within the wooded canopy. 

Left, a worn and tattered butterfly called a question mark.  Right, spoonleaf sundew thriving on a log.  © S. Weiss

A southern leopard frog waiting for passing meals.  © S. Weiss

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