Summer in Stony Swamp

I hadn’t been to the Beaver Trail in a while, so on the holiday Monday I decided to go and look for some Common Wood-nymphs, a beautiful, dark butterfly that I often see there in the latter half of the summer. At first the butterflies were slow to appear, so I spent my time watching for birds and dragonflies. To my disappointment, the pond by the V-shaped boardwalk was entirely dry….there was no water, and no dragonflies or water snakes or Common Yellowthroats. July was a dry month and water levels everywhere are lower than normal; still, I had hoped to find some water present, for there are usually lots of dragonflies around when there is.