Road trip

I was in Charlottesville this morning.  It was a beautiful day and I glimpsed the Blue Ridge in the distance.  But Zion Crossroads now is a Walmart, alas.  In the motel parking lot a dragonfly was trying to lay eggs on a dark blue car hood, mistaking its shine for water. 

The host of the meeting lives in the woods and had many bird feeders.  Out the windows in the back we could see a suet feeder.  A red bellied woodpecker and a downy woodpecker and three white breasted nuthatches fed at it.  Not at once though, the nuthatches were particularly territorial.  This was very distracting as I tried to focus on the meeting. 

As we were leaving, a small black spider was busy weaving a huge web over the front porch and a dark butterfly flitted by.  The resident believed it was a mourning cloak but I thought it was a black swallowtail.

On the way home traffic stopped repeatedly.  One of those times was by the Newport News reservoir.  Other than that, I didn't get much from the opportunity to look around, even over the harbor.  I did glimpse a dragonfly.  Something with a lot of yellow body fluids kamakazied my windshield - the blur over the vines.  That made me think how few bugs had splatted.  I wonder what has happened to all the ones that used to die on cars.