Woodstock Pond Trail

My recent return to York River State Park.

MALB

Recently discovered this little guy (gal?) on a soybean plant along the Powhatan Creek Trail. Like so many things in nature's bounty, I find it almost impossible to identify specific species. So many variations!

Fascinating article here. Well, at least I found it so. :-) May have solved the identification problem for me: 

"Multicolored Asian Lady Beetles (MALB) are a beneficial insect that often feeds on soybean aphids.  In the last few years soybean aphid populations have not been very high, but in 2023 there have been some isolated areas with high populations.  As a result, some fruit growers have seen increases in the populations of MALB." -- Iowa State University Extension and Outreach

Powhatan Creek Trail

 

 

One of my favorite scenes along the Powhatan Creek Trail.

Feather

Well, the High Knob Tower Trail was an adventure. It's not often that we lowlanders are able to climb to such heights. So now it's back down to hikes a little closer to sea level. In this case, it was a section of the Virginia Capital Trail where I spotted this fairly common sight. Can you guess which kind of bird it once belonged to? I can't. My guess, though, is that it belonged to a fairly large bird. A hawk maybe?