I finally got my 1st oriole photographs. It was an Orchard oriole, which I've heard and seen before, but never photographed. I spent about an hour and half riding and walking around MacArthur lake on Fort Liberty (Previously known as Fort Bragg) this morning, and had some success. I added 4 new species of plants to my list, and this makes my 85th birds species
Ipomoea pandurata
Spoonleaf sundew
Carolina bloodroot, Lachnanthes caroliniana
Toothed whitetop aster, Sericocarpus asteroides
Wingleaf Primrose willow, Ludwigia decurrens
Lobelia nuttallii
Orchard oriole
Great blue heron
Eastern Pondhawk Erythemis simplicicollis
Until my next field trip see you then!
Northwest corridor leading to the bog area at Aberdeen lake park
What a beautiful cool and dry morning it was at Aberdeen lake park today. I took a short ride over to the park and did a lot of walking in and around the northwest corridor area. The water in the bog area was a bit lower than usual. I picked up 2 news species here. I've been to this area at least 1⁄2 a dozen times, and I always expect to see a snake but never have. I cannot understand it, perfect area for snakes. Maybe I'm just too damn loud!
I don't think anybody knows about this part of the park, because I've never seen anybody back here before. Sometimes the water department brings their truck back near the area for maintenance, but they don't go near the areas that I'm in and I've never seen a soul back there. Kind of nice, don't find places like that very often anymore. 
Fruit from Goldenclub, Orontium aquaticum
I collected the seeds today, which I'm going to propagate along side of the green arrow arums that I'm growing from the seeds I collected last summer. Sedumzz also suggested I collect some bladderwort, so I'm gonna try and do that as well. Maybe by the time I've finished collecting some plants and seeds, I'll have a nice water garden of my own.
Helmeted Skullcap, Scutellaria integrifolia
Clasping Milkweed (Asclepias amplexicaulis)
Last summer I found this plant growing right in the middle of a service road. I watched it for about a month. Then I came back 1 day and I saw that a tractor had mowed the service road. No more milkweed! But today, I found it again, and I also found some on the edge of the road. I'm going watch it again, and this time I'm going get it in it's flowering stage. It's only a quest of a year plus so far.
Prairie Fleabane (Erigeron strigosus)
Arrowleaf Tearthumb (Polygonum sagittatum)
Humped Bladderwort (Utricularia gibba)
Goldenclub, Orontium aquaticum
Orange milkwort, Polygala lutea
Cinnamon Fern, Osmunda cinnomonea
Until my next trip,
Today I took 13 mile biking field trip from my house to Weymouth Woods and to the horse country area of Southern Pines and back. Here's the map of my trip:
Here are some of the things I saw along the way on my trip:
I also picked up a few observations with my Seek application by Inaturalist. This application is really cool you should try it out. It's an easy and free download at the game store.
Till my next trip,
September 7, 2022!:
Today is my one year anniversary with the National Gardening Association. It's been a great and fun year. I feel like I accomplished way more than I ever thought I would. I learned and relearned and repeated and reloaded and learned and learned a whole bunch of stuff! I'm really just posting this as a memory for myself of what I accomplished. Here is what I accomplished during my 1st year with NGA.
Here's looking forward to year 2. I'm looking forward to discovering a whole lot more. Unfortunately I don't think I'll ever get the accomplishments I got in my 1st year again. 
... So I'll do my best and see what I end up with next September 7.
