As I walked along the lily pond trail, rays of sunlight shined through the trees illuminating miniature, fuzzy orbs floating up into the sky. A woolly aphid has a fibrous, white covering. It resembles a fluffy cotton ball as it flies through the air. It is mating season, and today was the perfect day to find a mate in the warm, fall sun.
At one point, I found myself in a whirlwind of songbirds darting about foraging on the aphids. It was a mixed flock of chickadees, ruby-crowned kinglets, golden-crowned kinglets, bushtits, Bewick’s wrens, and brown creepers. They were foraging from slightly off the ground all the way up into the tree canopy.
A runner coming down the trail saw me taking photos and stopped to silently watch all of the birds. Sometimes they were only a few feet away as they flitted through the underbrush gleaning aphids off the foliage or catching them out of the air. After about five minutes, he smiled and waved as he continued on his run.
