Seen at Brookside Gardens

It's been kind of a rough week, so I don't have any pithy insight for you all today. Just pretty eye candy from my recent lunchtime walks. Hope you enjoy! I'll be back on Monday with, I hope, something a little more meaningful.

A color-coordinated butterfly that landed on my ankle at Wings of Fancy yesterday. I walk through the exhibit daily to check on our volunteers, since I'm the assistant volunteer coordinator. Life is so hard! :-) I'll have to find out what species this is.

Female praying mantis with a deformed leg. She didn't seem to have any difficulty moving around, although here she's just waiting hopefully for a tasty fly or moth to land on the wood aster flowers.

Cute little Gray Hairstreak on some fuzzy Ageratum, or Mistflower.

Twelve-spot skimmer I found cruising around the stream at Brookside Gardens.

More creepy than pretty, massive quantities of Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillars had overrun this common milkweed. Yeesh, they're like a little fuzzy army.

A pretty pink moth on a lovely coreopsis. Hopefully that makes up for the invading caterpillars, above.

Check out the aphid on the side of this monarch caterpillar! I presume it was only incidentally riding on the caterpillar, rather than actually hoping to get any food substance from the caterpillar itself. You can see lots more of the aphids elsewhere in this shot.

Hope you all can get outside and explore! There's a lot to be seen if you just take a minute to look around.

This post linked up with Saturday's Critters #93--

http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com/

Beaten by the heat

As you may have heard, it’s been really, really hot and humid in much of the US lately, including my neck of the woods. I am not a fan of extremely hot weather, having grown up in Massachusetts.  On one of the cooler days though, when temps peaked only (!) in the mid 90s, I managed to eke out a few hours of nature exploration.  It was already hot and humid when I got outside in the morning, but worse was forecast for later in the week.

I wanted to check out Meadowside Nature Center, at the opposite end of Rock Creek Regional Park from Lake Frank. Unfortunately, I chose the one day the center is closed weekly. The trails are open sunrise to sunset, though, and there is also a small pond nearby. The pond was my primary target this trip anyway.

Meadowside's pond looks quiet but it's full of wildlife even in the heat.

I found a ton of juvenile robins in the area, a few weeks or so past fledge.  I love to watch adolescent birds, they’re so gawky and cute. I saw some of the robins in grassy areas near the nature center and many more in the forest later, bathing in and drinking from a small stream. Many of them were gaping too, the bird equivalent of panting. They didn’t like the heat any more than I did.

A few of the bathing robins trying to stay cool.

When I got down to the pond I spotted a White-tail doe hock deep in the water, munching on juicy water lily and spatterdock leaves. She kept glancing up at me to see if I was a threat. But since I stayed still and crept closer only when her head was lowered, I got to watch her for several minutes before she trotted calmly away.

The spatterdock this doe is eating must be cool and tasty!

The pond is small, but I spent almost the whole morning there. My husband gave me a copy of Dragonflies Through Binoculars this summer (thanks sweetie!), and there were tons of dragonflies around the pond. Although the guide is thorough, it’s not well set up for field use by a complete newbie.  I would spot a dragonfly with a slate blue body and mostly unmarked wings, for example, and have to page through the entire set of color plates before I could find the ID.  I wish it was somehow indexed or cross-referenced by key field marks instead of merely grouped by family classification.  I’ll get the hang of it eventually though.

Anyway, my favorite dragonfly sighting was the dramatically marked Banded Pennant. I also found Eastern Pondhawks, Widow Skimmers, Amberwings, and Blue Dashers, plus others I couldn't identify.

I chased several Banded Pennants before I finally got one to hold still for a photo.

I don't know what species this is, but it sure let me get close! Very cool.

The most interesting dragonfly behavior I spotted was how a Blue Dasher dealt with the heat.  Instead of perching broadside to the sun all the time, it did something called obelisking.  It lifted its body into somewhat of a handstand, pointing the tip of its abdomen directly toward the sun to reduce its exposure. Definitely something I could identify with!

Blue Dasher perched normally

A few minutes later... Blue Dasher obelisking to stay cool.

After the pond I spent a short while on the shady, wooded trails, but even there I couldn’t escape the sweltering heat. Eventually I just had to give in. I headed home around noon, a couple hours earlier than I normally do. I’ll return again soon, though, once the weather is a little more tolerable for this New England girl!

This entry’s location: 
Meadowside Nature Center, Rock Creek Regional Park, Rockville, MD.

Summer strategy

It can be tough to bird in the summer, what with the obscuring leaves on the trees and a relative paucity of birdsong compared to spring and fall.  The strain on my neck from craning after treetop birds doesn't always seem worth the number of species I usually get this time of year.  So on many summer hikes I focus on the lower levels of the forest instead. This is also a good idea when taking a walk with a non-birding friend, e.g. my husband.  He’s tolerant of my being a nature geek when we hike together, but real birding with its stops and starts, and its long periods of watching a treetop in hopes that the tanager/warbler/whatever will pop into sight, would probably try his patience.

"I'm sure there's an oriole in there somewhere!"

I put this theory to work last week when we had some wonderfully cool weather (highs in the mid 80s rather than mid 90s or above) and Victor and I took a short hike along the C&O canal. I'll admit I still had to pull myself away from a few tantalizingly hidden birds, but there was so much else going on in the forest, I didn't feel I was missing out.

Milepost markers dot the trail.

It was a joy to be able to hike in the peak of summer without being soaked in sweat.  Even the black vultures were out enjoying the sunshine.  We found several of them basking in the parking lot with their wings opened, reminiscent of cormorants. I thought they looked very gawky and silly, but it must have been comfortable for all of them to be doing it.

I often see black vultures when I hike the C&O, but not usually like this!

Once we started the trail, we found that any sunny, still spot in the canal was covered with duckweed, and so were most of the turtles who’d hauled themselves onto logs to bask in the sunshine.

Turtles, fish, ducks, and even beaver may eat duckweed.

Also enjoying the canal was a green heron perched on a branch just above the duckweed-covered surface. We spotted it there when we walked upstream, and it was still there when we came back, taking advantage of a great fishing spot.  Periodically it would stretch forward, balance there for a while, then lightning fast snake its head down and snatch a minnow from the surface.  Yum!

Aiming...

Success!

The air was full of insect life.  Tiny beetles and bees swarmed any wildflowers, and dragonflies darted along the trail hunting them. We saw Eastern Amberwings and male (slate blue) and female (grass green) Eastern Pondhawks.  While photographing a perched female Pondhawk I also discovered a tiny Green Treefrog motionless on a nearby leaf.  Despite my inadvertently jostling its branch a couple times, the frog never even blinked.  It was very well camouflaged; I would have been completely unaware had it not been for the dragonfly perching a few inches away.

This female Pondhawk was amazingly tolerant of me.

You don't see me...

Butterflies including Tiger Swallowtails, Northern Pearly-eyes and Zebra Swallowtails flitted along the trail as well. Paw-paw trees make up much of the forest understory along the C & O; since their leaves are the only thing that Zebra Swallowtail caterpillars eat, you won’t see the black and white butterflies without them around. Talk about your picky eaters! 

A mud-puddling Tiger Swallowtail

Looks like this Pearly-eye lost a few bits of wing to a hungry predator.

Zebra Swallowtails sport fashionable red antennae.

The paw-paw fruit won't be ripe until late August.

We also found a tree with nearly twenty cocoons where caterpillars had rolled leaves around themselves.  I didn’t want to disturb their metamorphosis, so I didn’t unroll any. Thus I may never know what species of caterpillar this was. From the size (roughly half-inch diameter at the widest end) I’m guessing one of our large silkworm moths, maybe Promethea or Polyphemus. I managed to get one photo looking straight into the cocoon, with a just-distinguishable face looking out. Does anybody recognize what these were? I’d sure love to know. I’m kind of wishing I had unrolled one just a little to see what was inside. Please leave a comment if you think you know what they were.

Mystery pupa

Go away, I'm busy!

Last but not least, we saw several gorgeous spiderwebs beside the trail, some in the process of being rebuilt.  All belonged to a kind of orb spider called Arrow-shaped Micrathena. They rebuild at least some of their web every day, typical for orb spiders. They’re nowhere close to the size of the Golden-silk spiders we saw in Florida; instead these little guys were only about a quarter of an inch big.  Their shape however is pretty interesting: their abdomen is a bulgy triangle with little spikes.  We watched one spider who’d only completed about five of its outer spirals so far, and was busily spinning the rest.  Apparently they always leave a hole at the center of their web so they can easily switch back and forth between sides.  I suppose that could provide protection against flying predators who want to snatch them right off the web, or it could allow the spider to reach its own newly-snagged prey more quickly.  Pretty clever!

Each circuit took about twenty seconds to make.

This entry’s location:

C & O Canal National Historical Park, Poolesville, MD

Wildlife Watching Tip: Look for the Little Guys

A distinct lack of wildlife... but appearances can be deceiving!

All wildlife watchers have run into this problem before: where the heck is the wildlife? You started out on the trail eager and excited with your binoculars and camera in hand.  But a few hours later you came back sweaty and disappointed.  Nothing interesting showed its face, not a single deer, fox, raccoon, snake or even rabbit. You encountered a million mosquitoes, but the biggest animal you saw was a gray squirrel just like the ones you see in the back yard. It's very discouraging, especially if you’re trying to encourage a love of nature in any reluctant companions.  But there are a few tips  I’ve picked up in my own nature explorations.  Since one of my goals with this blog is to get other folks outside and enjoying nature, this entry is the beginning of a series of wildlife watching tips.

The first secret to wildlife watching satisfaction is to expand your definition of wildlife.  You’re probably walking past tons of wildlife and you don’t even know it. Instead of grumbling, "Where'd the wildlife go?" you can discover all the bizarre but tiny creatures that lurk nearby. I still love seeing big charismatic and/or cute animals too, but they're often really hard to find. They may be nocturnal, or are just very shy, and especially if you have kids with you it’s hard to be quiet enough to sneak up on them.  Even birds are tough sometimes.  They're great fun to watch, and are certainly easier to find than most of the larger wild animals that live in my area. But often they too are frustratingly hidden, even taunting me from high leafy treetops. So my latest strategy for trailside happiness is something on an even smaller scale.  I'm watching bugs and spiders!

The Rabid Wolf Spider, totally harmless to humans.

A Flower Longhorn beetle.

Many of the spiders and insects that I have found trailside are beautiful, weird, and totally fascinating.  They’re small and unobtrusive, but there’s actually just as much color and conflict in the insect world as in the world of larger animals. Until recently I had focused my insect interest almost exclusively on butterflies.  Then this summer I decided to look a little deeper. During the past couple weeks I’ve found some weird and wonderful beetles, spiders, dragonflies, and many others that I can’t even identify yet.

Pink-spotted Lady Beetle. Also known as: "Wow, a pink ladybug!"

I have no idea what this bug is. It's pretty fierce looking but only 3/4 inch long.

The best places to look for bugs tend to be meadows and marshes.  Marshes are abuzz with dragonflies and damselflies, all hunting prey, pursuing each other, mating and laying eggs.  If you’ve ever seen a dragonfly repeatedly dipping the end of her tail in water, you’ve watched her lay eggs.  Dragonfly and damselfly nymphs grow up underwater, voraciously hunting other aquatic bugs and tiny critters just like the fierce predators they’ll be as airborne adults. When they’re mature they crawl out of the water and molt into adult form.

There were tons of dragonflies and damselflies in this marshy spot.

An Eastern Amberwing at rest, along with unidentified damselflies.

A female Ebony Jewelwing. Males don't have the white spots on the wings.

These two male Amberwings were chasing each other all over the place.

Meadows with their numerous wildflowers are chock full of insects like beetles and butterflies eating sweet flower nectar, munching on succulent leaves, or hunting other bugs, to say nothing of mating and laying eggs.  The best weather for bug hunting is a sunny, calm summer day.  The warmth of the sun will bring out more bugs than you’ll get on a cloudy day, and a calm windless day is ideal so the bugs themselves aren’t sheltering out of your sight.  But even cloudy or breezy days can hold lots of amazing bugs. Many of this entry’s photos were taken on a totally cloudy day.  

Streamside meadows are ideal for bug watching.

I found a lot of mating bugs recently too, like this pair I couldn't identify.

Hummingbird Moth enjoying the milkweed flowers.

I do recommend using a good set of close-focus binoculars if you want to go bugwatching, by the way. You'll probably be able to get within a few feet of most bugs, but some of them are so small you'll still need help getting a really good look. A magnifying glass may come in handy too.

I have no idea what this tiny bug is! Very weird looking. It jumped, too.

Of course some insects will sting or bite, so please be sensible and use caution. Also, I apply plenty of bug repellant when I go hiking since mosquitoes and ticks are vicious in my area. But I’m careful to keep the repellant off my fingers and palms so that if I do touch a bug, say a sleepy butterfly, a praying mantis, or a brightly colored beetle, I won’t cause them any harm.  I hope you will consider doing the same if you go bug hunting.

And of course, the best part of bug watching is even when you're looking for the little guys, sometimes you'll get lucky and still see one of those bigger animals too. Hooray for watching all of nature!

I was totally exhausted and heading back to the car when I saw this buck.

 

Happy wildlife watching!

Today's site: Lake Frank, Rock Creek Regional Park, Derwood, MD