Recap-- I'm back!

Hi again all, it's been a long time since I had the time/energy to post. But I haven't been completely neglecting my nature explorations over the past several months. Here are a few photos and stories for you. Enjoy, and hopefully I'll get back on a regular posting track soon!

A not-very clear shot of the first ever Rose-breasted Grosbeak to visit my yard feeder, back in May. Yay! I was so excited I hauled my husband over to the window to show him. He's not as bird-crazy as I am but he politely admired the bird with me. Awww. :-)

We found this spotted turtle at Huntley Meadows, sunbathing on a moss-covered log in the woods rather far from the water. I snapped several photos of the less-than-impressed turtle, as I have only ever seen one spotted turtle before (and that was injured on the road, so hardly counts). Eventually the turtle got sick of the paparazzi, however, and scuttled off into the underbrush.

 I take a walk at lunchtime every day at Brookside Gardens, and much of the summer I watched hummingbird clearwing moths (exact species unidentified). One day in July, however, I discovered something completely new to me: that the moths actually mate while flying, and continue to fly around in tandem for quite a while! I knew dragonflies & damselflies did this, but had never realized any moths did. This was the best shot I managed to get of the mating pair-- look about a third of the way down from the center top of the image.  Pretty cool.

 Here's a clearwing moth a bit closer, since you can't make out much detail in the paired shot above. They're really fun to watch as they hover and zip around. I spent many of my lunch hours trying to get good photos of them.

 I continued raising several generations of Black Swallowtails at my house, allowing dill (their larval foodplant) to practically take over my vegetable garden. Here's a shot of a chrysalis mere hours before the butterfly ecloses. You can really see the spots and stripes on the wing through the newly transparent chrysalis shell.

 Here's the butterfly an hour or two after eclosure. Behind it you can see a more recent chrysalis that's not yet transparent (so not eclosing anytime soon) and a caterpillar that's about to pupate as well. I invested in cheesecloth butterfly cages this summer, which are much easier to use than the tupperware, paper towel, and rubber band set-up I used last summer.

 Getting ready to free a butterfly. I bring the cage outside, still zipped up, then when we're safely out of doors I open it and reach in to coax the butterfly onto my fingers. If my husband is home to share the experience with me, sometimes he photographs the occasion, like for these shots.

A closer view of the butterfly being released. This one is a female-- you can tell by the extensive blue on the hindwings. Male Black Swallowtails have more yellow there. 

Dill wasn't the only thing I grew in my garden, even if it sometimes seemed that way. I planted the zucchini on purpose, but the delicata squash and other winter squash in this picture were actually volunteers from the home-made compost I added to the soil. So was the tomato; I planted a few tomatoes on purpose but none of them did as well as the volunteers did. Go figure! The delicata squash was delicious, by the way, especially sliced and roasted with a bit of salt. I'm definitely growing some on purpose next year!

 Another photo from my lunchtime walks at Brookside Gardens. I like to take photos of interesting and/or beautiful sights and share them in the evenings with my husband. Sort of like show and tell, I guess! His grandmother is in a nursing home at the moment, and can't get outside very much let alone see anything beautiful from her window. So I also like to share my Brookside Gardens pictures and stories with her when we visit.

I'm not a very strict weeder in the garden, I tend to let a lot of plants remain that technically shouldn't be there. Violets, shown here, are very hard to eradicate once they've moved in. However, several fritillary butterflies' caterpillars eat violets, so I always keep way too many violets in the garden. I've done this for years with no evidence that it was working, but this summer I finally found the spiky little caterpillar of a Variegated Fritillary. Woo-hoo! My lackadaisical weeding has been vindicated.

 This last picture isn't exactly in the way of nature studies, but it's too funny not to share. Earlier this fall my cat, Caleb, developed some sores that he kept biting and scratching. So the vet decreed he needed to be in this e-collar for a few weeks. Boy, did Caleb hate it! He did manage to figure out how to eat, drink, sleep, and use the litterbox successfully (the fact that it was a floppy collar, not one of the hard plastic ones, helped). But he despised the experience and thoroughly resented us for putting him through it, as you can see above. Poor kitty!

So that's some of what I've been up to since my last post. I hope you enjoyed the trip through my memories! I'll try to post again soon.

Thrills and Trills

Certain sounds just mean spring to me. The calls of newly arrived Eastern Towhees mixed with those of the last few White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos, for example.

Eastern Towhee enjoying a well-deserved sunflower seed in my yard

White-throated Sparrow still hanging around my yard

Dark-eyed Junco also scarfing down those sunflower seeds, still in my yard

But one of my favorite sounds, and for that matter events, of the spring is the mass courtship and mating of American Toads.  As soon as the weather warms up enough, the ponds at Brookside Gardens fill up with toads looking for love. The males make this amazing trill that's surprisingly loud. This year's breeding event took place last week. Of course I spent every lunch hour or spare minute down at the pond for the three days it lasted, enjoying the ethereal trills. Just a little of what it looked and sounded like on day two:

Here too is a photo of the masses of eggs covering the pool's bottom the day after that video.

Lots and lots of eggs... and some toads still locked in an embrace

American Toads lay eggs in long curly strands, not big clumps like frog eggs. Most of the ones you see here have been covered with fine silt kicked up during the mating frenzy. The newer ones are clear with the eggs visible as a line of tiny black dots at the center, like the strand curled around the stick to the upper left of the mating pair.

I'm sure most of the tadpoles will become food for some other creature long before they become adult toads, but it's still so fun and thrilling to watch. I'm eager to watch the development of embryos and then tadpoles over the next several weeks. Hooray for spring!

Butterfly success!

The suspense is finally over. The first of last fall's black swallowtail chrysalids (see here and here for the beginning of this story) is now a gorgeous butterfly!

Interestingly, the first caterpillar to change into chysalis is now the first butterfly.

After the caterpillars became chrysalids last fall, I just couldn't bear abandoning them outside, even to the relative safety of my garden shed. So I kept them inside on my desk all winter, silent little companions.

Then in early April I moved the chrysalids outside onto my back porch. I hoped the still-cool nights and gradually warming days would trigger the metamorphosis. I wired the twigs to an old chair beneath a maple tree, where they'd get late afternoon sun and still be protected from heavy rain.

I worried something could harm the chrysalids, but this was the safest spot I could find.

I've been checking the chrysalids every couple days since then for any sign of change. I had just about given up when two nights ago, I noticed one chrysalis had suddenly turned dark. I'd read that a day before eclosure the chrysalis skin turns translucent and the adult wing colors show through. I was too tired that evening to really think about it, though, let alone get a photo. Indeed, by the next morning I had totally forgotten about it.

When I got home from work in the evening, I started my normal routine of puttering in the garden. Finally though I remembered to go check the chrysalids.  I ambled into the back yard, not really expecting anything. But what a surprise-- the dark chrysalis was now an empty husk, with a beautifully formed butterfly dangling beneath it! I pelted inside to grab my camera, then spent the next forty minutes or so taking a zillion pictures and marveling at the gorgeous insect.

The butterfly flexed its new wings, allowing me to see the dark markings of a female. Pink cigars, anybody?

Tiny barbed feet clung to the old shell of the chrysalis. I wonder how long she hung there before I got home?

It was neat to be so close I could see the texture of  the antennae and the wings.

Almost ready to go...

Just a few short seconds after the last photo, I watched the butterfly climb up to the top of her twig, pause for half a heartbeat, then spread her wings and waft gently away. I lost her in the sunshine, but presume she soared upward to scope out the neighborhood and find a flower full of nectar. I don't have a lot blooming in my garden yet (the flower bed is still under construction) but I know there are plenty of blossoms nearby. My vegetable garden is also full of vigorous dill plants that sprouted from last fall's seeds, so I hope she returns once she has found a mate. I'll be examining the dill closely all summer, hoping I can repeat the cycle!

Winter Flowers

Well, it's been a while since my last post. For those of you who've been wondering, I'm ok, just busy. I'm still in grad school and also got a part-time job this spring. The spring semester just finished, though, so I have a bit of free time at last. Woo-hoo!

As I've mentioned in past entries, this winter was significantly milder than usual. But still, come January and February I was aching for bright flowers. Brookside Gardens to the rescue! The Winter Garden at Brookside Gardens is an outdoor bed that holds lots of super-early blooming flowers. This year apparently things bloomed a couple weeks earlier than usual, but I wasn't complaining!

Japanese flowering apricot (January 14)

Hellebore (January 14)

Witch Hazel (February 10)

Pussywillow!! (February 10)

Winter Aconite (February 10)

Admittedly, few of these early bloomers are native to our area, but sometimes any flower will do!

Today's site: Brookside Gardens, Wheaton MD.

Frozen Motion

The week before Christmas we went to Cape Elizabeth, Maine, to visit some of my family. One morning, my dad and husband and I took a cold windy stroll at Crescent Beach State Park.

Peaceful to look at, but boy was it chilly!

I'm fascinated with the ways sand and wind and water interact. Check out these fractal-like ebb patterns I found in a patch of black sand.

I'm not sure what the black sediment is, but it makes a pretty pattern!

I also found windblown sand ridges further down the beach. Years ago I took a winter walk on a beach during a snow storm that frosted every tiny ridge. We had no snow on this hike but shadows made a fine contrast instead.

Ripples in the sand look like frozen motion to me.

It was fiercely windy. Sometimes fine sand whisked past in ghostly swirls.

A haunted beach??

In addition to dislodging the sand, the wind also whipped up some vicious waves. Mist sprayed high in the air each time the waves crashed over some rocks just offshore.

Brr.

At one point we wussed out a bit, and walked inland part of the way back to escape the wind.  Near the start of the inland trail we found these fluffy seedheads glowing in the sun.

The wind was much reduced here. Whew!

Eventually we returned to the beach and headed back toward our car.  The wind was still gusting but at least it was at our backs. Out on the waves a couple lobsterboats rode by, seemingly oblivious to the biting wind.

Kudos to the stalwart lobstermen.

To finish off, we decided to thaw out at a nearby coffee shop, The Local Buzz. They serve locally baked pastries, coffee, café-style food and even beer and wine. We curled up in cozy armchairs to enjoy scrumptions pastries and decadent mochas. Yum! I highly recommend this cafe if you’re ever in the area.

Today's location:

Crescent Beach State Park, Cape Elizabeth, ME.

Frost Whispering

It’s been an unusually mild fall and early winter so far. We had half an inch of snow a couple days before Halloween—very early for our area—but other than that the weather’s been quite warm. We’ve had some daytime temperatures as high as the 50s and 60s (Fahrenheit) even into December, and only in the last few weeks have we regularly had nights cold enough for frost.

About two weeks ago, though, a particularly heavy frost inspired me to try some winter photography both in my back yard and at Meadowside.

Due to the crazy weather, I still had dill in the garden. The volunteer seedlings that sprouted in late summer were still thriving despite the early snow and occasional hard frosts.  Now the feathery fronds were all sugared with frost and surprisingly ethereal.

Dill in December?!

I harvested some dill just a few days later; it wasn't frost-burnt at all.

Of course I had to scrape the ice off my windshield before I could hit the road. I grumbled at even this short delay, worried the frost might melt before I could get to the park.

I had to rummage through the garden shed before I found my ice scraper, more delay!

But when I reached Meadowside everything was still rimed with ice. Frost lay in a glittering cover across the grass, and crunched under my boots.

Part of the path around Meadowside's pond.

There was even a patchy skin of ice on the pond. I’m told by my family in Maine that their favorite skating pond hadn’t even had this much ice yet—their weather has been oddly mild so far too.

Not exactly skating ice.

A little clump of reeds in the middle of the water was positively furry with ice crystals.

 

I love the two different forms of crystal here: flat plates vs sharp spikes.

This shot makes me think of a monstrous spider crawling across the pond.

Here the whippy loops of the reeds seem almost frantic to get out of the pond.

A short hour after I arrived, the sun had cleared the treetops and sunshine began to creep across the grassy areas.  I crouched down to try to capture light shining through the frost.

Sparkly.

As I snapped shot after shot, I started to notice a quiet crackling just at the edge of my hearing. It was a little bit like distant static, or like somebody gently crumpling a piece of plastic wrap.  I couldn’t trace the sound to any specific location, it was just whispering all around me. Then I realized perhaps I was hearing the frost start to melt, as the tiny ice crystals cracked and even detached from leaves and twigs. Wow!

The sunlight starts to hit the frosty field.

After an early-morning ice storm you can sometimes hear the ice quietly shifting and resettling on everything around you. This was like that but on a much, much smaller scale. It was totally unexpected, and if there had been anybody else at the pond I might have missed it. For that matter, if I hadn’t been holding still for so long, I might even have drowned it out with my own breathing or my own footsteps. I’ve never heard frost whisper before; I didn’t know it was even possible. It was a brief and solitary experience, but it was still the best part of my day.

This entry's locations:

• Meadowside Nature Center, Rockville, MD.
• My yard, Montgomery County, MD.

End of Season Death and Drama at Meadowside

 Ok, just a quick post today. I'm sorry I haven't been posting very often lately, I'm taking a writing class this semester so a lot of my writing time and energy is going toward assignments. But I did find a few hours lately to get out and look around.

I spent a few brief hours at Meadowside Nature Center this week.  Again I planned to search for late-season butterflies.  I did find some, including my first-ever American Lady. Although not as well known for migrating as Monarchs, American Ladies also survive cold northern winters by fleeing south.

This could have been a migrant from north of our area, or could have hatched locally. It's gorgeous either way!

I also saw more Buckeyes and a Common Checkered-Skipper. Their summer ranges include my area, but I've only ever seen both species at the very end of the season. So for me they mean fall.

Such an unblemished individual makes me think this Buckeye originated locally. But who knows, maybe it's just a very lucky traveler-- Buckeyes migrate too, like Monarchs and American Ladies.

The only other Common Checkered-Skippers I've seen were all nectaring on aster type flowers like this. I don't think they're migrants though.

But the real drama at the pond wasn't the long journeys of the butterflies, but something much fiercer. I found several praying mantids hiding in the goldenrod all around the pond. Two females, one male, and a couple others of unidentified gender. The male even flew onto the grass in front of me for a moment.  I shooed it to safety though as some kids on a field trip approached. Then on the other side of the pond, I spent about half an hour watching and photographing one large mantis as she caught and devoured bug after bug after bug. Yikes!

When I started photographing, the mantis glared at me as if to say, "What are you lookin at?"

But then she spotted a small green bee that looked mighty tasty. She froze, waiting for the right moment...

...and bam! Almost too fast to see, she snatched the bee and sank her mandibles into the poor bug's abdomen.

She caught several more bugs as I watched. Even as the mantis devoured her prey, other bees continued to buzz nearby, including this hovering one with an apparent deathwish.

It's a rough life, being a bug. They have to escape bonechilling temperatures, bloodthirsty predators, and even survive hundred-mile-long journeys. I'm glad I have the chance to observe it all though.

This entry's site: Meadowside Nature Center, Rockville, MD