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.

Mantis Wrangling

Yesterday morning was one of the coldest we’d had in months. When I woke up, it was only 41 degrees F.  Brr!  A cold front had swept through Thursday night, its dramatic thunderstorms leaving us much colder air than normal: our usual lows this time of year are more like 50 or 60 degrees.

So I decided to delay my planned hike for a few hours.  I’d hoped to spot some late-season butterflies, perhaps even some migrating monarchs, but there was no way I'd find much with such chilly temperatures.  The cold front might even have dropped in some really neat migrant birds, but I just wasn’t feeling the birding vibe. I know, I’m a slacker birder.

I finally got to the pond around 11:20 to find it crawling with children, maybe 7 or 8 years old. Their shrieks of discovery and delight filled the air even as far away as the parking lot, as did the frantic and increasingly flustered scoldings from the chaperones.  I nearly turned tail, but decided I would be strong and carry on. It’s not like I was looking for birds anyway, right? Bugs would be much more tolerant of the noise, or so I hoped.

Hunting for insects.

Near the pond, one of the chaperones crouched protectively over a spot near the path.  Shouts like “I found a rattlesnake!”, “I caught a praying mantis,” and “A butterfly landed on my sleeve!” were frequent. So I too wanted to see what the adult was guarding.  I hoped perhaps a snake made sluggish by the cold. Dozens of hyperactive children zoomed back and forth along the pond’s edge as I approached.

It turned out to be a lovely chocolate-brown praying mantis. One of the adults had discovered the mantis next to the path, right in the way of stampeding feet, and wanted to keep it safe.  The man told me he intended to move her to some nearby brush, but he seemed reluctant to touch her.  Just then, the teacher started chivvying the class to the next station down the trail.  So of course I offered to help with the mantis.

First I tried to gently scoop her up in my cupped hands.  Boy, was that a failure. Every time I got her in one hand she’d scuttle right off.  I even tried walking my alternating hands in front of her, but she was too fast for me even in the cold temperatures.  After half a dozen failed tries I declared she could get to the brush under her own power if she was going to be so ornery.  The class was gone now and the chaperone made his way after them as well.  I started herding the mantis across several feet of lawn.

I still needed to somehow pick her up to place her deep enough in the brush for safety.  I was sure more children were headed my way, since the first group left their equipment behind.

Basket of bug-catchers.

Since my scooping technique had already failed, and I didn’t want to cause her any more damage (her right eye looked injured, although she didn’t seem to have any trouble seeing my hand approach from the right side, or evading said hand), I needed a new strategy.  Finally it occurred to me maybe I could just coax her onto my sleeve and carry her that way.  Indeed that worked, perhaps all too well: once I got her onto my sleeve she did not want to get off. I chased her up and down my arm for a few minutes.

I'm comfy here, thank you very much.

Finally I managed to push her into the brush. She perched upside down there for several minutes, allowing me to admire her colorful abdomen.

Does this leaf make my butt look big?

Eventually I wandered off to explore the pond and the nearby meadow as I’d planned.  There really were very few butterflies or any insects at all in attendance, even far from the disturbance of children; I didn’t even see a single dragonfly until three in the afternoon when it finally warmed up enough for them.  Mostly the bees had exclusive control of the thistles and other flowers, but I did I find a few dozy butterflies, many of whom were a bit tattered this late in the season. I even surprised a deer who had ventured down to the pond for a snack after the children left. 

Bumble bee slurping up the thistle nectar.

Rather tattered Great Spangled Fritillary.

A surprisingly cherry Gray Hairstreak.

One of my target species for the day: a Buckeye.

The surprise sighting of the day: this hungry doe.

So I’m glad I braved the horde of children that had taken over the normally quiet pond.  I’ll check back there in a few days when the weather warms up again. Maybe by then more butterflies will be back out. 

Today's location: Meadowside Nature Center, Rock Creek Regional Park, Rockville, MD

Wildlife Watching Tip: Act Like A Detective

I love Teasel, but their bloom can herald a midsummer lull in wildlife sightings.

I spent the last week visiting my mom in Columbus, OH.  Although I had a cold the whole time, we did manage to get a couple hikes in, exploring nearby Highbanks Metro Park and Antrim Park.  Both times we didn’t get started until mid to late morning. Due to the time of day, the season, and a high number of other hikers, I had a hard time finding wildlife much larger than insects.  I had hoped we’d at least find some birds in the forest canopy, but they were few and far between. So I used Wildlife Watching Tip #2: Act Like A Detective. I looked for the signs left behind by wildlife to deduce their identity and activity.  I also like to use senses other than sight to reveal the presence of wildlife.

The first kind of clues I look for show that wildlife that was here recently, but has since moved elsewhere.  Animals that are nocturnal, for example, or who have crossed my path several hours or days ago, will still have left their sign behind.  We looked for tracks, scat, and partially-eaten plants. Nibbled leaves or stems can indicate the activity of rabbits, deer, and of course insects. Caterpillars were few and far between, but we did find tracks of raccoons and a tiny shorebird.

Raccoons patrol the shore of the Olentangy River.

A shorebird had been here too.

Other wildlife might still be nearby, just hiding very well.  Sometimes they’ve left the same kind of sign I mentioned above, other times I like to use senses other than sight to detect them.

A lot of wildlife will give its location away by sound: birdsongs, insect chirps, and frog or toad trills.  That might seem obvious but quite often there’s enough accumulated natural and human noise to blur it into mush.  You have to focus on one kind of sound against the background, or even one individual in particular, and tune out the rest. Some wildlife is less than stealthy in their movements too, and may betray their location by rustling through the leaves or grass. Whether you can identify an animal by sound or not, these clues all can lead you to the animal’s behavior and location. Squirrels or chipmunks are the most common cause of rustling sounds in my neck of the woods, but birds like towhees, ovenbirds, and robins also rummage in fallen leaves to find tasty food. I’ve also found skinks and snakes by sound as they scurry or slither through the forest.  

Chipmunk freezing in place so I won't notice him. It didn't work.

The sense of smell is one of my favorite detecting tools.  Of course skunks have the most infamous scent, but other animals have notable (and less painful) scents as well.  My favorite wildlife smell memory comes from a hike I took in suburban Reston, Virginia several years ago.  I found a deadfall across the trail that led gently upward toward the understory.  I decided to scramble up it for fun and check out the former treetop.  When I got there, there weren’t many branches left (the tree had been dead for a long time) but I discovered a small herd of deer browsing obliviously, and fragrantly, ten or fifteen feet below me.  It was so neat to perch there and watch them in secret! They smelled a lot like cows. I’ve also heard that deer smell musky in the rut season but haven’t experienced that yet. Sadly, in Ohio my nose was pretty much out of commission due to my cold so I can’t report on any scents we might have encountered.

I like to smell wildflowers too, but this bindweed was already occupied!

And of course since I was having so much difficulty finding, hearing, or smelling much wildlife, I made sure to use Wildlife Watching Tip #1, look out for the little guys. Hunting for clues meant I discovered some cool tiny bugs along the way. I also was able to find a big female praying mantis lurking in some Ironweed. I spotted her because I was searching for caterpillar frass (droppings) on the plants.  I never found frass or caterpillars, but she made up for it!

Adult hover flies pollinate flowers; larva feast on aphids. Don't swat this one!

Shelob? No, a funnel web spider lurking in a fencepost.

Praying Mantis waiting for a tasty butterfly.

Not all our insect discoveries were tiny or hidden either. At Antrim we happened upon a leaf-footed bug and a female Pelecinid wasp. I thought from the way the wasp kept lifting her long abdomen then touching its tip to the leaf that she might be laying eggs in leafminer larvae, but my insect book says they parasitize larvae in the soil, not in leaves. She was neat to watch anyway. 

Pelecinid wasp-- practicing her technique, perhaps?

A belligerent looking Leaf-footed Bug

I also want to give credit to my mom for spotting one of the few vertebrates we saw on our hikes: this young Northern Watersnake in the lake at Antrim Park.  It definitely helps to have more than one spotter when you’re out looking for wildlife!  I also found a tiny Map Turtle basking in the sun toward the end of our walk.  Its carapace couldn’t have been more than four or five inches long, which is about adult size for males. It was very shy, though-- I got only one picture before it plopped back in the water. I do think we saw both reptiles partly because we were already hunting for subtle clues, and partly just by looking in the right spot at the right time. Luck is always a big factor in wildlife watching, but you can certainly help it along by paying attention to your surroundings.

A very fast moving Northern Water Snake.

My first-ever Map Turtle. Yay!

This entry’s locations:

• Highbanks Metro Park, Lewis Center OH

• Antrim Park, Columbus OH

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