Yearly Archives: 2010

Transformers

Insects

 

More amazing than a Transformer toy that changes from a robot into a spaceship, this woolly bear caterpillar will wrap himself in a cocoon and spend the winter transforming into this.

 

Wooly Bear caterpillar is the Isabella Tiger Moth (photos by Chuck Tague)
Wooly Bear caterpillar is the Isabella Tiger Moth (slide by Chuck Tague)

 

Odd and ugly caterpillars become beautiful moths.

Who becomes what?

Chuck Tague’s guide to caterpillars and moths has the answers in photographs.  See A Game of Cat and Moth: caterpillars and what they become.

 

(photo of solo caterpillar by Christopher Jones from Wikimedia; click on the photo to see the original. Slide by Chuck Tague)

Anatomy: Speculum

Bird Anatomy


Waterfowl are just beginning to migrate through Pennsylvania so now’s a good time to learn the name of an important fieldmark on ducks.

The speculum is a patch of distinctive color on the wing.  It is made up of secondary feathers and is usually iridescent on dabbling ducks, as shown here on this female mallard. 

It’s a useful fieldmark when trying to identify mallards and American black ducks.  The speculum on mallards is blue with white borders.  On black ducks it’s purple without white borders.  Unfortunately mallards and black ducks can hybridize and the result can be confusing!

(photo by Chuck Tague)

Flock at Sunset

Migration


The grackles are back in Pittsburgh for their fall get-together. 

In the evenings I see them in Oakland heading north over Carnegie-Mellon’s campus on their way to a roost… I don’t know where. 

Hundreds and hundreds fly by.  I stand at the bus stop and watch them.  On the highest point of the Cathedral of Learning a peregrine stands and watches them.

Where is the roost? 

Some evening I will follow them and find out.

(photo of red-winged blackbirds at Quivera NWR, Kansas, in the public domain by Jerry Segraves. Click on the photo to see the original.)

Kingfishers on the move

Migration, Schenley Park, Water and Shore


If you’re near a stream or lake in western Pennsylvania you might conclude there are more belted kingfishers than every before — and you’d be right.

Kingfishers are migrating now across North America.  They breed as far north as Alaska and Hudson Bay but the northernmost birds move south in autumn because they require open water to fish.

The influx of “new” kingfishers upsets their established boundaries.  They’re normally solitary birds except when breeding and will defend their favorite fishing hole against other kingfishers, even in the winter.  Defense consists of relentless chasing while shouting out the “rattle” call.  Perhaps they make new territories while on migration.  Perhaps they’re just ornery.

There are certainly a lot of them here right now.  I’ve seen them at Schenley Park, along the Ohio, at Montour Run, and at Keystone State Park.

Kingfishers are on the move.

(photo by Chuck Tague)

Through the Cracks

Insects, Weather & Sky
Crack in the wall at Willowbank (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

9 October 2010

I don’t know about you, but I’m seeing way too much Nature indoors lately.

Yesterday’s suddenly warm weather heated up the bugs and they came inside.  Fortunately I’ve not seen what I consider “too many” of these critters:

  • Brown marmorated stink bugs:  After a brief hiatus (when it was raining) the parade of stink bugs distracted us at work yesterday.  Despite their large appearance stink bugs can flatten themselves into a narrow profile and drag their large shielded backs through tiny slits.  I’ve actually seen one emerge through the crack under my office window.  Eeeeewwww!
  • House centipedes:  At home we have had all sizes of house centipedes though thankfully not in great numbers.  I really hate them because their fast-moving legs give me the creeps.  My cat points them out by watching and waiting to pounce.  Get them, Emmy!  (p.s. See Steve-o’s comment below about what centipedes eat.  Maybe I should let them live.)
  • Common house spiders:  Their cobwebs are in nooks and crannies around the house where I had hoped they’d capture the stink bugs and centipedes.  Unfortunately these spiders are too small to tackle such large insects.  Some webs have no spiders; Emmy eats them.  Even the empty webs perform a useful function:  When you want to seal your leaking heating ducts, look for cobwebs nearby.  Spiders always build where there’s moving air.

And here’s what I haven’t seen yet — and hope to avoid:

  • Asian lady beetles:  Though beneficial these bugs are annoying in large numbers.  I haven’t seen them inside yet but their favorite invasion month is October.  Alas, they’re bound to come.
  • Mice:  In the fall of 2001, I discovered I had mice when my indoor cats gave me presents:  a white-footed mouse and a house mouse.  Where there’s one mouse there’s always more, and where there are two species the house is a sieve.  I stopped them by cementing all the outdoor cracks around the foundation.  Well worth the effort, though my cats were disappointed.

The parade of indoor Nature is underway.   Now’s the time to seal the cracks.

(photo by Achim Hering from Wikimedia Commons)

p.s. Emmy has many names including Emmalina.

Anatomy: Eyering

Bird Anatomy


An eyering is a ring of color around a bird’s eye.  It can be composed of orbital feathers or bare skin. 

Bare skin eyerings are often sexual cues for the birds who have them.  Among peregrine falcons the eyerings on adults are yellow, on juveniles they’re blue-gray.  This color difference is a cue that the juveniles are not breeding threats.  The juveniles’ brown (instead of gray) plumage and blue-gray cere and eyerings probably save them from being attacked when they pass through adult breeding territories.

Eyerings are a useful fieldmark, especially among species that are otherwise similar.  Connecticut warblers look similar to mourning warblers but Connecticuts have white eyerings.  Many thrushes are similar, but Swainson’s thrushes have buffy eyerings. 

A striking example of eyerings is the bright orange skin around the eyes of killdeer in the spring.  The skin becomes intensely orange when breeding is about to begin and seems to shout, “I’m ready.”

There’s no need to mark up this photo.  The eyering is obvious.  This killdeer is ready to breed.

(photo by Chuck Tague)

Berrylicious

Plants & Fungi, Songbirds, Trees


The trees and shrubs are all decked out in fruit right now.

Each fruit is a cunning seed delivery system.  On the surface its beautiful color lures animals and birds to eat it.  Under the skin is a tasty treat, the reward to the consumer.  Inside that is the payload, the seed.

It’s quite an ingenious system for long distance propagation.  The plants are rooted to the ground and would only spread as far as the wind moves their seeds unless they arranged for someone to carry them.  Their solution is to offer their fruits in pleasing packages to hungry hordes of migrating birds.

This common grackle, feasting on dogwood berries in Marcy’s yard, may migrate 30 miles to his next destination where he’ll cast the seeds.  In this way Marcy’s dogwood may have offspring near Maryland.

Viburnums and pokeberries, mountain ash and dogwoods offer their fruits in the hope that the birds will eat every last one of them.  They’re berrylicious for a reason.

(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)