Though daddy longlegs or harvestmen (Opiliones) resemble spiders they are not even closely related to them. Harvestmen are harmless and have many characteristics that set them apart from spiders including:
A fused body that appears to be 1 segment. Spiders have a “waist.”
A single pair of eyes (2) at center-front. Spiders have four pairs of eyes (8).
Cannot make silk. Spiders make silk and spin webs.
Cannot regrow a leg that is lost. Spiders can regrow legs.
No fangs or venom. Spiders have both.
Eat solid food. Spiders have to liquefy their food, then suck it in.
Harvestmen are members of the class Arachnida that includes spiders, scorpions, ticks and mites. Their closest relatives might be mites, though this is in dispute.
Mid to late summer is a good time to be a bird in Pennsylvania. Fruit is ripe, seeds are plentiful, insect food is everywhere and for raptors there are plenty of naive young animals to capture. With so much natural food available and with songbirds’ preference for insects in summer, birds are not dependent on backyard feeders in July.
You can safely bring in your bird feeders now. In fact, if you cannot clean your feeders every week, they are unsafe for birds. Highly pathogenic avian flu has ebbed this summer but there is apprehension that it will return during fall migration. And it’s not the only disease that kills birds.
Yesterday I encountered three dead or dying birds in my neighborhood within half a mile of each other: a house finch that fell over unless it propped itself on open wings, a dead fledgling robin standing in the street (below), and a fluffed house sparrow that could not walk.
Frozen in place: dead American robin fledgling standing in the street, 12 July 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
I have no idea what was killing them. It could have been a different reason for each species. I do know that if it was contagious, finches and sparrows would have spread it at bird feeders.
Feathers are vital to a bird’s survival but they wear out and have to be replaced by molting. The best time to do this is when feathers are not urgently needed for migration, courtship or warmth. That makes summer the time to molt. Here are a few examples.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris), above, have to look flashy at the start of the breeding season so they molt their body feathers from June to August. On the wintering grounds they molt flight feathers in preparation for their strenuous spring migration. Look closely at ruby-throats this summer and you’ll see that their body feathers are not as perfect as they were in May.
Northern cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) wrap up their last brood of the season in mid summer and begin to molt in mid July. By August they will look very ragged, male and female shown below. Some will be bald.
Male and female peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) molt at slightly different times. Females molt their primary wing feathers while they’re incubating eggs (March-May) because their mates are doing all the hard flying to provide food. The males molt their primaries in July after teaching the young to hunt.
Birds molt the same flight feather on each side of the body so that flight remains balanced. Morela’s wings look sleek while she’s sunbathing because she replaced her wing feathers a few months ago.
Have you noticed that Canada geese (Branta canadensis) are not grazing in their usual upland haunts? They are staying near water because they cannot fly while they molt all their primary feathers at once.
This spiky ball, a pufferfish, is so toxic that if eaten it can kill 30 adult humans.
There are more than 260 species of pufferfish in two families, almost all of which are toxic: Diodontidae and Tetraodontidae. The spiky ones are aptly called porcupinefish.
They don’t swim fast so their main defense is to blow up into an unappetizing ball. When fully extended their buoyancy changes and they involuntarily roll onto their backs, exposing their white bellies. In this position they can still swim with tiny fins.
How do pufferfish blow themselves up? Why are they toxic? Who eats them? This video explains it all.
And though they are spiky, they somehow they manage to look cute.
An awesome pufferfish expanding its body after sensing a threat.
A young Piping Plover chick takes her first steps. Beautifully photographed by our volunteer @4binator, with zoom & and at a safe distance. These babies are the most vulnerable beings on the beach. Will you help us protect them? pic.twitter.com/fzjImvupwC
A flightless guillemot chick (Cepphus grylle), accompanied by his father, jumps into the sea at an island off the UK coast:
42 secs of one of the most iconic UK wildlife moments. A still flightless, ~20 day-old Guillemot chick, accompanied by its dad, leaving the patch of rock where it was born, making its way to the edge of the cliff, and jumping into the sea without hesitation. pic.twitter.com/q9qrC91CSe
Wilted white snakeroot at Schenley Park, 4 July 2022 (photo by Kate St. John)
9 July 2022
Hot dry weather since early June has turned the grass brown and caused low water in Pittsburgh area streams. By the Fourth of July leaves were wilting in Schenley Park and Little Sewickley’s creek bed was exposed at Sneed’s.
Low water exposes the creekbed of Little Sewickley Creek at Sneeds, 4 July 2022 (photo by Karyn Delaney)
Precipitation had changed in only five weeks from 1.20 inches above normal at the end of May to -1.58 inches below normal on 4 July. A thunderstorm on 6 July reduced the deficit to -1.24 inches below normal this morning. (See statistics at the NWS Pittsburgh Local Climate page.)
Are we in a drought?
Not really. Despite wilting leaves this week’s U.S. Drought Monitor map puts most of Pennsylvania in the normal range. (S=short-term impacts, L=long term impacts)
Regal moth ovipositing on a fence, New Stanton, 2 July 2022 (photo by Mike Fialkovich)
8 July 2022
When Mike Fialkovich sent me photos of a regal moth laying eggs on a metal fence near his office I wondered if this female was making a mistake. The fence has no food for her tiny caterpillars. What will her larvae eat when they hatch?
The regal or royal walnut moth (Citheronia regalis) is the largest moth north of Mexico with a wingspan of 3.94 to 6.25 inches (females are largest). The adult moth never eats — its only job is to reproduce — but its caterpillars feast on trees including hickories, pecans, black walnuts, sweet gum, persimmon and sumacs.
Normally their lives unfold like this.
Adults emerge in late evening and mate the following evening. Females begin laying eggs at dusk the next day, depositing them in groups of 1-3 on both sides of host plant leaves. Eggs hatch within 6-10 days, and the caterpillars (known as the Hickory Horned Devil) feed alone. Young caterpillars rest on the tops of leaves and resemble bird droppings, while older caterpillars appear menacing because they are very large and brightly colored with red “horns” near the head. Caterpillars pupate in a burrow in the soil.
There’s no explanation for why this moth chose a fence. Did it “smell” like a hickory?
Regal moth ovipositing on a fence, New Stanton, 2 July 2022 (photo by Mike Fialkovich)Regal moth with eggs on a fence, New Stanton, 2 July 2022 (photo by Mike Fialkovich)
Her caterpillars, called hickory horned devils, will need a lot of food to reach this size before they pupate.
Parenthood can be trying especially when grown children who were briefly independent return home and complain that you’re not feeding them enough. Pitt peregrines Morela and Ecco are going through this with their two female youngsters, Yellow Girl and Silver Girl.
Last weekend Yellow Girl demanded a handout. Then a brief respite of silence ended this week with intensive screeching. I heard it yesterday morning as I walked past Phipps Conservatory and searched the sky for a young peregrine chasing an adult. Nothing.
What I heard was Silver Girl at the nest, a third of a mile away, screeching at the top of her lungs as shown in the video below. At the start you can hear Ecco chupping and whistling while Silver Girl screams. She calmed down for a moment but it didn’t last. She screeched off and on all day.
Weaning these youngsters from parental care is a very noisy activity.
When a thunderstorm approaches at the beach or a swimming pool, the lifeguards tell everyone to get out of the water. Lightning often strikes water and anyone in it can be electrocuted.
Fish live in water so why don’t they die from lightning? The National Weather Service explains:
Before a lightning strike, a charge builds up along the water’s surface. When lightning strikes, most of electrical discharge occurs near the water’s surface. Most fish swim below the surface and are unaffected.
This NWS animation shows the positive charge building on the surface and the negatively charged lightning strike spreading horizontally. Fish swim below it all.
Interestingly in the US, the most dangerous activity during lightning is fishing; beaches are second. We thought golf was the worst but it is far down on the list.
