Monarchs Passing Through

Top Photo: Female monarch butterfly stops to refuel on long journey south of the border. It’s that time of year when masses of monarch butterflies trek south, more specifically southwest, to their wintering grounds in the fir forests of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in central Mexico. On their way they may stop to nectar and even lay eggs so that a new generation of monarchs can complete the journey, overwinter in the Mexican highlands and head back north theRead more

The End of July

Top Photo: Male eastern tiger swallowtail seeks nectar from buttonbush flowers alongside Floating Walkway in wetlands. Eastern tiger swallowtails have essentially two flights here in the Piedmont of North Carolina. I see them in spring, centered around April, then again in July and August. The spring brood or flight is made up of smaller individuals than the summer flight. This may be due, at least in part, to environmental factors. The spring butterflies had been feeding, as larvae, from earlyRead more

Ghost Pipe, Treefrog, Sphinx, Yellowjackets, and a Large Skimmer

Top Photo: Ghost pipe growing and in bloom among ferns on Dinosaur Trail. Ghost pipe, or Indian pipe, though resembling a fungus is actually a flowering plant. The plant’s tissue does not contain chlorophyll and it doesn’t photosynthesize its own nutrients as most plants do. It has to rely on other sources to maintain itself. Ghost pipe gets its nutrients by tapping into fungi which themselves are tapped into nearby tree roots. Each summer the plant sends up white translucentRead more

More Summer Stuff

Top Photo: Painted lady butterfly on purple coneflower. Just a brief look at a few sights out on the Explore the Wild and Catch the Wind loop. Asiatic dayflower grows throughout the Piedmont area. It’s a non-native, but it attracts various creatures to itself for a variety of reasons, shelter and food standing out in the case of the two creatures that were found on a stand of dayflower in Catch the Wind the past week. The six-spotted neolema isRead more

Paper Wasp, Caterpillars, and Butterflies

Top Photo: Paper wasp investigates fall webworms’ protective “tent.” Fall webworms (Hyphantria cunea) are already forming their protective webs in some of the trees here at the museum. The webs, or tents, are full of caterpillars who spend their lives inside the web, never venturing out to eat. The webs cover the area in which the caterpillars are feeding. The larvae only come out when its time to pupate in the leaf liter, the soil, or cracks and crevices inRead more

A Moon Moth and a Monarch

Top Photo: Luna moth waits out the day clinging to a conifer. It’s always exciting to see a luna moth, whether its clinging to vegetation or gracefully fluttering though the trees. Though nocturnal, they’re quite often seen during the day. Males can be told from females by much broader, feathery antennae. The female’s antennae are feathery, but much less so. The added material on the male’s antennae assists in picking up the scent of pheromones given off by the females.Read more

From Hummingbirds to Mushrooms

Top Photo: A lichen “pipe.” What appears at first to be some sort of corn-cobish kind of smoking pipe is actually a ruby-throated hummingbird nest. Ranger Dakota noticed it lying in the leaf litter adjacent to the Farmyard. As soon as I saw the object I knew it was a hummers nest, about 1 3/4” high, 1 1/2” across and covered with lichen. The nest must have fallen from a loblolly pine above us on the path. The delicate lookingRead more

Pollen, Butterflies, and Squirrels

Top Photo: Male flowers of eastern red cedar or juniper. Pollen Red cedar is in bloom, and the male flowers are sending out pollen for the fertilization of female flowers, and for the rest of us to breathe in and sneeze. The local elm trees are in bloom as well. Elm is another tree, like the cedar, whose pollen is carried by the wind. Butterflies Not strictly an indication of spring, but of warm days throughout the winter and earlyRead more