More Stuff You Might See

Top Photo: On a cool fall morning, Eno, one of our red wolves on display, yawns deeply before resting his weary head. Bald cypress, carpenter bees, musk turtles, ground hogs and others headline Nature Watch this week. Bald cypress has put out an impressive amount of cones this year. Carpenter bee activity is far greater in the spring when over-wintering adults emerge and vie for territories and nest sites. However, they’re still active now. The bees drill nice, neat 3/8”Read more

Fall

Top Photo: A female monarch butterfly sips nectar from sunflower. Fall is here. It’s September and fall is all around us. Birds and butterflies are migrating, late season flowers are blooming, seeds are nearly ready to cut loose into the wind, and fruit is on the vine. It’s even a bit cooler outside than it’s been the past few weeks. Here’s a group of photos of what’s going on outside, in case you missed it because of the heat. AnRead more

Visiting Sumac

  Dwarf sumac was in bloom this past week along the north side of the Wetlands. There were many insects visiting the tiny greenish flowers. Here, in the photos below, are a handful of those visitors.       Carpenter bees drill holes in trees, or the wood facia or siding of your house, creating separate chambers within the tunnels, and stocking each chamber with pollen and nectar. They lay an egg in each chamber and seal it off. The young thatRead more

A Most Interesting Encounter

I was standing in the vending area of Catch the Wind talking to some of the Adventure On Summer Campers here at the Museum. One of the benches had tan and gray stains on the back rest of the bench and I was explaining how this residue was the result of Carpenter Bees digging holes in the lumber above our heads. I also mentioned how the males, which have a yellow-white rectangular mark on their faces, do not possess stingersRead more

Out and About

Just some sights from the past week. First spotted by Michelle Kloda as she headed off to Build it! Bamboo one day last week, a Trapdoor Spider. Trapdoor Spiders spend most of their time in a hole in the ground waiting for prey to come walking by. They build a hinged, silken lid to top off the hole which they pop open to reach out and grab any unsuspecting prey that wanders by. Tiny mites caused the growths on theseRead more

Pupae Plus

I’ve been casually checking for Cloudless Sulphur pupae out in Catch the Wind for the past two years. I’d not found one until now! On September 11 as I walked past the patch of Partridge Pea in Catch the Wind I noticed that a Cloudless Sulphur caterpillar had attached itself to a pea pod on one of the plants and had curled itself into a “J” on the underside of the pod. I couldn’t wait until the following morning. IfRead more

Aquatics, Early Butterflies, and Bees and Wasps

Although the first few days of March were cold and snowy, by the end of the first week it had warmed enough so that many insects, absent for months, were once again busily going about their daily routines. Aquatic insects observed in the Wetlands during the first half of March were Whirligig Beetle, various diving beetles, Water Boatman, Backswimmer, and Water Strider. Cabbage White, Falcate Orangetip (3/11), Sleepy Orange, Orange Sulphur, Spring Azure (3/11), Questionmark, Mourning Cloak (3/11), and AmericanRead more