Great Blue and Other Interesting Sightings

  Great blue heron (GBH) has been a common sight here at the Museum for the past eight years. Most of that time there was one present on a daily basis in the Wetlands. I’m afraid, though, our long time resident GBH has left us. I don’t know why our local GBH has moved on or whether or not it has expired, but I have not seen it. I keep a weekly checklist of all the birds I see here at the Museum, check it offRead more

Assassin Bugs Hatch and Harvester Emerges

A few weeks ago I mentioned seeing an assassin bug on an alder in the Wetlands. This past Saturday (9/14) I spotted an egg case close by. The egg case is a dead ringer for that of Zelus luridus, the assassin which was spotted earlier. A close look at the mass of eggs revealed that they had already hatched. There was no sign of the hatchlings, they must have already disbursed in search of prey. I took several photos of theRead more

Harvester Laying Eggs on the Alder

After complaining (mildly) about not being able to locate adult harvester butterflies in the vicinity of an alder on the north side of the Wetlands, which has plenty of woolly aphids and caterpillars munching on them, I spotted one. I was getting ready to make the rounds at the end of the day when I saw a small orangish butterfly zip by and through the vegetation just west of the infested alder. Although I felt sure that it was aRead more

Harvesters Have Arrived!

The caterpillar in the above photo was about 5 – 6 mm in length when the photo was taken. Those are aphids, in various stages of developement, on either side of the caterpillar. Ever since spotting the woolly aphids on an alder on the north side of the Wetlands I’ve been watching for harvester caterpillars to appear. They’re here. Last year I spied the first harvester caterpillars, the only North American carnivorous caterpillars, on the alder during the first weekRead more

Red, White, and Blue, sort of

The red I heard the call of the hawk before I saw it. As I turned, the bird came in to a Loblolly Pine over the Train Station here at the Museum. It was carrying something of weight and bulk in its talons though I couldn’t make out what it was. The bird began to call out, keee-eeeer, keee-eeeer, keee-eeeer! I could hear another bird calling as well, a whiny and slower keeeear…keeear…keear. As I looked up the other hawkRead more

Harvesters Eclose

The subjects of the two images at right are what greeted me as I anxiously inspected the alder this morning. I’d been out of the “office” for three days and was hoping to find both Harvester pupae intact. The first chrysalis was indeed intact, but much darkened from when I last saw it several days ago. The darkening of the chrysalis is a sure sign that the butterfly within is soon to emerge. It’s actually transparent and what you seeRead more

The Harvester

Just a few weeks ago I posted about woolly aphids on the Hazel Alder here in our Wetlands. In that post I mentioned the possibility of Harvesters, the only North American carnivorous butterfly, making an appearance. Well, they have arrived…at least in caterpillar form. Of course, for the caterpillars to be here there had to have been a butterfly present at some point to lay eggs. It must have done its egg laying while I was making the rounds, becauseRead more

Things you may have walked past and not noticed.

This past Saturday, I saw an adult Pickerel Frog out on the path in Explore the Wild. It was a bright sunny, and dry day. I probably wouldn’t even mention this if it were February or March, or even April, the months when this species breeds, necessity bringing them down to the water for courting and laying eggs. Most of the rest of the year they’re up in the woods or well hidden along the edge of the water, notRead more