The Fake Milkweed Bug

Top Photo: Mystery bugs. Just outside the doors leading from Play To Learn in the main building here at the museum, and on your right, is a small garden planted with native prairie plants. I stop here when I pass through Gateway Park to watch goldfinches pick the seeds from the various herbaceous plants in the garden. And, there’s a large pokeweed in the center of the garden which attracts fruit eating birds. Catbirds seem especially fond of poke berries.Read more

Other September Sights

Top Photo: Magnolia warbler gleans insects from black willow tree. As many of you know, birds are on the move. The other day I ran into a group of neotropical migrants out on the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop. In attendance were common yellowthroat, American redstart, Blackburnian, magnolia, northern parula, and prairie warblers, and red-eyed and white-eyed vireos to name just a handful. I’m sure I missed seeing many of the birds that were around that day, but there’sRead more

Tiger Swallowtails and Others

It has been widely reported over the last week or so that Eastern Tiger Swallowtails are being seen in large numbers throughout our area (the Carolinas). Listservs such as Carolina Leps have had posts which speak of “an explosion of Tiger Swallowtails” and subject lines like “Tigers!” and “Day of the Tiger.”  It’s no different here at the Museum. Tiger swallowtails are back! Tiger swallowtail numbers peak in April/May and again in late July/August here in the Piedmont, although they canRead more