Every year around this time I begin to see the first autumn meadowhawks (Sympetrum vicinum). These small red dragonflies are late season fliers, not emerging from their nymphal aquatic habitats until October. I saw the first one this year on October 27 perched upon smartweed in our wetland. Elsewhere, the leaves are rapidly turning. Many have already fallen. Not necessarily a sign of fall… Enjoy the view.Read more
Month: October 2016
Mistletoe
Now that the leaves are falling from the trees, mistletoe is becoming more obvious. It’s mostly found in the upper branches of hardwood trees in the form of a somewhat round clump of greenery amongst an otherwise barren tree. Luckily for me, there’s one small red maple here on the Museum of Life & Science campus that’s hosting several mistletoes at a very convenient height, eye level. As you may or may not know, mistletoe grows from the branches ofRead more
Home Again
The hooded mergansers are back in our wetland. Typically, they arrive in November and stay till March. Occasionally a few turn up in October and I’ve seen one or two stay until mid-April. It won’t be long before the rest of the crew arrive.Read more
Barred Owl Days
The barred owl in the photos below has been getting around. That’s assuming it’s the same owl. There’s no reason to think it’s not the same individual that I’ve seen three times since September 21, but I can’t prove that it is. Occasionally, I’ll hear a barred owl call from the woods on the east side of campus during a quiet winter afternoon, or I’ll come across an owl pellet on one of our paths through the woods. I rarelyRead more
Shadowy Silhouttes, Sap-sucking Arrivals, and a Murder
While walking through the Dinosaur Trail this past Tuesday (10/11), I noticed several dark spots on a leaf of one of our banana trees. On closer inspection I could see that what I was looking at were the shadows of three creatures which were on the opposite side of the leaf. The sun shining through the leaf created silhouettes of two tree frogs and an insect. Turning the leaf over confirmed two green tree frogs and a stink bug. TheRead more
Potter Wasps, Glow Worms, and A Well Balanced Turtle
I noticed an odd growth on one of our juvenile leptoceratops on the Dino Trail. The growth was located just before the eye. Since our dinosaurs are not actually alive I reasoned the growth to be of “outside” origin, not arising from the dinosaur itself. In fact, I knew right away what it was. A tiny black and white wasp had built this equally tiny clay pot to protect its young within while it hatches from its egg, eats and grows throughRead more
A Large Pellet
Our resident great blue heron left an interesting object on the railing of the deck at the Main Wetlands Overlook. It was a pellet. As you may know, pellets are undigested pieces of what a bird eats like bones, fur, exoskeletons, feathers and other indigestibles. The bird regurgitates these objects in the form of a pellet ranging from perhaps a quarter inch to many times that, depending on the size of the bird doing the regurgitating and the material containedRead more
The Monkey Slug
I received a call on the radio for an ID request at the Admissions Desk here at the Museum. The caller didn’t say what kind of an identification but just that “someone was in need of an identification.” Someone had brought in something that they couldn’t identify. When this type of call occurs, as it sometimes does here at the Museum, it’s usually a rock, fossil, dead snake, or an insect that someone found in their yard. The object was unfamiliarRead more