Butterflies As Pollinators
Butterflies pollinate during the day while most flowers are open and they have better color perception than bees or even humans, but they are less efficient than bees at moving pollen between plants. Their legs and proboscis are longer and farther away from the flower’s pollen so they do not pick up as much pollen on their bodies. They also lack specialized structures for collecting pollen. Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine that some of the Daylily pollen that has collected on this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail’s wings might not fall onto or be brushed against the stigma of the next Daylily it visits.
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Gray Treefrog: A Frog of Many Colors
A Gray Treefrog starts life off as a ¼” yellow tadpole. Eventually it may reach 2 ½” in length, and its body will have turned olive green with a red tail. Upon metamorphosing into a frog, the Gray Treefrog turns a bright emerald green and gradually develops into a mottled greenish-gray adult which can change its color from green to gray in about half an hour to match its environment. The two color phases of the maturing frog (solid green of the young, and mottled gray or green of adult) are so different it’s hard to believe that they are the same species. (Photo: young Gray Treefrog; insert- adult Gray Treefrog)
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Lesser Purple Fringed Orchis Flowering
Approximately sixty orchids can be found in the Northeast, more than half of which are found growing in bogs and fens. (Bogs are filled with atmospheric moisture and have very low levels of nutrients; fens receive their water from streams or springs, and have slightly more nutrients than bogs.) In July and August in the Northeast, the Lesser Purple Fringed Orchis (Platanthera psycodes) sends up a 1 – 3’ spike filled with fragrant, tiny (3/4” long) flowers, each of which possesses a three-lobed, fringed lower lip and a long nectar spur . Found in cooler habitats, its range is being pushed northwards as global temperatures warm — a specimen was found at an altitude of 1,500 feet in Vermont. This orchid is on several states’ endangered or threatened lists outside of New England, and a species of special concern in Rhode Island. (Thanks to Shiela and Steven Swett for photo op.)
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Bald Eagle Eyesight
The eyesight of a Bald Eagle is impressive. Part of the reason for their excellent vision is that these birds of prey have two centers of focus (foveae), which allow them to see both forward and to the side at the same time. Cone cells, one of three types of photoreceptor cells in the retina, perceive color, fine detail and rapid movement. In a human, the fovea has 200,000 cones per millimeter; in the central fovea of a Bald Eagle’s eye, there are about a million cones per millimeter. An eagle’s eye is almost as large as a human’s, but its sharpness is at least four times that of a person with perfect vision.
Bald eagles are capable of seeing fish in the water from several hundred feet above, while soaring, gliding or in flapping flight. (They locate and catch dead fish much more rapidly and efficiently than live fish, because dead fish float with their light underside up, making them easier to see.) It is very likely that a Bald Eagle can identify a rabbit moving almost a mile away. This would mean that an eagle flying at an altitude of 1000 feet over open country could spot prey over an area of almost 3 square miles from a fixed position. (photo: recently fledged, juvenile Bald Eagle)
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Grasshopper Wings Growing
Grasshoppers experience incomplete metamorphosis, with three life cycle stages – egg, nymph, and adult. A grasshopper egg hatches into a nymph, which resembles an adult grasshopper, except that it is smaller and lacks wings and reproductive organs. Because of its hard outer exoskeleton, a growing grasshopper has to shed its skin periodically to accommodate its increased size. (A larger exoskeleton develops beneath the old, smaller one that is shed.) Grasshopper nymphs molt several times (each stage between molts is referred to as an instar) before they reach their adult size, and with each molt, their “wing buds” get larger. After the final molt, the wings are inflated and become fully functional. Wings play an important part in grasshopper courtship, as males “sing” to attract females by rapidly rasping their leg against their forewing, a process called stridulation.
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Eastern Cottontail vs. New England Cottontail
There are two species of cottontails in the Northeast – the New England Cottontail and the Eastern Cottontail. The New England Cottontail was the only rabbit east of the Hudson River until the Eastern Cottontail was introduced in the late 1800s. Today the New England Cottontail is restricted to less than a fifth of its range in the early 1900s, whereas the Eastern Cottontail can be found throughout New England.
Although they are two separate species, these two rabbits look very similar – the Eastern Cottontail is slightly larger, has longer ears, and its eyes are half again as large as the New England Cottontail’s. The New England Cottontail is a forest species that depends on areas of thick shrubs and young trees that grow up following natural disturbances. A combination of dwindling habitat due to development, the ephemeral nature of young forests (they only last for 10 to 20 years before becoming older woodland, where ground-level plants are too thin to provide rabbits with enough food and cover to survive) and inferior eyesight has led to the dwindling population of New England Cottontails, and fostered the growth of the Eastern Cottontail population. Eastern Cottontails seem better able to survive in the increasingly fragmented habitats of New England, including open fields, forest edges, small thickets, and even golf courses and suburban lawns. (Photo: Eastern Cottontail)
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Spring Peepers Dispersing
If you live near a pond where you heard loud “peeping” in late April or May, now is the time to keep your eyes peeled for young subadult Spring Peepers in the woodlands near the pond, for they are just completing metamorphosis and moving onto land. Thanks to their enlarged toe pads, peepers are good climbers but are usually found on the ground or low in shrubbery. The best time to look for young peepers is in the early morning hours and in the late afternoon, when they tend to feed. Even if your timing is right, it can be challenging to find one — a full grown peeper is only ¾” to 1 ¼” long, and recently metamorphosed individuals are not much longer than ¼”, about the size of your baby fingernail. You’ll know it’s young because of its diminutive size and its snub nose!
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