Beavers Grooming
Beavers spend an inordinate amount of time grooming themselves (and each other). Both inside their lodge and on land a beaver tucks its tail between its legs, sits up on its hind legs and spends up to an hour at a time fastidiously combing through its fur often multiple times a day.
Both front and hind feet are pressed into service. The two inner toes on each hind foot are modified for grooming – the second toe has a “split nail” with a nail and a horny growth between the nail and the toe which has a finely serrated upper edge that serves as a fine-toothed comb.
Grooming serves two purposes. One is to remove debris from the coat, from algae to burrs and parasites. The other is to waterproof the beaver’s coat. A beaver applies an oily substance from its anal glands to the outer layer of hair with the help of its toes, thereby preventing its inner, denser, underfur from getting wet.
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Caspian Terns Feeding
Watching a Caspian Tern (our largest tern) feeding in deep water is a lesson in persistence and grace. Flying back and forth it circles the water below, its bill pointed down as it searches for fish. A Caspian Tern’s dive is impressive. Once a tern sees a fish it hovers briefly, flexes its wings and then plunges straight down like a bullet. When it hits the water, it typically completely submerges itself.
Most fish captured are consumed on the wing, unless they are delivered to offspring. Fish bones and scales are difficult for terns to digest; they solve this situation by casting one or two pellets a day that consist of these indigestible parts.
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Did you know…
…that mating butterflies face away from each other? (Photo: mating Banded Hairstreaks)
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Ospreys Continue To Add Material to Nest Throughout The Nesting Season
The nesting season for Ospreys is well underway – chicks appear larger by the day, and before long they will be fledging. As advanced as the nesting season is, Osprey nests are still being reinforced with material retrieved by the adults.
The pictured Osprey took off from its nest, swooped down to a nearby roadside and scooped up a sizable clump of mowed grass with its talons which it then delivered back to its nest where its mate was sitting with two chicks. Even late in the nesting season all manner of material, not all of it natural, is added to Osprey nests – among other things, paper, plastic bags, rope, nylon mesh bait bags, dried cow manure and beach toys have been documented.
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Green Lacewings: Active Pest Controllers
Lady Beetles and Praying Mantises are well known to be excellent pest controllers, but there are other insects that are equally beneficial, including Green Lacewings. These distinctive green insects with golden eyes and lacy wings feed mostly on nectar, pollen and honeydew (a sweet liquid excreted by aphids). However, in their larval stage (when they resemble miniature brown and white alligators) they are referred to as “aphid lions” due to their voracious appetite for aphids and other soft-bodied insects.
Lacewing eggs are as distinctive as the larval and adult stages. Each is perched on the tip of a hairlike stalk that is about ½-inch long. Entomologists believe this helps reduce cannibalism of the eggs by sibling larvae.
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Eastern Kingbirds Rule The Sky
The Eastern Kingbird’s scientific name, Tyrannus tyrannus, reflects its aggressive nature (“tyrannus” meaning tyrant, despot or king). This feisty insectivore can be found perched on a tree or shrub often near wetlands where it periodically darts into the sky to retrieve its unsuspecting meal. When not securing food for itself or its young, it demonstrates its fierceness by defending its nest, mate and territory with vigor. Whether vocalizing, displaying, chasing, or actually fighting with an interloper, Eastern Kingbirds are quick to establish dominance.
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Dog Vomit Slime Mold
Slime molds were once considered fungi, but no longer – neither are they plants, animals or bacteria. Biologists define them as organisms that can live freely as single cells (when food is abundant), but can also aggregate together to form multicellular reproductive structures (when food is scarce).
During the part of their life cycle referred to as plasmodium, some slime molds look like gelatinous slime that slowly flows over the ground or substrate consuming fungi and bacteria. When they reach their reproductive stage, they release spores light enough to be dispersed by the wind.
Dog Vomit Slime Mold (Fuligo septica), also known as Scrambled Egg Slime, is harmless to people, pets and plants. In fact, it is actually edible. In some parts of Mexico people scramble it like eggs (and call it “caca de luna”).
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2nd Brood of Black Swallowtails Emerging
The process of transforming from a caterpillar to a chrysalis is a miraculous one, but it’s especially intriguing when it comes to Black Swallowtails (Papilio polyxenes). For one thing, their chrysalises vary in color from green to brown, depending on the object on which they choose to attach themselves. Equally impressive, while it is still a caterpillar the Black Swallowtail spins a thread of silk from which it suspends itself. It uses this silk sling as support for the chrysalis that is revealed once the caterpillar splits and sheds its exoskeleton (see it dangling beneath the chrysalis).
The second brood of Black Swallowtails (Papilio polyxenes) is already emerging from their chrysalises this summer, mating and laying eggs during their two week adult life span. Look for the caterpillars dining on members of the Parsley family, including Queen Anne’s Lace, dill, parsley, fennel, celery and carrot foliage. (Photos from left to right: Black Swallowtail larva preparing to pupate, chrysalis (with cast off larval exoskeleton) and adult male Black Swallowtail)
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Hemlock Varnish Shelf & Pleasing Fungus Beetles
Two beauties in one place – Hemlock Varnish Shelf (Ganoderma tsugae), an aptly-named polypore fungus that is found growing on Eastern Hemlocks, and Pleasing Fungus Beetles (Megalodacne heros) devouring Hemlock Varnish Shelf in large numbers.
The dry, shiny upper surface of the growing Hemlock Varnish Shelf caps is brightly colored, often in flaming shades of red or orange. Similarly, the beetles are bright orange and black, appearing to match the color of their host fungus. The combination is eye-catching, to say the least.
Although these beetles are not rare, they are seldom noticed perhaps because the adults are nocturnal. They sometimes congregate under bark or rotting wood usually within 25 feet of Hemlock Varnish Shelf-infested trees and stumps. They emerge at dusk to feed throughout the night. Females lay their eggs on the fruiting bodies of shelf fungi in the genus Ganoderma and other wood-rotting fungi. Pleasing Fungus Beetle larvae hatch and feed in the woody fruiting structures of shelf fungi, as do adults.
A wide variety of fungi serves as hosts for the family as a whole, but each Pleasing Fungus Beetle species seems to be specific to a certain group of fungi. In this case the beetle Megalodacne heros is associated with Hemlock Varnish Shelf.
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