Juvenile Common Loons Nearing Independence
It’s not surprising to see Common Loon parents presenting their newborn chicks with small fish that are held in their beaks until the chicks grab hold. As time goes on, the parents drop fish in the water next to the chicks in an effort to teach the youngsters how to procure their own meals. By the age of six weeks young loons are able to forage on their own. However, the parents continue to supplement the young loons’ diet until they are completely independent, around ten or eleven weeks. The pictured juvenile Common Loon is about two months old, and is enjoying the tail end of being served meals.
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Common Gartersnakes Giving Birth To Live Young
Last March Common Gartersnakes were mating almost immediately after emerging from their winter dens. The result of that breeding can be seen now, when 5 “-9” young gartersnakes are starting to appear. While most snakes lay eggs, Common Gartersnakes develop inside the mother until she gives birth to them sometime between mid-August and late September.
Newborn gartersnakes are known to gather together for several weeks, so where you find one, you’re likely to find several, especially under logs or other protective shelters.
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White and Red Baneberry Fruits Maturing
The berries of both White and Red Baneberry are the most poisonous part of their respective plants – but all parts of both plants are toxic and can cause respiratory paralysis and cardiac arrest if consumed. Animals other than humans do eat them, however, including a wide variety of birds as well as small mammals such as mice, squirrels and vole, with most fruits disappearing at night. White-tailed Deer are known to browse both plants.
Native Americans and colonists used both species of Baneberry to treat rattlesnake bites. According to Carol Gracie in Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast, Native Americans had a plethora of uses for the Red Baneberry fruits, including treatment for menstrual problems, syphilis, increasing milk flow and as a gargle. At the same time, juice from the fruits was said to have been used as a poison on arrows. (Photo: White Baneberry (“Doll’s Eyes”) fruits)
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Cecropia Moth Caterpillars Spinning Cocoons
As a larva/caterpillar the Cecropia Moth, one of our giant silk moths, usually has five larval stages, or instars, as it matures. At the end of the fourth instar the caterpillar begins spinning a silk cocoon within which it will overwinter as a pupa. The gland which produces the silk is located below the caterpillar’s mouth.
There are three layers to the cocoon: the outer layer (stiffened and waterproofed with a liquid secreted by the caterpillar), a middle insulating layer of very soft silk strands and the innermost layer which consists of a case that encloses the pupa.
After about ten days inside the cocoon it spins in August, the caterpillar sheds its skin one last time and emerges as a pupa. For the next ten months the pupa remains encased in the cocoon as it undergoes the transformation into an adult moth. The moth will emerge next June and live only about ten days, just long enough to reproduce. (FYI, the outer layer of the cocoon was constructed within 24 hours.)
(Thanks to Jim Canfield, discoverer of spinning Cecropia caterpillar; dissected cocoon was one in which the pupa never metamorphosed into an adult)
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Juvenile Gray Treefrogs On Land
If I find a juvenile Gray Treefrog it is impossible for me not to share it on this blog, simply because I find its tiny size (1/2”), emerald green coloration (as opposed to the gray/green lichen-like mottled coloring of adults), its snub nose and its contented expression irresistible.
In August these amphibians complete their metamorphosis from tadpoles to frogs, and often appear on land near where the bird-like mating trills of their parents could be heard earlier in June. Initially they reside on the ground, but as they mature they head higher up in the trees. These young frogs vary in the length of time they are this green, some only for a day or two. Consider yourself lucky if you come upon one!
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Ruby-throated Hummingbird Nestling: Fledging
Approximately three weeks after hatching, young Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are ready to fledge. Their feathers have grown out, they weigh almost 5 grams (as opposed to an adult’s 3+ grams), and their wing muscles are toned. They will begin their migration to Central America just about the time Jewelweed’s flowering is at its peak and will use this flower’s nectar to help fuel their 2,000+ mile trip.
The empty nest of most Ruby-throated Hummingbirds is almost as flat as a pancake, due to double occupancy. The pictured nest (shown post-fledging) is in relatively good shape as it housed only one nestling.
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Ruby-throated Hummingbird Nestling: Preparing For Flight
The nestling must exercise its wing muscles in preparation for fledging (18-22 days). When it fledges, the young hummingbird typically weighs more than its mother, but loses weight immediately while it’s learning how to forage. The mother continues to feed her fledglings for four to seven days after they fledge.
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Ruby-throated Hummingbird Nestling: Preening
While in the nest, young birds spend an increasing amount of time preening (maintaining their feathers). They position and align their feathers, clean them and extract ectoparasites with their bill. Because feathers are so crucial to a bird’s survival, contributing to its insulation, waterproofing and flight, this activity begins at an early age and continues throughout its life.
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Ruby-throated Hummingbird Nestling: Defecating Outside Nest
For the first day or two the mother hummingbird removes her chick’s fecal sacs, but soon thereafter the nestling is able to defecate outside of its nest, saving its mother considerable work and energy. You can anticipate this activity by noticing when the chick raises its rear end up over the nest to get in position.
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Ruby-throated Hummingbird Nestling: Feeding
After spending the first few days brooding her young, the mother begins spending more and more time away from the nest. She returns to feed her chick sporadically, varying from every half hour to as long as every two hours. She regurgitates into the chick’s beak, inserting her bill and then pumping vigorously. As the chick grows, small insects are brought, held between the mother’s mandibles.
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Ruby-throated Hummingbird: Eggs Hatching
For the first few days, no life is visible from below the nest. Within the nest, two eggs hatched revealing two nearly naked chicks. Soon thereafter one nestling was snatched by an avian predator, leaving a single occupant. In about a week’s time, pin feathers erupted and the chick’s eyes opened.
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Ruby-throated Hummingbirds Nesting
Thanks to friends with extra-keen eyes, I was able to observe the nesting behavior of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird this summer. This week’s NC posts will follow the progress of the nesting process.
The site for the nest was selected by the female (males disappear after mating) and was typical for this species…near the tip of a down-sloping slender branch, sheltered by leaves overhead.
No bigger than a golf ball, the nest is extremely well camouflaged, thanks to the bits of lichen attached to the outside of the nest with spider silk. The female begins by building a flat base of thistle or dandelion down. After stamping it down with her feet, she attaches it with spider silk to the branch and adds plant down and bud scales for the side walls, also securing them with spider silk or pine resin. To firm up the walls she presses them between her bill and chest. Nest building takes anywhere from six to ten days.
Once the nest is finished, two pea-size eggs are laid. The female turns them regularly until the eggs hatch in roughly two weeks.
(Thanks to Bonnie MacLeod and Craig Reeves for sharing their hummingbird nest discovery with me.)
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Scaly Vase Mushroom
Recent rains have produced an explosion of fruiting fungi, among them the distinctive Scaly Vase or Woolly Chanterelle (Turbinellus floccosus). This particular mushroom is not a chanterelle, but does have similarities. Like chanterelles, Scaly Vase appears in mid- to late July, has false gills that look like ridges or wrinkles and is an orange color (chanterelles are usually more golden yellow than orange, while scaly vases are orange to pinkish). Unlike the chanterelle that foragers highly prize as a dining delicacy, Scaly Vase causes gastrointestinal distress. While it won’t kill you, you might regret sampling it.
As far as recognizing this mushroom, look for a cap that looks like a vase or an empty ice cream cone or a turban (hence the scientific name Turbinellus). These fungi can grow up to a foot tall and a foot wide.
The Scaly Vase mushroom grows in mycorrhizal association (symbiotic relationship between a fungus and a green plant) with conifer trees, including pines, firs, hemlocks, and spruces. It usually grows singularly, but there is often more than one scattered around the area. It only grows from the ground, never on or from trees, stumps, or logs.
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