northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's a Cloudless Sulphur I met. In most of my area they are the Big 3 of sulphur (yellow) butterflies ... and are the biggest size-wise of our sulphurs. This isn't saying much since they're still smaller than our Monarchs and Swallowtails, but it does help identify them a bit. If our other sulphurs are around, these guys will usually be a little bigger, frequently with a paler yellow and sometimes with a greenish tint. To grow up to be strong healthy butterflies, they need legume plants to eat as caterpillars. This includes the senna that our Sleepy Oranges like, though it sounds like other legumes like clovers can also work for them.

Here's a Halloween Pennant I met. They get their name from the translucent orangish wings with dark brown spots. Though some people see similarities with butterflies, I consider that to be a bit of a stretch. At least in my area you're unlikely to see them by October 31 (Halloween), though it does sound like they could hang around for a while in the early autumn. If you do see one trick-or-treating, they would probably consider a small arthropod to be a good treat. While many dragonflies (and other insects) hunker down when it's windy or during a misting - when you're that small wind or a raindrop can knock you around pretty easily - but the Halloween Pennant isn't a fair weather dragonfly. They're considered more tolerant of (or more willing to brave) the wind and at least light rain.

Here's a Sleepy Orange butterfly. This butterfly is one of the sulphurs , and in my area is probably the 4th most common butterfly in the subfamily. It's one of two butterflies that are easily confused with the Orange Sulphur due to similar coloring; the Sleepy Orange is probably only slightly more vibrant and has different markings. By comparison, the Clouded Sulphur is slightly less vibrant than the Orange Sulphur but with virtually identical markings. (The Clouded and the Orange Sulphurs can hybridize. As far as I know, the Sleepy Orange cannot hybridize with either of the others.) We also have Cloudless Sulphurs in my area, but they're less likely to be mistaken for the others because they're both larger and paler. After these 4, I haven't encountered any other sulphurs around here, but these 4 species combine to make mostly-yellow butterflies a very common sight. Up until about 3 years ago the Sleepy Orange hadn't been found in Somerset County, but the

Here's a White Cabbage butterfly. It's original home is considered to be the eastern Mediterranean region, but as its host plants have thrived and traveled the world due to us humans, this butterfly has followed along with those plants. And there are a lot of those host plants. As caterpillars these guys eat plants in the mustard/cabbage family , which consists of cabbage and other cultivars of the same species (broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, et al), radishes, turnips, and some watercress and yellowcress plants. (I didn't see the invasive  Garlic Mustard  on the list.) It's little wonder that we see a lot of these butterflies most years; they picked good host plants. They have a larger relative, the Large White , but (so far) that butterfly hasn't found its way over to North America.

Here's a False Milkweed Bug . I previously mentioned these guys when I talked about the Large Milkweed Bug. Notice that this bug is not on a milkweed or a dogbane plant; this (combined with an insect that looks like the Large or Small Milkweed Bug ) is always a strong clue that this is a False Milkweed Bug. (It sounds like the Large and Small Milkweed Bugs will occasionally use non-milkweed and non-dogbane plants as a host when their preferred plants are scarce, but I haven't actually observed that happening.) These guys are taxonomically true and false. Though not a true milkweed bug, the False milkweed bug is a true bug , just like the Large and Small Milkweed Bugs. Regarding the False Milkweed Bug's similarity to the Large and Small Milkweed Bugs, I had always assumed they were a case of Batesian mimicry , where a harmless species has evolved to look similar to poisonous species. It sounds, however, that we haven't ruled out that the False Milkweed Bug might have evo

Here's yet another Monarch butterfly from last July. Previously I talked about what they eat and how they grow, yet the other interesting thing about Monarch butterflies is their migration . I'm going to talk about the 2 big migrations here in the US. Apparently there are Monarchs in Australia and New Zealand that migrate relatively short distances, and other populations (mostly outside the US) that don't migrate at all. The first thing to realize is that most Monarchs don't engage in a long migration route. If you're a Monarch that hatches in spring or most of the summer, you may stay in the area (perhaps if milkweed and nectar are abundant), but there's a good chance you'll want to migrate north (where the milkweed is younger and is less likely to have been eaten by your generation). After (hopefully) successfully breeding in your new northern home, you'll die of old age and your kids will engage in the next northward migration. It's only when yo

Here's the second Monarch Butterfly I got a picture in 2020, spotted about a half hour after the first. Yesterday I talked mostly about what Monarchs eat; today I'm going to go over their complicated life cycle. All Monarchs begin life as an egg. Their mother will lay an egg on a milkweed plant. I think they usually lay a single egg on the underside of a milkweed leaf. This probably helps protect the egg from rain, and maybe excessive sunlight. This probably also helps hide the egg from predators and parasites. (Though Monarchs eventually become poisonous through eating the poisonous milkweed, the egg hasn't eaten anything yet.) The mother Monarch can lay anywhere from 300-1100 eggs all told, though she lays her eggs one at a time and almost certainly avoids laying multiple eggs on the same leaf to prevent her kids from competing against each other. After hanging out on the leaf for 3-8 days, the egg hatches and a very small translucent green caterpillar emerges and begins

Here's a Monarch butterfly. This was the first one I photographed in 2020, and it was spotted on July 14. I suspect they could have been seen earlier. (My bout with Lyme Disease was keeping me at home for a while.) These mostly orange-and-black butterflies are pretty easy to spot, though we do have another similar-but-unrelated butterfly in the NJ area, the Viceroy . (The Viceroy is a little smaller and has a slightly different wing pattern.) Still, in most areas the Monarchs greatly outnumber the Viceroys, so if you see a butterfly that looks like this it's usually a Monarch. The Monarch caterpillars are dependent on milkweed plants - their leaves is all they'll eat. I don't know if they have preferences among the milkweed species (we have several in NJ), but it needs to be a milkweed. Even the similar dogbane species aren't acceptable to a growing Monarch caterpillar. Milkweed plants help Monarchs twice; milkweed nectar from the flowers is popular with adult Mona

Here's a Northern Mockingbird , though as I recall at the time it was not mocking anyone. This bird is probably our most common general-sound mimic. While Blue Jays do excellent Red-tailed Hawk and Red-shouldered Hawk impressions, Northern Mockingbirds have a wider repertoire. Jogging by the Robert Woods Johnson Hospital one morning I'm almost certain one was doing an ambulance siren. Many times you can identify them solely by sound when you hear one go through 5-6 different sounds one after the other, then start again at the beginning. (Sure, it's possible that you've got 6 different birds hiding in the same spot and taking turns singing ... but practically speaking you're probably safe in assuming you've got a mimic hiding up there.) A related bird, the Brown Thrasher , is similar. One way to differentiate them by sound is that the Northern Mockingbird repeats a sound 3 times while the Brown Thrasher repeats a sound twice. Another relative, the Gray Catbird ,

I believe this is a Common Spitting Spider ; at least that was the identification I got from iNaturalist, and that spider looks very much like the one I met. They're also pretty small; females are about half a centimeter in size, and males are a little smaller than that. I didn't have the magnification to get a good look at the head, but these are 6-eyed spiders, differentiating it from most spiders that have 8. The spitting spiders get their name from their fairly unusual method of hunting. They creep close to their intended meal (lots of spiders do this) and then spit a venom-glue at their meal (unique to the spitting spiders). Like the Asiatic Wall Jumping Spider I talked about a couple days ago, this spider was hunting in my doorway, and probably looking to make a meal out of a mayfly or one of the smaller moths drawn to the light there. (This is another spider than frequently hangs around man-built structures to eat small arthropods that live near us.)

For Throwback Thursday, here's a Short-eared Owl I met back in January of 2019. As you can tell from the photos, these birds are all-in when it comes to social distancing - at least with regards to nosy bird watchers. They would sometimes get fairly close to one another and the Northern Harriers that were hunting in the same fields. And if all goes well for the owls, they get really close to the voles, shrews, and mice in the field; those are their main sources of food. These owls are a classic crepuscular bird, doing most of their hunting a little before and after sunset. They're very maneuverable birds, and may remind you of fighter jets as they hunt over fields. This picture was from a part of Duke Farms that is usually closed to the public; I was there on a special program they were doing.

Here's what I believe to be an Lupine Bug , and is almost certainly a Broad-headed Bug . Though the head may not strike you as being especially broad, in the true bug community they actually are. Though we informally may refer to all sorts of insects and even other arthropods like lobsters as "bugs", entomologists recognize the true bugs as a specific classification for a group of insects. The wasps/ants/bees, the flies, and the beetles are all common insects that are not true bugs. The Large Milkweed Bug I showed earlier is another example of a true bug. These guys are vegetarians, and like groups of plants like the peas/beans.  When they're young nymphs, they're considered to be ant mimics. I found a picture of a nymph - looks quite a bit like an ant, doesn't it? Ant mimicry is common enough that there's even a name for it:  myrmecomorphy .

Here's an Asiatic Wall Jumping Spider . As you've noticed, my apartment doorway attracts moths and mayflies, and so it's natural to expect it to also attract predators. This predator was attracted all the way from northern/western Asia. They specialize in living near human structures and preying on arthropods that live near us. Although they don't really belong here, I haven't read that they're considered a big threat to native species. And they're not a big threat size-wise either, being less than a half centimeter in size. Though their web-spinning cousins are considered classic spiders, the jumping spiders are actually the largest family of spiders. There are over 6000 known species, about 13% of all the spider species. As active hunters, they're also considered to have some of the best vision among arthropods. This spider has found some sorta mayfly for its meal. I sometimes wonder whether the mayflies I see in my doorway are alive or dead (mayflies

Here's a Little Wood Satyr . Though not especially colorful, they are considered to be butterflies. (In a closer picture you could probably see a "clubbed" antenna, which is a pretty good indicator that this is a butterfly.) The butterfly/moth distinction is something people argue about. Clearly moths and butterflies are related, and some people consider the term "butterfly" to be artificial and unnecessary. I usually differentiate them for reasons both scientific and social. Butterflies do seem to form a clade (suggesting they all belong to a valid taxonomic group of some sort), and many lepidopterists that are amazing at identifying butterflies can't in general identify most moths.

Here's another Elegant Grass-Veneer , the white/brown moth that (with a little imagination) has a frowny face when viewing the top of the moth. (I showed this species on my old Tumblr blog that I stopped using when they removed my other blog.) I think you can see the frowny face a little better in this picture.

Here's a female Widow Skimmer . The wings aren't all that different from the males; you just need to subtract the white from the male's wings. The body looks fairly dissimilar though, being black with a yellow stripe that splits in two. You can compare her to yesterday's male Widow Skimmer . They're named Widow Skimmers not because all their males are dead but because, unlike many dragonflies, the females go off on their own after mating. Being alone, they were named "widows".

Here's another Widow Skimmer . You can't see a lot of body detail here, but the wing pattern is sufficient to identify this as a male Widow Skimmer. The hindwings start with a prominent black basal spot followed by a bright white spot and then ends with clear wings. The forewings are similar but the basal area starts clear before mimicking the hindwings. Sometimes common names suggest one gender or the other, leaving us with the confusing "male widow" terminology. Painted Lady butterflies are another example. Even more gender-confusingly, Widow Skimmers are considered to be in the group of dragonflies called King Skimmers . The females look differently, with gold stripes on the tail exhibiting yet another example of sexual dimorphism.

Here's another Eastern Pondhawk . The mature males look blue but the females and immature males are green; their sexual dimorphism had me thinking they were different species when I first encountered them. Apparently the males also have that green, but as they age a waxy pruinosity builds up giving them the blue coloring. Here's more info from the Bug Lady .

Here's a Calico Pennant I met. They have mostly clear wings with large patches near the body (basal spots). You can't see the red triangles/hearts going down their back, but they're there. The ends of the wings are dark, and there are smaller marks about halfway from the end. (This description is only true for the males.) Apparently there are "aberrant" males. If you run across one of them ... the identification is going to be tougher. Here's a bit about the Calico Pennant (plus their relations) from the Bug Lady.

Here are a couple Wild Turkeys I (fleetingly) met - they fled the scene. My recollection is that there were more turkeys than that, but I only had a chance to get a picture of these 2 before they disappeared into the vegetation. (This is not the worst turkey picture I've taken over the years.) Though the Wild Turkey's domesticated descendants are plentiful (probably our second most prevalent farm bird), our Wild Turkeys were almost hunted to extinction. Reintroducing them was ultimately successful though, as they're spotted fairly frequently. Though we see them walking about most of the time, they're versatile; they fly pretty well for short distances, and apparently can also swim. (I've never photographed the former, and never seen the latter.)

Here's an Eastern Amberwing dragonfly, one of our smaller dragonflies. Normally I'd try and scrounge up some information about these guys for you, but when I went to look for scraps I found a blog from the "Bug Lady" that did a better job than I could telling you about them. You can read it here .

Here was a funny story I read on the Facebook Bird Misidentification Page, followed by a Barred Owl picture from The Raptor Trust .  Just before COVID shut things down, I was having late lunch at a local joint. The place was empty so I sat at the bar where the owner and a new employee were cleaning up. I had never talked to the owner before but their conversation caught my ear. The new guy asked the owner something and I thought, “dang, they share my big passion in life!” I decided to join in. I stood up and gave my best (and loud) rendition of “who-cooks-for-you”. Humbly, I’m pretty good at this and have called in more than one of them. The two guys stop cold and look at me like I’m nuts. Really nuts. I say to the new guy, “wait, aren’t you birders? What did you just ask him?” The new guy says quietly, “I asked him where I could find a bar towel." Vilma from The Raptor Trust  

Someone I know (at least a little bit) passed away this week, Uggla the Great Horned Owl. Uggla was an Ambassador Owl residing at The Raptor Trust . I got the following in my Facebook feed this morning. It is with heavy heart that I bring sad news to you today: one of our very dearest ambassador birds, Uggla, the Great Horned Owl, has passed on. Uggla was an almost unimaginable 40 years old. In the research I have done, I believe he may have been the second-oldest Great Horned Owl that ever lived, and he lived almost every day of those 40 years right here at 1390 White Bridge Rd, Millington, NJ. In the early spring of 1980, I was a freshman in high-school. The backyard wildlife rehab facility that my parents ran on our property had not yet become The Raptor Trust. It was still The New Jersey Raptor Association at that point: not yet incorporated and without the 501(c)3 nonprofit status that would follow. A “fledgling” organization, one might say. But Len and Diane knew their bird

Here's a Red-tailed Hawk . These are probably the most abundant predatory raptor (excluding vultures) in the US. When I see a hawk, I usually start off assuming it's a Red-tail and then look for reasons while it might be something else. In most cases I'll find corroborating evidence rather than contradictory evidence, like in this picture where you can see the red (okay, maybe burnt orange) tail. You can also see (perhaps not as well) the red tail in this non-flight picture too.

Meet a Question Mark butterfly. On the underwing they can be differentiated from the similar-looking Eastern Comma butterfly (which is a relative, and shares traits, food choices, and behaviors) because of a curve mark and a dot mark, while the Eastern Comma has only the curve mark: These marks are responsible for the names "question mark" and "comma". Personally I think that a Semicolon butterfly would be a slightly better name for the Question Mark given their appearance, though admittedly the question mark is a much more recognizable punctuation mark. But what happens when you only have the more colorful top wing view? While the color and spot patterns are similar, there is a subtle difference in the spot patterns. On the Question Mark there is a straighter and extra spot on the forewing; I've attempted to point to it here. One of the cool things about both the Question Mark and its Eastern Comma cousin is that both of these guys survive the winter, and you

Here's an Eastern Cottontail I met at Duke Farms . This is the most common rabbit species on the continent. Though you can frequently see them during the day, this rabbit is considered a crepuscular feeder. And they breed ... like rabbits! They won't typically breed in the winter, but in warmer regions a female can have 7 litters in a year with up to 12 kits in a litter. Though this potentially means 84 children per year, it sounds like 15-20 is more of the average. Even this would mean vast numbers of rabbits around; obviously being a rabbit means a pretty high mortality rate. This is probably due to predators like foxes, coyotes, hawks, and owls, though I'm sure automobiles are also a factor.

Here's a False Potato Beetle . They are related to and look quite similar to the Colorado Potato Beetle , an insect that's the bane of potato farmers; the False Potato Beetle itself isn't considered to be environmentally or agriculturally damaging. You can tell these beetles apart by looking at the white-and-black stripes on the elytra (the hard protective wings you see in the picture that cover their flight wings). The False Potato Beetle has one brown stripe on both the left and right elytra instead of a white stripe. (Unfortunately in this picture the brown stripe looks almost like one thick black stripe. This probably isn't a variation among False Potato Beetles but probably reflects sub-optimal lighting.)

Here’s a Large Milkweed Bug I met. Around me, this is probably the most common milkweed-eating insect other than aphids (and the aphids are so small you might mistake them for a rust or other fungus). They can be confused with the Small Milkweed Bug or the False Milkweed Bug . Both lack the straight black bar across the top of its wings, and the latter isn’t found on milkweeds (which are poisonous to many animals). Note the orange/red on these bugs. Like Monarch butterflies, these insects eat the poisonous milkweeds and obtain a certain amount of poisonous protection for themselves. And the distinctive red coloring signals to predators that these guys aren’t good to eat. (Of course, sometimes orange/red coloring is a fake. AFAIK the False Milkweed Bug is safe to eat, and benefit from Batesian mimicry .)

Here’s another Black Swallowtail . It’s not quite a “National Geographic shot”, but the top view with the wings spread is the most photogenic view for most butterflies.

 Here's a female  Red-winged Blackbird . She looks quite a bit differently than her male counterparts. And they're not terribly distinctive looking (some people say they look like European Starlings, though I think of them as more speckled than striped), and so I identify them best when they're hanging around with their more flamboyant males. June 16, 2020 at Duke Farms Photo 86051419, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) June 16, 2020 at Duke Farms Photo 86051463, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)