northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's a Blue Jay doing one of the things they do best: squawking.  Loud and bossy, these corvids (they're relatives of the crows) are commonly seen throughout the year here in New Jersey. Though they're known to prey on smaller birds, they actually eat mostly insects and acorns/nuts. And while I don't know if they fool any hawks, Blue Jays are known for their ability to mimic the cries of Red-shouldered and Red-tailed Hawks. (One possibility is that making these calls can really clear out a bird feeder, leaving the food for the Blue Jays.) April 30, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 128320545, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

This Common Whitetail is one of the first dragonflies I've spotted this year. The wing pattern (dark at the ends of the wings and the middle of the wings) suggest this is a female. When I took this a month ago it was quite a bit harder to find dragonflies around here, but if you're looking for them now they should be a lot easier to find (at least here in NJ).  I saw a bunch at the Sourland Mountain Preserve this week, though there was a lot of flying and not much perching, making the photography options a bit limited. April 30, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 128320340, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

This picture is a few weeks old, though with the rain we're getting today I suspect it looks approximately as verdant now, though the specific vegetation providing the green is probably different. I'm pretty sure that a lot of the low greenery back then was coming from Lesser Celandine, which is more or less dormant now.  I think we've been in a mini-drought here in New Jersey; at several places it looked like wetlands had low water levels. Things still looked green , but they didn't look green . I'm looking forward to seeing what the area will look like after this rainy weekend. This was taken over a small bridge going over Dukes Brook at Duke Farms. May 4, 2021 at Duke Farms

Here's someone for which I don't have an ID. I'm pretty sure it's one of the geometer moths , but I'm not sure the angle of the photo makes it possible to narrow it down to a species. Someone on iNaturalist suggested a Curve-toothed Geometer Moth , though the back wings don't give me a scalloped impression. I think a Large Maple Spanworm is another candidate, and thumbing through my field guide I could probably make a case for 2-3 more species. What I like about this photograph is that you could easily miss that there's a moth here at all; it really blends in well with the leaves left over from last autumn. I didn't spot it there; I saw it fly over there, and was able to spot it among the leaves once it landed. (Even knowing where it landed, I had some difficulty getting my camera on the right spot.) April 28, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 128319532, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here are a couple Mallards that I'm pretty sure are feeding while swimming along. Certainly it's not their standard way of swimming from place-to-place; they'd have their heads out of the water then, allowing themselves to breathe. But it's also not the classic head-down-butt-up pose of the average dabbling duck . But dabbling is considered a way to feed on stuff that's close to the surface of the water, and I'm thinking this is another way of feeding near the surface. April 27, 2021 at the Delaware Raritan Canal

Here's a Canada Goose that seems to be embracing its inner dabbling duck ; I'm not sure I could have identified it from this angle. Although I don't usually see them in this position, dabbling is apparently a feeding strategy they'll commonly employ to get at food that's a little further below the surface they can get to in an upright posture. Or perhaps the goose was just mooning me - it's hard to know exactly what it intended. 😀 May 6, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve

Here's a Green Frog I met at the Plainsboro Preserve almost a month ago. (At least I think that's a dorsolateral ridge I see, and not just a result of a frog in a peculiar position.) I've talked about these frogs before, so I'll just say that this little fella seems to be in an awkward position between a couple of sticks. I generally see these frogs in a prime "jumping position", with their limbs unencumbered if they need to move quickly. This guy looks like he'd have to reposition a little bit before being able to jump into the water. On the other hand, the frog probably is positioned well have its head out of the water to potentially snag a tasty flying insect while still staying wet. This may be a case where the frog is in a good hunting position while at a slight disadvantage if it becomes the hunted. Just like all of us, animals sometimes need to compromise safety to be in a better position to succeed. April 28, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo

Here's a plant that's out about now, generally in wooded areas, the Mayapple . It's basically a mid-spring wildflower, never the first to show up, but probably gone by the time summer rolls around. The plant is almost entirely poisonous, though it sounds like you may be able to eat the fruit when it ripens to yellow. That doesn't prevent the plant from being used in Native American and folk medicine, but it's still not a good idea to eat it. It's got a neat looking flower, though it's not in my picture; bumblebees give it good grades for pollen/nectar. April 29, 2021 at Washington Valley Park Photo 128319557, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Besides the ones swimming around in yesterday's post , there were also a bunch of Double-crested Cormorants drying off and socializing at the lake at the Plainsboro Preserve. There were at least 7 of these guys out there, and they may all be migrating together north of here. For them, our ponds and lakes are like diners where they can catch a meal and rest up a bit. They may not live here, but having places like this are vital to surviving a long migration. They're sharing a log with a turtle; larger turtles know they're too big for cormorants or herons to eat, and can sometimes be seen with birds that would no doubt eat baby turtles. The closest relative to these guys that can be found in New Jersey is the Great Cormorant , a somewhat longer bird with substantially longer wings. The Great Cormorant generally likes the ocean though, and is unlikely to be found this far inland. Though other cormorants are found on other parts of the continent, the next closest relative are

Here are a couple Double-crested Cormorants out for a swim. This is a bird I frequently see in the spring (Apr-May) and fall (Sept-Nov), and not the rest of the year; it looks like they mostly use my area as a resting spot during migration. Though these cormorants are swimming on the surface, cormorants are known for diving beneath the water, usually in search of small fish. They lack the oily feathers of ducks, which may make them heavier and thus a little better at diving than ducks. On the down side, they do need to get out of the water to dry off periodically. It's not uncommon to see them standing out of the water with their wings spread out, trying to dry off faster. April 28, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 128319260, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Tree Swallow with something on his mind. I suspect that his thoughts were "Twit-weet!", though I don't recall his exact words. These are neat-looking little birds, especially the guys with feathers that (in the right light) are a shiny blue. (The females technically have some blue too, though at a distance it can be hard to see.) They and the other swallows are terrific fliers, and can be seen acrobatically soaring, diving, and turning. They were built to catch insects in flight, so this maneuverability is vital to them. They are also fairly territorial, and will mock-attack people that get (what they consider) too close to their nest. This can be inconvenient when "their territory" overlaps with a hiking trail; I have had my hat grazed as these birds escorted me away. April 28, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 128319001, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

I was at NJ Audubon's Plainsboro Preserve a few weeks ago and saw someone flying overhead. This usually turns out to be a Turkey Vulture or Red-tailed Hawk, but I was surprised to see this was a Bald Eagle . The picture isn't great, but the eagle was quite a bit closer to me than they usually are. I don't know the backstory of this eagle, like whether the eagle is part of a nesting pair or is more of a "lone wolf" eagle. I was on the shore of a lake, so I'm assuming that the eagle had been fishing. The plumage looks like that of an adult; if it was too young to breed this year, it'll almost certainly be ready next year. It is getting a little crowded for eagles in NJ. My impression is that they usually require fairly large territories around here (places with more fish probably allow them to shrink their range), and we have about 200 nesting pairs of eagles in NJ these days. Most of the prime spots are probably occupied, and would require a fight to acquir

I met this shiny green guy, a Six-spotted Tiger Beetle , at the Plainsboro Preserve about 3 weeks ago. One interesting thing about them is that, despite the name, they sometimes have more or less than 6 spots (though I assume 6 spots is the most common). Though they're not very big, they do stand out when on bare ground; it looks like they're camouflaged more for being in greenery. They are sometimes confused with the less attractive Emerald Ash Borer , a beetle that's decimating our ash trees since sneaking into the country. (They don't look terribly similar to me, though they are both small green beetles.) The Six-spotted Tiger Beetle definitely won't hurt your ash trees (or any other vegetation) since they prey upon small arthropods instead.  April 28, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 128318894, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's the first Silver-spotted Skipper I've met this year. Though a fairly small butterfly overall, they are relatively large for a skipper butterfly. And they're fairly distinctive, mostly dark brown but with some tan and white patches on the wings. I don't think they're the most common skippers around here, though their size and coloring probably makes them the easiest ones to identify. Though the one in the picture below is kind of camouflaged, a lot of time you'll see them stand out more as they nectar on flowers. As kids (aka caterpillars) they use various legumes as host plants.  April 28, 2021 at the Plainsboro Preserve Photo 128318607, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Common Grackle I met at Great Swamp. These are slightly tall blackbirds, and the males have a bluish sheen to them, especially on the head. This is a fairly common bird that lives in NJ all year round. They might look a little like a small crow in bad lighting, but their bright eyes are a give-away that this is no crow. They are fairly social birds; sometimes they're found in huge flocks. It sounds like they can be a problem in a corn field; they love to eat corn. But like many birds, they're omnivorous and will eat their share of bugs.  They've got what I'd consider to be reasonable tails, though their Boat-tailed Grackle and Great-tailed Grackle cousins are both bigger. (For identification purposes, the Great-tailed is a bird of the southwest, and the Boat-tailed tends to live near the ocean, so I don't normally have to differentiate these grackles April 14, 2021 at Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge Photo 121032300, (c) jpviolette, some rights r

I believe this is an Eastern Musk Turtle , though I don't see them very often and only got one picture before the camera-shy fella swam off. (At least one person on iNaturalist supported this ID.) Certainly the carapace scutes look wrong for our most common basking turtles. And the turtle does seem to have a fairly domed carapace. And the Eastern Musk Turtles seem to have a pointier snout, which seems to be the case here. These guys are in the same family as the mud turtles like our Eastern Mud Turtle , which is probably their closest relative around here. The alternative name for the Eastern Musk Turtle is the (extremely flattering) Stinkpot. Both names allude to their ability to emit a foul/musky odor, possibly to deter predators. April 27, 2021 at Delaware-Raritan Canal Photo 127320577, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Though I talked a little about Mallard and Canada Goose relations, I haven't devoted a post to the Mallard. Let's fix that. This is one of our most common waterfowl, with estimates of 11 million in North America. The only wild waterfowl that might rival them is the Canada Goose. But they're not just successful as wild animals; most breeds of domestic ducks are descended from a Mallard. They also hybridize with lots of other duck species, suggesting that several other species aren't really far removed from Mallards from an evolutionary perspective. The classic "quack quack" we associate with Mallards is actually more of a female Mallard call. The male version is quieter and raspier. (Admittedly it's still more like a "quack" than a "moo" or "meow".) March 9, 2021 at the Raritan River Greenway Photo 120275529, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Yesterday's American Bullfrog has a similar-looking relative, the Green Frog . The main difference between them and the American Bullfrog is a pair of dorsolateral ridges that go down the back. (Most of the frogs in their genus ( Rana ) have these dorsolateral ridges, though most of the others don't look so similar to the bullfrog.) Despite the name, the Green Frog isn't necessarily green; some of them are more of a brown color. The largest Green Frogs are probably only a as big as a smallish American Bullfrog, but I seem to see a fair amount of overlap between the ones in my area. I think they're the frog I run across the most, though there are places where the American Bullfrog gives them a run for their money. Basically these seem to be similar frogs that live in the same places, eat the same food, and have the same predators. April 27, 2021 at the Delaware-Raritan Canal Photo 127321412, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's the first American Bullfrog I've met this year. They might be the 2nd easiest-to-spot frog in NJ, probably behind the Green Frog . And the two frogs look fairly similar too. Technically American Bullfrogs can get bigger, though size can be difficult to judge from a distance, and many of our bullfrogs aren't at their maximum possible size. The most obvious difference is that Green Frogs has a pair of prominent ridges going down their backs that differentiates them from the American Bullfrog. These guys are voracious eaters of pretty much any animal small enough to swallow; it's not just flies that they eat. This guy looks a little bony; I suspect that the frog hasn't had a lot of time to eat since its winter dormancy. April 13, 2021 at the Delaware-Raritan Canal Photo 121031804, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a (no doubt young) Eastern Garter Snake I met last month. They are considered one of our most common snakes.  When working at Nokia, I would see them fairly frequently. Unfortunately they liked to sun themselves in the parking lot where there was a fairly high chance of getting run over. I'd try and scare them off the asphalt, though I suspect they'd return there after I was gone. (They understood they needed to warm up but didn't understand the dangers of vehicles.) I'm afraid I scared this individual who was sunning itself on the top of some greenery but slithered someplace safer when my camera and I came by. It ultimately swam into a hiding place in the water. I know they can't breathe in water, though they probably can stay underwater for at least a couple minutes. And it's possible there was an air pocket in it's hiding space. Although they're in a different genus, the Garter Snakes are considered to be closely related to the water snak

Since Northern Watersnakes were the stars of my trip to Great Swamp, and have also showed up along the Delaware-Raritan Canal, I wanted to give snake lovers a chance to see the whole suite of them . Despite a lot of mating going on, we're not going to see slithering baby snakelets for a while; the snakelets won't be born until 3-5 months after mating. If all goes well, some should be making their appearance in a July-September timeframe. The moms will usually give birth to about 8 snakelets, but a large Northern Watersnake could give birth to as many as 30 snakelets. The snake below lives along the Delaware-Raritan Canal in Franklin Township. Similar to turtles and frogs, watersnakes are usually found over or very near to water, and they'll try and escape there if a threat (or frequently a photographer) comes along. April 27, 2021 at the Delaware-Raritan Canal Photo 127320684, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here are a group of Eastern Painted Turtles I met. I talked about identification a little earlier; the scute alignment (if you can see the carapace well) is a good identifier here in New Jersey. Of the turtles I see basking on logs, rocks, and the banks of waterways, this might be the most common turtle I encounter. It sounds like the Red-eared Slider is more aggressive and so might eventually muscle them out, but right now they're pretty well represented around here. There is some sexual dimorphism in these turtles. The females are a little bigger than the males and have a more domed carapace while the males have longer foreclaws. Still, I suspect these clues work well if you have a male and female right in front of you. In most of my pictures I don't think the differences are great enough to allow more than an educated guess as to the sex of these turtles. They are omnivorous, and will eat small fish and arthropods in addition to vegetation. Juveniles are more vulnerable tha

Here's some Poison Ivy I encountered. Most of you have probably heard the phrase: Leaves of three, Let it be. This is a common mnemonic device to remind you how to identify, and usually avoid, Poison Ivy. But Poison Ivy takes another form, one that's a potential threat when there are no Poison Ivy leaves along trails, and it's the hairy climbing vine you see going up this tree. And it has it's own mnemonic device: Hairy rope, Don't be a dope. My impression is that this isn't a subspecies of the Poison Ivy you've learned to avoid. This is just what Poison Ivy looks like if it's give a few years to climb.  March 9, 2021 at the Raritan River Greenway Photo 127677958, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Hooded Merganser I met a couple months ago. (Admittedly the meeting was at quite a distance.) This is a male; the females have the same body shape but have coloring in the light brown and tan. Though they're supposed to be in my area year round, I've only spotted them in the colder months: November - March. Despite the name, the Hooded Merganser isn't considered a close relative of the Common Merganser; they're in different genera. I'm more likely to mix them up with the Bufflehead since both ducks have large white spots behind their eyes (though the Bufflehead wouldn't have the brown lower on the body). I would have expected ducks to be pairing up around March, though this fella's closest companion was a male Wood Duck, with some Canada Geese a little further away. I don't see a lot of these ducks (iNaturalist lists them as "vulnerable"), so maybe he simply hasn't found a mate yet. March 9, 2021 at the Raritan River Greenway

Here's a Red-bellied Woodpecker I met last March. These guys don't seem to be migrators; my field guide says their range is the same in summer and winter. I suspect this means there are still insects to be found in trees all year round, even if they're not necessarily active in winter. As the most common woodpecker in my area with a red head, a fair number of people refer to them as Red-headed Woodpeckers, but that's a different species entirely (and one with an even redder head). Despite looking quite different, the Red-headed Woodpecker is the closest NJ relative to the Red-bellied Woodpecker; they're both in the same genus (Melanerpes). I mentioned recently that the European Starling isn't a terribly popular bird. One reason is that they'll attack native birds like the Red-bellied Woodpecker in order to take over tree cavities that the woodpeckers created since both species are cavity nesters. The starlings are a little bigger bird, but their success a

Here's an Eastern Gray Squirrel that's apparently eating the buds off of this maple tree. We all associate squirrels with eating nuts and acorns, but late winter isn't exactly a boom time for these food sources. At this time trees were starting to bud out, creating a new food source plentiful. As anyone with a bird feeder knows, squirrels are more than willing to eat the grains and other seeds in bird food. But most squirrels are pretty omnivorous, eating lots of food many of us wouldn't expect. If you're experiencing the Brood X Cicadas, don't be shocked if you see your squirrels chowing down on a few of them. Just like the nuts and acorns squirrels eat, most of the time trees can handle having some of their buds eaten like this. March 9, 2021 at the Raritan River Greenway Photo 126903994, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

One fairly common sight is to see Canada Geese and Mallards swimming around together. Generally speaking, my impression is that most waterfowl coexist together fairly well - though I've heard that Mute Swans may be an exception - and these two very common species are a good example. My impression is that waterfowl gather together primarily for safety; extra eyes means they're less susceptible to a surprise attack. In the winter I'll see fairly big flocks or Ring-necked Ducks with some American Black Ducks, Hooded Mergansers, and/or Buffleheads mixed in too. And last fall I saw a grebe (neither a duck nor a goose but with a similar lifestyle) that seemed to like to hang with whatever ducks happened to be around. I found an article on their interactions , though it talks about their differences as much as their interactions.  March 9, 2021 at the Raritan River Greenway

Here are a couple European Starlings . It's hard to tell the sex of starlings, so I can't tell you this is a potential breeding pair. This is their breeding plumage though, which is mostly black with a sheen to it. (Non-breeding plumage is lighter and more speckled.) This is an introduced species, and thus isn't overly popular in the birding and naturalist community. (Apparently they were introduced by fans of William Shakespeare who wanted Americans to be able to experience all the birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare.) As sometimes happens, European Starlings are doing better here in North America than they're doing in their home range in Europe. They are known for their large, coordinated murmurations . March 3, 2021 at the Raritan River Greenway Photo 120274252, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)            

Here's a Downy Woodpecker I met a couple months ago. The small red patch at the back of its head indicates this is a male Downy. They are the smallest woodpeckers living in my area. Though they're not especially closely related, the Downy Woodpecker looks very similar to the larger (though not large) Hairy Woodpecker . I read of a theory that says the Downy evolved to resemble the Hairy so it would get more respect from other birds who mistake it for the Hairy. (Hairy Woodpeckers themselves aren't fooled, but the sparrows and finches tell each other: "Don't mess with him - those Hairy Woodpeckers are tough!".) From a distance when it's difficult to judge size, the easiest way to distinguish these woodpeckers by looking at the proportion of the beak to the length of the rest of the head. If they look like they're the same length, it's a Hairy Woodpecker. If the beak is clearly shorter, it's a Downy Woodpecker. March 3, 2021 at the Raritan River

Here's a picture from March of a Black Vulture surveying the area around one of the Raritan River Greenway. Though my link shows them as "uncommon" in New Jersey, that might be a slightly out of date map. Although the Turkey Vulture is our most common vulture, the Black Vultures are a nontrivial component of our vulture population. The Black Vulture is generally considered the more aggressive vulture, usually winning carrion disputes with their Turkey Vulture cousins. The only thing that can make good-look identification tricky is that young Turkey Vultures lack the red faces that easily distinguishes the adults of our two vulture species. I'm pretty sure this is a Black Vulture though because of the relatively short tail that Black Vultures have. These vultures mostly use sight and smell to find dead animals to eat, making them one of the few birds with a good sense of smell. And although they are primarily scavengers, Black Vultures are known to do a little hunting

Here are a couple Common Mergansers . Mergansers (we also have Hooded Mergansers in my area) are ducks, as are other birds like scaups, teals, eiders, widgeons, and scoters. (Geese and swans aren't ducks, but are close relatives.) The Common Merganser is one of our largest ducks. If you see them hanging around with Ring-necked Ducks, Buffleheads, or Hooded Mergansers, the Common Mergansers really stand out by their size. They are diving ducks, meaning they frequently feed by diving under the water to get to food. By contrast, our dabbling ducks basically stay at the surface to eat, even if their heads are underwater with their tails sticking out of the water (which makes an interesting-but-not-flattering picture). As a relatively large duck, they eat larger prey. They mostly eat fish. The females have light brown heads while the males are green. I'm assuming these ducks were courting; this was from almost 2 months ago, so it's possible the female is on eggs or raising duckl