northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's a Painted Skimmer I met last month. Since the dark spots of the wings go very close to the end of the wings, I'm pretty sure this is a male. This location might be a little unusual for a male however; I saw it away from water in a more wooded area. I've read that generally speaking the males stake out areas near water while females hunt in nearby woods. (Presumably when the females are ready to mate, they can simply head to water and mate with whichever male has staked out that particular territory.) I've gotten some pictures of odonates mating, but it would be challenging to capture Painted Skimmers (or most other skimmers ) in the act. Apparently they mate in midair while flying. (Moving targets are pretty challenging for me.) May 6, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 128958591, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a group of Eastern Tailed-Blues engaged in mudpuddling , basically trying to get nutrients from the soil that they can't get from their nectar (basically sugar water) diet. This behavior is usually performed by males, though the benefits are transferred to the females as a nuptial gift during mating, and should improve the survivability of their offspring. The two butterflies on the right have their wings down and you can see how these tiny guys get the "blue" part of their name. It's harder to see the "tail" (really just a part of the hind wings that protrude out a little bit), though other looks have me confident of the identification. May 6, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve

I got this picture of a Great Blue Heron a little over a month ago. There's a reasonable chance that it's the same heron that I saw a half hour later; certainly both times the heron seemed more tolerant of my presence than I would normally expect. Even if it's not unique, it's a pretty good picture. And look at those feet! Normally I get pictures of herons wading in water, and I don't see how big their feet are. May 10, 2021 at the Raritan River Greenway Photo 128959997, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's an Eastern Chipmunk I met last month. Some people have reported an absence of chipmunks/squirrels this year. They may be reacting to an excess of these rodents the previous year. The autumn of 2019 was a mast year for oaks/acorns, which probably led to an exceptional number of these rodents (plus Blue Jays, Wild Turkeys, etc) surviving that winter and the following spring. This year was probably a much tougher year for acorn-eating species, so a drop in numbers can be expected. This little guy did survive, and appears to have found something to eat as I was taking the photograph. May 11, 2021 at Lord Stirling Park Photo 132036898, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Great Blue Heron that appeared to be taking a hike. Great Blue Herons are fairly common in my area, at least around wadable water. And this heron was around water; this trail runs alongside the canal at the Raritan River Greenway. Still, it was a little unusual to see one walking on the trail rather than the bank of the canal. And this heron was also quite a bit closer to me than they usually allow. Unfortunately a jogger came down the trail and did trigger the heron to flee. (There really wasn't much of a way to go around the heron.) May 10, 2021 at the Raritan River Greenway Photo 128960055, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a mother Wood Duck  with 13 ducklings that I met last month.  It sounds like these could be all her own ducklings, though Wood Duck females will do egg dumping, where some females lay some of her eggs in the nests of other females. This is a form of brood parasitism called intraspecific brood parasitism, and is somewhat common among ducks. Initially this might seem as "immoral" and "lazy" as the brood parasitism performed by birds like the Brown-headed Cowbird , but: This probably doesn't hurt the victim duck's brood much. Ducklings feed themselves, so the true or adopting mom just needs to herd them all to a food source and away from dangers. The adopted ducklings presumably don't mistreat the other ducklings. It doesn't hurt the species at all, since the ducklings are all of the same species. I don't know if Wood Ducks also pick up ducklings from other moms after they hatch like this Common Merganser mom , though it wouldn't sur

Here's a Green Heron I met last month. Unlike the Great Blue Heron that you can find all year round here in New Jersey, the Green Heron wants no part of our winters. Georgia is about as far north as they'll stay during the cold weather months. They're probably not a early sign of spring; they're probably a sign that spring is well established. The Great Blue Heron is usually considered a bird that'll eat any animal it can catch and swallow; the Green Heron sounds similar, but their smaller size means that they can't eat some of what's on the Great Blue's menu. They're not above eating insects if they can catch them. In a pose like this (which is a common pose), you might think that the body shape is wrong for heron. But while they scrunch their necks like this frequently, the Green Heron can also extend their necks into the long/thin ones that we associate with herons. May 10, 2021 at the Raritan River Greenway Photo 128959592, (c) jpviolette, some

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I saw a group of Muskrats; here's another one in a setting they're very comfortable in: the water. (You didn't think I was going to meet a bunch of Muskrats and only show you on picture, did you?) It's unclear that there's a collective name for Muskrats; this webpage says they don't have one, and Wikipedia doesn't list Muskrats . Even though they're not closely related to either, if you wanted to use a collective noun for them I guess it would be best to use family or colony (beavers), or colony, horde, or mischief (rats). Muskrats eat a mostly vegetarian diet, though some small invertebrates, fish, and amphibians supplements it a bit. Unfortunately for Muskrats, they're on the menu for a lot of predators, including mink, foxes, coyotes, lynxes, bobcats, raccoons, bears, cougars, wolves, wolverines, eagles, snakes, alligators, and the larger hawks and owls. For juvenile Muskrats, you can add otters, herons,

I almost forgot that I've got Muskrat pictures; here's one that I met a little over a month ago. I saw these guys splashing around in the canal by the Raritan River Greenway, but photography opportunities were limited since they were moving a lot, including swimming underwater. Then this little fella climbed out of the canal and began eating a few feet away from me. Another one came out and did likewise, albeit a little further away. I was suspicious they might be young Muskrats who didn't know they should stay away from the humans. Though associated with (and sometimes mistaken for) the North American Beaver , and despite "rat" being in their name, they're not particularly closely related to either beavers or rats. Their closest relatives are lemmings and voles. (All these species are rodents though.) May 10, 2021 at the Raritan River Greenway Photo 128959337, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here are a couple Brown-headed Cowbirds I met last month. As I recently mentioned while discussing Field Sparrows, these birds are obligate brood parasites , birds that lay their eggs in the nests of other bird species and wouldn't even know how to raise their own young. There's a theory that they developed this strategy so the cowbirds could follow the Bison herds, feeding on the insects the Bison stirred up. They couldn't take care of a stationary nest and also follow those Bison around, or so the theory goes. Of course with relatively few Bison around these days, the cowbirds have taken to hanging around cow herds. (I actually see them on lawns quite a bit too.) Brown-headed Cowbirds have been known to lay eggs in over 100 different species of birds. Different species react in different ways to the parasitism, ranging from not incubating the egg, expelling the egg, abandoning the nest completely, or unknowingly raising the cowbird as their own. Some species raise their

I briefly met a Rainbow Scarab Beetle ; she scurried underground as I was taking pictures. I say "she" because I don't see the rhinoceros-like horn that the males have. This is one of our native dung beetles. They love dung so much they bring it down into their burrows. This is actually a benefit for us, as they're helping to eliminate the dung that would otherwise run off into our water systems during rain, or perhaps draw/feed flies that would be more of an annoyance to us. I suspect the soil around the beetle are soilcasts; basically just the soil that the beetles removed while building their tunnels. This is evidence of another benefit of these beetles; they help aerate the soil. Most dung beetles are less colorful and shiny. I'm not sure why these guys are different. I haven't read that they're poisonous, so it presumably helps them attract mates. May 6, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 128957961, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC

Here's someone I met that I think I know, the Large Bee-fly . Despite the name, I wouldn't consider them to be large; they're measured in millimeters (6-12 mm). Presumably in the world of the bee flies they're relatively large, but no one who's not an entomologist is likely to say "Wow - look at the size of that thing!". I have to admit that I wasn't able to get any confirmation of the identification from iNaturalist, but the photos on Wikipedia look pretty close. And the Large Bee-fly is considered to be pretty common; it's not a stretch to imagine them at Sourland. When I took the pictures I saw them either on flowers or sunning themselves out in the open, and I suspected they might be flower flies (aka hover flies) of some sort. This would have given them an ecological niche very similar to many of our bees, competing with bees for nectar/pollen and important pollinators in their own right. Fortunately iNaturalist's picture recognition algo

Unsurprisingly I met this Field Sparrow in a field, or at least a grassy area mowed through a field. A pinkish bill (which doesn't show up great in the picture), white eye-ring, and uniform breast plumage help us identify these sparrows from most its sparrow relatives. (Do not identify every sparrow you see in a field as a Field Sparrow.) Unlike some birds, Field Sparrows are committed to their fields, and don't adapt to urban or suburban life. When fields disappear, their habitat shrinks. This is believed to be the primary reason their populations are declining. Field Sparrows are unfortunate victims of Brown-headed Cowbirds . The cowbirds are obligate brood parasites , meaning that over time they've lost the ability to raise their own young. Instead, they sneak their eggs into the nests of other birds (including but not limited to the Field Sparrow). The cowbird egg gets cared for by the other bird parents, generally hatches first and either pushes the other eggs out of

Similar to yesterday's post, here's some Buttonbush we (Trail Stewards and Staff) planted at Duke Farms on Monday. This was done after clearing out invasive plants from alongside a trail (mostly Multiflora Rose, though I also cut a Japanese Barberry). The Buttonbush was planted alongside (maybe 2-3 feet apart) from the Arrowwood Viburnum we were also planting , though the terrain was slightly different. There is a low gully along the trail that's generally wetter at the bottom, and that's where we planted the water-loving Buttonbush. The Arrowwood Viburnum was planted at the very top of the gully slope since it's content with drier conditions. If all goes according to plan, the Buttonbush and Arrowwood Viburnum will provide a pair of native shrubs that'll compete with the invasives that were the dominant plants in this spot. The Buttonbush flowers are supposed to be very popular with honeybees, and probably popular with at least some of our native pollinators.

Here's some Arrowwood Viburnum that I (and others) planted this week. Monday mornings I've been participating in Duke Farms' Trail Steward program, which has mostly consisted of inhibiting invasive plants. (Japanese Barberry, Multiflora Rose, and Canadian Thistle, I'm talking about you.) This past Monday we went from playing defense to going on offense; we're attempting to replace the invasive plants with native plants including these Arrowwood Viburnum plants. If all goes well, these will grow into 6-10' woody shrubs that will provide nutritious berries for our birds. As native plants, they also provide food for caterpillars, including the Hummingbird Clearwing Moths. The arrowwood part of the name suggests that when grown, it's branches were good for making arrow shafts. My impression is that the main reason you don't see lots of this growing wild in New Jersey is because of our over-population of White-tailed Deer who presumably eat it to death. June

Here's a Red-tailed Hawk that was at Duke Farms last weekend. When I went to the Outdoor Education booth at noon, I was told there was a lot of activity earlier in the morning. A juvenile Red-tailed Hawk was flying close by before being chased out of the area by surprisingly small birds. Four hours later, it looked like the hawk had returned, letting people get pictures (like the one below) fairly close up. Perhaps because it's a youngster, the hawk flew fairly close to humans and let humans walk even closer. It may be surprising to see a hawk being chased by a single small bird, but I've seen it happen fairly often. I suspect that the small birds are quick and maneuverable enough that larger birds generally can't successfully turn on their attacker, though I also suspect that the small bird has little margin for error. I'm sure fatal mistakes have been made by mobbing birds. June 12, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 136371956, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-N

Let's go for 4 butterflies in a row; here's an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail I met at Sourland Mountain Preserve last month. I'm pretty sure I've seen them earlier than this date, though this was my first picture of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail this season. These butterflies are fairly common around here since their caterpillars eat plants in the rose and magnolia families, fairly common plants. Up here they go into a dormant state during winter, and if all goes well resume their lives in the spring. This guy appeared to be mudpuddling, the term used when butterflies try and get nutrients like sodium and amino acids from mud, scat, or other sources. May 27, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 133210510, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

I met this Red Admiral butterfly at Duke Farms about a month ago. This is a little early for these butterflies who are more numerous later in the year. These guys migrate south to avoid our winters; it's likely that this guy was born down south and fluttered up to New Jersey as the weather warmed. The males stake out a territory and then fiercely defend it from other males. Of course, since they can't bite, scratch, or sting, fiercely defending a territory mostly consists of fluttering into their opponent as violently as possible. (My impression is that all females are welcome in their territory.) As caterpillars they're not picky eaters, eating most (all?) plants in the nettle family plus a smattering of other plants. This is probably why they live across North America, Eurasia, and North Africa, making it a fairly widespread species. May 4, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 128324505, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's someone I met last month at Duke Farms, a Black Swallowtail . This is the state butterfly of New Jersey, attaining that status about 5 years ago . Note that not all NJ butterflies that are black are Black Swallowtails; Spicebush Swallowtails, Pipevine Swallowtails, and some female black morph Eastern Tiger Swallowtails are common butterflies that are black. Still, the rich black and the bright yellow spots generally give these guys a different look than most of the others. As caterpillars these guys mostly eat foods in the carrot/parsley family. Some of these plants you can eat (including celery, dill, and fennel), and some plants you can't (the invasive Poison Hemlock and at least some of the native Water Hemlocks). So if one of their caterpillars invites you over for dinner, make sure you ask what they're serving. May 4, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 128324584, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Mourning Cloak butterfly I met back in April. This is one of our more cold-tolerant butterflies, partly because they don't die in the winter but just enter a period of dormancy until things warm up again. The other reason you can see them early in the season is because they'll drink tree sap that's available before nectar is available from most blooming flowers. Though I'm sure of my butterfly identification, the Mourning Cloak I met isn't as colorful as ones at their color peak. A brown butterfly with rimmed with purple spots and gold trim at this stage of life looks dark brown with an off-white trim. Still, this fella looks in pretty good condition, with mostly intact wings. Though I've heard that in large numbers these butterflies can be somewhat damaging to trees, I've never gotten the impression they're numerous enough around me to be worth worrying about. As a native species, tree defenses, predation from other animals, and their para

Here's a Killdeer I met last month. These guys (like the Solitary Sandpiper and the Lesser Yellowlegs ) are shorebirds ... but they are shorebirds that can take the shore or leave it. They seem to like flat areas, and I'm sure they've nested in the Murray Hills parking lot where I used to work. They lay their eggs on the ground and in the open. Though the eggs do look like smooth stones, their primary protection is probably the "broken wing defense". If a predator appears, a parent will utilize their thespian skills to fake being a bird who can't fly due to a broken wing. If all goes well, the predator won't find the eggs and will attempt to stalk the "injured" Killdeer. Once the Killdeer has lured the predator sufficiently far away, that broken wing will miraculously heal and they'll fly to safety. Here's a reenactment . Though I haven't heard them a lot, they get their name from their call that sounds like "kill deer".

Here's another migratory bird I met last month, a Solitary Sandpiper . Unless I'm misidentifying my shorebirds, these guys are probably one of the most common shorebirds to migrate through my area each year. Apparently these birds aren't often seen in flocks but are instead usually seen alone, hence the solitary part of their name. This particular one was foraging near yesterday's Lesser Yellowlegs , so they're not arch-isolationists. (Maybe they're just a little introverted?) These birds are more closely related to the Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs than they are to the other sandpipers, though the Solitary Sandpiper is noticeably smaller than its yellowlegs cousins. May 4, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 128323676, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a Lesser Yellowlegs I met about a month ago. These guys don't live in New Jersey, only passing through during migration. They spend the winter in the area around the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic Coast of the southern US, and breed in Alaska and northern Canada. A journey like that requires stopping off along the way, and this fella was nosing around Dukes Brook in hopes of a meal while resting those wings. I have to admit that, because they're only around here for a couple weeks during migration, I'm not particularly good at identifying them. Having said that, the Lesser Yellowlegs seems to be a fairly common shorebird to see around migration. May 4, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 128323470, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

I was at Duke Farms about a month ago when I saw something up in the still-thin foliage. I expected it to be a vulture or maybe a Great Horned Owl, but a closer look showed it to be a Common Raccoon spending the day up a tree. Once the tree leafs out, the little fella will probably be almost impossible to see up there. Since raccoons mostly lay low during the day and do their serious food foraging at night, I don't see these guys very often, and I'm always happy to encounter one. Besides being up a tree, a part of Wood Duck Lake separated us; I saw no evidence that my presence bothered this guy. May 4, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 128324421, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a second set of Canada Goose goslings I saw at Sourland Mountain Preserve in May. Yesterday I showed a pair of much more mature goslings ; these goslings are obviously younger. Apparently Canada Geese don't breed at exactly the the same time, though I have to admit I don't know the ages of either sets of goslings. If all goes according to plan, about 70 days after hatching Canada Goose goslings will both look like adults and be able to fly. Right now though both sets of goslings are under the supervision of adult geese. Both sets of goslings live around the little pond near the Sourland Mountain Preserve parking lot off of East Mountain Road. Besides the geese, the pond (despite being small) were home to Mallards, frogs, turtles, a watersnake, and various dragonflies. (There were a surprising number of photography opportunities for such a small area.) May 27, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 133210379, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

A couple weeks ago at the Sourland Mountain Preserve, I met these juvenile Canada Geese siblings swimming near a parent. They're still a little less than half the size of an adult, but they've lost the yellow feathers they had when they were newly hatched. This is one of the stages a Canada Goose goes through on the way to adulthood. Although they're clearly on the path towards adult feathering, the feathers still look pretty fluffy to me. I suspect these feathers are geared more for warmth than flight. Though they swim well now, they probably won't be able to fly until they have their adult plumage. May 27, 2021 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 133210217, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's a type of butterfly I've been meeting quite a bit over the last month, the Eastern Tailed-Blue . You might be asking "where's the blue?". This isn't a case of weird lighting or individual color variation; this is a female, and they are more gray than blue. With the wings up, you would see a small, primarily white but slightly speckled butterfly. If you look closely, you can see a pair of "tails", which are little parts of the rear wing that protrude out a bit. (They appear white-black-white in this picture.) Those tails make for an easy identification here in New Jersey, since it rules out the Spring and Summer Azures. May 2, 2021 at the Negri-Nepote Native Grassland Preserve Photo 128321541, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's another one of the periodical cicadas I met at Sourland last week. Today I want to give a fairly quick discussion not of brooding cicadas with emotional issues, but of the cicada broods themselves. Our periodical cicadas consist of 3 groups, 7 species and 15 broods. The 3 groups consist of extremely similar species, sometimes where the main difference between the species is the brood cycle. Note I can't use common names since some of these guys don't have a common name beyond the periodical cicada umbrella. Here are the groups: Decim group . This is the biggest group, with 3 species. It has 1 17-year cicada species, Magicicada septendium (Pharaoh Cicada), and 2 13-year cicada species, Magicicada tredecim and Magicicada neotredecim. DNA differences and slight differences in their calls has led entomologists to split M. neotredecim off from M. tredecim. Just looking at them, you probably wouldn't be able to distinguish any of these cicadas. Cassini group . This gr

They're back! Here's a periodical cicada I met last week at the Sourland Mountain Preserve in Hillsborough. These red-eyed bugs (and they are true bugs ) have been living underground for 17 years, giving them one of the most interesting lifecycles around. Don't call them locusts though, since that term refers to grasshoppers, a very different kind of insect. Though we and other parts of the world have annual cicadas , the periodicals are a North American exclusive; nobody else has cicadas with the 17 year and 13 year lifecycles of the periodical cicadas. The periodical cicadas emerge in broods that generally occur every 13 or 17 years with the intention of flooding an area with so many cicadas that even if many get eaten by predators, there will still be ample cicadas around to breed and thus continue the species. And while their predators will probably thrive in the year the cicadas emerge, their predator numbers will presumably have returned to normal by the next time t

Here's a Pickerel Frog that I met at Negri-Nepote Native Grassland Preserve. Unfortunately I couldn't get an unobstructed view of the little fella. They're fairly similar to our Atlantic Coast Leopard Frog (and other leopard frogs), but the Pickerel Frogs tend to have squarish spots that line up compared to the rounder spots in a more scattered pattern for the leopards. It sounds like they tend to spend the summers near but not in water, which is why their front feet aren't webbed - their non-webbed front feet are more helpful traversing around on land. May 2, 2021 at Negri-Nepote Native Grassland Preserve