northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's an Organ-pipe Mud Dauber wasp I met back in August. Their iridescent blue wings make them a strong candidate for Shiny Insect of the Week. They get the "mud dauber" part of their name by building nests for their offspring from mud and get the "organ pipe" part of their name from the shape of those nests: vertical "pipes" adjacent to one another. When I first saw this black-bodied, blue-winged wasp, I thought of the Great Black Digger Wasp . I think the biggest difference you might be able to see is that the Organ-pipe Mud Dauber has white on the lower part of their back legs, something you shouldn't see in the Great Black Digger Wasp. On iNaturalist they do list the Great Black Digger Wasp as being an insect that can be mistaken for an Organ-pipe Mud Dauber. Note the mud on the ground. Since it's the females that gather the mud, this is presumably a female. She's probably looking at the mud thinking "this will do nicely".

For Throwback Thursday, here's a bird that's probably associated with our cities more than woods, meadows or wetlands. It's a Rock Pigeon  (AKA Rock Dove); I've mentioned before that there's no clear taxonomic difference between doves and pigeons .  Technically calling them Rock Doves is slightly old-fashioned; that used to be the common name for the birds (in English) before the American Ornithologists' Union and the British Ornithologists' Union decided to switch to Rock Pigeon for complicated reasons. (The scientific name didn't change so there wasn't a need to get worldwide support for the name change. I don't know if English speakers in Canada, Australia, India, etc. had any input though.) I suppose to be more precise, I could have referred to the bird as a Feral Pigeon , which is a wild version of the Domestic Pigeon , which is in turn a tame version of the Rock Pigeon. (The Feral Pigeon and the Domestic Pigeon together comprise a subspeci

After all my talk about blue dragonflies, you'll all be excited to know that today I'm talking about something much different: blue damselflies like this Blue-fronted Dancer . 😁 The 1st thing to look at when identifying these guys is to look at how they hold their wings. If the wings were held at the same height as the abdomen, we'd have to rule out a lot of bluets . But this damselfly is holding its wings completely above the abdomen, something you normally see only in dancers and sprites . seriously cutting down the number of damselflies you need to consider. The next most important thing to consider is that the thorax is almost completely blue, with only a small number of very thin black lines going from front to back. Relatively few damselflies look like that. Finally the front segments of the abdomen are almost entirely black, with only the last 3 being blue. That's generally considered to be the clincher for a Blue-fronted Dancer. Apparently it's much trick

Here's someone I met outside my door, an Ivory-marked Borer . From a nature perspective, these beetles are pretty benign. The adults munch on some leaves and twigs, and while the larvae bore into trees to eat wood, apparently they only do this to dead trees; no living trees are harmed by this beetle. Unfortunately for us, we build things using dead wood. It's possible the larvae of this beetle are in the process of eating your wooden structures or furniture as we speak. You might get some use out of the wood though; they eat pretty slowly. It can take between 10-40 years of eating wood before they'll emerge as adults. That's a pretty long life by insect standards. There is a very similar beetle that seems restricted to Texas, Oklahoma, and adjoining states. It's called the Ivory-marked Longhorn , looks similar, bores into trees, and can interbreed with the Ivory-marked Borer. It's been suggested that they should be considered the same species, though for the mom

Though I hadn't photographed one before, this summer I got 2 pictures of a Six-spotted Fishing Spider . This is the 2nd one; the 1st one is here . This time the spider was closer but was partially hiding under a lily pad. (As I recall, this was one of those heat wave days; it's possible that finding shade was more of a motivator than hiding.) I guess the takeaway of this picture is that I should probably pay more attention to lily pads to see if these guys are more common than I realized. A secondary benefit is that some dragonflies and damselflies also tend to land on them. August 3, 2022 at Lord Stirling Park Photo 222581089, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's yet another blue dragonfly, a Great Blue Skimmer  (in the proud footsteps of the Blue Dasher , Eastern Pondhawk , and Slaty Skimmer ). Although I've shown one of these before, that was likely a juvenile and really didn't show the blue that inspired their name.  IMHO this is a dragonfly that, especially when seen at a distance where size is difficult to determine, could be confused with the previously mentioned Blue Dasher. They're both dragonflies (as opposed to damselflies), the males have a light blue pruinose , they have small black stigmas on the front of their wings, and they have white faces. Here are some differences: Great Blue Skimmers are much larger dragonflies. Individuals vary in size, but you can expect Great Blue Skimmers to be between 20% and 120% bigger than Blue Dashers. (Side by side, you'd easily be able to tell them apart.) On most Blue Dashers, their pruinose doesn't extend all the way to the end of their abdomen, leaving the tip lo

Last month I spotted a few Wild Turkeys foraging around Vista Lake at Duke Farms.  Taxonomically the Wild Turkey is grouped with the grouses , their closest relatives after the Ocellated Turkey . They're also in the pheasant family , so more distant relatives include partridges, chickens, peafowl, and quail.  Though the domesticated turkey is the same species as the ones you see in the wild, it had a somewhat circuitous route to get here. A different subspecies of our Eastern Wild Turkeys , the South Mexican Wild Turkey , was domesticated by the Aztecs. When Conquistadors conquered the Aztecs, they brought these Domestic Turkeys to Spain where they spread to Europe. Later settlers like the British then brought them back to the US. Somewhat oddly, the South Mexican Wild Turkey was one of the smallest subspecies of Wild Turkey, but after selective breeding the Domestic Turkey is actually much larger than any of the original Wild Turkey subspecies. (They're also considered much

I believe this is my 1st sighting (and picture) of a Fragile Forktail . This is one of our smaller damselflies , probably small enough that I missed spotting them; certainly they're documented as "common" throughout NJ. (My recollection is that the guy below darted off soon after my picture was taken.) You should be able to see one of their main field marks: they have "exclamation marks" on the top of their thorax. If you look at the thorax, you can see a pair of elongated green spots, and at the back of the thorax you should see a pair of green dots. These are considered to resemble a pair of exclamation marks. It sounds like they have generally like the habitat around lily pads, and I saw this fella at a dried-out lily pad pond (see the 1st picture here ). Perhaps I should scout out lily pads more for damselflies? August 3, 2022 at Lord Stirling Park Photo 222580785, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

For Throwback Thursday, let's look at someone I saw around a decade back, a Mute Swan . The first thing to know about them is that they aren't mute. They may say things like "Kheorrr" or "Kloorrr", and also do some grunting, snorting, and hissing. Your Mute Swan's silence probably means they have nothing to contribute to the conversation; perhaps you should consider changing the subject to something more interesting to swans. The Mute Swan isn't native to North America but was introduced here by those meddling Europeans. And while they are extremely photogenic, they can be pretty aggressive, bullying our native waterfowl out of an area. (I do wonder what happens when a belligerent Mute Swan comes upon a lake with a couple hundred Canada Geese . My guess is that a heavily outnumbered Mute Swan is going to show a certain amount of discretion around moderately large waterfowl.) I've heard that Mute Swans are especially aggressive towards other water

Despite a fishing ban at Duke Farms, I encountered these 2 fishermen out at Heron Lake this past July. I can only assume that this Double-crested Cormorant and Green Heron were attempting to exchange fishing tips, but given their different styles of fishing each probably thought the other was crazy: Green Heron: "Are you nuts? You don't want to go thrashing around in the water! You'll scare all the fish away doing that. Just find some shallow water, slowly and carefully walk along the shore, and when you spot a fish, just grab it." Double-crested Cormorant: "No, no, no - that's not the way to fish. Sure you might get lucky and bump into a particularly stupid fish, but you want to be out there in the middle of the lake. Then when you notice a fish, dive after it. Go as deep as you need to when pursuing it, then grab it in your beak. That's the way to fish." And don't even try and talk to them about fishing poles. 😀 I'd imagine they'll

Here is a butterfly that's moved into the area fairly recently, the Sleepy Orange . Presumably within the last 10 years, some adventurous pioneer butterflies flew northward and found a home at Duke Farms. AFAIK they aren't yet found elsewhere in Somerset County, though there is now a healthy and robust population at Duke Farms that it seems like only a matter of time before they'll colonize other parts of the county and state [1]. They are (generally) similar to but smaller and more vibrant than their Orange Sulphur cousins. Though they're probably the sulphur butterfly I saw the most at Duke Farms this year, they were only 3rd during our butterfly count. (Other sulphurs were spotted a lot in the Community Garden and the Skeet Shoot/Duchess Farm parts of the property.) When their wings are open (not their typical resting position), their yellow-orange wings framed with near-black around the edges really can be fairly striking. July 28, 2022 at Duke Farms Photo 22206704

These are one of my favorite moths, the Hummingbird Clearwing : They're big enough to see without (much) difficulty. They're colorful enough to take a good picture. They can be found in places I go to find butterflies and other pollinators; I don't need to go someplace I wouldn't be anyway. If I mistake something else for the Hummingbird Clearwing, that something else is also pretty cool (usually an actual Ruby-throated Hummingbird or their Snowberry Clearwing moth cousins). Unfortunately this is the only picture I've gotten of them this season. I was scouting around Oak Meadow to see what was around a couple days before the annual Duke Farms Butterfly Count when I saw this one hovering around the Wild Bergamot . It's claimed that these moths are migratory but I haven't found anything on where they spend the winter. Their range goes pretty far into Canada, so it wouldn't surprise me if they overwinter here in NJ. If they do, their strategy is to be rea

Most of the time when you see a slightly large orange butterfly with black "veins" in NJ, you're seeing a Monarch . But not all the time. Every once in a while you could be seeing a Viceroy  (this this guy). While they look quite similar, there is an excellent field mark to tell the difference. There's a dark line that parallels the back wing; see the circled blue in the 2nd picture. Though both the Viceroy and the Monarch look similar and can be found nectaring on flowers, their lives also have important differences. As you've probably heard by now Monarch caterpillars eat poisonous milkweed plants and become poisonous themselves as a result. Something similar happens with Viceroys, but as caterpillars they eat trees in the willow family , absorb salicylic acid from the trees, and become somewhat poisonous themselves. This is why their relationship with Monarch is now considered to be Mullerian mimicry , where both species benefit from looking like one another.

Though this picture isn't as sharp as I'd like, it does illustrate something interesting. It's a male Eastern Pondhawk that's about halfway through getting their blue pruinose . I've shown you what mature males look like compared to immature males and all females. This fella has an almost completely blue abdomen, a slightly blue thorax, but also shows the bright green coloring that juvenile males and all females have. As a reminder, pruinose is a waxy secretion despite frequently giving a dusty appearance. Though more common on males, older females of some species will also have it. It's not something every odonate has, but skimmers (like the Eastern Pondhawk) commonly have it. Pruinose can change the appearance of odonates quite a bit, like this Eastern Pondhawk changing from a bright green to more of a sky blue. I'm not sure when they start defending territories and looking for females, but if it hasn't happened yet it'll be happening soon. July

Here's a damselfly ("don't call us dragonflies ") I don't notice a lot, the Powdered Dancer . Though they have the title of "largest dancer in NJ", that's a lot like being the largest dogwood in the forest; there's a lot of trees (or odonates ) that are bigger. And their grayish ashy look actually camouflages pretty well against rocks. At first I thought I was taking a picture of only 1 of them, but if you look closely you'll see what looks like more eyes near the end of the abdomen. There's more to this story. July 26, 2022 at Washington Valley Park Photo 222063583, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) And when I got a slightly sideways view, it was clear that not only were there 2 Powdered Dancers there, but they were also mating. This is called a mating wheel, where the male (in front and ashy gray) clasps onto the head of the female with the end of his abdomen, and then the female (in the back and green/brown) uses her abd

Today I've got a story for you. The  House Sparrow  below got into my apartment in mid-August. This is a rare but not unprecedented event; it's happened 2-3 times before. My apartment has a small closet for the gas furnace, and apparently birds are able to fly/climb down the chimney and come out through the furnace. I know when this has happened since I'll hear the bird exploring around in the closet (flapping, scratching, and some vocalization). Previously the bird was trapped in the closet and I'd have some time to prep the apartment prior to trying to guide the bird outside (typically through open sliding glass doors: I can shut the doors to the bedroom and bathroom since AFAIK these windows don't open to anything other than a screen, and thus the bird can't get outside from these rooms. The kitchen is more of a problem. It has no door, and Murphy's Law (and history) have shown the bird will also go in there and similarly find that there's no way out.

This was one of my favorite animals that I spotted this year, a North American River Otter . I believe it was on August 20 that I first glimpsed them at Dukes Brook. Unfortunately I couldn't wait around that day to get a picture because I was scheduled for a volunteer shift as an Outdoor Educator. When the shift was over I went back to the brook but was unable to find them again. (I suspect they had moved someplace quieter.) A few days later I was back and looked for them along Dukes Brook. The 1st 3 spots I checked showed no signs of them, but at my 4th spot along the brook I struck paydirt. At least 2 otters were romping in and out of the water, fitting since a romp is the collective name for a group of otters. River otters will mostly eat aquatic animals, including fish, crustaceans, reptiles, and amphibians. Waterfowl are also taken if they can get close enough. Muskrats are on the menu; reports vary about whether beavers are taken. My guess is that fully grown Common Snappin

Here is what I believe to be another Bold Jumping Spider , though this view-from-the-top gives a different perspective from my previous Bold Jumping Spider post . In the picture you don't get much of a view of the chelicerae (the tusk-like appendages near the mouth), though I suspect this particular one had blue chelicerae rather than the easier-to-notice green. My impression is that this one is larger than the one in the previous post. Apparently they're known to be able to subdue prey larger than themselves though I'm not sure what arthropods that puts in play for them. Presumably this is where they got the "bold" part of their name, because they'll "boldly jump on insects that no spider has jumped on before".  The Bold Jumping Spider doesn't use webbing to catch prey, but it does use webbing. One reason it can jump boldly is because they use webbing as a safety line so they can get back to their starting position if they want to. It's not

Just like cicadas (especially periodical cicadas ) are less than popular, so too are their eponymously named predators, the Cicada Killer Wasps . While cicadas can both physically inundate an area and also be aggravatingly loud, cicada killer wasps can be numerous stinging threats. Still, if you can avoid doing rude things like stepping on them, cicada killers (like most wasps) have other things they'd like to do in a day rather than sting you. Unless you're a cicada; if you're a cicada, they really do want to sting you, bring you back to their nest, and provide you as food to their offspring. (I'm assuming that very few cicadas read my blog.) Back in July while at an Outdoor Education table, I'd occasionally have people come by thinking that they need to alert us about invasive Murder Hornets on the property. I suspect they're actually a little disappointed when I tell them that Murder Hornets are only (and rarely) found in the far northwest part of the count

I'm going to show this American Mink from 4 and a half years ago for Throwback Thursday. This little fella was spotted during a birdwatching program; I proposed that we consider the mink to be an honorary bird. 😄 American Mink were named due to their resemblance with the European Mink , though as mustelids go the 2 species aren't especially closely related. They are considered to be the top animal in the fur trade; fortunately for them, the mink coat market isn't strong enough for them to get hunted to extinction. In some ways it made them more widespread because they've been introduced to Europe where they're now considered an invasive species. Though they will hunt in water and can swim pretty deep when they want to, American Mink are fairly versatile little predators. They can climb trees, and their streamlined bodies are well suited to going into burrows after rodents, rabbits, etc. They're generally considered nocturnal, so we were a little lucky to run i

Dragonflies love a good perch, and something sticking out of the water can be an excellent spot to look for mates (basically girl-watching) while also seeing if rivals are encroaching on their territory. And while flying back-and-forth on patrol has its advantages, so does saving energy by perching. Back in July I caught an Eastern Pondhawk and a Blue Dasher both trying to use the same perch. Though the Blue Dasher temporarily won this King of the Hill contest, my recollection is that his victory was short-lived. These dragonflies are quasi-rivals, competing for food but not for mates. Still, my understanding is that inter-species attacks against over blue dragonflies are something that both Eastern Pondhawks and Blue Dashers will do just in case it's a romantic rival. (My guess is that though the Eastern Pondhawk is usually a little bigger, these dragonflies are too close in size for either one to consider the other to be an easy meal. Dragonflies will eat other dragonflies thou

If you like your colors between red and yellow on the visible light spectrum , orange you going to be glad to see this post. Amidst the vibrantly orange Butterfly Milkweed there are 3 primarily orange butterflies: Just right of center and probably the reason I noticed the activity is a Monarch butterfly. My recollection is that these milkweeds were pretty far out into a meadow, and I didn't notice the Great Spangled Fritillary until I got my binoculars on them. This butterfly is just to the left of the Monarch. But it wasn't until I got home and processed the photos that I realized there was also a Pearl Crescent in there too, a little to the left of the Great Spangled Fritillary. Generally speaking, I don't see open hostility between most pollinators. It's not at all uncommon to see butterflies, bees, wasps, and other pollinators near one another and (mostly) going about their own business. There are other instances though when I'm not sure what's going o

Whether it's odonates (e.g. dragonflies and damselflies) or birds, it's sometimes difficult to differentiate immature males from females. But sometimes the difference is obvious, like when I see a female laying eggs. Here's a female Blue Dasher who's doing exactly that. Many dragonfly females will hover over the water, quickly dipping the end of her abdomen (her ovipositor ) down into the water and depositing an egg there.  This is 1 of the 2 main ways that dragonflies lay eggs. Another technique is to cut a slit in a water plant and lay eggs inside the plant; I've never actually witnessed this technique. You might be wondering why a flying insect lays eggs in water. This is because, despite adults being fierce aerial predators, as nymphs (call naiads) they lead totally different lives; they are fierce aquatic predators. 😄 When I say this, they are fierce aquatic predators in the world of the small; they aren't taking down adult turtles, herons, or (most) fis

Here's a female or immature Indigo Bunting I met back in July. This is one of those species where the immature birds look very similar to adult females; unless it had an obviously juvenile look or a hint of blue feathering coming in I doubt I'd be able to distinguish between the 2 since both have light earth toned plumage. It sounds like most Indigo Buntings fledge by 4 weeks after being laid as eggs, so July 15 sounds like plenty of time for one born this year to be fairly adult-looking. A month before I had seen an obvious adult male in the same vicinity; this could be its spouse or offspring. July 15, 2022 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 221319749, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

I don't remember exactly how small this Painted Turtle was, but I remember thinking it had to be pretty young to be that small. (I can assure you that the turtle isn't on a fallen Giant Sequoia tree.) My impression is that pet Painted Turtles can grow 3" in their 1st year, and then their growth rate slows down to more like 0.5" per year. But wild Painted Turtles probably don't grow much in the winter while brumating , so their growth rate is probably slower. I wouldn't be surprised if this turtle hatched in the fall of 2021. The scutes on the carapace also look a little funky; I suspect this turtle is shedding scutes as it grows . My impression, backed up by no data, is that juvenile turtles are a little less likely to dive into the water as I approach. I'm not sure why that would be. Perhaps younger turtles need the sunlight more, or maybe they're young and reckless enough to risk having me around. July 15, 2022 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 2

I've talked before about turtles basking in the sun; as ectotherms they need solar help to regulate their body temperature. And I've shown dragonflies that try to limit their sun exposure on hot days using body positioning . Back in mid-July I saw a couple frogs making use of shading.  Admittedly I also saw some frogs completely in the sun and others beneath the heavy shade of a tree, but these 2 appeared to be seeking out shade.  I also wonder if they're getting a little protection from avian predators. While their biggest threat from birds probably comes from herons that find prey by wading through water and would get a side view of the frogs, it's at least conceivable that guys like ospreys, cormorants, or kingfishers could be looking to swoop down from above to get a froggy meal. American Bullfrog July 15, 2022 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 221317752, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) Green Frog July 15, 2022 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo