northeast-flora-and-fauna

For Throwback Thursday, here's a bird from around 5 years ago. Back when I was working at Alcatel-Lucent/Nokia [1] I would walk through on-premises woods and meadows where I met this Wood Thrush 1 summer. This is another thrush that's fairly similar to ones like the Hermit Thrush and the Swainson's Thrush . They are considered 1 of the best singers among our song birds. They achieve this because they can sing 2 notes at the same time, and do it in harmony. While males of many birds perform song matching , where a bird sings a song and a rival tries to sing the same song, the more individualistic Wood Thrush will counter a rival's song with a distinct song of their own. Like some other birds, they also have a clever technique to raise as many children as possible in a breeding season. They'll have 1 brood, and before their young are ready to fend for themselves the female will go off and start another brood, leaving the male to provide for the 1st brood.  July 26,

At least until I came by, this Solitary Sandpiper was foraging alone. My suspicion is that this shorebird was attempting to feed near a birdwatching platform overlooking a swampy part of Lord Stirling Park [1]. Though this looked like pretty good habitat, this was the only migrating shorebird I saw there. My recollection is that there aren't a lot of legitimate bare shores around here, so Lord Stirling Park might not attract as many shorebirds as some other locations. But it's also possible the numbers were due to bad luck; perhaps if I came back in a couple days I'd have seen a lot more. And of course, just because Lord Stirling Park might not be a hotbed of shorebird activity, there are other birds (migrating or otherwise) that appreciate the open water, the woods, and the edge habitats that are found throughout the park. (I think I've heard that warblers consider it to be a 4-star rest stop during their migration.) May 12, 2023 at Lord Stirling Park Photo 282422296

This Swainson's Thrush (perhaps due for a renaming) was perched on a fairly heavily lichened branch. Though there are a lot of thrushes around here, American Robins and Eastern Bluebirds are the ones I see the most (though I have met some Hermit Thrushes  on occasion). This is another bird that's not easily identified, mostly because there are other thrushes that look pretty similar. I think you're supposed to identify the Swainson's Thrush based on a little more light coloring around the eyes and a back that's slightly grayer than similar thrushes. In the foreseeable future, you won't see Swainson's Thrushes around because ... they're in line to have their name changed . The American Ornithological Society wants to rename all birds named after people. Though the subject came about due to some birds named after unsavory characters, it was also noticed that while names like Red-winged Blackbird tells you a lot about the bird's appearance [1], name

This American Bullfrog thought it had found a spot where no giant, potentially dangerous animals would spot it, but then I came along. Even if you're not crazy about frogs [1] this is 1 cool-looking frog. And this spot at Lord Stirling Park gives the surrounding area an almost jungle-like vibe. Although I got an ID of American Bullfrog, I'm waffling a little on the ID. The dorsolateral ridges that usually distinguish the species can't be seen from this angle, and both American Bullfrogs and Green Frogs can have white throats/undersides [2]. May 12, 2023 at Lord Stirling Park Photo 282422437, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] Of course I'm joking. What sort of wacky weirdo wouldn't be crazy about frogs? [2] Males of both species can have a yellow throat, making it more likely this is a female.

Though easy to see in this picture, this mostly-earth-toned Mourning Cloak butterfly can be easy to miss in leaf litter [1]. And while that rich brown color of the top side of their wings can stand out, the underside of their wings - what you'll see when the wings are up - blends in even better with most backgrounds. These butterflies will generally feed on organic fluids of some sort, like tree sap or rotting fruit, though usually not nectar. This means they can be active throughout much of the spring and autumn, and can occasionally be spotted during a stretch of warm winter weather. May 12, 2023 at Lord Stirling Park Photo 282422364, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] I suspect they camouflage in autumn leaf litter when the leaves aren't mostly a washed-out brown.

As animals with eyes at the front of our heads, we might think that this Gray Catbird isn't watching us but is looking in the direction of its beak. But Gray Catbirds have eyes on the sides of their heads with a correspondingly wide field of vision , and thus this bird could have been watching me closely. So while most of our backyard birds may look to us like they're watching something else or even ignoring us, if you can see their eye they can also see you. May 12, 2023 at Lord Stirling Park Photo 282422174, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Looking back, I'm kind of surprised at all the Baltimore Orioles I met this past spring. Here's another 1, taken far enough from the others that I have almost complete confidence this is a new oriole [1]. I'm not sure I would have spotted this oriole if a couple birdwatchers hadn't notice him. A lot of times I'll see other people looking at something; it frequently but not always turns out to be something interesting [2]. I don't have a lot to add, but here's an 8 minute video that goes over stuff I may have forgotten to mention. May 11, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 282421647, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] Sure, a Baltimore Oriole could fairly easily fly from Duke Farms or Delaware Raritan Canal up to Great Swamp, though given the acceptable habitat at those original locations, I'm not sure there's much motivation to do so. [2] When people are looking at things I don't consider particularly interesting, it's usually becau

For Throwback Thursday - and Thanksgiving - I figured I should show a couple of the wild cousins of our Domestic Turkeys , Eastern Wild Turkeys . These 2 were selected because the pictures came out well. The 1st picture is 1 of the few pictures I've gotten of an male turkey (a tom) [1]. The prominent snood above his beak, the bright red wattle under the beak, the nearly-as-red caruncles next to the wattle, and the vicious-looking spur seen on the back of the forward leg all indicate this to be a male. (Males also have a beard, but I think the angle is wrong to see that.) June 4, 2017 at Duke Farms Photo 8423439, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) A little more recently I saw this female turkey (hen). Though females do have snoods (you can see it if you look closely), wattles (you should be able to see it, though it's not as prominent as the 1 on the male above), caruncles (hard to see here, maybe because of the lighting), and a leg spur (I'm told it's th

This Eastern Chipmunk decided to go off-trail when it saw me coming down said trail. Given that I weigh probably 550 times as much as the chipmunk, this would be similar to me getting out of the way of a 39 ton Humpback Whale ; even if the large animal has no ill intentions, it's not a bad idea to cede the area to avoid accidental injury. Though small and wary animals, these guys are common enough that I've gotten quite a few pictures of them. Although they're not a classic swamp creature , Great Swamp has quite a few arboreal areas adjacent to their swampier areas. I wouldn't be surprised if this particular spot floods occasionally, but it was dry enough on this visit. May 11, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 282421831, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

This damselfly, a Fragile Forktail , was perched on some sort of vegetation protruding from the water. You can see 1 of their more helpful field marks, exclamation points [1] on their thorax [2] pretty clearly. Less easy to see is the forked tail that indicates this as 1 of our forktail damselflies . You also can't see it clearly in this Eastern Forktail from the previous year; I continue to blame this on their small size.  Now you know how it got the forktail part of its name. It's claimed that it got the fragile part of its name because of the delicate body/wings of these damselflies. While I'm sure the body and wings are delicate by human standards, I'm really not convinced that they're more fragile than the body and wings of other forktail damselflies; certainly none of them evoke an image of robustness or strength. It's not like the description is wrong, it's just that the description also seems to be true of our other forktails. Though male forktails

This Common Snapping Turtle came out of the muck of Great Swamp to bask with a piece of the swamp stuck to its back. Although it might make the snapping turtle feel a little more secure via a little  camouflage [1], gunk on the carapace does cut down on the sun rays it's able to absorb. I've certainly seen them basking further out of the water , though they spend more of their time in shallow water .  If humans were worrying the snapping turtle, it would probably be happy to hear that I wouldn't have noticed it if I wasn't scanning the area with my binoculars. With the naked eye, I doubt I'd have spotted it. (This is also how I spotted yesterday's Green Heron ; I have no idea if they're friends.) May 11, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 282421749, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] Adult snapping turtles don't have a lot of predators; similar to deer, their main predator these days might be the automobile. Still, while they have a fierce reput

As they're wont to do, this Green Heron was standing outside the water; they prefer not to get their feet wet until they have to. Given the relatively shallow muddy water, I'm thinking the heron might have been hunting for frogs or crayfish more than regular fish. This is 1 of our 3 easiest-to-spot herons, and the only 1 without "great" in their name: Great Blue Heron and Great Egret . What they lack in greatness, they make up with in greenness [1]; they are a bit more colorful than those other herons [2]. May 11, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 282421692, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] Admittedly Green Herons aren't exactly a classic green, though it's not too far from being a midnight green . [2] I know white light is a mix of all the other colors, but us humans don't usually consider white to be particularly colorful, and so I'm claiming the Green Heron is more colorful than the Great Egret.

I spotted these Northern Watersnakes in ... <Surprise!> ... the water! Although I almost always find these snakes near water, most of my photos tend to be of them out of water ( sometimes involuntarily ), partly because they're easier to notice there and partly because photographing animals in water doesn't always work out well. (FWIW I have taken some pictures of them out for a swim .) Though it's easy to see 1 snake in the 1st picture, if you look in the center of the picture a little to the right of the "main" snake, you'll see the head of another one. This was probably still mating season [1], so a romantic relationship between the 2 snakes cannot be ruled out. May 11, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 282421560, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) May 11, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 282421605, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] Two years prior, amorous watersnakes were clearly evident in late April, about 2 weeks before these pic

When the water is clear and the lighting is good, you can sometimes get good looks at turtles even when they're submerged like with the 1st picture of an Eastern Painted Turtle [1]. And although it can take some patience, if you can't see the turtle clearly while it's underwater, they do have to at least poke their head out of the water periodically to breathe, like in the 2nd picture. (Note this strategy doesn't work on fish.) Generally speaking, I'll usually only get decent submerged pictures when my subject is pretty close to the surface. Most ponds and canals have water that's murkier than a swimming pool [2]. Here are older underwater photo successes of a Red-eared Slider and an Eastern Painted Turtle . Don't give up on a picture just because of a little water. May 11, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 282421257, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) May 11, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 282421265, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] Rem

Here are a couple American Bullfrogs ; though they didn't seem to be busy, you could say they were swamped. Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge [1], that is. It can take a lot of time to eat, duck predators, and avoid cameras, and it can be easy to fall behind in these important endeavors. I was a little curious about the skin differences between these 2 bullfrogs. The 1st has very smooth skin while the other has little bumps on its back. I initially wondered if this was a way to distinguish between males and females, but it may be a virus . Apparently frogs sometimes get herpes. AFAIK this isn't especially detrimental to the health of a frog; at least none of them have expressed a problem. May 11, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 282421232, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) May 11, 2023 at Great Swamp Photo 282421278, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] If there is a Great Swamp, logic suggests there are other, less great swamps out there. I was able to

I saw this guy and his girl out for a swim in the Delaware Raritan Canal. (Don't try this yourself; the rangers have rules against this.) I've certainly talked about Mallards before, and they and the Canada Goose are the easiest-to-find year-round waterfowl in New Jersey, so unless you spend your days in a sensory deprivation tank you've probably seen plenty of them [1]. There is a belief among hunters that a northern group (subspecies?) of Mallard are larger, and thus more desirable to hunters, but given the way they breed it's virtually impossible for there to be an isolated population of Mallards that don't mix with their cousins. Basically female Mallards hook up with males regardless of the male's birthplace and lead him back to her childhood neighborhood. Mallards are not only common and widespread across the Northern Hemisphere, they're also the ancestors of most domesticated ducks, probably making them the most abundant waterfowl species. And Ma

Bald Eagle sightings are certainly getting more common as nesting pairs have risen in New Jersey , and have been for decades: Between 1990-1993 NJ averaged 5 nesting pairs that produced on average 5.5 eaglets.  Between 2000-2003 it was 28 nesting pairs producing ~35 eaglets. Between 2010-2013 it was up to ~104 nesting pairs producing  ~62 eaglets. I don't have 2023 data, but between 2020-2022 they averaged ~231 nesting pairs raising ~313 eaglets. Obviously this will eventually level off, but this suggests it's probably twice as easy to encounter a Bald Eagle today than it was even 10 years ago. The story of the Bald Eagle recovery has been told many times, and is mostly due to the things we've stopped doing (at least legally): Hunting them. Encroaching on their last habitats. And maybe most importantly, using the DDT insecticide. While some reintroductions and breeding programs have no doubt helped speed things along, I can't believe they would have worked without the

I spotted this Barn Swallow at the Delaware Raritan Canal. Here's a joke originally about Barn Owls . Barn Swallows when humans first started building barns: "Oh yeah, it's all coming together!" In actuality, Barn Swallows do kind of like nesting in man-made structures, but don't require those structures to be barns. For a few years they were using a roofed bird blind at Negri-Nepote Native Grassland Preserve. In this case I believe the Barn Swallow may have been building a nest under a bridge at the canal. Though I'd like to think that Barn Swallows and Barn Owls would bond over their shared love of barns, I'm pretty sure that Barn Swallows are on the menu of the Barn Owls, seriously jeopardizing any neighborly relationship [1]. Barn Swallows are considered the most widespread swallow in the world, living on parts of every continent except Antarctica [2]. None of its closest relatives live in the New World, and its genus seems to be best represented in

Here's yet another Baltimore Oriole I met last spring. Given the different location, I can be reasonably confident that this is a different Baltimore Oriole than the ones that were kicking around Duke Farms around this time (to say nothing of the Orchard Oriole there).  Though they're frequently on-the-move birds, they usually photograph well due to their contrasting plumage. Here's a video of Baltimore Orioles over a summer . May 10, 2023 at Delaware Raritan Canal Photo 282315900, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)  

High wire acts are dangerous activities for humans that require skill and coordination, but are no big deal for most of our bird friends like this Feral Domesticated Rock Pigeon . These Rock Pigeons got the "domesticated" part of their name because their ancestors were domesticated Rock Pigeons brought here by European settlers. (Rock Pigeons are not native to North America.) And they get the "feral" part of their name because some of those domesticated pigeons escaped into the wild. (Many of them are very comfortable foraging for food around and even from humans.) These birds have a lot of plumage variation, though this individual's bluish-gray coloring with 2 dark bands on the wings is fairly typical. Generally speaking, I'm pretty suspicious that I've got a Rock Pigeon when I see a colorful pigeon/dove-shaped bird. In any event, it's easy to confidently perform high wire acts when you can cover up a clumsy mistake by just flying away. May 10, 2023

Was this Common Merganser telling us the size of the fish he saw? Or maybe the snapping turtle he scared off? As largish ducks with a wingspan slightly under a yard, that would represent a fairly large fish or turtle. Most ornithologists though would probably interpret this as the duck drying his wings  after a dive in the water - not unlike non-ducks that dive underwater  - rather than boasting about a fish/turtle sighting [1]. I've mentioned before that despite being ducks, the name merganser basically means waterfowl (mergus) goose (anser) [2]. In Britian they're called Goosanders . I initially thought the "ander" part was a variation on "anser", making their name essentially "goose goose". That appears to be incorrect though, with Goosander being a word combined from "goose" and "gander", using both the female and male names for the birds [3]. May 10, 2023 at Delaware Raritan Canal Photo 282314467, (c) jpviolette, some rig

Here's a River Cooter along the Delaware Raritan Canal last May. I'm going to try and explain how I arrived at this identification. Despite living in New Jersey, they're not documented in my Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of New Jersey [1], so I went to the internet for some basic information . Here's what I can tell you: The plastron is yellow, not reddish-orange (female) or pink (male) that you would expect to see in a Northern Red-bellied Cooter . Also, Northern Red-bellied Cooters frequently have jet black heads and necks, while this turtle has noticeable yellow there. The carapace lacks the prominent lines around the scutes that you'd see in a Painted Turtle . It also lacks the rich tapestry of lines on the head/neck that you'd see in a Common Map Turtle . A Red-eared Slider normally has a prominent red blotch about where you'd expect an ear to be, and a Yellow-bellied Slider should have a prominent yellow blotch in that same spot. I also thi

Here's a non-native plant that can catch your attention in the spring, a Dame's Rocket . Apparently the are frequently confused with some of our native phloxes , though a careful look should prevent this misidentification: Dame's Rocket has 4 petals while a self-respecting phlox should have 5 petals. Dame's Rocket employs an alternate leafing strategy, where you'll see a leaf coming off the stem without another leaf on the exact opposite side of the stem. Instead you'll need to look above or below the stem to find a leaf on the opposite side of the stem. (Look at my 2nd picture.) Phloxes, on the other hand, will have leaves on a stem that are directly opposite each other. Despite superficial similarities, Dame's Rocket isn't particularly closely related to phloxes; Dame's Rocket is a type of mustard [1] while phloxes have a family of their own . Dame's Rocket is supposed to smell the sweetest at twilight, suggesting to me that it traditionally

This could be a really good Blue Jay picture except for 1 small branch in the way. I get enough partly obstructed pictures of birds that I sometimes wonder if the bird believes that things like this branch provides important protection from me [1]. Of course, it's just as likely that birds spend their time in natural settings that generally don't provide clear line-of-sight views. These obstructed views might be due to the idea that a bird has to exist somewhere, and there are simply more obstructed places of it to be than there are unobstructed places [2]. On the bright side, if you ignore the branch, the lighting and background show off this Blue Jay's coloring pretty nicely. May 10, 2023 at Delaware Raritan Canal Photo 282314536, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] The actual protection it gets comes from 1) I don't mean it any harm, and 2) the distance between us. [2] This theory works better in woods than it does in a parking lot or a large, flat

Here's a few Common Map Turtles from last spring. In the 1st picture it sort of looked like the turtle on the right was trying to put an arm [1] around its companion in an expression of comradery. While we don't know a lot about the social lives of turtles, it's possible that ( like snakes ) they may develop relationships of trust and/or comfortable familiarity with some other turtles. Still, it's probably more likely that the turtle had more selfish motivations: "I was hoping to climb up onto his back to catch some rays." Or, "I really wanted that spot on the branch, and hoped I could push him off of it." When I go turtle-watching, I do try and spot our map turtles [2], but I rarely manage to do so. I'm told they're 1 of our more skittish turtles, so maybe a lot of the turtles that jump in the water before I can get a look at them were actually map turtles. Similar to my Eastern Musk Turtle pictures posted yesterday, it's possible that

I met some turtles last spring that I don't see a lot: Eastern Musk Turtles . There were a few individuals lying around; these were 2 of the better pictures that I got. These turtles don't bask very often, and both of these seemed to be pulling the old Common Snapping Turtle trick of quasi-basking half in and half out of the water. I suspect they were only basking this much because it was still early May and they needed the extra sunlight to shake off their winter dormancy. Most of you probably would have found these turtles easier than I did since they're considered to be a smelly turtle [1], indicated both by the "musk" part of their name and their "stinkpot" nickname. Musk turtles and mud turtles are different types of turtle, but are in the same family . I encounter mud turtles even less frequently than their musky cousins. May 10, 2023 at Delaware Raritan Canal Photo 282315053, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) May 10, 2023 at Delaw

After seeing a bunch of American Bullfrogs 1 day last May, I finally met another frog, this Green Frog . (Yeah, I know, this Green Frog isn't as green as the species name would suggest; that's just a Green Frog thing .) As I've mentioned before, the ridges going down its back [1] (you can see the right side ridge pretty easily in the picture below) distinguish it from its American Bullfrog cousins. They also speak different languages. While the American Bullfrog has a deep, foghorny call, the Green Frog has a much twangier call. Also, AFAIK American Bullfrogs don't vocalize when jumping in the water, but if a Green Frog jumps in [2] I'll frequently here a call of "Eek!". Presumably this alerts the other frogs that something dangerous is around. Why Green Frogs raise an alarm while American Bullfrogs refuse to alert others is unknown to me. What's this frog thinking about? My guess is that it's got more to do with eating an insect than it does abo

The American Bullfrogs were out in force on this spring day. I met 6, and here are the 2 most photogenic. To you and me, these guys are handsome herptiles , but for many of the arthropods flying, crawling, and swimming around here, they are voracious predators. Of the herptiles of New Jersey, I probably see turtles the most, followed by frogs [1], then by snakes, and with salamanders far behind. Herptiles are an interesting classification of animals, comprising amphibians and reptiles . What's interesting about that? Well, mostly it's that reptiles aren't especially closely related to amphibians. Birds, which we think about as a rival group to reptiles, are taxonomically a type of reptile. And even mammals are more closely related to reptiles than amphibians are. But because historically people think about reptiles and amphibians together, the 2 land-based ectotherms are studied together, despite what we now know about relatedness. May 10, 2023 at Delaware Raritan Canal P

This Northern Cardinal appeared to be contorting himself to get some sort of snack off this tree. Similar to this Eastern Bluebird , I can't tell exactly what the cardinal was eating. Though in general they will eat "leaf buds", I'm fairly sure their inclination to do so varies from plant to plant [1], and I don't know what plant this was. And of course, I can't rule out that there was some sort of tasty bug who had the misfortune of getting spotted by the cardinal. All I can say for sure is that something certainly got the cardinal's attention. Birds are probably unusually hungry this time of year: Some birds may have recently migrated back to the area, expending lots of energy. Northern Cardinals are around here all year long, though they may be doing small migrations within their winter range [2]. Even if this cardinal was here all winter, winter probably isn't considered a "season of plenty" for birds, and he might very well relish food