northeast-flora-and-fauna

We're pretty close to the middle of winter, so maybe you're craving warmer weather; here's another American Lady I met last spring. Normally I'd talk about the difference between them and their slightly more common cousins, the Painted Ladies , but since I did that a couple weeks ago I'll skip it this time. American Lady adults cannot survive New Jersey winters. They can survive the winters in some areas as larvae (caterpillars), though it sounds like it's unclear whether they can survive the New Jersey ones [1]. That means when you see American Ladies in New Jersey: Either they were able to hibernate up here when they were caterpillars, Or they recolonized New Jersey from a warmer southern area. Given I saw this 1 in May, I doubt they would have had a long migration; presumably the wintered as caterpillars fairly close to New Jersey. If they couldn't survive historic New Jersey winters, perhaps they soon will be able to as our winters seem to be getting m

Here are a few Eastern Bluebirds hanging out in trees. I was fortunate enough to see them all on the same day last May. I believe they're all the more vibrantly colored males, though the middle picture might be a little questionable.  I was happy to see these guys, fitting given the expression the bluebird of happiness . It sounds like many cultures have positive feelings about birds that are blue [1], though Asian and European traditions associating birds with blue plumage with happiness certainly predate their knowledge of Eastern Bluebirds like these guys. And some Native American myths about "blue birds" are believed to be about Blue Grosbeaks . You should be able to find these birds in New Jersey all year round. May 18, 2023 at Fairview Farm Photo 292810452, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) May 18, 2023 at Fairview Farm Photo 292810825, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) May 18, 2023 at Willowwood Arboretum Photo 292812808, (c) jpviolett

Do you want to go for a nature walk or attend a concert? Sometimes you can do both! The male Song Sparrow may be trying to serenade an available female but there's no reason you can't enjoy his tunes too. As both 1 of our most common sparrows and dedicated singers - I also heard them singing here and here - these birds are spotted more than many of their peers. I suspect if these guys were a little colorful they'd be 1 of our most popular and recognized birds, but their coloring is straight out of the standard sparrow playbook: mostly brown, some white with brown speckles. (They're definitely more David Crosby than Elton John.) May 18, 2023 at Willowwood Arboretum Photo 292812758, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

For Throwback Thursday, here's a mantis I've talked about but haven't shown before. Here's what is believed to be a Narrow-winged Mantis , a fairly close relative of the Chinese Mantis . And yes, it looks like a Monarch butterfly was on the menu this day. While Monarch butterflies absorb some of the toxins in the milkweed plants they ate as caterpillars, making them toxic to most predators, but some mantises will prey upon them. There are lots of ideas about this: When they feed on young caterpillars, the caterpillars may not have eaten enough milkweed to be poisonous enough to bother the mantis. Mantises generally avoid eating the guts of the butterflies. Though the Monarch's entire body is generally considered poisonous, some poisons are most prevalent in the gut. It's possible that the mantises avoid the poisons they're most sensitive to by throwing the guts away. I'm not sure that all species of mantis will eat Monarchs. Most sources indicate the Ch

It looks like this Eastern Phoebe has caught a meal. Could it be a wasp? Although phoebes are tyrant flycatchers , I'm pretty sure they'll eat most insects including the hymenopterans . I think I see: A little bit of striping on the thorax, suggesting 1 of many bees/wasps or their mimics. An insect a little longer than a honeybee or bumblebee. This was the 2nd year in a row that I got a picture of a phoebe with food in its mouth . While we (correctly) think of phoebes as birds posing no threat to us, to many insects they are giant, ferocious predators. The Eastern Phoebe is almost certainly the tyrant flycatcher species I encounter the most, though Eastern Kingbirds and Great Crested Flycatchers aren't too hard to find either. May 18, 2023 at Willowwood Arboretum Photo 292812711, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

This is our area's most common native dove/pigeon [1], the Mourning Dove , though it has a tenuous claim to the Turtle Dove (famous from The Twelve Days of Christmas song) name. While the true Turtle Dove is a somewhat distant relative that lives in Britain, the Mourning Dove has sometimes been referred to as either a Turtle Dove or a Carolina Turtledove. This suggests that it wouldn't be all that difficult to see some of the birds of song on a carefully planned walk: Swans aren't common around here, though they're easier to find in other areas of the country. Geese are all over the place. Calling birds is pretty vague; if you awoke to birds singing, you could probably check them off your list. French hens aren't really a species or breed, so I'd argue any live chickens you run across are good enough to cross them off your list. (Of course, we don't have wild chickens in New Jersey so you'd probably need to find someone who raises them.) If you conside

Here are 2 different looks at Turkey Vultures . When you see them without their wings spread , Turkey Vultures can fool you into thinking their plumage is all black, but when they open them up (or you see them soaring overhead) you can see that's not really true. Seeing them from below you can easily see the feathers at the end of their wings (flight feathers) are much lighter than the near-black plumage we see when the wings are closed. Although many times those light-colored flight feathers look more like a light gray rather than the near-white color in this picture, I'm not sure how much this is due to individual variance and how much is due to the lighting. But this pattern where the flight feathers are much lighter than the rest of the wings is an excellent indicator of a Turkey Vulture (not a Bald Eagle ). May 18, 2023 at Fairview Farm Photo 292810623, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)     Here's another Turkey Vulture where the flight feathers look dark

Here's 1 of the House Finches around last spring. (All that red indicates he's a mature male, BTW.) They're called House Finches because they're often found near humans, but they're not really dependent on houses. Back before Native Americans crossed over into the Americas, House Finches were already here, or at least in the areas that would eventually be Mexico and the American Southwest. Humans do have a role in their prevalence though; House Finches went continent-wide when taken as pets to much of the rest of the Continental US, and then released. While the term House Finch may sound rather ordinary, as pets they were billed as the far more glamorous  Hollywood Finches . Given their adaptability to much of the East Coast, I'm a little surprised they weren't more widespread before us humans introduced them here. May 18, 2023 at Fairview Farm Photo 292810887, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) May 18, 2023 at Fairview Farm Photo 292810896, (

Admittedly you probably can't see blue wings here, but this is apparently a Blue-winged Warbler , or at least that's what the iNaturalist folks tell me. Unfortunately this bird was a little too far away for me to point out most of the field marks: You can see that this bird is mostly yellow outside the wings, and you can probably tell that there's a black line going through the eyes. After that, you may need to use a little imagination. The wings are usually described as either "steel blue" or "blue gray"; I'm not sure you can conclusively call these wings anything more than dark, possibly earth-toned. They're also supposed to have 2 wingbars, which are from 2 rows of feathers (coverts) on the wings. I think I can see 1 wingbar in this picture. The other wingbar is presumably there but just isn't showing up in this picture. Blue-winged Warblers are apparently close relatives of the Golden-winged Warblers , and the 2 species hybridize so ofte

Here's a perched Chipping Sparrow from last spring. I usually notice them when they're foraging on the ground, though I'm sure they spend a fair amount of time in trees like this 1. The females build the nests, but it's not unusual for her to begin building only to abandon that nest and build elsewhere. I'm not sure why she'd do that: Perhaps when she's building a nest, a threat that wasn't immediately apparent is ultimately brought to her attention. Maybe by starting to build a nest in 1 spot, she's trying to food predators and/or brood parasites (I'm looking at you, Brown-headed Cowbird ) with a decoy nest. I don't think the nest takes all that long to build, but conditions do change. Maybe she realizes that the dense foliage she thought she'd get for Nest #1 isn't going to leaf out, and so she moves on to Nest #2. Chipping Sparrows aren't considered great architects. At the risk of being judgy, their nests tend to be looser/fl

There are 2 ways to identify the American Lady butterfly from the Painted Lady butterfly, and these pictures illustrate 1 of those ways better than the other: First picture - On the top side of the front wing, you're supposed to be able to be able to see a small white non-ringed spot in the orange of the wing of an American Lady that you won't see on a Painted Lady. (Neither the large white patches on the front wing nor the black-ringed white spot on the hind wing represent this field mark.) In my picture, you can just barely see a white spot on the front wing; it's a little to the left of what looks a little like a Batman symbol. Unfortunately the white spot on this butterfly is faint enough that it would be easy to miss it. Second picture - On the underside of the hind wings you can see 2 large, prominent eyespots , patterns on the wings that resemble (but are not) eyes. Two large eyespots clearly identify this as an American Lady; the Painted Lady would have 4 smalle

This Pearl Crescent has some wing damage (especially to the left front wing); I was wondering if this could be an older individual who hibernated as a caterpillar before resuming life last spring. Apparently that's what a Pearl Crescent does if it hatches when temperatures are beginning to get cold.  On the other hand, the wing coloring doesn't look too faded, suggesting that the butterfly isn't especially old. (I think I'm talking myself into this being a butterfly that hatched earlier in the spring as opposed to last fall.) Of course, age is relative as the Pearl Crescent lives a much shorter life than ours: They hatch about 1 week after their egg is laid. They spend about 2 weeks chowing down on plants as caterpillars, with some of our asters being favorite foods. Then it's time to metaphorize ; they go into a chrysalis for 1-2 weeks. When they emerge as butterflies, they can live as long as 2 months, though most probably don't last that long. May 18, 20

Normally when performing my Steward Volunteer tasks at Duke Farms I'm a little too preoccupied to get many nature pictures, but I believe someone on the team noticed this Eastern Towhee moving around in the greenery. With black plumage on the head/neck/back, I believe this is another male Eastern Towhee . My guess is that the males, out looking to woo females, is intentionally more conspicuous, and that's why I notice them more. While most people associate sparrows as being little brown birds, towhees tend to be a colorful exception. May 15, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 292808324, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

It's never a good sign to see a mostly-intact American Robin egg on the ground. While finding half an eggshell leaves open the possibility of a successful hatching and the shell falling from a nest, it's clear that no baby robin came out of this cracked but largely intact shell. Exactly what happened is unclear. Perhaps a predatory bird broke into the egg, ate the contents, then discarded the shell. Although I don't think American Robins are the most common targets of brood parasitism, I can't rule out that a Brown-headed Cowbird chick hatched 1st and tossed out the other eggs to get all the food/nutrition the parents could provide. Conventional parasites and diseases no doubt take a toll. And although robin nests tend to be fairly sturdy cups, it's not impossible that bad weather knocked the egg out of the nest. This is a reminder that many eggs don't hatch and many nestlings don't survive to adulthood. Though many birds have the potential for explosive p

Here's 1 of our Eastern Tailed-blue butterflies. Though I usually identify these butterflies by a little piece of their hind wings that sticks out a bit (aka "the tail") [1], in this particular picture the background makes this a little hard to see. The other field mark that differentiates this butterfly from the Azure Complex butterflies is a small orange spot on the underside of the hind wing, which you ought to be able to see in this picture. Given that sometimes part of the wings can be torn off, the orange spot is probably a slightly more reliable field mark, though it's easier for me to remember that Eastern Tailed-blues have "tails". Although being able to see that orange spot is good for identification purposes, the view of them with their wings up does have a downside. The primary way to identify a female from a male is if the top view of the wings is gray rather than a purplish-blue. I'm not aware of a way to tell the gender from this view;

For Throwback Thursday, I thought I'd share what a Chinese Mantis ootheca (OH-uh-THEE-kuh), the other (probably most commonly seen) praying mantis ootheca looks like. A couple days ago I showed you what I believe to be a Carolina Mantis ootheca . (While I'm still leaning towards that being a Carolina Mantis ootheca due to it's tear-drop-like shape, apparently the non-puffy shape and the stripes are also field marks for the Narrow-winged Mantis , making it harder than I thought to identify a Carolina Mantis ootheca. [Since Chinese Mantises and Narrow-winged Mantises are in the same genus while the European Mantis and Carolina Mantis are merely distant cousins, I expected the Narrow-winged Mantis to have an ootheca much closer in appearance to the Chinese Mantis, but this webpage indicates otherwise.]) Anyways, it appears that the puffy oothecas that are shaped more like a tater tot can reliably be considered to have come from a Chinese Mantis, since the Narrow-winged Ma

Behold the majesty of the Eastern Kingbird ! This King of the Birds surveys its kingdom from its branch throne. Unfortunately for the Kingbird, many birds do not recognize its authority . In the bird world, they're probably considered more tyrants than kings however. Although they're on the small side (quite a bit smaller than American Robins and Northern Mockingbirds ), they're surprisingly willing to "mix it up" and attack far larger birds like crows, hawks, or herons [1] that they consider (perhaps correctly) to be a threat. This tyrannical behavior apparently gave them the "king" part of their common name [2] and the name of their family of birds, the tyrant flycatchers .  May 14, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 292808121, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] This doesn't seem to be a suicide mission. My guess is that their quickness and maneuverability usually saves them from dying in these encounters. [2] Though kings and tyrants aren&

Though a number of our local birds have blue plumage [1], the Tree Swallows are almost certainly the shiniest. While some birds are bluer (like Indigo Buntings , Blue Grosbeaks , and probably Blue Jays ), when you factor in the shine, you get a Tree Swallow [2]. I'm pretty sure those thorns indicate this fella was in a Honey Locust tree. I don't know if it's a favorite perch for this bird, but it might be a little safer there than elsewhere. I suspect that any climbing predator would need to take care to avoid those dangerously sharp thorns. Of course, this tree provides little protection from an aerial attack from a hawk. Since the males are generally bluer/shinier, this is almost certainly a male. May 14, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 292808063, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] But they don't have blue pigment; their blue plumage is dependent on their feather structure to reflect the blue light hitting them. [2] At least that's true for New Jersey

I was asked if I knew what something odd-looking was at the Duke Farms green roof. While the species wasn't immediately obvious to me, I immediately knew it was an ootheca (OH-uh-THEE-kuh) of a praying mantis. This is mostly egg casing, though there were (or are) a bunch of eggs in there too. It's not a Chinese Mantis or their Narrow-winged Mantis relatives [1] since their ootheca's are approximately as wide and they are long. That probably means it's a European Mantis or our native Carolina Mantis . Both will create oothecae of this shape, though the left-to-right stripes suggest to me that this is from a Carolina Mantis. The European Mantis should have the same general shape and ridges, but shouldn't have end-to-end stripes. This is a slightly radical identification since the invasive mantises (Chinese, Narrow-winged, and European) are all larger than our Carolina Mantis, and the invaders have been out-competing our native ones (sometimes by actually eating t

Here's another of our small-but-showy Pearl Crescent butterflies, and its orange-and-black coloring shows up pretty well against the verdant green spring flora in the picture. (I think a lot of animals look better with the bright green background.) Though a little too small to get a lot of attention, they are 1 of the easiest butterflies around here for you meet; they're super abundant . And they're super abundant because they're doing a lot of this . May 14, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 292808045, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

It's almost like this Red-tailed Hawk wanted to avoid a misidentification so its prominently displaying its red [1] tail. Since I'm pretty confident that birds don't really care what we identify them as, I'm assuming this positioning was a prerequisite to a good tail-preening session. Still, when people can't see that iconic red tail [2], misidentifications can run wild. The most over-enthusiastic people will claim to have seen an eagle, and I have to admit that a Golden Eagle does look a bit like a very big Red-tailed Hawk [3]. Probably the only thing that prevents more widespread misidentification is that the Red-tailed Hawk is quite a bit more common than our other hawks, like Red-shouldered Hawks , Cooper's Hawks , and Northern Harriers . May 13, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 282423074, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] Yeah, I know, it's more of a burnt orange tail than a red one, but people used to refer to colors differently . [2] Techn

Though the cowbird part of their name may require a little explanation [1], the brown-headed part of their name is immediately evident, at least among mature male Brown-headed Cowbirds . (Females have the same basic shape but are more of an earth-toned gray .) Their habit of brood parasitism makes them reviled by some; it just doesn't seem right to trick other birds into raising your kids, especially to the detriment of the other birds' own kids. But it's worth remembering that nature does a lot of immoral stuff, whether it's cannibalism, killing for non-food reasons, and of course regular parasites that plague most of the plant/animal/fungi species out there. (Believe me, you don't have the time/energy to be a Nature Cop policing all of the environment's injustices.) May 13, 2023 at Duke Farms Photo 282423018, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] They are frequently seen near cattle, inspiring the cowbird name. There was a theory that they used

I believe this caterpillar to be a Copper Underwing [1]. At least the coloring and the dorsal hump (near the left end of the caterpillar) seem consistent with the Copper Underwing. These caterpillars are not what you'd consider picky eaters; my Caterpillars of Eastern North America describes their diet thusly: Many wooded plants including apple, basswood, blueberry, cherry chestnut, current, grape, greenbrier, hawthorn, hickory, lilac, maple, oak, poplar, raspberry, rhododendron, viburnum, Virginia creeper, and walnut. Wikipedia adds: Ash, privet, honeysuckle, rose, and service trees. That's a pretty wide range of trees and shrubs. One of the challenges of finding them is that they could be almost anywhere; the other challenges are: Their green coloring blends in pretty darned well with the average leaf. They have a habit of feeding underneath leaves, so they're probably not visible when looking down at their location. They have a tendency to move from leaf-to-leaf; if you

Though not as easy to spot as some of our other turtles, I'll occasionally run across Spotted Turtles . Though there are other turtles with spots (especially on the carapace ), light spots on a dark turtle are a pretty good way to identify Spotted Turtles (at least around here). These turtles are neither the enthusiastic sun baskers like our sliders, cooters, and painted turtles nor big like the softshell and snapping turtles. Between the 2, it's unclear to me whether they're uncommon or just rarely in a place where I'll notice them. Either way, they're a welcome sight when I do spot them (pun intended). As a young kid, I'd read those Dick, Sally, and Jane primer books where a common refrain was "Watch Spot run!". This particular Spot isn't known for its running ability despite the racing reputation of their relatives . It's possible that the Great Swamp ecosystem is especially good habitat for them; 2 of my pictures came from Great Swamp Nati

This Green Frog looks to have found a mossy spot to "fish" for flies. It's not a great angle, but it achieves 1 thing that this picture doesn't achieve: easy identifiability. One thing you can easily see is 1 of the ridges going straight down its back, clearly distinguishing it from its American Bullfrog cousin. Other than that, the moss makes an interesting spot to sit. While both the frog and moss are green, which should provide some camouflage, the shades of green aren't particularly close. The frog might actually blend in better with a muddy background, perhaps resembling some slimy vegetation in the mud. On the other hand, moss does sound like a comfortable place to sit while waiting for dinner to fly by. May 12, 2023 at Lord Stirling Park Photo 282422844, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

These Wild Geraniums made an appearance last spring. The true geraniums like the Wild Geranium are somewhat related to the geraniums frequently found in gardens (actually pelargoniums); they're in the same family, but are in different genuses (AKA genera). Both these flowers have a naming connection to birds; geraniums are sometimes called cranesbills while pelargoniums are also called storksbills [1]. Much of the time these names don't make a lot of sense ; it's only when they go to seed that the names are descriptive of the flowers. Both flowers produce seeds that (sort of) resemble the bills of those long-billed birds. Though the Wild Geranium is a native species, it sounds like the Mediterranean region is the world hotbed for geraniums. May 12, 2023 at Lord Stirling Park Photo 282422647, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] FWIW cranesbill flowers and storksbill flowers are more closely related than cranes and storks are.

You knew I needed to do a pun on the Veery's name, didn't you? These birds sound like they're saying "veer", hence their name. You can kind of interpret this as Thrush Week, since this is the 3rd thrush I'm featuring this week. And while the American Robin and Eastern Bluebird are distinctive and colorful enough that misidentifications are rare, the Veery, Swainson's Thrush , Wood Thrush , and Hermit Thrush are all mostly earth-toned above and white-with-some-speckles below. If you're not good with bird vocalizations and don't get a pretty good look at the last 4, identification can be difficult [1]. May 12, 2023 at Lord Stirling Park Photo 282422617, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] And don't let the names fool you. It's not a Wood Thrush just because you saw it in the woods, and it's not a Hermit Thrush just because it was alone when you saw it.