northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's someone that's certainly around central NJ (and most of the 48 contiguous states): the Bald-faced Hornet . Being closer to white than yellow, building above-ground nests, and being slightly larger than some other yellowjackets is probably why they have "hornet" in their name despite not being hornets . The other reason for the misnaming is that yellowjackets and hornets are fairly close relatives that look pretty similar. I actually looked for a good online article on the differences between yellowjackets and hornets, and most of the ones I found said things that were wrong. This video isn't scientific, but AFAIK it's accurate (though the chicken/squirrel stuff at the end is a little off topic). These wasps build many of the large papery nests that you'll frequently see hanging from trees once the leaves fall [1]. In many cases I'll find that I had been walking near their nests all summer without being harassed by them. If you're not perce...

Yesterday I talked about American Senna . Well here's a Cloudless Sulphur caterpillar on a senna. The caterpillar blends in pretty well with the senna plant. It sounds like for these caterpillars they are what they eat; eating the yellow flowers makes them yellow, and eating the green leaves makes them green. This coloring no doubt helps them avoid the attention of predators. It's hard to say how many predators they have though, since sennas and cassias (2 commonly used food sources as caterpillars) are considered poisonous, and eating them transfers some degree of poisonousness to these caterpillars. On the other hand, they'll also use some other legumes as host plants. Maybe these butterflies are sometimes poisonous and sometimes not? August 16, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 152592112, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's another example of mudpuddling butterflies, in this case Pearl Crescents . And as I've shown before, animal scat can be more nutritionally beneficial than mud, containing a concentration of minerals unlikely to be found anywhere. Mudpuddling seems to be mostly a male activity. You might think this is because they need more nutrition to fight off other males looking to mate, but in many cases their motivation is more fatherly; males will frequently pass these nutrients as a " nuptial gift " to females during mating [1]. Another interesting thing about mudpuddling is that the activity draws other butterflies in. Apparently a spot perceived to be good for mudpuddling is sufficiently valuable to butterflies that if they see others using the spot they are likely to check it out themselves. Sometimes a good spot will attract dozens of butterflies, maybe spanning a few different species. August 15, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 152591517, (c) jpviolette, some rights reser...

Here's an American Senna  (aka Wild Senna), a native plant in the legume family . This is an interesting family of plants. It's the 3rd largest family of land plants behind only the orchids and asters (who are in a close race for 1st place). And while we might be most familiar with them for the beans and peas we eat, they're all around us and in various sizes: Clovers are usually low to the ground wildflowers. Sennas are up to 6 feet in height and straddle that area between wildflowers and shrubs. Kentucky Coffeetrees are trees. This indicates that there are some trees that are more closely related to the string beans in your garden than they are to other trees like oaks, maples, etc. Trees do not form a clade ! The largish, healthy population of American Senna at Duke Farms is suspected to be the reason that a butterfly rarely seen in the rest of Somerset County - the Sleepy Orange - is commonly found there. They and other sulphur butterflies like the Cloudless Sulphu...

Here's a Wood Duck from early August. Normally this is probably our showiest waterfowl; I suspect this one is in its eclipse plumage . Eclipse plumage is a molting phase where the duck looks drabber and less colorful, and it's pretty important. Because ducks molt their flight feathers all at once, they go through a period when they're grounded, and are unable to fly. Imagine if you're one of the most colorful birds on the pond and you suddenly can't fly - to predators, you'd be a sitting duck! To partially compensate for their temporary lack of aerial ability, these ducks become less conspicuous by donning their eclipse plumage. (Mallards do this too, and during eclipse plumage it's very difficult to tell the male and female Mallards apart.) And then when their flight feathers grow back, they molt off these drab colors and regain their flamboyant good looks again. August 5, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 148952468, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) ...

Though some wildflowers grow pretty low to the ground, the fight for sunlight and the ability to photosynthesize means that many grow to 3-8 feet in height. This enables someone like this American Goldfinch to hide in there pretty well. All too often when I'm out trying to get pictures, I fail to approach areas like this quietly and discreetly enough, and birds/butterflies will flee before I get a picture. Of course, many other times if you approach really slowly and carefully, you find there was nothing there to scare off. And moving really slowly all of the time makes it hard to cover a lot of ground. There's no perfect solution to trying to find these guys. I think some of those plants are probably thistles which have gone to seed, seeds that a goldfinch would happily eat. This habitat probably provided both camouflage cover and nutrition. August 5, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 148952799, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

I got this picture of a Monarch landing on a milkweed (probably Common Milkweed). Although this plant looked pretty young, most milkweeds had blossomed earlier in the summer [1], and I don't see flowers on it. My suspicion is that this is a female looking for a good spot to lay an egg, which will hatch into a milkweed-eating caterpillar. I'm told that under favorable conditions a Monarch can go from egg to adult butterfly in a little over 25 days: 3-8 days to hatch 3-5 days for each instar X 5 instars = 15-25 days as a caterpillar 8-15 days in chrysalis 26-48 days to become a butterfly Any egg laid on this day should be a functional adult by either mid-September or very early October. Both these dates most likely mean it would be in the super generation that migrates down to winter in Mexico [2]. August 15, 2021 at Duke Farms Photo 152591256, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] You can see flowering milkweed any time of the summer. If a plant is cut before it...