northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's a Common Snapping Turtle I met last September. This fella was swimming with its head out of the water so that even the underwater parts of the turtle photographed pretty well. It was at the Raritan Power Canal part of Duke Island Park, a habitat popular with many species of turtle [1]. While you may not think they're cute and cuddly, other snapping turtles disagree with that assessment . I talked a little about their relatives in this earlier post . And I talked about why they might be easier to spot at Duke Island Park here (hint: it involves food). September 16, 2022 at Duke Island Park Photo 248764345, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] In my area, perhaps the best places to observe turtles are our 2 canals, the Delaware Raritan Canal and the (much shorter) Raritan Power Canal. Turtles seem to like the relatively calm water and plentiful basking opportunities there -and- the trails are close enough to the water that you can frequently get good looks...

I don't often photograph ants. As fairly small insects, it's frequently difficult for me to get a good enough picture of them to post/identify, but after plenty of iNaturalist IDs I feel fairly good about claiming this as a Ferruginous Carpenter Ant (aka Red Carpenter Ant) [1]. Though I couldn't find a lot of information on the Ferruginous Carpenter Ant, Wikipedia has a pretty good article on carpenter ants in general. They get the "carpenter" part of their name from their ability to bore into wood to build their nests. Unlike termites though, they chew holes in wood only to build a home; they can't eat the wood. There's some question about how bad carpenter ants are for trees. Though they do chew into the tree, they may either eat other insects that feed on the trees, or they may just attack the other insects because they don't want them in the tree-neighborhood. But there is an exception to this: aphids or caterpillars that poop out honeydew may b...

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my apartment door. Okay, I have to confess that my hearing is not good enough to have heard this guy "tapping, gently rapping" on my door. It wasn't until I went outside that I noticed my visitor.  Probably because of the light in the doorway, my apartment door is a fairly popular spot for moths, mayflies, and various other nocturnal insects. This is bound to attract predators like the (relatively) large mantises down to small jumping spiders. I suspect this fella had staked out the area in hopes of making a meal of my smaller arthropod visitors. When trying to get an ID, I initially went with iNaturalist's 1st suggestion, a Carolina Mantis . But then I read that the wings of the Carolina Mantis only go about 2/3 of the way down its abdomen, which is obviously not the case with this individual. That leaves the 3 usual suspects: European Mantis - Generally bigger t...

I get a lot of pictures of Great Blue Herons . They're not only fairly common (at least near water) but they're also fairly large birds that stand out around lakeshores and riverbanks. So here's another one, slowly striding through shallow water looking for unwary prey. September 1, 2022 at Duke Island Park Photo 238906839, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's an American Snout I met a few years back. A few days ago I talked about a lepidopteran with a similar name ( Baltimore Snout ) so I figured the American Snout for Throwback Thursday. Unlike the Baltimore Snout, the American Snout is a butterfly . Thus every single butterfly species is more closely related to the American Snout than the Baltimore Snout is. Still, butterflies and moths (aka lepidopterans) are pretty similar (and related) types of insects, and both these lepidopterans can have labial palps that look to us like a big, long nose. Whether the American Snout is also a moth is kind of a philosophical taxonomic question. Some people knowledgeable about insects consider butterflies to be a type of moth, very similar to the way mathematicians consider a square to be a type of rectangle. These people presumably consider the terms "moth" and "lepidopteran" to be synonymous. Others basically look at butterflies and moths as separate groups, where bu...

This is probably an Common Eastern Bumblebee , 1 of our most commonly seen bumblebees, but other bumblebees in the area can look similar, especially the Brown-belted Bumblebee and the Two-spotted Bumblebee . (Presumably the bumblebees have no difficulty distinguishing their species from the others, but IDing them can be tricky for us humans.) I have to admit that the 1st time I saw a bee with those orange blobs [1] on the legs, I wondered whether it was due to disease or some sort of parasite, but it turns out that they are pollen baskets . While "basket" may make you think of a container, bee pollen baskets are basically all pollen shaped into an oval that the bee can carry home. Quite a few bees will use pollen baskets, including honeybees , bumblebees , stingless bees , and orchid bees . My guess is that the presence of pollen baskets suggests that this particular bee had a successful day of pollen foraging. September 7, 2020 at the John Clyde Native Grassland Preserve Ph...

Here's another American Goldfinch on Purple Coneflowers that've gone to seed. That "gone to seed" part is key. While Purple Coneflowers may be a cool place to sit and rest, they're also a great food source for the seed-loving American Goldfinches. Though you might not like having one of your chairs made out of chocolate or bacon, American Goldfinches don't seem to mind sitting where they eat. And Purple Coneflower seeds must be pretty appealing to them since these flowers were in a pretty busy area, a flowerbed in front of the Duke Farms Orientation Center. They were willing to tolerate some large, loud primates milling around them to get their beaks on those tasty seed morsels. And this wasn't a one-off either; I got pictures of them in basically the same spot in prior years. Given this was still breeding season, I suspect the lack of plumage vibrancy means this was a female. September 9, 2022 at Duke Farms Photo 248761189, (c) jpviolette, some rights ...