Muir’s Mountains

Posted on September 18, 2017 by roadsendnaturalist

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

~John Muir

It is appropriate to start this post on Muir’s beloved mountains, with one of his most famous quotes. We use it often when referring to what happens when you enter that other famous Y park, Yellowstone…”while cares will drop off like autumn leaves”. A long-time friend who is a ranger in Yellowstone teased us about perhaps changing our favorite Y park to this one, Yosemite. But I assured her that while it is spectacular, it can never replace the special place that Yellowstone has in our hearts.

A rainbow atop Bridal Veil Falls in Yosemite Valley (click photos to enlarge)

We headed to Yosemite after the relative quiet of Kings Canyon/Sequoia, expecting large crowds and uncertain of our destination, but hoping to get lucky with a campsite outside the park and then a back-country permit the next day. Unfortunately, we could see smoke from a nearby new forest fire as we approached, so we once again feared obscured views of the famous valley.

El Capitan

But as we drove in, the sheer granite walls surrounding Yosemite Valley towered above us in sharp detail, with the smoke merely adding color to the background. I can’t imagine what this valley must have been like in Muir’s time, without all the roads, construction, and people. Even now, Muir’s mountains are breathtaking and you feel you should just stand there in silence and stare at the various peaks.

Sentinel Rock at sunset

But we needed to find a place to lay our heads. The Forest Service campgrounds on the way in had all been small and full (although an interesting guy had offered to allow us to share his site at one of them as we drove in). As we drove through the valley, to our surprise, we spotted a vacancy sign at one of the valley lodging facilities with the odd name of Housekeeping Camp.

The tent cabins at Housekeeping Camp seem quiet early in the day

We stopped and snagged one of three remaining units for two nights and thought ourselves lucky to get a place while having no reservations. When we drove into our site, you suddenly start to wonder what your stay might be like…crowds of people, often with large groups gathered around a campfire, music booming from various electronic devices, kids riding bicycles through the camp, dogs, cars jammed into every nook and cranny, and facilities that look a bit…rustic (that may be too nice a word).

Our little “home” (thankfully, for only one night)

The units are two back to back rooms with three thin walls. The fourth “wall” is a large shower curtain-looking partition, which also serves as an entrance. Each room has a bunk bed, a double bed, one small shelf and one light bulb. There is a picnic table inside a small privacy fence area that separates you from the next block of two camp units about 5 feet away. Togetherness is the phrase that comes to mind (if you are of a positive mindset). I was feeling some other thoughts, although people around us seemed to be enjoying themselves and ignoring the cramped feeling I was getting. The room cost $98, plus, for a few dollars more, you rent sheets and pillows if you don’t have them. The restroom was nearby along with a shared shower house. Signs warning of the potential for Hanta virus and plague (from fleas of the many rodents in the region) added to the surreal nature of this camp experience. I compared this to my many times staying at the aptly named Rough Rider cabins in Yellowstone, and suddenly they seemed like luxury accommodations. I guess many people enjoy this closeness and the imagined step-up from tent camping, but I felt sorry for these visitors, for Muir’s legacy, and for the stunning landscape of the valley, that this is the way so many people experience this sacred spot. We debated the pros and cons of this type of lodging – the number of units, their price (seemed high for what you get), the crowded conditions, etc. These are difficult choices – allowing affordable access for the masses to this incredible valley versus providing a lodging experience that might be more in tune with the sense of reverence that such a landscape evokes, a choice that would likely be more exclusive. Is that an “elitist approach”? I don’t know. People certainly seemed to be having a good time, but, is it in tune with the spirit of the place, its history, its majesty? I guess I came away disappointed that the National Park Service has not done a better job of providing clean, comfortable, and site-appropriate facilities in one the gems of the park system.

sunrise Yosemite Valley with Black-eyed Susan's

Sunrise in Yosemite Valley

The next morning we headed out before sunrise to watch the valley come alive in the morning sun. The usual colors of the morning sky had an assist from waves of smoke from the wildfire just outside the park boundary.

Smoke moving into the valley at sunrise

This is the huge advantage of lodging in the valley – the ability to be there at sunrise and sunset and still be able to access your lodging without a long drive. The sky turned orange red as the sun peeked over the famous peaks. We were alone in the meadow, another advantage of viewing the world at sunrise.

Smoke blocks the distant view of Yosemite Valley from Olmsted Point

For reasons mentioned above, and the added smoke we saw at sunrise, we decided to forfeit our second night at Housekeeping Camp (with only the loss of a $10 handling fee). We packed up and headed to the back-country office to get a permit for hiking the high country. Being third in line when they opened helped us secure a permit for an area near the famed Tuolumne Meadows. As we drove high into the Sierras, we realized the smoke was following us, which would make hiking less than ideal at these elevations (9000 ft+). We made the difficult decision to forego our back-country permit (we turned it in at another back-country permit office so someone else could use it) and to try to find a campsite in one of the campgrounds just outside the park boundary. Again, we got lucky and ended up with a lakeside campsite in a Forest Service campground less than a mile outside the park.

Our campsite on Tioga Lake in Inyo National Forest

It was on a beautiful lake with 13 primitive campsites and very convenient to the park’s high country. Once we set up the tents, we drove back into the park with our stove and freeze-dried food for a dinner with a view.

The view from Lembert Dome

As luck would have it, the veil of smoke seemed to stop before reaching all of the high peaks, so we had an amazing view after our hike up Lembert Dome, a popular destination, but one devoid of fellow hikers this time of day.

Sunset from Lembert Dome

We ended up having one family from Belgium pass us on the mountain, but, aside from hundreds of migrating yellow-rumped warblers, we ate our dinner with nothing but the spectacular scenery and each other as company. To me , this is the best way to experience this majestic park.

The view toward Yosemite Valley from Olmsted Point, minus the smoke

The next day, our last in this whirlwind tour of three parks, we wanted to hike up to one of the classic mountain lakes. We started by driving out to Olmsted Point where we heated up water for coffee, tea, and oatmeal. The view was what we had hoped for the previous morning – looking out toward Half Dome. The skies had cleared up in the high country, but we heard all day from people coming from the valley that it was still shrouded with thick smoke.

Leichtlin’s mariposa lily along a trail

The area around Tuolumne Meadows is not as crowded as Yosemite Valley, but is still a place where it can be tough to find a parking spot at a trail head. We opted for the trail to Cathedral Lakes. One guidebook said “if you only do one hike in the high country, do this one”.

Alpine lily

The trail starts at about 8500 ft and winds upward to the lower lake at an elevation of 9200 ft. It is about a 7 mile round trip hike. We saw plenty of other hikers along the route and on the eastern shore of the lake which is a wide, flat, granite outcrop.

Cathedral Peak with reflection in granite

A reflected view of Cathedral Peak, elevation 10,912 ft

There are many places to capture a beautiful reflection of nearby Cathedral Peak in a pool on the rock or in the adjoining marsh. We decided to hike around to the other side of the lake for lunch since we did not see anyone on the far shore.

Pool with a view

Melissa never misses a chance to take a dip in mountain water, no matter how cold, so, once again I was convinced to cool off in a gorgeous pool at the far end of the lake. This particular pool probably had the best view of any spot we have ever dipped our toes in. Not far beyond our swimming hole (well, really just a splashing hole due to temperatures and water depth) the lake water left its calm existence and plunged down a waterfall, exposing a view off to the mountains and valleys beyond. Megan managed snap the shutter at just the right moment to capture that quintessential expression we often have when first squatting down in a mountain stream.

View of Cathedral Peak on the Lower Lake

After a relaxing lunch, we headed back down the trail and off to our campsite to pack up. It had been an amazing trip, full of quiet beauty, crowded tourist spots, cold water, smoky skies, and majestic scenery. These mountains are truly spectacular. Muir wrote “It is by far the grandest of all the special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter.” I can only imagine what it was like to have tromped over these granite domes before the crowds descended on the now iconic places of Yosemite. Melissa and I are thrilled to have finally made it, and we hope to return and hike the backcountry without the threat of clouds of smoke obscuring the peaks. The “other Y park” is definitely special.

Hiking Among Giants

Posted on September 10, 2017 by roadsendnaturalist

Walk in the Sequoia woods at any time of the year and you will say they are the most beautiful and majestic on earth.

~John Muir

I am far behind in posting about recent events, sightings and travels. But I guess that is a good problem to have – doing and seeing so much that I don’t have time to write about it! So, here is the first of several posts on our travels this past month. We finally made it to see the giant sequoias and the incredible high country of the Sierras. Melissa was awarded a trip for an interpretive training session in California, and I flew out to join her and Megan for a rather unplanned camping trip afterward. Our first planned trip had been postponed a few years ago when wildfires blanketed the area with smoke, so we made some last minute changes and hiked the Lost Coast Trail instead. Now we had the time, but little in the way of concrete plans (no reservations for campsites, since they fill up months in advance and this trip had been planned on much shorter notice). I flew into Reno, Nevada, and we drove several hours into the Central Valley of California, home to what looks like our country’s largest source of fruits, nuts, and vegetables, with mile after mile of irrigated farmland. After an overnight near Fresno, we were up early and headed into Kings Canyon National Park. We lucked out and got a back-country permit for a 10-mile hike in Redwood Canyon, home to some large groves of giant sequoias. Since we only planned to hike a couple of miles before pitching camp our first evening, we decided to first take in a few of the iconic sites accessible by road.

Junction View looking into Kings Canyon (click photos to enlarge)

Kings Canyon is considered one of, if not the, deepest canyons in North America. Just outside the park boundary, the canyon is almost 8200 feet deep from the Kings River to the top of an adjacent mountain peak. It is incredibly rugged and dry. The latter was the big surprise to me. No wonder forest fires are such a part of this landscape.

Zumwalt meadow

The wettest habitats are, of course, along the waterways. We stopped at one of the classic Sierra landscapes, Zumwalt meadow, and arrived just in time for a ranger-led walk. The ranger was a young seasonal who had an amiable style and almost immediately shared a new learning.

A huge incense cedar was one of the first stops on the guided walk

What I at first assumed was a young, yet still substantial, giant sequoia, turned out to be an incense cedar, a common species in these habitats. There are several notable features that distinguish the two species, so it was a good lesson for our hikes to come.

Lorquin’s admiral butterfly

At the meadow proper, we saw several butterflies – a few monarchs flitting about some milkweed out in the meadow, add a striking Lorquin’s admiral along the trail. We continued around the loop after the ranger finished his talk, but not before he gave us a good tip on a feature to look for on our drive out of the canyon.

The famous geologic fold in Kings Canyon

A geologic highlight no less (those that know me know how unusual this is for me). The ranger (who had a degree in geology) told us about a distinctive fold on the highway which I now know is famous as the Kings Canyon Fold. He said it was the textbook example of how rocks can be deformed at high temperatures and pressures. Sure enough, it is not only on textbooks, but is also an exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History. The canyon does provide incredible views of a landscape shaped by glaciers, rivers, and huge geologic forces that have occurred over the millennia. But what I most wanted to see were the living things that have survived the millennia – the giant sequoias.

General Grant tree

A must stop for anyone in Kings Canyon is the General Grant tree, the second largest tree (by volume) on Earth. Coastal redwoods are the tallest living organisms, but giant sequoias are the most massive. Giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) grow naturally only on the west slope of California’s Sierra Nevada range. Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) grow naturally only in a narrow strip along the Pacific Coast.

A few facts about the General Grant tree

It is the widest sequoia known, being 40 ft across at its base ( with a circumference of 107 ft, it would take 20 people holding hands to completely encircle its massive trunk)
268 ft tall
Estimated age – 1700 years (a full 1500 years younger than the oldest known sequoia)
First branch is 129 ft above the ground

Giant sequoia cones as symbols on National Park Service hat

The cones of these massive giants are a little larger than a chicken egg, and the seeds are like oak flakes. The ranger pointed out that the giant sequoia cone is one of the symbols on every National Park Service ranger’s uniform – on the band of their iconic wide brim hats.

A forest of giants

Late that afternoon, we finally made it to the trail head into Redwood Canyon (Giant sequoias are sometimes called Sierra redwoods). We started our climb and immediately passed through groves of huge trees that included giant sequoias, sugar pines (with the largest pine cones in the world), and Douglas firs.

Sugar pine cone

Grasses on ex[posed slope in Redwood Canyon

Grasses along a dry ridge in Redwood Canyon

Patterns of twigs

Late in the day we reached a rocky ridge line overlooking a small canyon. A few open areas provided great views and some interesting patterns in the growth form of plants.

Our first campsite in Redwood Canyon

We finally settled on a spot near the edge of the ridge with a panorama on one side and a grove of giant sequoias on the other. The forest was incredibly quiet, a fitting silence in such a place of reverence.

Sunset among the giants

The view at sunrise from our camp

Megan initially planned to sleep in the hollow base of one of the giants, but ended up setting up her tent in the middle of the night when the scurrying sounds of small mammals, and the more worrisome sound of some larger species, interrupted her sleep (we found what we assumed were three bear day beds on the slope above our campsite).

Origin of Sasquatch?

On a morning walk I discovered a surreal figure on one of the sequoia trunks – a burn scar that had an eerie resemblance to a human form, especially when viewed at a distance.

We spent a lot of time looking up at the canopy in awe

A tunnel tree

Walking through the downed giant with our backpacks and room to spare

Megan standing at one of the giants in Redwood Canyon

Our second day was a longer hike ( about 7 miles) through incredibly beautiful terrain that included dry ridges, clear mountain streams, and more giant sequoias. Along the way we spotted a variety of birds, some deer, and an array of wildflowers.

Crimson columbine against a backdrop of a small waterfall along the trail

Indian paintbrush was a common splash of red on our hike

The beautiful flowers of whisker brush in a sunny spot

Our camp the second night was in the vicinity of an old logging camp dotted with massive stumps

We camped the second night along a stream surrounded by the weathered stumps of sequoias cut long ago in the age of loggers in these mountains. I can’t imagine cutting down one of these giants – both the physical effort and time required (it often took a couple of days just to cut through the trunk), and the process of getting the wood out of this steep terrain. We hiked out the next morning and headed to the adjoining Sequoia National Park (our second oldest national park) with the goal of seeing the General Sherman tree.

Melissa stands in the “footprint” display of the General Sherman tree

The largest tree (by volume) on Earth, the General Sherman tree is in a forest of behemoths, appropriately known as the Giant Forest. Described by John Muir when he entered this grove in 1873 – A magnificent growth of giants…one naturally walked softly and awe-stricken among them. I wandered on, meeting nobler trees where all are noble…this part of the Sequoia belt seemed to me to be the finest, and I then named it “the Giant Forest”.

The General Sherman tree from a distance

We all are thankful for the efforts of Muir and the many others who saw the majesty in these trees and fought for their preservation. There is something magical and humbling about walking among them, and it is a feeling you cannot find anywhere else. As Muir noted after walking the ridges of this area …it seemed impossible that any other forest picture in the world could rival it. I will have to agree with him, there is no place like the sequoia woods.

Sweeping Grass and Rolling Logs

Posted on August 26, 2017 by roadsendnaturalist

The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.

~Mark Van Doren

We had an adventure on one of the last weeks of summer camp at the Garden. It was all about discoveries – trees, dragonflies, aquatic macroinvertebrates, field and forest insects and animal tracks and signs. A highlight for me was sharing the incredible diversity of Mason Farm Biological Reserve with those budding naturalists. We sampled both field habitats and forest edges using various techniques from sweep nets (swinging a mesh net back and forth through tall grasses and examining your catch) to log rolling (gently turning over downed logs to check for decomposers and other critters).

Phidippus clarus, Brilliant Jumper, good eye view

Brilliant jumper, Phidippus clarus, in a sweep net (click photos to enlarge)

The kids were excited about their finds as they swept the nets back and forth along the edge of the meadows. I was so busy helping them catch and identify things I didn’t have much time to photograph anything, but when one camper saw a tiny jumping spider in his net, I had to grab the camera. I have a weakness for jumping spiders and their bold colors, huge eyes, and “inquisitive personalities”.

Phidippus clarus, Brilliant Jumper, looking up

Brilliant jumper right before it did just that (up onto my lens)

I later identified it as a brilliant jumper based on the green chelicerae and the orange pattern on the abdomen. I shot several images as it crawled about the edge of the net, pausing frequently to stare up at my camera gear looming overhead. It finally did what they often do, and leapt up onto my lens, ending its photo session.

Rabid wolf spider, Rabidosa rabida

As we walked along the forest edge, someone spotted a huge wolf spider. I bent over for a closer look and a quick picture of its enormous (and numerous) eyes. I’m not sure how the common and scientific names came about (rabidus is Latin for wild, crazy, raging), but maybe some early arachnologist laid down and looked into the face of one of these huge spiders and felt a slight twinge just as I did.

We showed the campers the proper technique for rolling a log (gently roll it toward you so that any larger critters can escape away from you instead of coming at you).

Passalus beetle, Odontotaenius disjunctus, in one of their tunnels in a log

One log revealed a treasure trove of beetles – some adult passalus beetles (in the family Passalidae), and several large beetle grubs. These common large beetles are also called patent leather beetles, horned beetles, horned passalus beetles, bess beetles, and many other common names,

Large beetle grub under log

The first two grubs were huge, curled in a C shape under the log. I did a quick glance and told the excited kids those were probably the larvae of the passalus beetles and bent down to pick one up. I then noticed another larva crawling nearby. It was slightly slimmer and was actively moving instead of being curled up.

Another, more slender, beetle grub

At first, I assumed they were just different ages of passalus beetle grubs. I remembered reading that their larvae have a reduced pair of legs used for stridulation (making sound by rubbing one body part against another, in this case, the reduced leg against the adjacent larger leg).

A closer look at the first grub shows 3 pairs of legs with the first pair slightly reduced

I always had wanted a photo of the reduced pair of legs (it’s what we nature photographer types do) so I flipped over one of the larger grubs and took a couple of quick shots. Sure enough, the first pair of legs was smaller then the other two pair. We gently replaced that log to its original position and rolled another. More beetles! And something else…

Beetle pupa

There were a couple of beetle pupae under the log (I assumed they were passalus beetles). This was really cool as I had never seen large beetle pupae before. One was attached to the underside of the log in what looked like a chamber made of wood debris and maybe beetle frass.

Juvenile passalus beetle is brown in color

There was also a brown-colored passalus beetle. These are juveniles and they will gradually darken to black as they mature (I wasn’t able to find how long this takes).

Adult passalus beetle is black

Passalus beetles are fascinating critters and a frequent live animal used for environmental education demonstrations. They are one of the few beetles that are social and tend their young. They feed by chewing galleries through the soft wood of downed trees and then re-ingesting their frass after it has been colonized by bacteria and fungi. They also feed this mixture to their larvae. One way they maintain this social structure is through a complex communication system created by stridulation. Adults stridulate by rubbing rows of spines on the undersides of the soft, flying wings (the membranous wings hidden under their hard outer wing structures – the elytra) against a hardened textured area on the top of their abdomen. As I mentioned earlier, the larvae can also make sounds, and these are believed to be important not only for social communication, but also defense against predators. Pick a beetle up and hold it close to your ear, and you are likely to hear some squeaks (click this link to hear passalus beetle stridulation). This same reference states that passalus beetles have 17 known audio signals for both adults and larvae, making it the most elaborate sound communication system known for any arthropod.

I was all set to write up a blog post when I double-checked my information on the life cycle using various online resources. Then it happened…I began to think I had made a mistake in my identification of the large grubs. I found a reference that stated passalus grubs have a reduced pair of legs, but it is the third pair, not the first, as I had seen on the large grubs. Plus, it said these small legs were so reduced as to be difficult to see. Dang, I had to go back and check out those grubs again. Well, as luck would have it, it rained a lot the next day and the creek rose making it tough to drive across to Mason Farm. Things were busy at work that week, but as I was walking on our nature trail one afternoon preparing for a program, I saw a log off the side of the path. I walked over and flipped it, hoping to find…

Passalus beetle adult and larva

There was an adult passalus beetle and a large slender grub! There were actually a couple of grubs under that log, so I gently grabbed one and flipped it over to look at its legs.

The third pair of legs is greatly reduced on this grub

Yes, indeed, that third pair of legs is reduced and very difficult to even see on a passalus beetle larva! So, I had been wrong in my ID on that first quick glance. Those large grubs are most likely the larvae of some other beetle, perhaps a stag beetle. Not only did they not have the greatly reduced third pair of legs, but they were all curled into a C shape. Passalus grubs are usually straighter in posture and more slender. I’m not sure about the pupae, as I didn’t manipulate them to see all sides, but I think they still may have been passalus pupae. It was a good reminder that I need to make careful observations and to double-check my information. Of course, now I want to go back and check on the pupae and see if they are still there, and, if so, maybe keep one to see what emerges. It also showed me that there is always something more to learn about even the common creatures we share our world with, and that learning truly is a life-long endeavor.

Garden Ramblings

Posted on August 20, 2017 by roadsendnaturalist

A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy.

~Luis Barragan

If I am going to be working, it may as well be in a beautiful place like the North Carolina Botanical Garden! Just walking to and from my car offers glimpses of beauty and wonder every day. But, my favorite time is after the gates close and everyone has gone home…a stroll through the quiet garden habitats can be magical. Here is some of that magic from the last few weeks.

Bumblebee gathering pollen and nectar from a great blue lobelia (click photos to enlarge)

Green frog resting on a floating leaf as it transforms from a tadpole to a frog

The symmetry of some Okefenokee hooded pitcher plants

A young snapping turtle in our Coastal Plain habitat

The delicate flowers of yellow-fringed orchid

The urn-shaped seed vessel of meadow beauty

Aphids gathering for a picnic

Jack-in-the-pulpit seeds ripening to their striking red color

A young (maybe 2 years old) Eastern box turtle on the path

Silver-spotted skipper on pickerelweed

Close up of the seed head of an American lotus

After the seeds of an American lotus mature

A green lynx spider awaiting a meal

Backyard Rambles

Posted on August 11, 2017 by roadsendnaturalist

The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.

~William Butler Yeats

There are times in this blog when I don’t seek to tell a detailed story of the life of some natural creature, but simply to share the awe-inspiring scenes that surrounds us, in this case our backyard here in the woods. It doesn’t take long to find exquisite beauty if you look, listen, and move at a slow pace. This is our refuge, our special place. I hope you can find one near you.

Here are a few of the small wonders found one evening this week on a slow ramble around the yard…

A tattered female Imperial Moth (click photos to enlarge)

Red-humped caterpillars feeding on Redbud

Acanaloniid Planthopper

The sculptured egg of a Red-spotted Purple Butterfly on Wild Cherry

Katydid nymph

Citrus Flatid Planthopper

Double-lined Prominent caterpillar

Young Carolina Anole

Blue Dasher dragonfly

A closer look at the marvelous eyes of a dragonfly

Catching Up

Posted on August 6, 2017 by roadsendnaturalist

You are surrounded by gifts every living moment of every day. Let yourself feel appreciation for their presence in your life and take the time to acknowledge their splendor.

~Lou G. Nungesser

It has been a whirlwind summer thus far with work keeping me a little busier than I care to be at times. I have had several opportunities to carry a camera but not as much time as I like to post things or learn more about the many plants and critters I have encountered. So, here is a rambling collection of things I have seen in recent weeks. It is truly amazing how much beauty and wonder surrounds us.

Nessus sphinx moth (Amphion floridensis) egg (click photos to enlarge)

One morning during summer camp, I spotted a beautiful Nessus sphinx moth hovering near some Virginia creeper leaves, one of their host plants. The gathered summer campers were able to witness her laying three eggs. I collected one to raise since one egg had only one leaf for the future larva to consume.

Nessus sphinx larva about 2 days after hatching

Nessus sphinx larva two days after hatching

Six days later it looks like this…still a long way to go

Walnut sphinx moth (Amorpha juglandis)

The pupa I shared in an earlier post produced this beautiful walnut sphinx moth about two weeks after the pupa formed.

Swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata)

Rose mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos) flower buds

American lotus flower (Nelumbo lutea)

Cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis)

Cranefly orchid (Tipularia discolor) – the delicate flower stalk appears in late summer, long after the single leaf disappears

I need to spend more time appreciating the incredible flowers that surround me every day…after all, I do work at a botanical garden!

Southern flannel moth (Megalopyge opercularis), the adult of a bizarre, so-called stinging caterpillar, the puss caterpillar (or asp)

A strikingly beautiful rosy maple moth (Dryocampa rubicunda)

Clymene moth (Haploa clymene)

We set out moth lights on a couple of nights the past few weeks and were rewarded with a variety of nocturnal visitors. Shown above are a few of my favorites.

Small Eastern dobsonfly (Corydalus cornutus) larva (also called a hellgrammite) found under a rock in the swift waters of Morgan Creek

Pickerel frog (Lithobates palustris)

Powdered dancer damselfly (Argia moesta), male

Margined madtom, Noturus insignis, a small (~5 inches) catfish found in swift waters like Morgan Creek

One of our favorite summer camp activities is a hike out to Morgan Creek, where we sample a riffle area in this surprisingly pristine Piedmont stream. We always manage to see a variety of interesting creatures including hellgrammites, caddisfly larvae, mayflies, crayfish, and a few species of fish.

Robber fly with moth victim

Walnut caterpillars (Datana integerrima) feeding on hickory leaves

Huge male American bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus)

A pair of female black and yellow argiope spiders (Argiope aurantia) – they are also commonly called writing spiders and garden spiders

Any stroll through the Garden produces a rich variety of sights and sounds. The key is, you have to be out there to enjoy them. So, get outside and see what you can find.

Plight of the Polistes

Posted on July 30, 2017 by roadsendnaturalist

Let us turn elsewhere, to the wasps and bees, who unquestionably come first in the laying up of a heritage for their offspring.

~Jean-Henri Fabre, entomologist, 1823-1915

We had a wasp sting two weeks ago at summer camp. The wasps had a nest inside the locking mechanism for one of our pedestrian gates, and when the gate clanged shut, an angry wasp flew out and stung the closest person. Then, last week, a wasp stung a co-worker as she tidied up the small fairy house we have in the children’ garden. Since that area is used by many visitors, especially children, I went out to check on it, and found a wasp nest inside, which I removed. We later stuffed something in the crack where the wasp probably entered, so hopefully that will take care of the situation.

Paper wasp nest under the eaves of my office building (click photos to enlarge)

We have plenty of these paper wasps (Polistes sp., maybe P. metricus?) under the eaves of our buildings (and I have in them at home) and we all manage to get along just fine most of the time. It is usually just when the nest is down low that problems may arise. So it was, with the nest I removed. I don’t like doing that, but, after the deed was done, I decided to look more closely at that nest and the ones under the eaves. First on the list of amazing things about these creatures is that the nest is paper! Wasps scrape wood from surfaces, mix it with their saliva, and slowly create the hexagonal shapes that become cells for their eggs and developing young. The nest is suspended from a pedicel under a protected area like the eaves of a building, inside a bird house, or some other sheltered location.

Closer view of the nest showing different life stages being tended by worker females

The first nests of spring are started by a mated female queen wasp that overwintered in some protected spot. She constructs that first nest by herself or with some subordinate females (usually sisters) that may have overwintered as well. Her first fertilized eggs are all female and are destined to become workers. Once they emerge, they take over the duties of caring and feeding new larvae. Workers forage for caterpillars and other soft-bodied insects that they chew up and feed to the larvae. Adult paper wasps feed on rotting fruit and nectar, so wasps are important pollinators and biological controls of plant-eating insects.. The photo above shows a worker female tending some of the brood cells. Eggs, in various stages of development, can be seen in some cells. The fat, white larvae with grayish heads, can be seen in others. Cells with paper coverings contain pupae.

Close up of a paper wasp egg

I gently tore open the nest I had removed and examined its contents. Eggs are small, somewhat oval in shape, and attached on the side walls of the cells.

An early stage wasp pupa

As I was teasing apart one of the cells, a pupa fell out (above). I am guessing this is still a female this time of year. Toward the end of summer, the queen (also called the foundress) lays a series of unfertilized eggs, which become males. Some of her fertilized eggs will receive additional care and nutrients and may become future queens that will mate and overwinter. At the start of cooler weather, the males, female workers, and original queen all die, leaving the new batch of potential queens to overwinter.

Paper wasp larva and late stage pupa

I placed the pupae from this nest in a container and will watch to see if they emerge. What started out as an effort to rid a space of a stinging threat has turned into a greater appreciation of a common species that I have tended to overlook all these years.

Summer Details

Posted on July 24, 2017 by roadsendnaturalist

The beauty of the natural world lies in the details.

~ Natalie Angier

It has been a hectic few weeks at work with summer camp. One good thing is I am out in the Garden daily, and, anytime you are out in a place with that much diversity, there are plenty of things to see. I managed to take the camera out a few days before and after camp, and found some interesting subjects. Here are a few of the recent highlights…

Waved sphinx moth larva feeding on fringetree (click photos to enlarge)

The mummy-like pupa of a walnut sphinx moth (the antennae of the future moth can be seen outlined in the pupa as they curl down from the top into a point just above my finger)

: Snowy tree cricket (Oecanthus fultoni), male – this is the so-called thermometer cricket. The frequency of the chirps made by this species (made by the males as they rub their wings together) is considered a fairly reliable estimate of the air temperature. In the Eastern U.S., Fahrenheit temperature can be estimated by counting the chirps in 13 sec. and adding 40.

Yellow jackets dispatch a pink-striped oakworm to feed to their larvae

One of the many bunnies that reside at the Garden (quite happily, I presume)

Gardener’s friend – a black-spotted prominent larva feeding on lespedeza

This caterpillar practices deceit with its back end looking like a front end

The beautiful and wildlife-friendly berries of a sassafras tree

A handsome trig (also called a red-headed bush cricket). This one is a male. The handsome part is self-evident; the trig part refers to the family Trigonidiinae, or Winged Bush Crickets.

Handsome trig nymph (wings are still developing)

Dogbane leaf beetle, an iridescent beauty

A very pointy-headed planthopper (Rhyncomitra microrhina) that we caught while sweep-netting

Planthopper - Rhyncomitra microrhina, top view

Dorsal view of same planthopper

Rear end of tulip tree silk moth cayerpillar

All is well that ends well…the rear end of a tuliptree silk moth caterpillar. Eggs were laid by a female on 5/18/17, hatched on 5/30; caterpillars had all pupated by 6/29; first adult moth of this summer’s second generation emerged on 7/20. This new generation will overwinter as pupae.

Ambushed

Posted on July 22, 2017 by roadsendnaturalist

We are not afraid of predators, we are transfixed by them, prone to weave stories and fables and chatter endlessly about them, because fascination creates preparedness, and preparedness, survival. In a deeply tribal way, we love our monsters…

~Ecologist, E.O. Wilson

I took a stroll through the Garden after work one day this week, looking for some flowers to photograph as a backdrop for a needed poster. I wanted a flower off to one side, with black background for the lettering.

Ironweed (click photos to enlarge)

I stopped at an ironweed plant, a great nectar source for all sort sorts insects, and took a few quick shots. I saw some movement on another plant, and went over to grab a pic of a pollinator…

Silver-spotted skipper on ironweed

The skipper was moving from flower to flower, probing for nectar. I moved to get another angle, and noticed something odd dangling below another flower…

Silver-spotted skipper hanging from Ironweed

Silver-spotted skipper dangling below a flower – look closely at the flower

It was another silver-spotted skipper, apparently hanging by its proboscis. How did that happen? As I bent down to look, I noticed something on the underside of the ironweed flower – a small insect – a jagged ambush bug, genus Phymata. This is one of the sit-and-wait predators often seen lurking on flowers, waiting for an unsuspecting pollinator to get too close. Most predators of this sort are camouflaged to help conceal them while they wait. This one appears to look more like the developing seeds in the flower to the right in this picture, than the bright purple of the flower itself, so I am guessing it waited on the underside and grabbed the much larger skipper when it landed. I gently touched this tiny tiger to get it to move up for a better look.

Jagged ambush bug close up

Ambush bugs are stout-bodied predators with enlarged, raptorial front legs, somewhat resembling those of a praying mantis. They look like some sort of alien tank out of a science fiction movie to me.

Powerful beak of an ambush bug can be seen here tucked under its head

When a prey gets close enough, they lash out and grab it with those legs and stab it with their powerful beak, injecting toxic saliva with digestive enzymes. As the insides of their prey dissolve, the ambush bug sucks up the nutrients, leaving an empty shell of its victim behind. I am guessing this skipper had just settled in for a nice sip of nectar when terror struck, leaving its proboscis stuck down in a flower tube which led to the scene I discovered.

Jagged ambush bug

The bug soon walked out onto the stem for an better view, so I snapped a few more images, When I looked at them on my laptop this morning, I noticed something else…

Another insect hitching a ride on the ambush bug

During the entire sequence of shots of the ambush bug, it had another insect (or perhaps an insect larva) crawling around its body. Was it a harmless hitchhiker, or some parasite? A quick web search showed another image of an ambush bug with what looks like a small lacewing larva hitching a ride, and my somewhat fuzzy image looks similar. Coincidence or collaboration? I guess I will try to find this little guy again next week and see if I can get a better image of the hitchhiker for identification and clarification of this mystery.

Baby Spiders

Posted on July 18, 2017 by roadsendnaturalist

Once you begin watching spiders, you haven’t time for much else.

~E.B. White

I have been raising some tulip-tree silk moth larvae at home and at work which has necessitated the periodic collecting of small branches of tulip poplar. Last week, when I cut one and brought it in I noticed one of my favorite spiders sitting on the underside of one of the leaves.

Magnolia green jumper looking up at the camera (click photos to enlarge)

It was a female magnolia green jumper. I recently did a post about the males of this species when I found a couple on some pawpaw trees at the house. But this was a female (distinguished by the lack of swellings near the tips of her pedipalps) and she was apparently guarding something very precious…

Eggs of a magnolia green jumper

…a cluster of eggs in a loosely spun silken case on the underside of a tulip poplar leaf. They did not resemble the usual spider egg case, which tends to be enclosed in a globular silken egg sac. These were loosely dispersed beneath a sheet of silk as individual eggs. I checked online just to make sure and found some other images that confirmed these were indeed her eggs. Since I had already cut the branch, I decided to keep them and watch what happened.

Magnolia green jumper seggs hatching close up

Spiderlings just after hatching

Three days after I collected the leaf with the eggs, I noticed a change. There appeared to be spider-like blobs poking off the green eggs. I must admit, I just could not figure out how this worked. Was this thing with leg-like appendages the spider emerging from the egg? The more I looked at it, I decided that the old egg shell is actually the whitish crumpled blob you can see next to each green orb in the photo, and that the roundish green thing is the abdomen of the a new spider.

Cluster of magnolia green jumper spiderlings

This was confirmed over the next couple of days as I watched the spiderlings unfold their legs (this occurred on day 5 after I collected the eggs and two days after the previous photo was taken).

Magnolia green jumper spiderlings close up

Three days after I first saw the baby spider legs appearing to unfold from the eggs

Magnolia green jumpers three days after hatching

The young spiderlings have continued to develop as I watch them each day, their eyes appearing larger and darker in color, and they seem to be moving more, albeit still inside the silken covering laid down by their mother. Today, I will probably go ahead and clip their leaf to a tulip poplar branch and watch to see when (and how) they manage to leave this protective lair. I imagine, somewhere nearby, their mother is looking on with proud eyes (all 8 of them)…

Magnolia green jumper female

Roads End Naturalist

Educating myself and others about the natural world as I wander and ponder at road's end.

Muir’s Mountains

Hiking Among Giants

Sweeping Grass and Rolling Logs

Garden Ramblings

Backyard Rambles

Catching Up

Plight of the Polistes

Summer Details

Ambushed

Baby Spiders

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: