Category: Natural History
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This Caterpillar can Whistle!
Last week I found this little guy crawling on the ground outside the screen porch. I picked it up and it thrashed around until I placed it on a nearby hickory sapling. I recognized it as the larva of the Walnut Sphinx Moth from the unusual angled head capsule and the numerous raised spots arranged… Read more…
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Cloudless Sulphur
This time of year I often see a bright, clear flash of yellow in the garden and know it is a wanderer, a Cloudless Sulphur butterfly. On my trip to some refuges down east earlier in the week I saw plenty of these vibrant yellow beauties as they are a common species in the coastal… Read more…
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Is This a ? Egg?
I glanced out the back of the screen porch the other day and saw a butterfly behaving as if it were going to lay eggs – that typical fluttery flight around a plant that indicates she is searching for just the right spot to lay an egg. The butterfly was one of the anglewings –… Read more…
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So Many Butterflies… Go FIGure
‘Tis the season… a little later than usual, but the season nonetheless. While I was camping in New England, the figs on the trees outside my garden decided to start ripening in my absence. By the time I returned this past week, they were fully ripe, which had not gone unnoticed by many of my… Read more…
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Looking for Leviathan
Many years ago I had the privilege of co-leading a week-long whale watching workshop aboard a schooner in Maine for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. It was an experience I will never forget (for many reasons). So, while traveling up the coast of Maine I was looking for opportunities to see whales again.… Read more…
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Mainely Beautiful
I am winding down my camping trip to the north woods and the Maine coast. It has been a glorious week of hiking, camping in almost perfect campsites, and taking in the sights of a stunningly beautiful part of our country. Unlike many of my other outings, this one turned out to be less about… Read more…
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Bottle Opener Bug
“In All Things of Nature There is Something of the Marvelous” – Aristotle I have always loved that quote as it states in simple terms why I find everything around me so fascinating. I marvel at spectacles such as the Snow Geese at Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge or the Bison in Yellowstone, but I… Read more…
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Tiny Hummers and Bumblebirds
During my career at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences I once was forwarded a call from someone that was curious about something they had seen in their yard. She wanted to know what species of tiny hummingbirds were visiting her flowers. After a brief discussion, we came to the conclusion she was seeing one… Read more…
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Dressed for Success
And what’s a butterfly? At best, He’s but a caterpillar, drest. John Grey And there is one species of caterpillar that dresses better than any other – the Camouflaged Looper, Synchlora aerata. This is the unusual larva of the Wavy-lined Emerald Moth (okay, the quote isn’t quite right in this case…). Every time I am… Read more…
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Bullet Frass
It may seem like an odd title for a post on one of our more common backyard butterflies, but I promise I’ll explain it in a moment. You may have seen this distinctively marked species as it darts about your yard from flower to flower. It is the Silver-spotted Skipper, one of, if not the,… Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 