They look like tiny bees or wasps zipping around the garden flowers, but they are Flower Flies. They are also known as Hover Flies for their ability to hover and even fly backwards, a feat that few other insects can match. Their resemblance to insects that sting most likely affords them some protection as they go about their business…and their business is quite useful in the garden and elsewhere.
Flower Fly showing halteres
By the way, you can distinguish these flies from their look-alike bees by their wings – Flower Flies have two wings (as do all flies) and bees have four. If you look closely, you can even see the halteres, the highly modified hind wings of flies (consisting of a stalk and knob at the end) which vibrate up and down in time with the wings and act as gyroscopes in flight.
Flower Fly on Beardtongue flower
As a group, Flower Flies are considered important pollinators for a variety of flowers, both in our gardens and in the natural landscapes around us.
Immature Green Lynx Spider with Flower Fly prey
Adults feed on nectar from a variety of flowers and often fall victim to sit-and-wait predators like Ambush Bugs, Crab Spiders, and other spiders. Earlier this week, in a rare moment of sunshine, the garden was alive with insects visiting the various wildflowers. I found three immature Green Lynx Spiders lurking in the blossoms – two had captured Flower Flies and one a small bee.
Flower Fly looking for nectar
The larvae of many species of Flower Fly are major predators of aphids and thus perform valuable pest control services on many species of our ornamental and crop plants. Pollination services, pest control, superb flying ability, mimicry, beauty, variety…the next time you are out among your wildflowers take a few moments to look for, and appreciate, these tiny beneficial insect hovercraft.
I remember the first time I noticed one of these a few years ago…my reaction probably included a statement or two like Holy $%*^!! Look at the size of that thing! I had heard a few people make remarks like this about Crane Flies, which are not mosquitoes, but are sometimes mistaken for giant blood-suckers. But this really was a mosquito, and a really big one at that. The other thing I noticed that day was how beautiful it was – the very long legs, long proboscis, and the iridescent colors and stripes combined to make an elegant insect.
Elephant Mosquito male on Buttonbush
My giant bug turned out to be the aptly named Elephant Mosquito, Toxorhynchites rutilus. It is our largest species of mosquito, with a wingspan reaching almost 1/2 inch. Unlike most mosquitoes, both male AND female adults feed on nectar, not blood, as most female mosquitoes of other species do. Male Elephant Mosquitoes, like the one pictured above, have very feathery antennae which they use to track the females.
Elephant Mosquito on flower
Elephant Mosquitoes lay their eggs in small bodies of water like knot holes in trees (hence their other common name, Treehole Mosquito), bird baths, and other man-made containers. Unlike other mosquito species, the larvae of Elephant Mosquitoes are predators on other aquatic insects, especially the larvae of other species of mosquitoes. A single Toxorhynchites larva is said to be able to consume up to 400 larvae of other mosquitoes so they even have been reared and released as biological controls in some areas.
So, before you swat, take a moment and see if that giant mosquito is iridescent blue and is sipping nectar…if so, leave it alone, it is your friend.
Despite the heat and humidity, I decided to take a stroll down the mowed path underneath the high voltage transmission line that borders the property where I live. This area has an interesting mix of grasses, shrubs, and small trees and contains a diversity of animals and plants not usually found in my woods. This diversity intrigues me and has made me realize the importance of power line right-of-ways as habitat. These areas stretch for miles across our state, are a minimum of 200 feet wide and have limits on what can be done in them in terms of buildings. My conservative estimate is that there are at least a couple hundred thousand acres of transmission line right-of-ways in NC which makes their area as large as that protected in the entire NC State Park System (currently about 218,000 acres when you add the acreage in all state parks, recreation areas, natural areas, state rivers and state lakes). That is a lot of early successional habitat! I decided to let the area near me grow up this year and keep a mowed path through it to reduce the tick and chigger quotient when taking a walk. Here are a few of the things happening now…
Butterflyweed
The Butterflyweed, Asclepias tuberosa, is in bloom. The flowers of the wild plants here are tinged with more red color than the ones I have in my garden, which are more pure orange.
Horsenettle
Horsenettle is in bloom in both my garden and the meadow. This thorny, weedy relative of tomatoes and potatoes is toxic and produces an orange-yellow fruit later in the season.
Eastern Tailed-blue
This dainty little butterfly is fairly common throughout much of the state. The larvae feed on various members of the legume family and secrete a substance favored by ants, which in turn provide some protection for the larvae from potential invertebrate predators.
Metallic Wood Borer beetles
These Metallic Wood Borers are feeding on the flowers of Black-eyed Susans. Larvae tunnel through wood of various tree species.
Yellow Bear caterpillar?
This looks like an early instar of a the variable Yellow Bear caterpillar.
Female Blue Dasher dragonfly
A common dragonfly in our area, Blue Dashers can be seen perched on the tips of twigs and vegetation near any type of water. They often perch with their wings cocked forward like this female.
Immature Green Lynx spider
One of my favorite spiders, this small Green Lynx will grow to be a large, efficient predator by the end of the summer. These spiders do not build webs to catch prey but rather stalk and pounce like their namesake big cat. They are frequent predators of bumblebees and wasps when they are mature.
Leafhopper
This colorful Leafhopper is one commonly referred to as a Sharpshooter. The name has many possible explanations – their piercing-sucking mouth parts leave tiny holes in vegetation like miniature bullets; these insects produce droplets of liquid as they feed which they rapidly and forcibly expel; their rapid hiding behavior when approached is similar to a sharpshooter in the military hiding behind tree trunks and other obstacles when approached by the enemy.
Leafhopper nymph
A tiny nymph of a Leafhopper (probably a Sharpshooter).
Look for future posts on the diverse flora and fauna of the meadow beneath the lines.
To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.
Terry Tempest Williams
Bison silhouette in Lamar Valley
I could blog for another week or two on the beauty and majesty of my recent trip to Yellowstone. But, I will be back, with more experiences and more stories, and so I post this one last blog from the trip with a few of my favorite images.
Mule Deer in marshy area in Lamar ValleyAspen grove in BeartoothsBlack Bear in creek near RooseveltYellow-headed Blackbird male at Floating Island LakeBighorn Sheep lamb on cliff in Gardiner CanyonBison swimming Lamar River near the ConfluenceElk skull and antlers in Little AmericaGray Wolf at Soda Butte CreekBison calf restingBison at pool in Little AmericaMountain Bluebird at nest cavity in Little America
But if one steps off the road, even a few hundred feet, and listens, there is a calm to the land, a certain wild rhythm, that is closer to the surface than in most places.
One of the changes I’ve noticed in the 25+ years I’ve been going to Yellowstone is an increasing number of Pronghorn in recent years. It used to be that you saw them mainly around the Gardiner area, but now they have greatly increased in numbers across the northern range, especially in Lamar Valley and Little America. Although the genus name, Antilocapra, means antelope and goat, Pronghorns are neither. They’re the only surviving member of a North American ungulate (hoofed mammal) family.
Pronghorn buck
These graceful animals get their name from their unusual horns. Both male and female Pronghorns have horns, but only the males have the distinctive prong the juts forward halfway up from the base. Males can also be distinguished by their black cheek patches, absent in females. The horns consist of a bony interior attached to the skull covered by a black keratinous sheath. The sheath is shed annually like antlers. Male Pronghorns use their horns in competitions during the rut and may deliver serious piercing stabs to their opponents.
Pronghorn running
Pronghorns are well-known as the fastest mammal in North America, able to reach speeds of over 60 mph and sustained speeds of up to 40 mph. They are also one of the fastest mammals on Earth – one reference said a Cheetah could outrun a Pronghorn in a short sprint but a Pronghorn would quickly pull ahead as the Cheetah tired. Pronghorns may have evolved this running ability to escape the now extinct American Cheetah, and adults can easily outrun any of the modern-day predators they encounter. They can run across a football field with as few as 10-12 bounds in as little as 3 seconds. Pronghorns have several adaptations that allow them this speed. Their heart, lungs and trachea are several times larger than similar sized ungulates; their blood is rich in hemoglobin; and their long legs have light-weight, yet strong, leg bones.
Pronghorn with rump hairs raised
They have several other adaptations that enhance their survival in open country. The hairs on their light-colored fur are hollow, and can be controlled to lie flat and provide a protective shield against wind and water, or selectively raised to allow heat to escape. The bright white hairs on the rump can be raised and serve as an alarm signal that can be seen from great distances, much like the warning flag tail on our White-tailed Deer.
Pronghorns have large eyes and long eyelashes
A Pronghorn feature that is quite noticeable are their large dark eyes with what seem like very long eyelashes. It turns out the long eyelashes help protect their eyes from the intense sun in their open habitat. When a pronghorn looks at you you really notice their large bulging eyes on the sides of their head.
Pronghorn face showing placement and size of eye
They have the largest sized eye of any North American ungulate in relation to their size with each eyeball measuring about 1 1/2 inches in diameter (about the size of the eye of a horse). The size and placement of their eyes gives them over a 300-degree arc of vision without moving their head, a useful trait for detecting potential predators at great distances. One reference said a Pronghorns’ vision is equivalent to that of a Peregrine Falcon and they may be able to detect movement up to 4 miles away.
Pronghorns may once have been almost as numerous as Bison on the Great Plains. Their numbers were greatly reduced by over-hunting and by fences placed throughout their range, blocking their migration routes. While numbers in the West have increased through conservation efforts, there is still concern over the relatively small population of a few hundred Pronghorns in Yellowstone. Hopefully, ways can be found to protect the Pronghorn migration routes to their wintering grounds outside the park so that future visitors can enjoy these incredible icons of the northern range.
Badger – to bother, harass, or annoy…persistently; on and on; without stop; relentlessly; over and over; endlessly.
Wonder where that verb comes from? Whatever its origin, this is the summer of the Badger in Yellowstone. The animal, that is…a persistent, relentless digger that roams the sagebrush flats in search of prey. This year I saw the most American Badgers I have ever seen in my 25+ years of visiting the park. They live in habitats similar to this in the area called Little America in Yellowstone’s northern range,.
Uinta Ground Squirrel near Badger den
The usual prey here is the omnipresent Uinta Ground Squirrel, itself a proficient burrower. Last year our teacher workshop encountered a Badger in this same area so I brought my group there this year in hopes of seeing another. As we approached, I spotted an adult Badger waddling across the trail carrying a ground squirrel.
It quickly vanished in a large hole at the base of a boulder, only to reappear a few seconds later to peer through the sagebrush at us. It disappeared back into the burrow, only to come out again and move to another hole nearby.
Badger digging
There it quickly began throwing dirt as it dug and soon disappeared into that hole. Badgers are well adapted to their digging life style: they have nicitating membranes on their eyes to protect them from dirt and debris; they have small ear canals; their body is flattened and their neck muscular, which helps in the digging process; they have long, sharp claws and their toes are partially webbed; and the loose skin may help them turn in tight tunnels. And burrow they do – they rarely use the same burrow for sleeping or resting more than a few times (except for burrows with young) and they are constantly digging for prey so a single Badger is estimated to dig well over a thousand burrows in a year.
And for some reason, Badgers are super abundant this year in Yellowstone, including a well-photographed den near the road in Little America. The female must have moved her young into that den after I arrived because the second time I went through the area ( a week after the first) the park had placed signs and cones along the road to help keep people a reasonable distance from the den. And every day for the next several there was a “badger jam” at that site with lots of long lenses waiting for some action.
Badger adult and young at den along road
I joined in the jam for a few minutes to snap some shots and let my group do the same, and then we moved on, as I prefer to be away from the crowds to watch wildlife whenever possible.
Badger baby nipping at adult at den site
Badgers have been widely watched this spring in the park with two well known incidents happening in front of visitors. In two dramatic cases, a Badger had raided a den site and fought, evicted, and killed the young of a Coyote and of a Red Fox. I had seen images of one incident on a web site I follow and wolf watchers told me about the the other they had witnessed at a Coyote den in Lamar Valley. Coyotes are supposedly one of the major predators on Badgers, especially the young, but here was a case of the reverse. And Badger numbers may be up, in part at least, due to the decline of Coyotes on the northern range after the reintroduction of wolves.
Badger burrow
I returned to the secluded Badger burrow we had found earlier only to find no badger so I waited. I finally walked away from the hole a hundred feet or so just checking the area when I spotted the familiar black and white pattern of a Badger face in the sagebrush. The Badger had apparently moved the young to another burrow near the original one. This time I was able to get quick shots of both an adult and a young gazing out at their world through the vegetation.
Badger adultBadger juvenile
Their is a certain satisfaction in observing wildlife with no one else or just your group around. I visited this “private” badger group a couple of times and was rewarded with a close encounter with this family of weasel relatives as they shuffled around their den site, grunting ad snorting as they went about their daily lives. I enjoy this type of wildlife encounter the most – one where you really get the feel of an animal as it behaves the way it normally does without interference from crowds of people. On your next wildlife watching outing, I hope you are as fortunate.
I am back home in NC now after a great two weeks in Yellowstone. I will post a few more blogs about my trip in the coming days but wanted to start with what I witnessed on my last morning through the park.
Sunrise on my last morning in the park
The day started with an expletive when I realized at 4:30 a.m. that the power was off in Silver Gate. I had enjoyed my stay at the Log Cabin Cafe cabins but was bummed that I would need to finish packing by headlamp and, worse yet, might have no shower for my long day of plane rides home. But, there was enough hot water to get the shower, and as I got into the car, I was greeted by a spectacular sunrise. It was going to be a great morning after all.
Bull Moose browsing on aspen saplings
As I approached Round Prairie I could see a car pulled off the road so I slowed and saw a beautiful bull Moose browsing on some aspen saplings. The visitor had been watching the bull feed for about 30 minutes (and it was only 5:30 a.m. when I arrived). I got out and watched for a few minutes as the bull slowly worked its way into some thick tree cover and disappeared from sight. Such are the vagaries of wildlife watching – one minute a great view and the next an animal as large as a horse can vanish for hours by moving only a few feet. Luck was with me this morning.
The clouds thickened as I headed into Lamar Valley. About a mile down the road I could see a gathering of cars on a hill so I stopped to glass the valley to see what was happening. I quickly noticed some ravens and magpies far out across the Lamar River and when I stepped out of the car I heard the alarm barks of a coyote. That probably meant wolves were nearby. After looking near the raven activity I finally saw canids including the unmistakable black color of a wolf. It appeared that the wolves were digging and that was probably bad news for the coyotes. I drove on and found out that the three wolves were digging out a coyote den. As there was no place to pull over I kept driving with plans to check on several things I wanted to see in the area known as Little America before heading for the airport.
Black wolf out in valley
The dark skies were not great for photography, so, after spending some time watching a bison herd, I decided to drive back to Lamar one last time to check on the wolf-coyote saga. From the highest pullout I could see a black wolf a mile or more away headed down the valley. A half mile beyond me were about 50 people out watching. I drove beyond the crowd hoping the wolf would continue down the valley toward the den site a couple of miles beyond. When I stopped I could see the wolf was carrying something – a coyote pup. I later found out that this black wolf is a two year old female and is a persistent animal – she did the bulk of the digging at the coyote den (for over 45 minutes) while the other two wolves stood guard. She killed this pup and was carrying it back toward the wolf den with pups a few miles away.
Wolf running by me as I wait for black wolf
I, along with two other people, had positioned myself down the road ahead of the crowd in an area where I anticipated the black wolf heading. While I was setting up my camera, I saw a blur out of the corner of my eye – it was a wolf running full speed between me and the river! The black wolf was far across the river so we were all startled by this close animal – and this wolf was being pursued by two coyotes.
Coyote chasing wolf
I quickly spun the camera and fired a few shots and managed to capture a couple of somewhat blurry images before they were all out of sight. The three of us looked at each other and appeared stunned at what had just happened. I am guessing this wolf was being chased by the coyote pair that had just lost their den in a somewhat unusual turnabout of roles with the coyotes being the pursuers instead of the pursued. The images here of the other wolves are heavily cropped – these of the running wolf and coyote are not cropped at all, showing how close they were. Apparently the wolf had crossed the river far downstream beyond our view and was being chased along our side of the river when she blew by us.
Black wolf with Coyote pup
After catching my breath I turned my attention back to the black wolf who was approaching on the far side of the river carrying her prey. She moved quickly down the valley and then dropped the pup, looked back, and began wagging her tail.
Two wolves across Lamar River
I looked up from the viewfinder and saw a big gray wolf approaching ( I think this is the male of the group). After a brief greeting, the black wolf picked the pup up again and they moved on down the valley. The male turned and headed over a knoll and the black female continued on toward the river in the direction of the den.
Black wolf with Coyote pup getting ready to cross river
From my vantage point I saw the wolf approach the river and come out on the other side. By this time, many of the cars from down the valley had come down to try to see the wolf so there were people and cars on both sides of one of the mile-long no stopping zones that the park created along the road to allow the wolves to safely travel to and from their den site. When the black wolf finally crossed it did not have the pup carcass. I imagine it cached it somewhere amongst the willow flats along the river to be retrieved at a later time. I saw this same pack do that earlier in the week with a Pronghorn fawn they killed – the gray female carried the fawn’s body several hundred yards and buried it in an aspen grove.
Such is the cycle of life in Yellowstone. I heard people commenting on what we all just witnessed – most felt some sorrow for the coyote pup but were still thrilled at what we saw. This is part of the drama that is played out every day in this incredible place and awaits you if you simply take the time to observe. It is hard to put into words how it makes you feel – a mix of emotions and awe. But the drama of nature happens all around us every day if we only stop and look. As I am writing this, there is a Gray Squirrel out my window, perched precariously on a thin branch and reaching up and grabbing some Viburnum berries to eat. Granted, it is not a wolf with prey, but it is special nonetheless. One thing I have noticed over the years is that trips to places like Yellowstone, where we can more easily witness the behavior of wild creatures, helps us to better observe and appreciate the small wonders of nature back home. And that may be the most important lesson we can learn from this magical place.
Whenever I travel between Canyon and Lake I always stop at LeHardy Rapids on the Yellowstone River. The rapids are about 3 miles from the lake and were named for a map topographer in the late 1800s whose raft was destroyed in these swift waters.
I stop at LeHardy for two reasons
1) to catch a glimpse of the spawning Cutthroat Trout and, 2) the Harlequin Ducks.
Harlequin Ducks are truly beautiful birds. The striking males are slate gray with chestnut sides and some bold white spots and stripes on the head and body. Females are duller brown with some white markings on the head. During the breeding season these ducks inhabit swift mountain streams where they feed on aquatic insects. In winter, they migrate to rocky coasts where they feed on shellfish and other marine invertebrates.
At LeHardy Rapids they often sit on one of a few boulders out in the white water.
But it’s when they enter the rapids that they become truly remarkable birds. They swim in the biggest waves, seemingly without effort.
They dive underwater to catch their food and then pop up nearby like a cork.
If they get swept a bit too far downstream they just flap their wings and almost swim on the surface back to their starting point.
Then they pop out of the water back onto their rock to preen and rest before starting it all over again.
NOTE: My group has arrived and we will be going through the park starting this morning. Posts will be limited for the next week due to internet access and time.
I’ve been in the park three days and no wolves. I know several “Yellowstone wolves” were legally killed in lands outside the park by hunters this past winter. I had read this may have disrupted pack structure in the northern range where many of the wolves in Yellowstone spend much of their time. So, it was not too surprising I had seen fewer than in past years. I also tend to not stop at the really large wolf-watching crowds (sometimes there can be 50-100 people at pullouts if a wolf has been spotted) so I probably missed a few opportunities.
Wolf seen through windshield (click to enlarge)
And then, when you least suspect it – a wolf! I was near one of the hot spots for seeing wolves but there were uncharacteristically no cars. I had seen lots of the usual wolf watcher cars a few miles back at another hot spot. Suddenly, a wolf came into the road in front of me and another car.
Wolf running across road – the only shot I thought I would get (click to enlarge)
I grabbed a couple of quick shots (these are the only images in this post that are not cropped) through the windshield and through the open window on the passenger side as it ran across and thought that was it. I backed into the adjacent pullout and the three car loads of people present watched it run out of sight over the hill. One car left and three people from the other car walked up on a knoll to see if they could see the wolf off in the distance. I looked over, and one of the women on the knoll was waving for me to come out, so I started walking over. She waved emphatically, so I ran! I got there and they said the wolf had been just below them on a sand bar in the creek when they got to the knoll, so the wolf had apparently slowed to a walk when it got over the hill. Rules in the park state that you can be no closer than 100 yards to a wolf, so we stayed put and let it walk downstream away from us.
Wolf at Soda Butte Creek (click to enlarge)
The sun was coming in and out of the clouds so I was shooting as fast as I could and trying to keep up with the changing light. But I also wanted to just watch the wolf, seemingly unconcerned that we were anywhere in the vicinity save for an occasional glance our way. It is such a rarity to see a wolf without a crowd around you. Our wolf was sniffing and checking out the area and then seemed to detect something of interest and slowly moved toward it.
Wolf and Beaver – you can see the beaver’s tail slapping the surface (click to enlarge)
There was a big splash in the water a few feet from the wolf – a beaver! Beaver have been making a comeback in the park in recent years and this was near one of three small lodges I had seen on this trip. Missing that opportunity, the wolf moved downstream a bit and then swam across, apparently having a tough time at one point in the strong current.
Wolf shaking after crossing creek (click to enlarge)
It then shook off, climbed a steep bank, and headed back upstream. I went back to the car and headed up the road to where I knew there was another pullout. As I approached, there were already a lot of cars so I went to the next spot down the road with just a few others.
Wolf and Bison interact at carcass (click to enlarge)
These people were watching a different wolf – a black one. It was feeding on a carcass of some sort (some thought elk calf, some thought bison calf) but was interrupted by an adult bison that didn’t care for the wolf’s presence. The bison kept chasing off the wolf, but the wolf finally got a section of the carcass and ran a short distance and began to feed again.
Black Wolf (click to enlarge)
The black wolf then departed, probably taking some food in its belly for pups in the den that is known to be nearby. While all this was going on, a female Pronghorn chased away a Coyote from the same area (she must have had a fawn out there), a Sandhill Crane walked through the scene, our wolf could be seen downstream, and someone pointed out two grizzlies high on a meadow across the valley. So much to see, so little time. Finally, both wolves disappeared from view and the crowds started to leave.
As I headed back to Roosevelt for a long overdue breakfast there was another group of cars lining the road a couple of miles from the scene of the wolf sightings. I stopped and found out a wolf was lying across the river in a small depression but was not visible at the moment. This time I did join the crowd to see if it was the same wolf that we had watched earlier.
The Wolf known as Middle Gray along Lamar River (click to enlarge)
When it stood up, I recognized it as “our” wolf from the creek. This is the wolf known as Middle Gray by the Wolf Project observers. I believe she is part of the Lamar Canyon pack although the use of that pack name is in question since the alpha female was killed during hunting season last winter and the alpha male left the main group afterward. The black female I saw feeding on the carcass is in the same group of three wolves as Middle Gray. The group apparently has a den site near where they were seen but I have not heard any details on the pups as yet.
I hope we are as lucky in the next few days. Any sighting of a wolf in the wild is dramatic, but one where you are with only a few other interested observers, and you are able to watch the wolf be a wolf is a rare treat. The issue of wolf hunting is quite controversial. I hope a way can be found to provide a buffer zone around Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks so these animals that thousands of park visitors come to see have a better chance of surviving another winter.
I had heard about a Great Gray Owl nest in the park, so the morning after seeing the one up near the Beartooths (by the way, we did not find a nest at that one – yet) I decided to try to locate it. I knew roughly where it was as several photographers had mentioned it. After climbing through some dense dead-fall in the forest, I saw a few people with long lenses, and knew I was at the right spot. I was a bit concerned about people knowing the location of the nest due to disturbance, but I will give that group credit – they were very respectful and quiet and at a reasonable distance.
Great Gray Owl in nest (click to enlarge)
Great Gray Owls are our largest species and the huge facial disks give them an elegant, all-knowing countenance. The female is larger than the male and incubates the eggs. The male will hunt nearby and bring her and the chicks food. I sat with her for about an hour after the other group left, admiring this magnificent bird of the north, and felt privileged to be there. Finally, she turned in the nest with her tail feathers pointing my way, and I knew it was time to leave.
Roads End Naturalist 