Christine’s walks: early July 2013

by Christine Hanrahan

Despite coolish temperatures and grey skies, there was much to see at the garden today.

Birds are VERY active feeding their young. I watched a pair of house wrens constantly carrying food to their nest. Meanwhile, a male Common Yellowthroat sounded the alert when I inadvertently walked past his nest site. He was joined by Grey Catbirds, a Red-eyed Vireo, one of the House Wrens, Song Sparrows (one carrying food), all agitated by my presence and scolding loudly. The Kestrel pair were flying above the new woods, calling and swooping as if deeply alarmed. I walked over to their nest box, but could see nothing around that site, so not sure what they were upset about. The Great Crested Flycatchers continue to hang around near the pond.

Butterflies were, not surprisingly, few on such a day, but I did see half a dozen European Skippers, a few Cabbage Whites, and the first hairstreak of the year (at least for me) – a Banded Hairstreak.

I made it my mission to go on a poop patrol today. No, not for doggie scat, but for insects who use their excrement in one way or another. Larvae of Chrysomelid beetles in the Cryptocephalinae subfamily make their larval cases of their own poop, and as they keep adding to it, it gets bigger and bigger. Still with Chrysomelid beetles, many larvae in this family pile their frass (poop) on their backs, perhaps to protect them from predators, perhaps to provide cover, or both. And I was successful… you can see shots of both of these on the July photo blog.

Also found: many Asian Ladybeetles ready to chow down on the aphids on so many plants. A tiny bronze Buprestid beetle, lots of juvenile grasshoppers, syrphid flies, Bald-faced Hornets nectaring on figwort (which they seem to especially like), and so on and so on…

The June photo blog has a wealth of recently added photos from Diane and Barry. Some stunning shots in there, so please check it out.

Also one night late in June, Barry, Diane and I went mothing at the garden. Not many moths, but some interesting other insects. Photos of some of these are on the PBase gallery, and moth photos taken by Diane will be posted to our moth gallery over the coming week.

By the way, we have passed the ONE MILLION mark, our FWG site having been viewed 1,015,801 times as of today.