Halloween has come already...

As I write this, I can hear the dog-day cicadas outside my window, a sure sign of mid-summer. As I walk through the field, I can smell the Monarda, the milkweed, and the goldenrod, which has just begun to bloom. I love the sound of the meadow katydids, clicking and buzzing, somewhat reminiscent of grassland sparrows.

While walking through the field the other day, I came across a colorful dragonfly...





...the Halloween Pennant. I love the butterfly-like flight of these guys, as well as the way they sit, never completely opening their wings.

I have not had a lot of time to go birding during the past few mornings, but I have seen some birds around the house. Lots of Yellow-billed Cuckoos and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers have been in the apple trees. The other day, there was even a Red-breasted Nuthatch in the fruit trees, a rare bird in the summer. Post-breeding Dispersal ;)

Backyard wanders and wonders

This afternoon, my dad and I took a stroll through the field on our property. We were both armed with cameras and macro lenses. My dad was more interested in the blooming wildflowers like black-eyed susans and milkweeds, while I was trying to photograph the numerous insects flying through the grass.



While stalking a great spangled fritillary, I ventured off the mowed path into the field filled with wild bergamot and goldenrod, neither of which have bloomed yet. After a failed attempt at photographing the butterfly, I continued through the meadow. About two steps from the mowed path, I almost fell over from trying not to step on a plant I had just noticed. I rested my knee on the ground to get a better look at the plant, which upon inspection was an orchid. The head of flowers, all of which were white with wiry looking petals hanging downward, identified this as a fringed orchid, or fringed orchis as some say.





When I reached the house, I opened up my trusty Plants of Pennsylvania to find that my special flower was a Ragged Fringed Orchid, a plant of wet meadows much like where I had found it. This awesome plant is the second orchid on my property. The first, helleborine, is a common woodland orchid, which is native to Europe.

After spending 14 years here in Kunkletown, this place still manages to amaze me...

Monarch caterpillars!

At my home, I found a couple of Monarch caterpillars on common milkweed. I have seen several adults flying around, but these are the first larvae that I have been able to find this year.

Regal Fritillary

Here are some photos from today's Regal Fritillary tour at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania.



The Regal Fritillary, a butterfly of open prairies, has experienced an extremely sharp decline in the past century. It used to inhabit most of the north eastern and north-central United States. With the loss of habitat, as a result of building and reforestation, this butterfly has left almost all of its original range. It now lives in the Great Plains and in a few places in the east. Fort Indiantown Gap is one of these rare places, the only one of its kind in PA.

Regal Fritillaries use violets for their larval foodplant. In Pennsylvania, the fritillaries use mainly Arrow-leaved Violets (Viola sagittata). Across the country, these butterflies use many species of violets including Birdsfoot Violet (Viola pedata). While rearing caterpillars, experts have discovered that that the caterpillars will also eat close relatives to the host plants such as Common Blue Violet (Viola sororia) and Pansies. Although these plants can be used in a controlled environment, the female butterflies in the wild will never lay their eggs on these plants.

Fort Indiantown Gap is also home to many other grassland organisms, such as this Grasshopper Sparrow and Purple Milkweed:





Fort Indiantown Gap is a National Guard training facility, so it is not open to the public. To see these butterflies, butterfly enthusiasts must go on special guided tours.



I also saw some other butterflies at the gap, including American Copper, Great Spangled Fritillary, Aphrodite Fritillary, Monarch, and a bunch of other butterflies. What an interesting and incredible place.

my fave...

During the past two years, I have started leading more and more bird walks for little kids. At almost every walk, I am asked, "What is your favorite animal?" I usually answer by saying I don't have one, but then the little four year olds pester me until I give an answer. I usually end up saying something like Red-tailed Hawk or Monarch, although neither of those really strike my fancy.

But recently I have been pondering over that question; what is my favorite animal? I came to the answer two days ago, while photographing some dragonflies in a meadow near my house:



Wow, ain't she a beauty...

Banded Hairstreak

With the temperatures as warm as they are, more and more butterflies are emerging. I recently found one of my favorite butterflies, a Banded Hairstreak at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center.

Damsels and Coral

As the temperatures have gotten warmer and warmer, I no longer hear the incredible dawn chorus of Alder, Willow, and Great Crested Flycatchers, multiple warbler species, Purple Finches, orioles, and my wake-up call, the Pileated Woodpeckers. The dawn chorus has diminished to only a select group of singers, mostly wrens and Song Sparrows. But the drought of birdsong marks the beginning of a new time of year, "almost summer". This time of year is punctuated by the first humid air, although the temperatures stay in the 70s. This is when many wildflowers bloom, the butterflies emerge, and the dragonflies begin to patrol the skies above the abandoned fields.

Today, the vegetation surrounding my pond (mostly meadowsweet, gray birch, and random sedges, rushes, and grasses) was filled with damselflies. Most of the damsels today were bluets, but there was also several spread-wing damselflies.






And the best part about damselflies, their eyes!





Before today, we had a good amount of precipitation, which means that the butterflies, dragonflies, and damselflies have stayed hunkered down and out of the rain. But the mushrooms and wildflowers seem to enjoy it!







Last April, the forests and a meadow on my property were burned by a brush fire of unknown origin. At first it appeared that the only thing that would grow back was greenbrier (Smilax glauca and S. rotundifolia). But as 2008 rolled along, the entire meadow was filled with meadowsweet (Spirea sp.), a shrub and Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), a grass. This year, the grass is still very evident, but the meadow is beginning to fill in with native forbs. The most common are Rough-stemmed Goldenrod (Solidago rugosa), Whorled Loosetrife (Lysimachia quadrifolia) as well as shrubs such as meadowsweet (Spirea sp.) and Sweet Fern (Comptonia peregrina), which is actually a shrub, not a fern.

Today, as I was walking through the burned forest (which is now mostly Greenbrier (Smilax) and Hay-scented Fern (Dennstaedtia punctilobula), both of which outcompete other plants) I came across an Ovenbird nest, which had three or four babies inside. As I was walking away from the nest, I found some Indian Cucumber-Root (Medeola virginiana). Indian Cucumber-Root is a common understory plant in Pennsylvania, but my property, which is devastated by deer overbrowsing, has almost no undergrowth. In the woods here in Kunkletown, the only plants that grow (other than greenbrier, ferns, and trees) are Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense) and False Soloman's-Seal, also known as Soloman's Plume (Maianthemum racemosum). As a result of this little diversity, I was extremely excited to find this plant!



Well, I guess after what I found today, the lack of bird life is not necessarily a bad thing; it is just a sign of Mother Nature opening the doors to a new season. A sign of a change where the smaller, often unnoticed beauties can shine.

Happy almost summer!