Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) in Explore the Wild.

Same cloak with partially open wings.

Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer).

This peeper was in Catch the Wind (same frog as above).

Besides the snake being captured by a Red-shouldered Hawk last Friday, Kent (Animal Department) reported seeing what was probably the same hawk catch one in the Lemur Yard on Sunday (1/29/12). From the descriptions given it doesn’t seem as though they were Brown Snakes so, although I can’t be sure, I’m assuming that both were garter snakes. Both Brown Snakes (Storeria dekayi) and Eastern Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis) have been known to be out and about in both late fall and late winter/early spring. Of course, this is mid-winter. I saw a garter snake along the Eno River, just half a dozen miles or so from the Museum, on New Years Day this year!

On the pavement near the Wetlands Overlook (12/10/11).

This (above) is what greeted me as I made my rounds during the morning of 10 December, a Saturday. Obviously, the white and beige colored splatters are bird droppings. But what bird, and what are the larger brown masses?

“Oh good,” I whispered to myself, “another mystery to solve.”

I thought at first that the brown blobs were flattened raccoon scat after being trod upon or run over by one of the Museum vehicles. But there weren’t any subsequent marks on the pavement on either side of the brown blobs caused by the next step of whoever may have stepped on them or by the rotation of a wheel moving over the area.

Getting closer I noticed that there were pieces of crayfish, what looked like small bones, some fur and even some grasshopper parts mixed in with the brown goo.

A closer look.

Crayfish claw (top center), grasshopper femur (just right of bottom center) and at least two tibiae (thin red objects on far left), and various other animal parts can be seen in this close shot.

These brown masses of exoskeleton, fur and other animal parts appear to be a pellet, although a very wet pellet. If you’ve had any grade school biology you may have taken apart an owl pellet before. Typically they are oval shaped objects, dark gray and full of fur and bones. They consist of the parts of animals that a hawk or owl can not digest and which is subsequently coughed up unto the ground. These owl pellets are usually rather solid objects and not wet, flattened masses, as what was before of me on the pavement.

Two grasshopper femurs. The one on the left looks like a Differential Grasshopper leg, the other could be the same or perhaps a Red-legged Grasshopper.

More leg parts of both crayfish and grasshopper and an insect wing, probably a grasshopper (just left of bottom center).

So what ate the grasshoppers, crayfish and whatever else was in the pellet and then sat in the tree above the pavement coughing up and pooping out the leftovers? I think we can eliminate a hawk. The local Red-shouldered Hawk would definitely eat all of the animals represented in the pellet but when hawks void themselves they lift their rear ends and shoot the excrement out at an angle. The splatters on the pavement do not indicate that they were applied at an angle. They appear to have been dropped straight down onto the pavement.

How about a Great Blue Heron? It’s certainly possible. Herons eat all of the above, and more. They cough up pellets. They defecate on our walking paths. What’s more, they do it in the manner displayed in the photos. But so do owls. And these pellets are large enough to have come from either a Great Blue Heron or a Barred Owl.

Great Blue Heron, stalking in the Wetlands.

I’m torn. I want it to be an owl that left these pellets. An owl is much more mysterious than a Great Blue Heron. You don’t see owls every day, unless you work with them as an animal keeper or are a bird rehabber. It’s much more romantic to think that the night before, maybe just a few hours ago, an owl had been sitting on the branch above. Perhaps it was sitting there on that same branch as a crayfish crawled out of the Wetlands, crossed the pavement, was spotted by the owl and scooped up and eaten on the spot. The owl then rested, preened, got rid of some extra baggage, then flew off into the woods at dawn to sleep away the day in a pine tree.

Barred Owl, resting in a pine tree.

As much as I’d like it to be an owl, it was probably a heron that left the stained macadam for me to find that morning. But, I still don’t know for sure. Both Barred Owls and Great Blue Herons are residents here at the Museum. Both have opportunity to eat the same foods and to sit in a tree above the path and cough up pellets. However, the more liquid nature of the pellet makes me lean towards the heron.

Who do you think left the grasshopper, crayfish, and other parts on the path through Explore the Wild?

One of two Crane Fly Larvae seen on 12/2/11 in Catch the Wind.

What’s going on with the wildlife here at the Museum. Ranger Lew saw a Northern Water Snake on Saturday (12/3). Spring Peepers were calling and Yellow-bellied Sliders were out basking in the near 70 degree air of yesterday afternoon (12/6). Neither peepers or basking Turtles are unusual during this time of year though, a few days of warm temps is often enough to bring either of those herps out of hiding, even in the dead of winter.

Although Honey Bees can be seen throughout the cold season a paper wasp flying about Explore the Wild was a bit more atypical, although not unheard of (12/6). More unusual was a Virginia Pine Borer (Chalcophora virginiensis) yesterday on the Dino Trail (at least that’s what  I think it was, it had been stepped upon). I usually don’t see that species of beetle here at the Museum until April. And, the two crane fly larvae that I saw in Catch the Wind last Friday, six days into December, surely seemed out of place.

Crane Flies have a distinctive posterior. The tip of the abdomen looks a bit like a face.

The warm weather (especially the mild nighttime temperatures) following the much colder weather of just a few weeks ago has the wildlife emerging from their winter quarters as if it were spring. That’s about to change though, Thursday is supposed to bring in more typical weather for the season, things should get back to normal.

Enjoy the mild weather while you can. The nighttime lows are expected to get into the thirties and twenties the rest of the week. And although bullfrogs should still be out, you have one more day to go out and see how many peepers, snakes, and insects you can find.

Good luck!

The next day as I walked along the north side of the Wetlands, I saw a Common Green Darner (Anax junius) sailing over the water. Luckily, the big darner came flying right over my head and landed on a Wax Myrtle not 15 feet away. I was able to get close enough to it, without spooking it, to grab a shot for the Journal.

A fresh looking Common Green Darner clings to Wax Myrtle at the edge of the Wetlands.

As I’ve mentioned many times in this Journal, green darners move south with the weather. This one looks fresh and may have emerged (eclosed) locally due to the spring-like, mild weather.

Monday night into Tuesday morning the mild weather was pushed out of our area and replaced by much cooler air, by no means cold, but cooler, closer to 50 than 70 degrees. Yet, as I walked the path around the Wetlands this morning there in the water was the familiar face a frog staring up at me from the below, a bullfrog.

An American Bullfrog (11/28/11).

See you in the wild.

These Autumn Meadowhawks in the copulation wheel are just two of the many seen on the day after Thanksgiving. To the delight of the people sitting on a bench in Explore the Wild, these two meadowhawks decided to land on their napkin to mate (11/25/11).

While I expect to see meadowhawks at this time of year, what was remarkable is the sighting of a female Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia) in Explore the Wild. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo. The typical flight period for Common Whitetails is from late March to early October, we’re at the end of November.

Keep your eyes open, you never know what’s going to show up!

Two of three Hooded Mergansers resting on one of their favorite perches (11/10).

There was also a male Mallard in the Wetlands. There’s nothing unusual about a Mallard, but we don’t get many here in our Wetlands, at least not the way we used to. We often see a domestic x mallard pair, but not many “true” Mallards.

The Mallard, sleeping.

Female Autumn Meadowhawk. I usually see the males a week or two before the females, not so this year.

The insects?

On Tuesday (11/8) Animal Department Director, Sherry mentioned to me that she had just had a dragonfly land either on or next to her, I don’t remember which.

We were in Explore the Wild at the time and from the description given to me by Sherry it sounded as though she had seen an Autumn Meadowhawk (Sympetrum vicinum), one of only a few dragonflies likely to be seen at this time of year. I had seen a Common Green Darner the day before (probably a tardy migrant) but I hadn’t seen a meadowhawk to date. Autumn Meadowhawks are late season odes, I typically don’t see them until mid to late October and they can linger into December.

The male meadowhawk.

The second insect is, or was, a Locust Borer (Megacyllene robiniae). I say was because the insect is no more. I first saw the borer early in the day on Thursday (11/10) nectaring on Leather Leaf Viburnum, one of the only plants in bloom in Catch the Wind. With temps in the low 60s the insect was moving rather sluggishly as it nectared. I typically see these beetles when the goldenrod is in bloom, that has since gone by. They’re a good match for goldenrod, with their bright yellow markings on their head, pronotum, and elytra.

A handsome beetle, they can be found nectaring on flowers in the vicinity of locust trees. They spend the larval and pupal portion of their lives within the trunks of locust trees.

Each time that I walked by the viburnum that day (11/10) I stopped to see if the beetle was still present, it was.  The beetle was on an umbel at eye level, very convenient for viewing. Sometime after noon, I was in the process of showing the beetle to some staff members (Teneka and Wendy) when I caught sight of a Wheel Bug (Arilus cristatus) on another of the viburnum’s flower umbels, higher up on the plant and not easily viewable.

I placed the wheel bug on the same flower umbel as the beetle for better viewing. This was a good move for us, the people observing the wheel bug, not so good for the beetle. Wheel Bugs are assassin bugs, they eat other insects.

I happened to be walking with Emily (rentals) several hours later through Catch the Wind. Excited to show Emily such a beautiful beetle as the Locust Borer, we approached the viburnum. I didn’t see the beetle on top of the flowers as I had earlier. The wheel bug was also absent. A closer look revealed their whereabouts. The wheel bug had ambushed the beetle and taken it under the flowers. The assassin had impaled the borer and was now sucking the insect dry.

The wheel bug (right) with a firm grip on the beetle.

Wheel Bugs are looked upon by people as beneficial insects, preying on other so called harmful insects. Locust Borers are considered harmful insects since they bore into Black Locust Trees. I look at both of them as interesting insects in their own right. One of them (the wheel bug) lives by eating other insects, the other by eating wood (the beetle). I don’t particularly favor one over the other. I get excited when I come upon either which, as adults, is only in the fall of each year.

If I hadn’t have moved the Wheel Bug earlier in the day it probably would never have encountered the beetle. By placing the wheel bug on the same flower as the beetle I played a part in the beetle’s demise which, I must admit, I felt a twinge of guilt about.

You’re probably saying, “Come on Ranger Greg, they’re only a couple of insects. You’re being a bit too sentimental here.” Well, yeah, they are only a couple of insects, and insects are killed both intentionally and unintentionally by the millions, billions and more, each day. Collectors capture insects every day (especially beetles) to add to their collections, pesticides kill them every minute of every day, birds eat them by the truck load, so do frogs, toads, and lizards. Who knows how many are smashed on the windshields and grills of our vehicles every minute of every day everywhere in the world. That beetle…nothing to worry about.

In the grand scheme of things these two insects, the Wheel Bug and the beetle, are insignificant, there’s plenty more where they came from. And, both of these insects were destined to die within days, if not hours, of laying their eggs as happens each fall, the young hatching out the following spring. But I guess the point is (finally, the point), is that everything that we do in our daily lives somehow, no matter how small or insignificant it seems at the time, affects something or someone else in one way or another, for good or for bad.

A bumble bee (upper left) shares space with an American Lady on the asters in Catch the Wind.

In typical garter snake fashion, this one flattened its self in an effort to appear more threatening.

An Eastern Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) was seen slowly crossing the path in Explore the Wild near the Red Wolf Exhibit. The cool shade of the path made this snake’s movements rather sluggish. It appeared to be heading for its winter quarters and was seen about 30 minutes later in the mulch below the cedars behind the kiosk of that exhibit, a distance of about about 15 feet.

There were numerous school groups in the area yesterday and many kids and chaperons got good looks at the snake.

Another snake seen yesterday near the Dinosaur Trail was most likely a Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi). I didn’t get a look at the snake myself, but from the description given me by a school teacher who happened to see the snake, Brown Snake is a good bet. I often see them at this time of year, as well as in the early spring, as they move to and from their summer and winter quarters.

In an attempt to scare off we humans that were watching it, the garter snake flattened and broadened its head trying to appear more "potent."

A late bloomer for sure, Mahonia is starting to take off on the Dinosaur Trail. This plant, along with Fatsia, also on the Dinosaur Trail, blooms in late fall and early winter in our area. If you miss the summer and its numerous insects, if you’re feeling as though you need an insect fix, take a walk up to the Dino Trail in the next few weeks, you’ll probably see bees, flies, and certainly ants crawling and hovering over the flowers of these late bloomers.

One of two late season flowering plants on the Dino Trail, Mahonia is just starting to bloom.

And, a parting shot…

The garter snake in the mulch, waiting for me to depart so that it can carry on with its travels.

Have a good one,

A Woolly Bear, or Isabella Tiger Moth Caterpillar (Pyrrharctia isabella), crosses the path in Explore the Wild (10/20/11).

The reddish band on the caterpillar is actually an indication of its age. Each successive molt of the caterpillar adds more reddish hairs, or setae, lessening the number of black setae. The caterpillar may molt 5 or 6 times. Each stage between molts is called an instar. The last instar has the most reddish setae.

Woolly Bears overwinter as caterpillars in the leaf liter, pupating the following spring. If it happens to be a mild fall you’re likely to see more reddish caterpillars since more of them will be out and about for a longer period of time, allowing them to perhaps molt into their final instar (last molt before pupating). With the most possible reddish hairs, in this final stage before pupating, the caterpillar would appear to be predicting a mild winter.

With the early onset of cold weather in fall the caterpillars may be forced into early hibernation, going through fewer molts and therefore wearing fewer reddish setae. You would see fewer reddish caterpillars, suggesting a cold winter.

Further, there is individual variation in the width of the reddish bands on hatchlings from the same batch of eggs. In other words, some caterpillars may have wider red bands bands then their siblings from the begining, when they first hatch.

Whatever the reason for the width of the bands on these caterpillars, I’d like to believe that what the Woolly Bear in the photo is predicting comes true, a mild winter. But I’ll take whatever the winter brings with it. After all, how bad can the winter get here in Durham, North Carolina.

The frost begins to burn off on this pumpkin in the Amphimeadow in Catch the Wind.

Apparently caught with their pants down, these two mating crane flies were still alive and thawing nicely when I came upon them atop the pumpkin.

And down in the Wetlands…

A frosty morning on the boardwalk.

The Wetlands Overlook was steaming.

As if on fire, mist streams off the top rail of the overlook.

The morning sun quickly turns the frost into vapor.

In the bird news, both White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos have arrived. The sparrows came in last week, the juncos with the same cold front that brought the frost. I saw a dozen or so Chipping Sparrows last week as well but they typically don’t stick around, in and out.

Have good one.

Yes Emily, the object in the photo looks very much like a Golden Snitch. However, a Golden Snitch is approximately the size of a walnut. As stated in the caption of the photo, our Quiz Bug is about 2 cm (including the wings), considerably smaller than a walnut.

The Hints Answered:

Rainbow – Multicolored

Not Occidental – Oriental, Asian

Peeress – Noblewoman, Gentlewoman, Lady

Sheath Wing – coleoptera, beetle

With all hints put together, our bug is a Multicolored Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axridis), although they answer to many other names, like Harlequin, Asian, Japanese, Halloween (Sarah’s answer), or Pumpkin Ladybug, Ladybird, or Lady Beetle. They are as varied in their appearance as in the nomenclature. Some are bright red-orange while some are pale. Some have many spots while others have no spots.

A dented, unfolded lady beetle.

Normally a ladybug’s wings (hindwings) would be folded under the elytra (forewings) when not in use. I suspect that our little friend had a run in with another insect, bird, and or maybe the edge of a shoe. Note the dented elytra.

But maybe, just maybe, the beetle was mistaken for a Golden Snitch by a miniature troop of Quiditch players and escaped damaged (the dent) but alive, making Emily’s answer at least partially correct!