I may have missed some nest box activity. Birds don’t wait for me to arrive at the Museum each day before they start their daily routines, and they continue their chores long after I leave, so I’m sure there’s quite a bit of these bird’s lives that I’ve not witnessed. With that said, I find it strange that I’ve not seen any young actually fledge from those boxes, or parent birds feeding young in the vicinity of those boxes, until now!

The mother bluebird tries to entice the two fledglings to come down to the suet feeder. The two youngster apparently would prefer the suet brought to them. (8/19/10)

This young bluebird begs, no insists, that it be fed.

I don’t believe that all of the birds that used the boxes were successful in fledging young. I would’ve expected to see family groups of the birds in question, which I did not. Some of the attempted nests were abandoned for reasons that I can only guess at. I’ve not witnessed predation on the nest boxes, but as I’ve said, I’m not on-site all day, every day.

I’m glad, though, that I finally was able to see a bluebird family at the Bird Feeders in Catch the Wind, the same bluebird family that had been using the nest box just behind the feeders. At least we can be sure that this bluebird family made it through the egg to fledgling process in good order.

Good for them!

Not a particularlly large individual, this female Bullfrog (note size of tympanum) sits on a rock near the smartweed at the end of the boardwalk in the Wetlands.

A male Green Frog calls out from the smartweed in the Wetlands (note the frog's extended vocal sac).

This Green Treefrog is perched on a smartweed leaf in the Wetlands.

As you have probably noticed, the three photos above were of frogs on or around smartweed. That particular patch of smartweed is a good place to look for frogs (turtles and dragonflies too). It’s located in the water at the end of the boardwalk as you leave the Black Bear Overlook headed for the Red Wolves, look over the railing to your right.

The following photos (except two) were shot in the vegetation which borders the north side of the Wetlands, the best place to look for treefrogs at this time of year. All of the photos, (above and below) were shot on the relatively cool, overcast day of 19 August.

A small Green Treefrog peeks out from behind a blade of grass.

This Green Treefrog is perched on a Mimosa branch.

Green Treefrogs may be pale green to brown, this one is a very dark shade of green.

A Gray Treefrog on a Dawn Redwood branch (opposite the smartweed patch). This one was spotted by Facilities Tech, Al Gustafson.

A Gray Treefrog under one of the Museum's large, green umbrellas. It was calling (note the extended vocal sac). The umbrella is in Catch the Wind.

This tiny Gray Treefrog is on a birch branch (less than 3/8" diameter).

Another pose by this very cute little frog (there's no denying that this frog is cute).

There are other frogs about, and many more to come as the eggs that are being deposited now hatch, the resulting tadpoles grow along with the various tadpoles from earlier matings, and the survivors eventually morph into frogs. I can’t wait!

Some of the hundreds of Large Milkweed Bug nymphs seen the first week of August.

An adult Large Milkweed Bug in comparison with nymphs of the same species.

Seven days later the nymphs began to take on some of the characteristics of the adults.

Within days, many of the nymphs began to show black markings on their abdomens and tiny black wing buds. This is what they looked like on the 11th of August.

Fall Webworms have been at work on the Museum’s trees for a month or more. These caterpillars construct their web around the leaves that they’re feeding on at the time, enlarging the web as they go. They typically build their webs near the tip of a branch, whereas tent caterpillars, which are sometimes confused with webworms, build their “tents” in a crotch of a tree.

Webworms usually build their protective web near the end of a branch.

Fall webworms expand their web as they feed, using it as protection against would be predators.

The webworms don’t venture out of the web, but, as mentioned, add on to the web as they go. Tent caterpillars feed outside of their tents and retreat to the protection of the tent after feeding.

While you’re out strolling through the Dinosaur Trail keep an eye out for Potter Wasp “pots” on the horsetail along the trail. Potter Wasps build little pot-like mud nests in which to lay their eggs, one egg per pot.

These two "pots" are attached to the horsetail which grows near the Troodons on the Dinosaur Trail (each pot about 18 mm).

The pot is stocked with small caterpillars and or sawfly larvae for the wasp’s larva to feed on once it hatches. Once the pot is stocked with food and the egg is in place, the entry hole is sealed. After the wasp larva hatches, feeds and pupates, it will have to chew its way out of the pottery.

The top pot has been sealed while the bottom one was completed but apparently abandoned (these pots are located on the opposite side of the path from the Troodons).

On an relatively cool rainy day during the third week of August (8/19) I came across a jumping spider that had captured a female Blue Dasher (or an immature male, not sure). The dragonfly was apparently waiting out the morning rain perched among the grass and the spider seized the moment.

This jumping spider appears to have its hands full with this dragonfly.

The spider has a firm grip on the ode's head. The dragonfly's head is completely turned around, that's the mouth parts that you see in this photo, not the top of the head.

The same day, in the tall grass on the north side of the Wetlands, a very large Robber Fly was able to snatch a wasp.

A robber fly perches on the tall grass with its prey, a wasp.

Robber flies are very quick and agile fliers and often wait in ambush at flowers or other places of heavy insect traffic to strike out at all who pass by.

Never a dull moment in the Wild!

I was just about to make the turn out of the Wetlands towards the Lemur House when I heard a young voice behind me exclaim “Is that a scorpion?” I turned to see several children standing in front of one of the Wetland’s crawfish, slowly and with purpose, strolling across the Macadam.

Two of several kids on the scene confront the crawfish.

After many minutes of picture-taking (by both the kids and myself) and conversation about where this strange creature was going and why, the children lost interest, and so did the crawfish. The decapod decided to head back into the water, I put away my camera (mistake), and the children moved on to seek more adventure along the trail.

After many minutes of staring at each other, the children and crawdad lost interest and moved on to new adventures.

As I watched the crawdad back its way down the small, muddy slope into the Wetlands, a family of four happened by. Wondering what I was looking at, I told them and we all stood and stared at the creature cautiously backing down towards the water.

Just then, a large female bullfrog hopped out from behind some tall grass to the left and onto the bare earth a foot-and-a-half from the crawfish. The crawfish turned towards the frog, claws snapping. The frog leaped at the crawfish with jaws wide open and PHWAMP, in the blink of an eye the crawfish was inside the frog. By the time I was able to get my camera out and ready to shoot, the frog had turned and took a giant leap out into the water.

Kicking myself for not having the camera locked, loaded, and ready to shoot, I gazed out into the water and could see the frog sitting quietly in the water about twelve feet out. I could, at least, get an after-the-fact shot of the frog.

This big frog did not hesitate to take the large crawfish. The victim's antennae can be seen projecting from the frog's mouth (right side).

Trying to get a bit closer, I spooked the frog and it hopped farther out onto a small island, obstructed by much vegetation. Still, I was able to get a shot of the frog with a claw dangling from its mouth.

A claw is clearly visible dangling from the frog's mouth.

This event made my day, as it did the folks who were standing next to me at the time. It’s not everyday that you get to witness such a thing. Sure, I’ve seen bullfrogs go after dragonflies, butterflies, and have read accounts of them catching small birds and even mice, but the crawfish was unexpected for its proximity, boldness, and dispatch.

A good day in the Wetlands!

On July 27th both of the immature hawks were up and soaring over the the pines. The birds fell silent on the 30th on July. On Saturday, July 31 I observed one of the immature hawks fly off at my approach through the dense woods, with a bird in it’s talons.

One of the Cooper's Hawks sailing over the pines north of the Wetlands.

On August 3, while walking through The Dinosaur Trail I noticed a scattering of feathers on the pavement. The feathers were spread across the Macadam, but a small cluster of feathers at the center of the path caught my eye.

Some of the many feathers that grabbed my attention. There were many feathers scattered across the path on the Dinosaur Trail.

One of the reddish feathers. The fly sits on what looks like a small piece of breast.

A few of the feathers still had meat attached to them. At first glance I thought that the feathers were from a female cardinal due to their reddish color. But as I looked over to the side of the path I noticed a wing, and then another.

There was little doubt that the two wings on the side of the path, as well as the other feathers scattered about, were from a robin.

This wing is from an American Robin.

For a week or two previous, I’d been seeing family groups of robins foraging along the paths and through the woods, especially along the Dinosaur Trail and the north side of the Wetlands.

While I can’t be certain, it looks as though one of the immature Cooper’s Hawks made a kill at this spot on the Dinosaur Trail. In my mind’s eye I can visualize the hawk capturing the robin in mid air, dropping to the ground and mantling the prey. After having a quick look around to see if all was safe, it commenced to take the unfortunate robin apart. Perhaps it then flew off to the woods to the north of the Dino Trail to eat the bird.

If you see a medium sized hawk with a rather long tail adeptly coursing through the woods, or sailing over the treetops, it just might be one of the two young Cooper’s Hawks hatched and fledged here at the Museum this year. Wish the hawk luck, many of them don’t make it through their first year of life.

Tiger swallowtail numbers peak in April/May and again in late July/August here in the Piedmont, although they can be seen in lesser numbers anytime from March thru October.

We happen to be in the second peak period and these large yellow and black butterflies can be seen throughout the outdoor areas. The best place to look for them though, is in the garden along the walkway and stairs at the entrance to the Butterfly House, especially on the lantana and butterfly bush.

One of many present, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail nectars on lantana near the entrance to the Butterfly House.

This tiger sips nectar from buddleia, or butterfly bush, at the Butterfly House Garden.

The tiger pictured above is a male. Females have more blue in the hindwing. And, surprise, a certain percentage of the females are dark.

This is a dark morph female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Note the amount of blue on the hindwing. Look closely, you can still see the tiger-stripe pattern* of the light morph female and male.

It may also come as a surprise to you that the farther north you travel the fewer dark morph females you’re likely to encounter. In other words, the percentage of dark females per the total population of females is more in North Carolina than it is in New York. Why?

The dark morph of the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is supposedly a mimic of another large black butterfly, the Pipevine Swallowtail. Pipevines are said to be distasteful to predators, such as birds, because of the chemical makeup of their host plant, the plant that the caterpillars feed on, which is pipevine (much like the relationship between Monarch Butterflies and milkweed). Pipevine Swallowtails are less common the farther north you travel, so, as the theory goes, there are fewer dark morph female Tiger Swallowtails as well.

That all sounds good, but it does nothing to explain why only the females have a dark morph. There’s no disputing that there are fewer dark female E. Tiger Swallowtails and fewer Pipevine Swallowtails up north. Those are facts that I can personally attest to. And, it seems reasonable to assume that a percentage of dark female tigers and the number of Pipevines present in a population could be somehow related. But why are only some of the females dark and why do none of the males show the same variation, that is, a dark morph? Could this be evolution in progress, or is it simply coincidence?

While you ponder the tigers and the reasons for their color morphs, keep an eye out for these other nectar lovers on the flowers of the garden outside the Butterfly House.

Silver-spotted Skipper.

Little Glassywing (also a skipper).

Snowberry Clearwing (a moth).

And while your in the neighborhood, look for these two bugs on the Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa).

Small Milkweed Bug (Lygaeus kalmii) mating.

Large Milkweed Bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus) searching.

The milkweed bugs above were actually on a Butterfly Weed in Catch the Wind (next to the Ornithopter), but any Butterfly Weed will do at this time of year.

Look for both of the milkweed bugs on the seed pods. They may be present elsewhere on the plant but they lay eggs on the pods, and eat the seeds.

* Richard Stickney of the Butterfly House has an image that shows the tiger-stripe pattern of the dark morph Eastern Tiger Swallowtail a bit more clearly.

This snake is ready to STRIKE, and it did! It bit my shoe.

Pointed out to me by Summer Camp Counselor, Meghan, outside the doorway to the Lep Lab at the Butterfly House, the little snake in the image above was a bold snake, considering it was only six or seven inches in length.

The paper clip next to this little Eastern Garter Snake is 1.25" in length (same snake as above, and completely harmelsss).

Garter snakes are ovoviviparous which means that the female produces eggs but retains the eggs internally until they hatch so that live young emerge from the female. They are said to produce 7-85 young per liter. That seems like a very wide range.

While researching the liter size of Eastern Garter Snakes I saw several references to that number (7-85), but those references could simply be quoting the same source, right or wrong. I’ve seen other references for 2-28 and 12-17 young as well as “three dozen to four dozen young.” As you might imagine, I was a bit confused.

After talking to Animal Keeper Mikey here at the Museum, he reassured me that a good average liter size would be 30 young. That means that there are somewhere around 29 other little garter snakes slithering around the Butterfly House. Many will fall prey to birds, other snakes, and who knows what else, but that’s a good number to start with. I wonder how many other garter, black rat, racer, and other snake species young are out there at this time of year?

The frog.

While getting a long-handled net from behind the rest rooms in Explore the Wild (to fish something out of the Wetlands), a frog which had been perched atop the net fell to the ground. It was a Gray Treefrog.

This Gray Treefrog was using a net as a daytime roost.

In my post of July 27, I mentioned that this species of frog can be recognized as such by a white mark under its eye. That’s true, but there is another important field mark for this species, a hint of which can be seen in the image above (near the right rear foot).

Gray Treefrogs have bright orange or yellow on the underside of their legs. Not often visible as the frog sits motionless on a tree trunk, but a pleasant surprise the first time you hold one of these frogs in the hand.

The bright color on the underside of this frog's legs is a treat to see for young herpetologists, and old ones too!

Keep your eyes opened as you stroll through the outdoor exhibits, you may discover something exciting out there.

Happy herping!

Here’s what the leaves look like.

Ranger Katie demonstrates how large sycamore leaves can grow.

As you can see, they have a distinctive shape and some of the leaves can grow quite large.

Here’s a question for those of you who like quizzes:

What other plant, growing in the Museum’s Wetlands, has large leaves, looks like a water lily but is more closely related to sycamore than to water lily?

This tiny frog can be recognized as a Gray Treefrog by the whitish spot under the eye. To judge size, that's the stem of a dried holly leaf that the frog is clinging to with its left "hand."

A second “fresh” Gray Treefrog as well as a very young Green Treefrog (Hyla cinerea) were also seen that day.

Though tadpoles are already morphing into adult form, the breeding season is not over for these treefrogs. They will continue to breed into August in our area, spurred on by the thunderstorms that move through the Piedmont each summer. It’s the rain that they want and need. The adult frogs can often be heard calling out in anticipation from the trees and shrubs at the sound of thunder, long before the clouds unload their watery cargo.

An adult Gray Treefrog waits patiently for the coming night's activities to begin. This frog is tucked-in under an umbrella next to the Ornithopter.

The heavy downpour on the night of July 14th brought down to the water many amorous treefrogs. The U-shaped pond next to the Ornithopter in Catch the Wind was full of frog eggs the following morning.

Some of the many eggs seen the day after the heavy rains of 14 July. These eggs were in the pond next to the Ornithopter in Catch the Wind.

The yolks (dark part) of these eggs are each about a millimeter in diameter.

The eggs are tiny, and they develop quickly. Within one or two days most of the eggs had already taken on the elongated shape of tadpoles.

A tadpole settles on a small rock, munching on the abundant algae that covers the rock. (size, about 7 mm)

Six days after the eggs were deposited, the tadpoles were scattered about the pond resting on the rocks and stones that cover the bottom.

To survive, the tadpoles must develop quickly, the pools of water that the adult frogs breed in may dry up before the tadpoles reach maturity.

These tadpoles have to eat as much as possible in order to grow and develop into frogs before the pond dries up in late summer. Lucky for these tadpoles, this pond will be replenished before completely drying up.

Like caterpillars on the trees and plants above the pond that become moths or butterflies, a tadpole’s life under the water consists of little more than eating, resting, and growing before changing into a completely new form, a frog. And, that’s just what our tadpoles are doing, eating, resting, and growing.

July seems to me to be rather late in the season for snapping turtles to mate, but at least one male snapper here at the Museum thought not.

A male Common Snapping Turtles attempts to mount an uncooperative female in the Wetlands.

From my perspective on the Main Wetlands Overlook, the male snapper never got what he was after.

That's the female snapper's nose on the left. The male's shell is on the right, his head (center) is mostly submerged.

The pair was last seen swimming in opposite directions across the Wetlands.

Mimi has undergone a drastic change in coloration, she’s now a near negative image of her former self. Where she was black she is now brown and where she was once brown, her shoulders and hips, she is mostly black.

Since last month, Mimi has reversed her color scheme, and grown rather shaggy in the process.

Gus, the only male in the compound, has grown shaggy along with Mimi but you can still see traces of his “blond highlights.” Whether his characteristic highlights will be present after his molt remains to be seen.

You can still see the half dozen or so clumps of blond hairs on his shaggy, shedding coat in this shot of Gus cooling off on a sweltering hot July day.

Regardless of his coloration or condition of his coat, Gus’ overall large size and proportions are the best clues to his identity among the other bears.

Ursula looks less shaggy than she did last month, but still retains her overall brown coloration.

Ursula looks a bit neater than she did a month ago. She still holds on to her brown coloration, although it appears sun-bleached.

Yona has lost most of the punk hairdo she sported 4 weeks ago, but she’s still the smallest bear in the compound.

Although her spike hairdo is all but gone, Yona is still the wee bear in the enclosure and easy to spot, most of the time.

What about Virginia? Virginia is still pretty much the same as she was, all black coat (a bit shaggy at the moment, but all black) with a large white “V” on her chest, and a “leave me alone” attitude.

That’s about it. Hope this helps you to sort out who’s who when visiting with the bears. I’ll keep you posted if there are any further drastic changes to the bears’ appearances.

Enjoy!