August 24, 2025: Pollinator Paradise

Sometimes one single plant can be a huge attraction to whole host of pollinating insects.

Thread-waisted Wasp on a Flat-topped Aster.

Like the Evening Primrose, when these asters started growing in the garden we thought they were weeds.  But curiosity inspired us to let them grow and see what developed.  The result is tall (up to six feet) wildflowers that have dozens of blossoms which attract everything from honeybees to tiny flies. 

I won't even try to identify them all, but here are some of the pollinators I found on a single plant at the same time.  

Aster seeds are also consumed by birds and they provide late-season nectar for migrating Monarch Butterflies.  Native to New England and growing well in hot and dry weather, it's an all-around excellent plant to let grow in your yard or garden - and you'll be helping pollinators which are under great stress these days.  Linda's woodland sunflower patch is another pollinator heaven.

Walking by it there's a loud buzz from the hundreds of insects visiting the blossoms, though they are predominantly bees - the sunflowers don't seem to attract the wide diversity of insects that the asters do.  

On the loon front I'm sorry to report that the survey crews have not been able to locate our younger chick Star, and we believe that he has been killed.  We don't know the cause, but another loon is a distinct possibility considering there has been a constant presence of non-resident loons on the lake.  We also know that the parents had been leaving chicks alone, tucked in against a shoreline while the parents go out to fend off other loons.  Earlier this week I watched our resident north territory male defend his territory from four other loons.

Letting intruders know this territory has been claimed before they get any ideas about next summer.

Escorting them out of the cove.

"And don't come back!"

But we can take solace that the larger chick, Spangle continues to thrive.

Starting to look like a juvenile loon now.

She is not safe yet though as she remains susceptible to attack by other loons, though with only one chick to defend, she will be better protected than ever.  We'll continue to hope for a positive outcome.  

Birds with larger broods than loons have better prospects for some of their chick to survive simply due to the numbers.  

I'll close with a bright greed katydid visiting our house. 

These are perhaps the prettiest of the insects in the bush cricket family, and the one makes the distinctive "katy-did, katy-didn't" sound by rubbing it wings together.  They can be distinguished from grasshoppers by their very long and thin antennae, often longer than their bodies. 

Grasshoppers have shorter and thicker antennae.  Katydids are mostly nocturnal, but this one was out in the morning sun for some reason.

Next week I'll be looking for late summer wildflowers.  Here's a preview of what's to come:

Perley Everlasting - another member of the aster family, but with a much different flower.

It should be a good week to walk through fields and along country roadsides.

August 18, 2024: Summer's Creepy-Crawlers

Mid-summer is prime time for all kinds of creepy-crawlers.  They've been feeding on plants and other smaller insects for a while, growing larger, and many being quite colorful, they can be easy to spot.  This orb-weaver, a Yellow Garden Spider, is a good example. 

There are several theories about why they make the zig-zag pattern in the web.

This spider, along with dozens more, was in an open field of wildflowers which is their usual habitat, though I have seen them and their webs right  on the eaves of our house.  Both males and females weave webs but the males' webs are smaller. 

There's a huge variety of caterpillars munching on our plants here in August and they're large enough now to be quite visible.  One or more of them is doing quite a job on the oak trees.  

The ground in places is covered with shredded oak leaves.

On a quiet day it sounds like rain as leaves and caterpillar droppings fall to the ground.  One afternoon I counted 25 of this variety of caterpillar on the ground in an area no larger than 10 square feet.

An unknown moth caterpillar.

They must have all just dropped down to go find a place to form their pupae, and I'm guessing these are the ones feeding on the oaks. There are several kinds of moths that have similar larvae and I don't know what these are.

Several colorful and hairy caterpillars are munching on plants too, some on trees, others on smaller plants such as this Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillar on, yes, a milkweed plant.

Milkweed Tussock Moth Caterpillar on a milkweed pod.

Just like the Monarch Butterfly caterpillar, the Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillar consumes milkweed almost exclusively.  

Next up is a Banded Tussock Moth caterpillar. 

This tussock caterpillar isn't a picky eater and will consume a wide variety of trees and shrubs including oak, ash, birch, and blueberry.  This one was crawling along the ground, looking for a safe place in the leaf litter to make its cocoon in which it will spend the winter.

Next I saw a Wooly Bear caterpillar.

One of the best known of the caterpillars.

Unlike the tussock caterpillars which should not be touched, the Wooly Bear won't cause skin irritation if it's handled.  This larvae will pupate and overwinter under the leaf litter and turn into an Isabella Tiger Moth next summer.  This species consumes an even wider variety of herbaceous plants:  flowers, shrubs, and trees - most anything but grass.  

Grasshoppers on the other hand, will eat grass, and I've seen lots of flying grasshoppers in dry sunny areas lately; at least that's what we called them as kids.  I don't know what the problem was with this one I saw on a gravel driveway, but it was just buzzing along the ground, making more noise than motion.

The video makes it look like it was moving its wings slowly when in fact they were moving so fast you couldn't see them.  When it finally stopped and tried to hide under a tuft of grass I got a good look at it and I think it's a Carolina Locust.  

Carolina Locust (Dissosteira carolina)

What incredible camouflage for a dirt road.  They're fun to watch but I guess a large outbreak can damage crops even here in New England.

The last crawler I saw was the biggest of all - almost 3" long.

It seems every summer I see one - and only one - of these many-legged, well-armored arthropods.  Arthropods, which includes spiders, aren't insects or bugs, and more closely related to crustaceans.  They don't go through a metamorphosis but remain crawlers all their lives and are harmless to humans.  They are born with only a few of those four legged segments and add more segments as they molt over the five years it takes them to reach maturity.  During that time they are helpful animals, consuming small insects and decaying plant material.  [University of California, Oakland]

Here's yet another creepy-looking insect that is completely harmless.

A Katydid, also called a Bush Cricket.

Katydids, in the cricket family, are mostly nocturnal, using their color and leaf-life patterning to hide on plants during the day.  I have no idea why it was resting on a white deck chair at 2:00 in the afternoon.  

Finally, here's an insect that has completed its metamorphosis into an airborne adult. 

Green Comma (Polygonia faunus)

This flashy Green Comma was flitting around in its primary habitat of a small mountain stream running along the Edmund Path on the flank of Mt. Eisenhower.  It lives in boreal north America, primarily mountain woodlands, so not likely to be seen around Lake Wicwas.

Something I'm watching for but haven't seen yet is a cicada.  But the creepy-crawler season isn't over yet....

P.S:  There was a lot of interest in last week's osprey so I'll share a post from August 2020 which includes another osprey fishing experience.  It was also in mid-August, in the same part of the lake, and within 5 minutes of the same time of day!  7:15pm on a quiet mid-August evening is the time to watch for them!

July 19, 2020: Who Lives on a Primrose?

This spring an interesting weed sprouted right by the house, growing fast and interesting enough that it was tolerated by the resident gardener in order to see what developed.  As it grew taller and taller with no sign of being anything other than a weed, there were numerous temptations to yank it, but still, we waited.  Then one morning, a small yellow flower appeared.  The next morning, a couple more, and after a few days, there were numerous bright flowers, enough to be able to identify this now three and a half-foot tall weed towering over the black-eyed susans.

Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis)

It is an Evening Primrose, so named because it blooms in the evening, greeting the owner with a bright good morning welcome.  The flowers are supposed to close up by noon, but ours seems to want to enjoy much of the afternoon as well.  

This primrose is biennal, meaning it has a two year cycle, producing flowers only in the second year, which is interesting because although we remember seeing a plant like this last year, it seems unlikely it would have survived the summer appearing to be only a weed.  But perhaps we watched it long enough to mature sufficiently, and only cut if off rather than pulling it up.  Anyway, it's a pretty plant, and being biennial, I'm saddened it won't come back next year.  But if any of its seeds take root, we'll know to let them grow for a couple of years.

Looking closely at the plant to identify it, I noticed it was home to several different forms of life.  Did you notice the little green bug sneaking over the blossom in the the previous pictures?

A katydid?

I think it's a katydid.  It doesn't have wings, but the nymphs hatch without wings;  thier wings appear only after their final molt.  

There was also a small brown beetle crawling around on the stem.

An unknown beetle

But the best find was this pretty primrose moth.

Primrose moth (genus Schinia)

At first I thought it was a rosy maple moth, but learned otherwise after looking closely at the color pattern.  It's another new species for me, and its name certainly makes sense considering the plant it was calling home.

It's always fun to find cool insects and spiders hanging out in Linda's flowers!

I did some boundary monitoring on the Harris Conservation Easements with Leah from the Lakes Region Conservation Trust this week which included monitoring from both land and sea.  In shallow water along the protected shorelines we found these pretty yellow flowers blooming (I guess yellow is the color of the week):

Floating Bladderwort (Utricularia radiata)

This is the flower of the Floating Bladderwort, I think.  I'll repeat that I'm not an expert on these matters.

Bladderworts don't have a root, they just float along in the water with a stem that drags down on the bottom of the lake.  The coolest aspect of bladderworts is that they are carnivorous.  Their underwater bladders are their "mouths".  The plant creates a vacuum in its bladders by pumping water out of them.  When the hairs on a bladder detect its prey, the plant opens the bladder, sucking in water, and its victim along with it.  Here's a description of the process from The Native Plant Trust: 

"Like other bladderworts, greater bladderwort is carnivorous, trapping small organisms in its tiny bladders. The trap door operates at speeds that rank among the fastest plant  movements known. Triggered by protruding hairs on the door, trap bladders open in about 0.5 milliseconds, sucking the animal in, and closing in about 2.5 milliseconds. This comes to about three thousand feet per second, almost three times the speed of sound."

And yes, bladderworts eat mosquito larvae, so they are our friends!  Easement monitoring can be quite educational - thanks for the trip Leah, and for this picture:

Monitoring Conservation Easements is a highly strenuous job.

Speaking of the Harris Conservation Easement, that's where our successful loon nest was this year, and both of their chicks are fine, being well attended to by their parents, and learning to fish by watching them.  Here's a link to a video Ron Naso captured of the chicks and the parents fishing.  Look carefully - the best part is when you can see one of parents flashing by under the water chasing a fish - it happens at 43 seconds into the video.  It's amazing how fast they can swim under water.  

There has been a lot of loon drama in Marion Cove this week, with three loons in regular confrontation - lots of circle dancing and lots of wing-rowing and vocalizing as they chase each other around.

"Get out of my cove!"

It may be the rogue loon we've had the past several years ("Solo") claiming ownership of the cove, while the long-resident (banded) pair still feels they have fishing rights to the waters.  At any rate, it seems to be keeping them all occupied and staying away from the new family, which is a good thing.

I'll end this entry with a great storm cloud building up before one of the late afternoon showers this week.

Just another beautiful moment on New Hampshire's lakes.

September 8, 2013

Lake Wicwas suddenly finds itself feeling like fall, even though it's still summer by the calendar.  The color of the sky and the cool, dry wind on surface of the lake reflecting the lower angle of the sun prove that summer is just about behind us. 

 Even thought the calendar says it's summer, meterologists consider September the start of fall - and one can understand why.

At least the water is still warm - unusually so for this time of year.  But with a few more cold nights, it won't be swimming-temperature for long.

Mist on Lake Wicwas on a Cool September Morning

There was a large bass tournament on the lake this weekend, with lots of serious fisherman.  But sometimes all the fancy equipment can't outdo a row boat and a fly rod!

On the nature front, I found quite a few of these bright green katydids over the past few weeks. 

Katydid

This guy had decided to take up a perch on a sponge right on our door step.  Katydids are are also known as Bush-Crickets.  If you want an easy way to differentiate a cricket from a grasshopper, just remember that crickets have long, thin antennae, while grasshoppers have short, thick ones. 

If you've been outside at all, you've surely noticed all the mushrooms and fungi everywhere - here's a quite large one. 

September 3rd

Just one week earlier this very same mushroom was a bright yellow.

August 14th

It's time to really enjoy these waning days of summer - scenes like this will become increasingly rare now!

Peaceful, Late Summer Evening