Tiger Swallowtail Caterpillar

This adventure all started when a friend of mine saw a tiger swallowtail lay its eggs on a willow leaf, and he took me out there to show me. We started looking around the foliage to see if we could find a caterpillar, and he spotted this one nearby.

It grows up to 2 inches. It can be deep to light green. It has yellow eyespots with black and blue pupils. It is swollen in the front which accentuates its eyespots.

It wove a small silken mat that appears to act as a home. It rests there most of the time, remaining motionless to avoid detection by predators. When I went to check on it the other day, it left the mat to eat part of a leaf nearby and then promptly returned to its spot.

It has a large variety of host plants including cottonwoods, poplars, ashes, aspens, alders and willows.

I took a photo of the eggs, and when I went to check on them yesterday, I saw that they had hatched. They start off as these small, black caterpillars with a white band in the middle.

I am hoping to have the opportunity to see the creation of the next stage of its life cycle — the chrysalis. It is dark brown and wood-like and is attached to a twig or the trunk of a tree. It overwinters, and the butterfly emerges the following year completing the life cycle.

In a word, the metamorphosis of an egg to a butterfly is miraculous.

Osoberry Leaves Dying

As I walk up the zigzag trail on the hillside behind the White Oak Pavilion, I am struck by the ghostly, dying leaves of the osoberry. The ashen color greatly contrasts with the surrounding green of the forest and the first days of summer.

On the underside of many of the leaves there are tiny insects that are apparently sucking the life out of the leaves. As I stood there looking at this distressed plant, I remembered all the life stirring in this shrub not long ago. Cedar waxwings were passing the still ripening osoberries back and forth in courtship. Robins were building nests in the sanctuary of the vibrant foliage and gobbling up the berries.

I am only seeing the ones in the forest completely infested. The osoberry shrubs along the creek trail and the river trail only have a few leaves with these insects on them. I am also starting to see some of the leaves turn yellow. The leaves of the osoberry are some of the first plants to get their leaves in the spring and they seem to be naturally the first ones to start to lose them during the warm, dry days of summer.

So, the question for me is: Why are the osoberry shrubs in the forest so infested and the other ones are only mildly… buggy ?

California Ground Squirrel

California Ground Squirrel
Citellus beecheyi

These little creatures have a beautiful, speckled coat of fur that provides great camouflage. They are colonial and active during the day. There is a small settlement of them on the gentle-sloping hillside above the creek trail. There are narrow paths marking their travels across the landscape around their burrows .

They have a varied diet that consists of green vegetation, seeds, acorns, mushrooms, fruits, bird eggs and insects. The hillside where they live is pockmarked with small holes they are digging in search for food. I am not sure what they are eating.

They spend most of their time on the ground, but I occasionally see them in trees looking for food or escaping danger. In the last photo below, there was one in a tree along the creek. It was stressed about something happening on the ground nearby and was warning others with a loud chirp.

In the Peterson Field Guide to Mammals, it says that most adults estivate in July or August. Estivation occurs when conditions become hot and dry. To conserve energy they seek cool, shady areas, and they will lower their breathing, heart and metabolic rates. This sounds like a good strategy to cope with the very hot and dry weather we are experiencing at the moment.

With the creek dried up for the summer, I often wonder how animals like these ground squirrels find enough water to stay hydrated.

Different Birds Feeding Fledgling

For about a week, I have been watching a spotted towhee and a black-throated gray warbler feed this fledgling. From looking at photographs online, I think this fledgling is a brown-headed cowbird.

Cowbirds don’t build nests. They lay their eggs in the nests of other birds which will feed and nurture the cowbird when it hatches. A common host of the cowbird is the spotted towhee. Cowbirds don’t have brilliant colors or patterns, but they are a fascinating bird. Below, I included a link to a small, interesting article about them.

So maybe the towhee is the foster parent of the cowbird and somehow this warbler got its wires crossed and is helping out. All About Birds had this to say about it: “…bird parents have an intense instinct to nurture young at the time their own young are dependent. Sometimes if a bird loses its own young, it ends up feeding another chick who is begging.”

So, I’ll just keep watching and see what happens. So far I have been able to find this little fledgling each day. That said, it is getting bigger and more mobile — it flew around the creek trail quite a bit today, but it is more or less staying in the same general area. If you want to go check it out, go up the creek trail where the picnic tables are. Today it was hanging out near the first bench you come to on the right that is next to the creek. Just listen for the twittering sounds of a begging bird.

Today, I saw a juvenile towhee nearby being fed, but I’m not sure if it is the same parent towhee that it is feeding this mystery fledgling. Also today, about 50 yards away I saw a female cowbird being chased away from the nest of a western wood-pewee.

Check out these small, interesting articles:

https://www.audubon.org/news/how-does-cowbird-learn-be-cowbird

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/i-saw-a-little-bird-feeding-a-much-larger-bird-is-it-rare-to-see-two-different-species-feeding-each-other/

Bullfrogs

Bulbous, bumpy, bellowing, beautiful bullfrogs are out sunning themselves in the wetlands at the bridge.

They are 3.5 - 8 inches long, and they are the largest frog in North America. They have a large tympanum (eardrum) located just behind the eye. A ridge goes from the eye, around the eardrum and down towards the front leg. They have no dorsolateral ridges. They have a deep-pitched mating call that sounds like jug o’rum. Their diet includes fish, amphibians, birds, reptiles, small mammals and insects.

Bullfrog tadpoles are large at 4 - 6.75 inches, and their metamorphosis may take up to two years.

They were introduced to the western United States. Their natural range is east of the Rockies where they have natural predators to keep them in check. Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) lists them as an invasive species that adversely affect native populations by devouring native turtles and frogs. ODFW also says that “bullfrogs can lay up 20,000 eggs each season while native species such as red-legged frogs lay up to 5,000 eggs.”

Spotted Sandpiper

Along the Willamette River out at Mt. Pisgah, there are areas where stones have been deposited and weathered smooth. These regions, known as bars, become more exposed as the water recedes during the dry months of summer. These bars are interspersed with small thickets of willow and provide a great environment for birds to bathe, drink water, forage for food, and nest.

Over the past few years, including this one, I have seen spotted sandpipers raising a family out at Mt. Pisgah. As I approach the river, I usually hear them before I see them. Peterson describes their vocalization as a “clear peet or peet-weet! or peet-weet-weet-weet-weet.”

When you see them you’ll notice that they have a curious behavior of bobbing their tails up and down. It is a fluid, teetering movement that even the new fledglings do. They usually fly low over the water. They have quick, fluttering wing beats interspersed with short glides.

During breeding, the breast of this elegant, little bird becomes adorned with spots. Its nonbreeding and juvenile plumage doesn’t have spots.

I read this about their behavior on the website All About Birds by The Cornell Lab: “Spotted Sandpipers were one of the first bird species described in which the roles of the males and females are reversed. Males are usually smaller, less aggressive, and tend the nest and young. Meanwhile, the larger females fight for territories and may be polyandrous, meaning they mate with more than one male.”

This year I see 3 fledglings. They leave the nest soon after hatching, and they are an adorable ball of downy feathers.

I love this bird. Check them out.

Bullock's Orioles Feeding Babies

You can hear the begging of little birds as the Bullock’s orioles are feeding their babies. The sound can be heard from quite far, and it seems like it would give away their location. I have certainly found a many nests this way. Both the male and the female are making trips to the nest with food every few minutes. It must be exhausting. They also peer down into the nest to look for a fecal sack. If they find one, they will remove it and deposit it as they fly away from the nest.

They weave a gourd-shaped nest that is usually located out at the end of a tree branch about 10 to 25 feet above the ground. It is made of natural fibers like grass and lichen. The interior part of the nest is usually lined with feathers or the cottony down of willow and cottonwood seeds. Unfortunately, they are also good at finding man-made fibers to use for nesting material like the white ribbon in this nest. I have seen Bullock’s oriole nests in which it looked like half the nest was fishing line. Thus, you will usually find their nests located in habitats near water like along the Willamette river out at Mt. Pisgah.

Tiger Lily

I have been watching this plant grow for some time now, and I finally found one flowering. These nodding flowers have bursting orange tepals that open and peel backwards. They are dotted with maroon spots that resemble freckles. The leaves are arranged in whirls around the stem in various intervals.

This magical plant reminds me that there is so much diversity and beauty to behold.

Tepal
One of the divisions of a flower perianth, especially one that is not clearly differentiated into petals and sepals, as in lilies and tulips.

Spittlebugs

This small insect gets it name from the frothy, bubbly “spittle” it produces to make its home. The horticulture extension at the University of Wisconsin-Madison describes the process: “They produce the frothy mixture by mixing air with fluid excretions, but not out their mouth, so it technically isn’t spit. The immature bugs feed face down on the stem, and as excess sap is excreted out the anus, it is mixed with a substance secreted by epidermal glands that enhances surface viscosity and stabilizes the foam to make it last longer. This mixture is forced out of the abdomen under pressure and as it is mixed with air, it forms bubbles. Some species can produce as many as 80 bubbles per minute.”

At this stage, spittlebugs are in their nymphal form. This foamy mass attached to a plant stem hides it from predators, insulates it from extreme temperatures and keeps it from drying out. For food, both the nymph and the adult pierce the stems of plants and suck the sap.

I chased one out of its spittle that was attached to a stalk of grass and took a couple of photos. It crawled up the stem and immediately began to make bubbles. You can see that it is getting close to becoming an adult. The adult stage of the spittlebug is often called a froghopper. It has powerful, springy back legs for leaping and their faces somewhat resemble a frog. They have wings but they rarely fly.

There is only one generation each year. The nymphal stage lasts about 6 to 8 weeks and the adults emerge in late spring to early summer. In late summer to fall the females will lay eggs that will over winter. When they hatch in the spring, we will see the white, foam attached to plant stems again.

Spittlebugs and leafhoppers resemble each other and are related. Leafhoppers generally are smaller and more slender than spittlebugs. The adults will be springing into action soon, and I’ll be trying to tune in my awareness to find them. Maybe they’ll sit still for a photo.

spittlebug_upclose_web.jpg

Grass in Bloom

As I was walking along the creek trail yesterday morning, I could see plumes of pollen billowing up in the air. A slight breeze was blowing, and a small cloud would erupt when the grasses collided. Insects landing on the grass were also sending pollen flying. So if you are allergic to grass pollen and are looking to set the world record for the most sneezes in a day, then head on out to Mt. Pisgah and have yourself a serious sneeze-o-rama.

Grasslands support a rich diversity of flora and fauna and cover a large part of North America . On Audubon’s website, they state that historically the grasslands were 550 million acres that stretched from Alberta to Mexico—fewer than 40 percent of that remains today. It is estimated that 30 - 60 million bison lived in North America and roamed mostly on the plains in a vast sea of grass.

At Mt. Pisgah this habitat of open fields of grass and other plants that is interspersed with oak trees is known as an Oak Savannah. Native peoples who inhabited this area used fire as a means of maintaining these open areas. Today this is achieved through mowing it.

Tiger Swallowtail

This butterfly bebops around the landscape as if the musical notes of Charlie Parker are its driver.

As it flutters about in its happy-go-lucky way, it flashes its colorful cloak.

It rarely seems to want to land, and when it does, it is not for long. I fortuitously captured this photo as it momentarily paused on an oak leaf. I saw it stop by the flower umbel of a cow parsnip today for a brief sip of nectar.

I’m looking forward to continuing to watch this beautiful creature.

Robin Feeding Babies

The robins are busy collecting insects, caterpillars and worms. They are up at the break of day to began foraging, and they will work tirelessly until dusk to feed their babies. Both parents feed them and the nestling phase usually lasts around two weeks. It seems hard to believe that they grow up that fast and are ready to leave the nest. It won’t be long before we will see young robins with their speckled breasts chasing their parents and begging for food. Actually I saw a robin fledge yesterday evening. I’m getting ready to head out and see what’s happening this morning. See you out there!

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)

Red Columbine

Red Columbine (Aquilegia formosa)

Flowers form the most interesting shapes and vibrant colors.

Red columbine’s flowers face downward which is usually described as nodding. They are red and yellow with five long petal spurs. The spurs have a bulbous tip at the end and if you look up into the flower you’ll see a yellow cup at the beginning of the spur. The petal-like sepals spread out between each spur. There is a central tuft of stamens and styles protruding. The leaves are compound with nine round-lobed leaflets, and they are mostly basal on tall leafstalks.

The genus name Aquilegia is a Roman term, which refers to either water-bearing or eagle claws (Cascade Olympic Natural History, Daniel Mathews). The spurred petals resemble an eagle's talons.

In Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast it says: “The common name is derived from Latin columbina meaning ‘dove-like.’ The arched petals and spurs of the flowers resemble a quintet of doves arranged in a ring around a dish (a favourite device of ancient artists).”

It has been flowering for a few weeks and is starting to go to seed. The new seed pods are fuzzy and green with a long pointy tip. They are usually 5 clustered together with a papery crown ringed around the base. From above it resembles a star.

You can see them growing in the Patricia Baker wildflower garden. While I was looking at this plant, a bumblebee, a hummingbird, a small bee and a moth were visiting this plant.

Manroot or Bigroot

Whether you prefer to use the common name, Manroot or Bigroot, it sounds like a goofy name for a plant. Wondering how big the root is, I looked up photos on the internet. The roots are pretty big, and a couple of websites stated that they could weigh up to a couple hundred pounds.

Above ground, this plant is a magical vine that is covering the landscape — it seems to be growing at least a few inches every day. It is forming a dense blanket on the ground in some places. It also has branched tendrils that are grabbing ahold of anything they can curl around and hoist the plant up into trees and shrubs.

The male and female flowers are separate and on the same plant. Loosely clustered male flowers emerge on a narrow stalk from the leaf axil, and that is what you see filling the landscape with soft, white stars. The female flower is short-stalked, usually solitary, and also emerges from the same axil.

This native perennial is in the Cucurbitaceae family which is the gourd family of flowering plants. Manroot grows a spiky, fibrous fruit that is not edible. Small fruits are already beginning to form behind the female flower.

Manroot (Marah oreganus)

Western Screech Owl

I found this western screech owl the other evening thanks to the help of a friend. I saw a robin on the path foraging on all of the small, green caterpillars that have been repelling from the trees this week. As it was darting back and forth across the trail, it was giving its vocalization that signals possible danger or disturbance. It makes a series of calls that sound like tuk tuk tuk tuk. After a couple of minutes it flew up to a tree branch and made a few more alarm calls and flew away. As I stood there surveying the landscape for about 5 minutes the robin returned. Again, it began to forage, but still vocalizing its agitation. I began to wonder if the demands of parenting had started to frazzle my friend and/or maybe she wanted me to move on. Once again, she flew up to a tree branch nearby, alarmed and flew off down the path. A few minutes later as I looked around I was gifted the beauty of seeing this magnificent little creature sitting at the entrance of a tree cavity. Its coloration and feather pattern resemble the bark of trees which allows it to blend in excellently with its surroundings.

Western Screech-Owls are carnivores that mostly eat small mammals. Their diet also includes birds, fish, amphibians, and invertebrates. They are nocturnal and usually leave their roost to forage around sunset and return a little before sunrise.

Western Screech Owl (Megascops kennicottii)

Click the link below to All About Birds to hear their vocalizations:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Screech-Owl/sounds

Black-headed Grosbeak

The song of the black-headed grosbeaks started flowing through the air as they arrived on the scene in the last week or so. The Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Western North America describes their voice: “Song consists of rising and falling passages; resembles American Robin’s song, but more fluent and mellow. Call a flat ik or eek.”

Along with their robust song, you will also see them darting through the canopy as they began to establish their territory and find a mate.

As I was watching a pair fly around in an Oregon ash, I witnessed their brief copulation. In most birds, the male and female have a cloaca. During mating the cloacal openings of both male and female birds swell and protrude slightly outside of their bodies. The male will usually get on top of the female. She will move her tail feathers to the side so they can rub their cloacas together. At that moment, the male will quickly transfer his sperm to the female to fertilize her egg.

Life is amazing!

Male Black-headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus)

Cedar Waxwing Courtship

I read the following excerpt yesterday about cedar waxwings on The Cornell Lab’s All About Birds website.

“During courtship, males and females hop towards each other, alternating back and forth and sometimes touching their bills together. Males often pass a small item like a fruit, insect, or flower petal, to the female. After taking the fruit, the female usually hops away and then returns giving back the item to the male. They repeat this a few times until, typically, the female eats the gift.”

This morning I watched the male pluck an Indian Plum berry and fly over to a nearby limb where the female joined him. They gently passed the berry back and forth four or five times before it was eaten. This is a tender, sweet way to form a bond and become a pair.

Cedar Waxwings

In an old copy of How to Know Birds by Roger Tory Peterson he describes cedar waxwings: “Dressed in tans and grays, the sleek Waxwings are the most ‘tailored’ birds. They are called Waxwings because of shiny red droplets that look like sealing wax, at the tips of the secondary wing-feathers. But you must be very close to the bird to see this feature. The best field marks are a pointed crest and a yellow band at the end of the tail.”

Cedar waxwings are social birds and they can be seen and heard foraging in flocks. I see them every afternoon along the river trail moving through the trees and their vocalizations are a high, thin lisp or zeee that is slightly trilled. They are gleaning insects and caterpillars off of the foliage. You can also see them catching insects on the wing along the river too. They will perch on a branch and swoop out over the river like a flycatcher. Or they will weave back and forth zig-zagging over the water as they catch insects.

Cedar waxwings feed mainly on fruits throughout the year. Their name is derived from cedar berries they consume in winter. Soon the Indian plum berries will begin to ripen, and they will start gobbling them down well before I think they are ready to eat.

In What It’s Like To Be A Bird, David Allen Sibley writes: “The diet of waxwings is mainly fruit for much of the year, and they have several adaptations related to this. They have a relatively small bill, but it opens into an unusually wide mouth, allowing them to swallow large fruit whole. Their tongue has inward-facing barbs to help pull fruit into their throat.”

Happy Birdwatching!

Blacktail Deer

I briefly watched this deer the other day browsing on the new leaves of an Oregon Ash. In reading about blacktail deer, I found that they have a varied diet that can include hundreds of different kinds of plants, fruits, nuts, etc. Naturally their food sources of forbs, grasses and browse can evolve throughout the year as the seasons change.

In Cascade Olympic Natural History, Daniel Mathews writes, “They strip the old-man’s-beard lichen from tree limbs; it contains few nutrients, but enhances the deer’s utilization of plant nutrients in the winter diet of twigs, evergreen needles and leaves. Like other cudchewers, they are able to live on this high-roughage diet thanks to cellulose-digesting bacteria in their first (precudchewing) stomach. They have to browse for the nutritional demands of these bacteria; inadequate protein can kill the bacteria, leaving the browser literally starving to death with its belly full.”

For me, this really underscores the importance for the preserving the diversity of life. Animals have evolved in complex ecosystems that need to be taken care of and protected. It is crucial for our health and wellness.

Definitions:
Forbs (sometimes referred to as herbs) are herbaceous (not woody), broadleaf plants that are not grass-like.

Browse is the leaf and twig growth of shrubs, woody vines, trees, cacti, and other non-herbaceous vegetation available for animal consumption.

Blacktail Deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus)