Steller's Jay Harvesting Acorns

As I walk into the arboretum at the White Oak Pavilion, I am greeted by the sounds of falling acorns. Acorns are a sturdy nut with some gravity as they fall. As they drop through the tree, I can hear them brushing against the oak leaves. They bounce off the ground with a hearty thud or strike the metal roof of the pavilion with a resounding pop. I have had a couple come close to thumping me on the head as I went underneath one of the oaks. Hopefully my hat will lessen the blow.

Accompanying the orchestra of falling acorns is the shook shook shook shook vocalization of the Steller’s jay. They are busily selecting acorns and caching them for the winter. They will usually make a small hole in the ground and tuck the acorn inside by pounding on it a few times. Afterwards they will cover it with debris, such as leaves or sticks. Obviously they try to be discreet when stashing their food. If they feel that they were seen while hiding their food, they will return to retrieve and relocate it. This behavior has happened with me as I have attempted to photograph them burying an acorn.

In David Sibley’s book What It’s Like To Be A Bird he has this fascinating detail about acorns and nutrition: “One significant challenge of eating acorns is that they have high levels of tannins, which bind with proteins and makes them unavailable. Acorns are high in fat and carbohydrates, but, eating acorns alone, jays lose weight rapidly because tannins lock up more protein than the birds get from the acorns. If a bird has access to other sources of protein—enough to make up for what the tannins remove—then acorns in moderation can be a valuable part of the diet.”

Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. Hope to see you out there.

Sibley, David Allen. What It’s Like To Be A Bird. New York, Knopf, 2020.

Pacific Ninebark seeds

Many of the pacific nine bark shrubs are loaded with clusters of seed pods. The pods have dried out and are splitting open to release their seeds. I squeezed one of the clusters a few times and small seeds came pouring out. They were smooth and a little shiny.

Several sources state that this plant is poisonous or toxic. I was unable to find any mention of the seeds being a food source for any animals, such as birds, mice, ants, etc. Although recently, I did find a pacific ninebark shrub down by the river that had been chewed by a beaver.

I’ll keep watching to see what animals are interacting with this plant.

California poppy

The perfect flower to adorn the wrap-up of summer is the California poppy.

Its warm, orange blossoms emerge to capture the last, sunny rays of the season.

A luminous token of remembrance to carry with you through the gray, rainy days of winter.

A glowing ember to spark plans for all the cool, exciting trips you will take next summer.

A keepsake tucked inside your memory to remind you of the magical cycle of the seasons.

There hasn’t been any significant rain all summer and yet the California poppy is green and blooming. It must have some strategy to store and retain water efficiently in arid conditions. I love the contrast of the delicate, soft body of the poppy and the dry, pokey grass surrounding it.

Downy Woodpecker & Mullein

Downy woodpeckers can often be seen on the flower stalks of mullein this time of year. The yellow flowers steadily open throughout the season starting at the bottom and moving upward as the stalk grows. So you can see flowers blooming on top of the stalk, fuzzy green seed pods along the middle and older pods turning brown at the bottom. The woodpeckers are opening the pods and extracting small larvae inside that appear to be eating the seeds.

As I investigated a couple mullein stalks, I found they were attracting a surprising number of insects and spiders. I encountered a goldenrod crab spider, a daddy-long-legs, grasshoppers, aphids, weevils, caterpillars, honey bees, native bees and wasps all on a couple plants. My guess is that the woodpecker is taking the opportunity to sample a few of them along the way.

Manroot Seeds

The manroot vines were very prominent earlier in the summer as they wove their way up through the understory or created thick blankets on the ground. As the leaves and vines have dried up, they have visually receded. I have been poking around trying to find one of the fruits. Manroot is a native perennial in the gourd family, so I wanted to see what the fruit looked and felt like as it matured. Surprisingly, it was hard to find one, but I finally discovered one hanging in an osoberry shrub.

The small fruit pod was splitting open and the seeds were starting to spill out. The seeds have a look and feel of small, weathered river stones. The are round and flat with a slight curve. They were pleasant to handle as I rolled them around in my hand listening to them tumble against each other.

One of the interesting things I noticed was that the leaves, vines and tendrils of the plant were all crispy dry. However, the brown, fibrous gourd shown in the second photo that contained the seeds was still moist. It looks papery and dry in the photo, but it is actually still damp and spongy.

The dried leaves were captivating as they hung from the vines like wrinkled, folded capes. They were curiously covered in small dots. I feel that plants take on another fascinating life and energy as their color, shape and texture transform as they die.

Praying Mantis

While walking along the south meadow, I saw a creature launch, fluttering and flapping out of the grass. As it propelled itself through the air, it reminded me of some whirligig invented in the initial days of flight exploration. I watched as it leap-frogged its way across the landscape. It was very noticeable while flying, but as soon as it landed, it quickly blended in with its surroundings.

Well-camouflaged to their environment, mantids are ambush predators. They wait motionless or slowly stalk their prey. This creature gets its name from holding its fore legs in a prayerful pose. These legs are armed with barbs that can snare an unsuspecting insect. They strike with lightning speed, and once in their grasp, their powerful mouthparts easily pierce through the armored exoskeleton. I’ve watched them munch and crunch a grasshopper effortlessly. I read that they are voracious eaters, even going so far as being cannibalistic! The female often devours the male after mating. I also read that as they emerge as tiny mantids in the spring, they will sometimes eat each other. It is easy to see why gardeners employ these amazing creatures to help keep other critters eating their garden in balance.

California Sister

I stood out in the main meadow just beyond the White Oak Pavilion and watched this butterfly as it flew in and out of the outer branches of the oak trees.

Although it has quite a bumpy, meandering flight pattern, it seems like it has a territory. There was a breeze swirling about and small, brown oak leaves were floating and tumbling through the air. Amusingly, if one of the leaves fluttered into the butterfly’s airspace, it would swoop over to it as if to warn the intruder. Even dragonflies would be paid a visit if they came into its domain.

I loved watching the flash of its bold orange and white markings. It is a fairly quick flyer and a little tricky to follow as it weaves through the landscape. It would only light somewhere for a few seconds, which made getting a photo pretty tricky. However, it occasionally paused on these overripe blackberries for a minute or so to eat. In my research I found that rotting fruit is part of their diet. So look for a patch of blackberries along the edge of the oak savanna. This is a good place to try and get a good look at them as they momentarily pause to eat. Good luck.

Red-breasted Nuthatch Collecting Seeds

Sitting in the shade of a ponderosa pine listening to the river flow, I heard the faint murmurings of the red-breasted nuthatch. The pine cones are beginning to open in the warm, late-summer sun and the nuthatch is on the scene to start collecting seeds for the winter. After retrieving a seed, it flew over and stashed it in the furrowed, mossy bark of a bigleaf maple. It merrily went about filling its larder for most of the morning.

Occasionally, it would take a break and forage for food - pine seeds, insects, spiders and other arthropods. All About Birds by Cornell Lab summed up their foraging behavior nicely: “Red-breasted Nuthatches move quickly over trunks and branches probing for food in crevices and under flakes of bark. They creep up, down, and sideways without regard for which way is up, and they don’t lean against their tail the way woodpeckers do. Flight is short and bouncy.” I will add that you will often see them facing downward, pausing to tilt their head upward to survey their surroundings.

Listen for the sound like a small tin horn as the red-breasted nuthatch toots and squeaks on its joyfully spirited way through the landscape.

Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. Hope to see you out there.

Resources:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-breasted_Nuthatch/lifehistory

Wood-Pewee Fledged

I saw two of the three wood-pewee fledglings nearby along the river in a willow shrub. The parents were dashing by and feeding them in what seemed like a fraction of a second. This fledgling sat quietly on this small branch and patiently waited. I watched it for about a half an hour, and I never heard one peep out of it. Usually fledglings will vocalize with a begging call to be fed, but it can also get the attention of predators. Perhaps this little fledgling has already had a close call and has decided to sit and wait silently.

Black-and-yellow Argiope

Spiders are magical creatures. They have organs called spinnerets that produce silk. This amazing material is used very creatively in the world of spiders. The most obvious use is that it can be used to build webs like the circular construction of this orb-weaver. Their silk is also used for swathing prey that gets caught in the web and to make sacs to encase the spider eggs. In a process called ballooning or parachuting, some spiders will release silk that can be caught by the wind which allows them to float into the air. I read a National Geographic article that said ballooning spiders have been found more than two miles high and thousands of miles out at sea! Spider webs are strong, stretchy, sticky and very versatile. Many birds will collect them and use them in building their nests.

The spider in the photos is the female. The males are smaller with brownish legs and less yellow coloration on their abdomens. The male seeks out a female and plucks at her web during courting. After mating, the female fills a spherical sac with a tough, brown papery covering. She attaches it to one side of the web close to resting position, then dies. Eggs hatch in the autumn, young overwinter in the sac and then disperse in the spring.

References:
Milne, Lorus and Margery. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects & Spiders. New York, Knopf, 1996.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/spiderwebs-explained

Last Nest of the Summer?

The Western Wood-Pewee has been, in my experience, the last bird nesting of the season out at the arboretum. That said, there was a robin’s nest nearby where the fledglings just left the nest within the last week. The baby pewees look as if they are going leave the nest any day now. They are fluttering their wings, preening their feathers regularly and perching on the side of the nest. There are three in the nest which seems crowded and hard to believe when you look at the size of the nest.

The parents stay close by to the nest. They could easily be back at the nest at a moments notice if a predator, such as a Steller’s jay, gets too close. The parents perch on small, exposed tree branches as they watch for insects flying by. They will swoop out in a small loop to catch an insect, and they will often return back to the same spot as if an invisible rubber band snapped them back.

The babies have insatiable appetites, and the parents are returning every couple of minutes to stuff food in their bright yellow bills. I can hear the babies almost constantly calling out from the nest to be fed.

I am sure the parent pewees welcome the closing of the day to get some well deserved rest.

Signs of Drought

There are obvious signs of the serious lack of rainfall this year. The roses are shedding their leaves early. They are a pale brown and rattle in the wind. The plant is abandoning its fruit production. The few rose hips that are on the plant are void of their normally plump bodies and rosy complexion.

I included the photos and a link to last years post on Oct. 18 of the same patch. The contrast of the abundant, robust red hips of last year to the sparse, desiccated hips of this year is alarming.

I am looking forward to the gentle, life-giving rains of late summer and fall.

Velvet Ant

Confusingly, velvet ants are actually wasps. The velvet part of their name refers to their dense, hairy bodies. They are bright colors of orange, red or yellow. The females lack wings and the males are fully winged. Adults feed on nectar and water. The larvae of most species are parasites of larvae and pupae of bees and wasps that nest in the ground. Some species will parasitize flies and beetles.

They prefer open fields or pastures, and I usually come across a female out in the south meadow along the road that goes out to the river. They seem to be always moving and vigorously searching through the vegetation. They are a solitary wasp and don’t seem aggressive. That said, be warned that the female can deliver a painful sting, so be careful when observing them.

Yellow-spotted Millipede

Firstly, I thought I got a better photo of this shiny, armored creature as it moved across my path. Nevertheless, I wanted to write about it hoping its amazingness would overcome the photo until I can take better one.

The yellow-spotted millipede, Harpaphe haydeniana, is also known as the almond-scented millipede or the cyanide millipede. It is an aposematic species — the black body with bold yellow spots signals predators of its potentially harmful toxicity. When they feel threatened they will curl up into a spiral and secrete hydrogen cyanide which has the scent of toasted almonds. This is toxic to small predators, but is not dangerous to humans as the amount of cyanide is small.

They are detritivores which means they feed on the dead leaves and wood of the forest floor. I read that they eat 33 to 50 percent of all coniferous and deciduous leaf litter. As they chew, digest and excrete the leaf litter it makes valuable nutrients available to other organisms in the ecosystem.

I am looking forward to researching more about the life of this incredible organism and its importance to the health and well-being of our forests.

Eurasian Collared-Dove

There is often a pair of these doves around the entrance to the arboretum. They have a black crescent around the nape of their neck that is prominently visible against their light, chalky-gray bodies. When they are perched or walking around on the ground, you can see that their wing tips are slightly darker than the rest of the wing.

They mainly forage along the ground for seeds, and they will also eat berries and insects.

This bird was accidentally introduced into the Bahamas in 1974 and by the 1980’s they had made their way over to Florida. Since then they have spread across the United States, except the Northeast where only a few strays have been recorded. In reading about them, I didn’t find anything reporting negative impacts on the populations of native birds.

Cool fact from All About Birds:
”The Eurasian Collared-Dove’s species name, decaocto, comes from Greek mythology. Decaocto was a servant girl transformed into a dove by the gods to escape her unhappy treatment; the dove’s mournful cry recalls her former life.”

Dragonflies

This beautifully flaming-red dragonfly looks like it was born from the breath of fire. Darting about the wetlands, it liked to perch on the oxidizing cables of the bridge over the lily pond.

Dragonflies are amazing fliers. They seem to be darting in every direction as they sweep the landscape catching insects and/or guarding their territory.

According to the Smithsonian, dragonflies are the fastest flying Insect as they are known to travel at the speed of 35 miles an hour. Coupled with their speed is their incredible maneuverability. Each of their four wings is controlled by separate muscles which allows them to swiftly change course in any direction or hover in place.

The adults have eyes that cover most of their head which gives a great range of sight for detecting prey and predators.

Both the aquatic nymphs and the flying adults are skilled at catching insects. They are known to eat many mosquitos — the dragonfly would have been a fitting tattoo and totem animal for my dad who cursed “the bloodsucking varmints,” especially when he was fishing.

Bushytailed Craft

As I wandered around the arboretum, I kept seeing these small strips of bark scattered all over the ground. I could see where it had been stripped off newer, green limbs of the big leaf maple. Eventually I caught up with one of our resident gray squirrels busily peeling off small lengths. He quickly worked his way down one, discarded it and promptly cut off another one. I investigated one of the pieces and could see the small teeth marks on the inside. I could hear his teeth scraping off the inner bark and I was amazed at how precisely and swiftly he could shave off the thin inner bark and eat it.

Green Heron

Green herons are solitary birds and quite secretive. If I sit quietly in the morning along the river out at Mt. Pisgah, I might be fortunate enough to see one. Their coloration and pattern easily conceal them as they hunt in the shallow waters along the vegetation of the river’s edge. They can be seen standing motionless or slowly walking along the bank as they look for food. When catching prey, they will quickly lunge forward darting their head into the water with their stout, pointy bill.

Their diet mostly consists of eating small fish. Also on the menu are insects, spiders, crustaceans, snails, amphibians, reptiles, and rodents.

Amazingly, green herons will sometimes drop a feather or small twig on surface of water as bait to lure fish. I would love to see them do this.

I was lucky to get a photo of this one as it investigated the shallow water of this bar of cobblestones.

Cow Parsnip Cache

Surprisingly, so far only once this year have I observed downy woodpeckers extracting the larvae of the carrot seed moth out of the hollow stems of cow parsnip. In years past, I saw the woodpeckers on the cow parsnip all the time, usually feeding juveniles.

The evidence of the presence of the moths is the seed heads have been eaten and there are small holes bored into the stems of the plant. I opened a few stems at these holes, and I found the larvae which has small black spots on it. It looks like the caterpillars are also eating the plant on the inside of the stem. I also found little, brown cocoons which I am guessing are also the same moth.

It is amazing to see the transformation of this plant. It grows so tall developing huge leaves in the spring and early summer. Its umbrellas of white flowers are so prominent on the landscape. Now the plant is brown with shriveled leaves. Many of the plants have fallen over or broken in half leaving only the stalks standing.

Cicadas

There are a few cicadas that can be heard buzzing out at the arboretum. Their sound evokes the long, sun-drenched days of summertime, in which, you want to while away the hot afternoons lounging in the shade by the river.

I found this small explanation on Britannica’s website about their sound: “Cicadas are able to produce these sounds because they possess an organ that is almost unique among insects, the tymbal organ. Each male cicada has a pair of these circular ridged membranes on the back and side surface of the first abdominal segment. Contraction of a tymbal muscle attached to the membrane causes it to bend, producing a clicking sound. The tymbal springs back when the muscle is relaxed. The frequency of the contractions of the tymbal muscle range from 120 to 480 times a second, which is fast enough to make it sound continuous to the human ear. Cicadas also have air sacs that have resonant frequencies comparable to tymbal vibration frequencies, thus amplifying the sound and producing that crescendo of high-pitched buzzing that is the characteristic sound of late summer.”