Tendrils

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

My first sighting this season was yesterday. The state insect of Virginia, the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio glaucus). Native to eastern North America. The butterfly I saw yesterday had just emerged from its chrysalis. Brand new.

This is what a chrysalis looks like. Though NOT an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail chrysalis, it looks to a large extent like one. One major difference would be more rich brown and less bright yellow. The shape is basically the same. This is a Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) chrysalis.

In the autumn an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail caterpillar will form itself into a chrysalis. NOT a cocoon but a chrysalis. Cocoons are used by moths. Chrysalises are used by butterflies. In ten to twenty days or over the winter the caterpillar makes incredible changes. As if by magic it will become a butterfly — to live just six to fourteen days.

Mainly males, after emerging, often will gather at puddles to take in sodium and minerals which tend to be lacking in the adult’s diet and are necessities for reproduction and flight. This is called “puddling.”

Speaking of reproduction, Eastern Tiger Swallowtails generally have two broods each year. Females lay their eggs on such trees as Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) and Wild Black Cherry (Prunus serotina). Those eggs will hatch in four to ten days as caterpillars. The earliest stage of the caterpillar looks just like bird droppings. The mature caterpillar is green, with eye spots, and a pale “neck ring.” Further to the front is a little purply-pink head.

Although most females look nearly like males, mostly yellow and black, there is a black form of the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. This is a method of protection. The black form is a mimic of the Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor) which has a disagreeable taste. Predators have learned to avoid both the Pipevine Swallowtail and the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail’s black form. The portion of females with this coloring is more common in areas where there are more Pipevine Swallowtails.

The caterpillar becomes a chrysalis which becomes a dazzling butterfly. And so it goes. On and on.

Trout Lily

If ever there was the perfect use of the word “diminutive” I think it would be for describing Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum). A lily that grows to be just six inches tall. A bit too big for a doll house but still mighty small for a lily.

It’s flower which dips shyly has no petals but six radiant yellow tepals surrounding six stamens with an ovary in the center with three stimata. Bees are the flower’s pollinators. And contents of the seed capsules will, I’m hoping, increase the population of the Trout Lilies.

Today I’ve come upon emerging Twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla), Wood Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum), Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) and Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) but still no Trout Lily. I’m looking forward to being able to share these plants with you once they are up and gleefully blooming. Stay tuned!

Downy Woodpecker

The Downy Woodpecker, Picoides pubescens. A permanent resident here and in most places in their native range. That range, with the exception of the desert southwest and the tundra of the north, is nearly all of Canada and the United States. But in the northern portions of their territory, some may wander a bit south for the winter. Or if in the higher elevations may come to a lower elevation.

A female Downy Woodpecker has no red, only black and white

They are little woodpeckers. In fact, they are the smallest woodpecker native to North America. The size of a White-throated Sparrow. Little. Downy Woodpeckers are nearly identical to the Hairy Woodpecker, who is about the size of an American Robin. NOT little. Keep that in mind when you see one of these black and white beauties. I’m accustomed to seeing the Downy Woodpecker, and on the occasion that I see a Hairy Woodpecker, the size difference is enough to make me say, “Whoa!” For me, there is no mistaking one from the other, the size difference is quite striking.

Another difference that you might find helpful is the size of their bill. The Downy Woodpecker’s bill about 1/3 the size of its head. Think CUTE. The Hairy Woodpecker’s bill is about the same length as its head, from the base of the bill to the back of the head.

Though Downy Woodpeckers mainly eat insects, beetle larvae and caterpillars, they also eat berries, acorns, peanuts, sunflower seeds and grains. During the winter, when I’m able to feed the birds, Downies are frequently at the suet feeder.

During the warmer months the bears up here in the mountains, want to join in with the birds, getting their food, so I restrict my bird feeding, reluctantly, to the winter.

But I keep three bird baths full, one with a dripper. Without feeding them I still get to see the best of the warm weather birds. Pure delight.

Tufted Titmouse

A bird that doesn’t migrate. Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) is a bird that comes to my feeders during all seasons. Well, all seasons that I have those feeders out. Bears think the seeds I put out for the BIRDS are for bears as well. During many months of the year I must consider the pluses and the minuses of putting out feeders when bears may be roaming. For me, a tough choice to make.

I’ve discovered a Tufted Titmouse loves peanut butter and hulled sunflower seeds. But its diet consists to a large extent, of insects including caterpillars and stink bugs. I sure wish they’d eat MORE of the Brown Marmorated Stinkbugs that are way too plentiful around here.

The Tufted Titmouse enjoys berries that are in season in the neighborhood, as well as seeds, acorns and beech nuts.

Given a choice of seeds of different sizes, it will chose the largest. It will then take that seed to a nearby branch securing it in its feet, and work on it with its beak. Whacking it into smaller sizes so that it can be eaten in a genteel manner.

A Tufted Titmouse pair will build a cup-shaped nest in a cavity in a tree. A natural hole in that tree or a cavity created and abandoned by some other animal. Or the couple may settle into a bird house put out by a human, or choose an open pipe of just the right size. The nest will take shape using bark strips, leaves, moss, grasses, wool (as in the above image) or hair of all sorts of animals.

Look carefully at the photo above. There, blending in with the many branches of flowering dogwood are a group of Tufted Titmice. And drumroll please. A group of Tufted Titmice is called a “banditry” or a “dissimulation” of titmice. Who THINKS of these names!?!

Tomorrow is SPRING!

Many of you know that I love winter, my totally, over the top, favorite season. But I also delight in the seasons changing. If the seasons stayed the same, day after day after day after day I wouldn’t be content. I think the world of CHANGE.

Sometimes even Mother Nature just doesn’t want to let go. To let the seasons do their things. And she brings us surprises. These images are from April 15, 2020. I think this was one of those times when she felt, if nothing else, mischievous.

For the winter lover in me, I’m certainly at an advantage being at a slightly higher elevation than those in the lowlands of Virginia. Mountains have their benefits. That elevation helps create snow, when otherwise there might not be any. For sure it was the case on this day.

Blooms of Redbud (Cercis canadensis), and Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida), and new unfurling fronds of Christmas Fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) all got dumped on with a fair amount of wet snow. But they are native plants and can take what is dished out.

A few hours of sunshine and things were back to normal. And we all were quite content.

One week later, another native plant, Dwarf Crested Iris (Iris cristata), was up and blooming as if it was a perfectly normal spring.

Cedar Waxwings, Part 2

At my cabin there are so many blueberry bushes. So many, if I had to guess, that guess would be maybe twelve mature bushes. Maybe.

By the Fourth of July every year my freezer is filled with quart sized bags of berries to provide muffins, pies, pancakes, toppings for ice cream, scones and more pies. To last throughout the entire year.

Cedar Waxwings with such panache. They love to come by to help harvest the berries.

And I sure don’t mind having them here. I wonder how they know that I’ve got blueberries growing here. Does word get around? Can they SMELL them? Do they just pick up blueberry vibes?

Whatever magic they may use to find these berries, I sure am glad I get to see them as they wolf the berries down. And here, a perfect picture of panache.

Cedar Waxwings

Perhaps you’ve seen this photo in the past. It’s one of my favorite images of the many many that I’ve taken. Surely I’ve used it before. These Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum) are performing a mating ritual in which the pair pass a treasure (in this case a sumac berry) back and forth. No telling which is the male and which is the female in this image since their markings and plumage are the same.

A pair of Cedar Waxwings are monogamous during each breeding season and both parents participate in nest construction and rearing activities. Incubation of the two to six eggs takes two weeks.

Born blind and helpless the nestlings grow quickly and learn to fly in another two weeks. The bird above is a juvenile who has yet to grow adult plumage. Juveniles do have the yellow tail tip, although not the red wing tips, yet.

The bird in the center of the photo above has an orange tail tip. That orange coloring is due to the diet of the bird. In the late 1800s the bush, Morrow’s Honeysuckle (Lonicera morrowii), was unfortunately brought to this continent. I say unfortunately because it is an invasive. The berries of this bush contain a red pigment. If enough of these berries are eaten by a Cedar Waxwing during feather formation the tail tips will be orange rather than the usual yellow because of that red pigment. This unusual coloring began to be noticed in northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada in the 1960’s. Unusual but no other consequences as far as is known.

These elegant birds are irruptive and gypsies wandering from fruit supply to fruit supply throughout the year. They’ll also eat insects when they’re available. They love the sound of running water and enjoy small streams, or bird baths that have drippers or as in the case above, a puddle in the middle of a lane.

They travel in bands and normally when I see them they’re with their friends the American Robin. And in case you are trying to get your terminology just right, a group of Cedar Waxwings is called an “ear-full” or a “museum” of Cedar Waxwings.

Such a sophisticated fashion statement the Cedar Waxwing makes. And what of those red wing tips? They are a waxy secretion called astaxanthin – a carotenoid pigment. Don’t worry, there won’t be a test on this. As the years go by the number and size of the tips get larger. It is believed that these appendages are used as status symbols in mate selection.

I was surprised last spring to see several Cedar Waxwings eating petals off the apple blossoms in my tree. Now I know, they eat berries and fruit, insects AND flower petals. Who would have thought?

Cutleaf Toothwort

A spring ephemeral, a perennial native to eastern North America. Cutleaf Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata).

The “toothwort” of its name is thanks to the appearance of its rhizome.

The Cutleaf Toothwort likes woods with mesic soils covered with lots of leaf litter. This certainly must be the description of the woods where I live. Many of these plants greet the spring each year up here, including a few spots where colonies have formed.

Buds protected by four pale green sepals open to reveal four barely pale pink petals. At the center of each flower is a style with a sphere topped stigma which are surrounded by stamens with green filaments of varying lengths topped by yellow anthers.

Many different pollinators visit these blooms. Fruit of the Toothwort is a slender pod about an inch long containing a single row of tiny seeds.

When the invasive, Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata), starts growing in the area of a population of Cutleaf Toothwort its numbers soon decline. A good reason to fight those invasives.

The Middle of March

It’s the middle of March and the first of my daffodils are up and blooming. Looking so lovely as they trumpet the arrival of spring. Don’t get too confident though you golden beauties. Mother Nature has a way of bringing surprises. Surprises like SNOW, even in the middle of APRIL!

Bear Corn

There are so many awesome treasures to be found in the woods. One of those treasures that is right up there near the top of my list is Bear Corn (Conopholis americana). It’s a native to eastern North America.

This is a plant that doesn’t have a speck of the color green because Bear Corn has no chlorophyll. Normally plants use chlorophyll and light to make food. But this plant isn’t able to perform photosynthesis. It’s a parasite on the roots of oak trees and perhaps beech trees as well.

These pinecone looking arrangements are the flowering structures that are sent up after four years of taking in nourishment from the oak or beech roots.

Four years underground taking in sustenance. The flowers emerge in the spring and bloom in a similar manner to other flowers.

Bear Corn is pollinated by flies and bees and is also capable of self pollination. After pollination the blooms are replaced by fruit containing seeds.

In the Shenandoah and Smoky Mountains Bear Corn represents a surprising percentage of the diet of bears, ten to fifteen percent. Deer, raccoon and coyote also eat these plants.

By autumn the fruit which has not been eaten will wither and drop, leaving the seeds to return to the soil to again seek out the oak or beech roots. This Bear Corn plant will continue sending up flowers each year for as many as six years.