Nature in June Along the Haw River, NC

June is somewhat of a transition between Spring and Summer. Here in the Piedmont of NC the nights are still cool and the midafternoons can be hot, but as the sun sets the temperature is cool again. As I sit at my computer around 5:30 am with my window open I can hear a beautiful medley of bird song outside headlined by the spectacular haunting trills of the wood thrush. During the daytime I am also thrilled to hear yellow throated warblers singing from the tall tops of pine trees with yellow billed cuckoos echoing down along the river.

A large mammal that is not often seen but is very much a major factor in local ecology is the white tailed deer. It is present in excess numbers as is most clearly evidenced by the lack of regeneration of major forest trees. Even in towns deer roam the neighborhoods and eat whatever they choose that is not protected by fences. In the course of my nature walks I attempt to convince people of this by pointing out the imbalance between large hardwood trees overhead and the lack of young trees below. It a lot like our winter home in SW FL where the average age is 75 and there are very few kids ! I have just constructed a visual aid to help me in this process of ecological education by building a “Deer Exclusion Cage.” This is a 25 x 25 foot square enclosure with 10 foot high walls of 2 x 4 inch wire mesh with a tiny fragment of the forest floor inside. Within a few years it should be very obvious that there are many plants inside that are not outside due to the appetites of too many deer.

The local southern magnolia is just completing its bloom cycle with many magnificent large white blossoms. You may not realize that the large distinctive magnolia flower represents a very primitive type (in comparison with orchids and asters) and bees and butterflies were not present when they evolved. So the magnolia flower evolved a partnership with early beetles which are more ancient insects and the ecological mechanics of this are fascinating ( https://gardens.si.edu/learn/blog/the-botany-of-magnolias/ ).

Our 13 year cicada “plague” is over and quiet has returned but the aftermath involves damage to the tips of some trees, especially this white oak. Note that the ends of the twigs have dead leaves caused by the deposit of eggs. Subsequently after hatching the larvae fall to the ground and do not actually eat the plant.

There have not been a great many fungi found this year that colonize logs but this unusual thick maze oak polypore Daedulea /Fomitopsis quercina was an exception that I have not seen before. It is inedible due to its cork like texture but it has some unusual uses to brush horses, to calm bees (when burned) and has anti- inflammatory and bio-remediation properties ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daedalea_quercina ).

Our new perennial pollinator garden has attracted some interesting insects. The flowers of queen of the prairie were visited by a flower longhorn beetle (Typocerus zebra). The bee balm (Monarda) were true to their namesake as is shown here by a carpenter bee (female note white face) milking the flowers by biting their bases. This backdoor “stealing” of nectar without pollination seems to be common among bumblebees so watch your flowers carefully next time you see bumblebees visiting them. So not all insects visiting flowers are beneficial to the reproduction of the particular flower!

Butterflies have become very common in June. One of the tiny beauties is the eastern tailed blue. I was lucky to get photos of the inner and outer wings so you can appreciate the startling blue color inside and the very different and more camouflaged outer wing surfaces. Indeed the outer wings have posterior “tails” which are actually artificial antennae with an eye spot designed to confuse predators such as jumping spiders. If they attack the rear end there is a greater chance of the butterfly escaping without damage to its vulnerable head and abdomen. An impressive large great spangled fritillary appeared along with a male cloudless sulphur butterfly. One unusual view was of a zebra swallowtail on the same flower with an American lady which has large eye spots on the outer wings to confuse bird predators. The zebra caterpillars feed on toxic paw paw leaves and the very distinctive coloration of the adults is likely warning potential predators of toxicity retained from the larval food. Although hackberry emperors are often seen, this tawny emperor is less common. Both of these sibling species feed on hackberries as larvae and they clearly are sibling species. Apparently tawny emperor feed on older foliage than do hackberry emperors in an obvious means of avoiding competition.

The most distinctive mimicry complex in our area is among black and blue swallowtails. Some of these have been visiting our flowers recently. The model species is usually considered to be the toxic pipevine swallowtail which has a very distinctive blue color of the inner hindwings and a single row of large orange spots on the outer wings. The spicebush swallowtail male (which feeds on toxic spicebush as larvae) is most similar except that it has two rows of orange spots- can birds count or do they just perceive the orange spots as so similar that they should avoid them? These two would seem to be in a Muellerian mimicry relationship. The third species shown, the red spotted purple/admiral is in a different family the brushfoots and feeds on a wide variety of plants as a caterpillar and is likely not toxic. So its relationship to the toxic group is known as Batesian mimicry.

One of my most exciting finds recently while digging in the garden has been of a marbled salamander. This unusual “mole salamander”- so named because it burrows as an adult- is rarely seen except when breeding. It has a most unusual breeding cycle which involves depositing eggs in dry ponds in the fall so that they hatch very early in late fall/early winter when the ponds fill. The larvae then grow rapidly and act as predators on other spring breeding salamanders and invertebrates. Females remain with the eggs and provide some protection from predators, pathogens and environmental factors. This salamander could only have hatched in floodplain wetlands down along the river hundreds of meters away.

An interesting observation of a turtle in the river was of a snapping turtle basking on a log. I have only previously seen river cooters basking so this is an unusual sighting. Another most unusual observation was of a female bobcat taking a nap on our front lawn. My grandson Isaac took this snapshot with his cell phone through the window screen to document this rarely seen feline.

A pair of Carolina wrens has been nesting in our workshop behind some tool handles. The parents are quite tolerant of our activities and the hatchlings are growing rapidly. When the young feel some vibrations they open their very distinctive yellow gapes wide to get the most food from the arriving parents.

A day never passes when I do not feel an enormous sense of satisfaction and joy in observing nature’s majesty. This can come wherever you happen to be in the most menial of circumstances. So forget your troubles at least temporarily and allow yourself to be one with Nature.