Late Spring Nature is Bursting Out All Over

Skippers are a confusing group of butterflies which are quite difficult to identify and are best left to the experts.  But this species, the silver spotted skipper is common and very distinctive and feeds on legumes as a caterpillar.  Another easily identifiable butterfly is the common buckeye with large eyespots in its wings- these are likely to be useful in misdirecting attacks of predatory birds.  The buckeye is often seen with outspread wings along paths and in driveways perhaps basking on a cool day.  A common white butterfly with dark spots in its wings is the non-native cabbage butterfly; the native southern white has no spots and has light blue tips on its antennae.  The most spectacular of our swallowtails is the exotic zebra which feeds on toxic paw paw as a caterpillar and is often seen drinking nectar from flowers.

Bumblebees are very numerous at flowers and quite difficult to identify to species.  They can forage in cool weather since they are partly warm blooded.  A good gauge of the health of your garden is the number of native bumblebees in comparison to non-native honeybees.  I show a photo of a bumblebee at a cup plant flower which is large prairie plant.  Bumblebees are very fond of beebalm/Monarda but typically are unable to obtain nectar by inserting their large mouthparts and tongue into the corolla tube.  Instead they bite the base of the flower and “steal” the nectar without pollinating the flower.  If you closely watch the activity of bumblebees at flowers you may be surprised to observe how often this happens.  The resourcefulness of bumblebees in obtaining nectar and pollen is quite impressive but they can be far more efficient than exotic  honeybees in pollinating some plants such as blueberries by using buzz pollination.

We do not often think about how fortunate we as humans are to have color vision which many mammals do not.  But how about other animals?  The bizarre marine mantis shrimp is believed to have the most highly developed color vision of any animal.  I have shown photos in previous nature notes of the bright red colors of the heads of breeding broadhead skinks.  Generally if the male is “pretty” it is advertising its fitness to females and they are making the choice of which mate to accept.  The red breast sunfish which my family catch in the Haw River have bright red colors indicating that they use these in their breeding displays.  A rarely seen and more southerly green anole has a bright pink dewlap which the male displays in breeding and territorial interactions.  Box turtles have rather bright colors on their shells but it is interesting that their ocular iris colors vary between red (seen in this turtle) and brown.  In my experience the reddish iris indicates a male which can be confirmed by looking at the plastron or ventral shell whish is concave in males and convex in females.  The concavity of the shell apparently makes a very difficult task of mating in chelonians somewhat easier.

One of our most distinctive and beautiful birds is the yellow throated warbler which breeds in very tall pine trees around our house.  So I hear them singing all the time but rarely see them.  Occasionally they come to the water bath or forage for spiders under the house eves.  This bird (males and female are identical) was seen foraging on the ground along a walkway.  The black and white pattern with a very bright yellow throat is very striking and is perhaps most useful for species identification between conspecific males and females.

Another bird which has been foraging in my driveway is this great crested flycatcher.  They have a very distinctive call which is often heard but they are not often seen.  This species is famous for putting snake skins in its hole nest- thought likely to deter predation.  A flycatcher which I often hear but rarely see is the Acadian flycatcher- one of the famous difficult to identify Empidonax group.  This individual flew into my bedroom window and was stunned for some time but eventually flew away.  Another example of the huge toll taken by collisions of birds with human structures.

There are several bridges over the Haw River near my house and migratory cliff swallows build their mud nests under the edges of these bridges and forage for insects along the river.  I rarely get a chance to see these amazing swallows up close but this group was picking up mud along the river bank to build and repair their nests.

I am soon traveling from NC to my SW FL winter home for a period of several weeks at the end of June to do some maintenance on the storm damaged house and yard.  There is a 7 inch deficit in seasonal rainfall there which must be having a huge impact on the ability of plants to recover from the salt water storm surge that occurred during hurricane Milton last November.   Few things in life if any are guaranteed so we must adapt as do the wonderful animals and plants we share this planet with.