FWG blog

What was happening at the FWG in August 2007

31 August — photos by Brian Turnbull; notes from Sandy Garland

Brian's last week at the FWG turned out to be the best — at least in terms of photographs. He had been trying to get photos of the many dragonflies that we're seeing now, especially the large, colourful darners that are patrolling the Amphibian Pond like tiny helicopters.
Not only was he successful, but he "captured" this one laying eggs on a cattail leaf. Although we are unsure of the species, Christine thinks it might be a Lance-tipped Darner (see her notes below).

Another common species at the FWG right now is the Yellow-legged Meadowhawk. This pair (above) flew in tandem around the pond for at least 10 minutes. Isabelle later explained that after mating, the male dragonfly (in front) holds on to the female until she lays the eggs that he has fertilized. This prevents other males from mating with her in the interim, ensuring that only he will father her offspring.

White-faced Meadowhawk perched on a dead thistle.
Unknown species of spider under a ledge on our Interpretive Centre.

31 August — photos and notes from Christine Hanrahan

Well, it was a great day at FWG today. In addition to hearing Ravens calling, there were lots of other birds including three Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, two of them performing aerial displays.

Brian and I walked around the garden and found a male Eastern Tailed Blue, of which Brian managed to get an excellent photo. When we arrived at the Pond we found a Darner (dragonfly) constantly perching for a second or two on emergent vegetation. Since Darners of any species rarely land, we were quite excited, and, joined by another photographer, the three of us snapped away as the dragonfly came in again and again to briefly land. It looked like egg-laying, but since I thought we were looking at a male Canada Darner - how could this be? When I got home and looked at my photos I realized that this Darner was a female because I could see her ovipositor pushing into the vegetation to lay eggs. I also could not see one of the distinctive characteristics of the Canada Darner. So what the species is, I'm not sure, but I'm leaning toward a Lance-tipped Darner. I've sent the photos off to a friend and am awaiting ID. Darners, especially the ones called Mosaic Darners, to which the Canada Darner and the Lance-tipped belong, are notoriously tough to ID.

Female darner.
This beautiful Locust Borer (a long-horned beetle) was sitting remarkably still so I was finally able to get a half-way decent shot, something I've been trying for for several years.
Finally, a brilliant green sweat bee sat on a sow thistle for a few seconds, just long enough to get this shot. These little guys are common in gardens all over the area, so I expect you've all seen many of them before. I think their colour is lovely.

Other interesting finds today included a very busy orb weaver spider busy wrapping an insect about as big as herself. When I see this sort of thing, it always reminds me of the Gary Larson cartoon which showed two spiders and a big web at the bottom of a kid's slide. The caption read "If we pull this off, we'll eat like kings." Well, I guess you have to be a Larson fan (which I am) to see the humour!!

We saw lots of other things, including Plant bugs, Chickweed Geometer, Robber Fly, scads of ladybeetles, both the Asian and the native Coleomagilla, but this is enough for now.

I almost forgot to mention the Nicrophorous carrion beetle on a recently dead meadow vole, seen today. I discovered, when I saw the photo, that this very pretty beetle was covered in tiny red mites, as so many insects are. Any time I have seen this species of carrion beetle, it has always had quite a number of unwanted guests riding along!

27 August — photos and notes from Christine Hanrahan

There have been some interesting things to see at FWG lately, but not always captured by camera. However, I did manage to get a few photos which I want to share with you.

A green Lacewing, one of the ethereal looking members of the Neuroptera or Nerve-winged Insects, was found along the track we call Green Heron Way. Lacewings belong to the Family Chrysopidae, and one of the interesting things about these insects is that some members of this family can use the larger veins in their wings to hear. I always derive a lot of pleasure from these insects, primarily because they look so dainty and beautiful.

The Eastern Tailed Blue butterfly has become very visible again in the last week or so. Today, I saw two together in the Old Field, and the other day, one in the Butterfly Meadow.
The other day I saw a good number of the Corn Rootworm Beetle on top of a Scotch Thistle (b- there were so many it was hard to count. A bit like angels on the head of a pin, only these critters are not considered angelic!

Turning from insects to plants, I was interested to see a lot of the Black Nightshade plant growing all over the garden. A few weeks ago, the FWG blog posted some beautiful photos by Thomas Hebbert, of the Deadly Nightshade plant, with its glowing red fruit. This plant, very similar, and in the same family, has white flowers and black fruit.

Now, back to insects. We are all familiar with the Asian Ladybeetle, an introduced species. It is highly variable in pattern and I was interested to come across three individuals on one plant, all with different patterns. One had a multitude of spots, one had a modest number, and one had almost none. Unfortunately only the photos of the two extremes came out (below, left and centre), the modestly spotted beetle was moving too fast. I did find a pupa of this species and attach that for comparison to the adults (below, right).

19 August — photos and notes from Raul Santos

While I was visiting the garden, one of the volunteers pointed out a chipmunk enjoying a snack. Attached is a photo of the chipmunk, which didn’t seem to mind being photographed.

Note: This little guy is eating Cup Plant seeds. This plant seems to be popular with a number of wildlife species at the FWG. See notes below for 2 and 4 August.

16 August — photos and notes from Christine Hanrahan

Chickweed Geometers (moths) are flying now. They are quite small and at first glance may not look like much. But look closer!
Found this Seven-spotted Ladybeetle near the Centre. On an adjacent plant, was another of the non-native Coccinelids, the Asian Ladybeetle.

Today, I came across five of these beautiful little caterpillars happily munching away on a red-osier dogwood. I think they may be Schizura larvae, maybe S. concinna. Maybe someone out that there can confirm (or deny) this?
I was looking for Locust Borers today (a long-horned beetle) and found only one. We should begin to see many more of them as the days roll by. This one was on a goldenrod, and that is where I generally see them.

Follow-up from Diane Lepage: The caterpillars (above left) are Schizura concinna in the family Notodonitidae. The colour of the larvae can vary. They feed on various trees and shrubs and can sometimes be abundant locally, because they are gregarious. The damage they cause can be quite apparent. One generation a year. They seem to hibernate in the larva stage.

11 August — photos and notes from Christine Hanrahan

Tiny treefrogs are really apparent now. They can be found sitting on leaves of plants such as milkweed, arrowhead, flowering raspberry, any plant in fact, with leaves sturdy enough to hold them. They are an amazingly brilliant green when sitting on green vegetation (below left)!

I also came across this grasshopper (above right) laying eggs (ovipositing) right in the middle of the Bill Holland Trail near the Butterfly Meadow. I took some photos and watched her for awhile, but when people and dogs started coming down the trail I decided she had to be moved or risk being squashed. I felt terrible about this, but it was for her own good. It took a considerable amount of very gentle prodding to get her to remove her ovipositor from the soil. And you can't blame her for resisting, for several reasons. You know how hard that soil is. Imagine the work it took for this insect to dig into it!

Cicadas have been calling for a long time now but we don't often see them. Alive that is; we do find their bodies sometimes. This one (above) was very cooperatively sitting on a dogwood shrub.

I'm also attaching a photo of a cicada case (below left). These can be found clinging to the branches and trunks of trees, often pines. Or at least, that is where I've had the most luck finding them. The nymphs emerge at night from their underground home, climb the tree and shed their skin to emerge as adults.

They are quite odd looking insects, but beautiful in their way. We have specimens of both adults and nymphal cases in the FWG centre, if you want to have a closer look.

Speaking of egg-laying - I watched a 12-spotted Skimmer laying eggs in the Amphibian Pond the other day.

On Friday, Brian pointed out a pretty little caterpillar (left) that had been found on Zigzag Goldenrod in the FWG Backyard Garden. It is the brightly coloured Brown-hooded Owlet, which turns into a very dull looking brown moth.

And last, signs of fall... a couple of Canada Warblers in their fall plumage were in the Ash Woods a few days ago. And signs of winter... the squirrels are beginning to hoard walnuts and butternuts.

10 August — photos from Tom Hebbert; notes from Sandy Garland

Tom Hebbert, who has been photographing flowers and their sometimes-microscopic structures, recently sent us these pictures of Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara). The photos were taken in his yard, but this non-native plant is common and is found throughout the FWG.

Nightshade, which is related to potatoes and tomatoes and other vegetables, is a vine-like plant that keeps blooming after it has already produced fruit. On the same plant, you can frequently see buds, purple flowers, and green (unripe) and bright red (ripe) berries.

According to the Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility, "The plant, especially in its green immature fruits, contains steroidal alkaloids, which have caused poisoning in cattle and sheep. Humans may have been poisoned after ingesting immature berries. Recent experiments show that the mature red berries contain only a small amount of toxin and have little chance of harming children."

As Tom says, "Apart from the panic, isn't the flower interesting. Presumeably the yellow is the carpel with the style and stigma projecting and the green anthers surrounding the carpel. Don't the two buds in the background look vicious?! If they opened their mouth I would expect to see a row of shark teeth."

Those black lines in the left photo are millimetres on a ruler.

4 August — photos and notes from Christine Hanrahan

It was a good day for Monarchs today, Saturday, and many of them looked quite fresh. Even with my very conservative counting (I'm always worried about counting the same ones twice) I ended up with 12 and in actual fact, the number should probably be more like 15 or 16, but I'll stick with 12. In the BYG alone, there were three, all on the Coneflower. A little while later, I found one caught on a Burdock. Fortunately, the wings were not stuck, it was caught by one leg. It took some time, but I managed to very slowly and carefully free it (I was worried about damaging such a fragile creature). Once free, it flew very strongly and quickly away!

The second generation of Common or Inornate Ringlets is now out and they are quite noticeable (at left). I saw five together in one small group. Other butterflies noted were Cabbage Whites (many), Clouded Sulphur, Black Swallowtail (1 male), and a few days back, a Dun Skipper and a White Admiral.

A couple of interesting insects kept me busy snapping photos, trying to get at least one decent shot of each (they were very patient). One, is a Net-winged Beetle (Calopteran reticulatum, below left) and the other a particularly intriguing little critter, a Buffalo Treehopper, Ceresa sp. probably C. diceros (below centre and right). Not as colourful as the green one, Ceresa alta, but pretty neat looking anyway!

Milkweed Beetles and Bugs, various wasps including the big black Sphecid and the impressive Orange and Black Sphecid wasps, bumblebees, honey bees, and Megachilid bees, all around, as well as long-legged flies, various Syrphids, and several odonates including 12-Spotted Skimmer, Eastern Forktail, and Canada Darner. A few days back I saw another Haploa moth. Diane tells me it is the same species as the one I sent a photo of a week or so ago, Haploa confusa. Well-named, because they certainly confused me!

Lots of bird families around, especially Song Sparrows! A few Barn Swallows have been flying over the garden on and off for some days now. They were present the entire time I was there today.

And finally, Red Squirrels are becoming more vocal and visible again, while Chipmunks remain as active (and as engaging) as ever. This one was happily chewing away on a flowerhead of the cup-plant.

The Leersia oryzoides (Rice Cut Grass) is just beginning to appear, alongside the non-native Glyceria maxima, both at the pond. There is a Joe-pye Weed plant or two in the midst of cattails on the SW corner of the pond, growing with what looks like some Phalaris (though I was looking at both through binoculars, not close up). The Decodon on the south shore looks to be blooming, although since I didn't go to check, it might be a patch of purple loosestrife, of which there are several (Decodon flowers are also a deep lavendar-purple colour).

2 August — photos from Brian Turnbull; notes from Sandy Garland

It seems our Cup Plant is a butterfly magnet! This tall robust sun-loving plant thrives along the south side of our Interpretive Centre. I have seen Goldfinches taking its seeds, which disappear quickly in the fall, and bees gathering pollen and nectar from its many blossoms, but Brian has found a number of butterfly species sipping nectar from the flowers lately - American Lady (below left), Black Swallowtails, and Monarchs, among others.

Note: It's called Cup Plant because its leaves clasp the stem in pairs forming a cup that holds water long after a rain.

And we've just discovered a huge Sphecid wasp called Great Golden Digger (Sphex ichneumoneus) in the garden this week. The one above (right) was nectaring on a thistle; on Friday we also watched one visiting mint flowers. These creatures are at least 30 mm long and are very brightly coloured.

Although the adult drinks nectar, they also catch crickets and grasshoppers to stash in their underground tunnels, laying an egg on each prey insect, which becomes food for the wasp larva.