GIRLS DAY OUT

In a previous post I had mentioned that Harrison the box turtle had a hareem of four ladies, well today it was their turn to go out for a walk in the park. Above is Charlie. We all have a soft spot for Charlie, she was not given the correct balance of nutrients when she was younger (before she came under our care) and so her shell didn't develop properly. If you see her from behind she looks rather like one of those infamous Britney Spears photos where everything is 'hanging out!' Obviously in the wild she would not survive but we are very happy to have her here at the Museum.This is Claire (above). When we took them outside the parks workers had just dumped a huge pile of wood mulch and of course the girls thought this was wonderful. Charlie spent her time climbing up to the top of the heap and sliding back down again - who said that animals don't have a sense of fun?! Pretty Girl immediately buried herself (below.)
Whilst Claire and Gorgeous spent their time tunneling into the mulch and popping back out again. This is Claire peeping

And this is Gorgeous.
When they tired of that they climbed to the top of the pile but by this time Charlie had laid claim to being 'Queen of the Heap' and kept chasing away all trespassers! They seemed to have a great time, Charlie was actually not ready to come in and kept trundling away every time we went to pick her up. We promised that we would take them all out again very soon.

Photo Credits - CJT

THE TUSSOCK MOTH SAGA CONTINUES.

You may have seen my various previous postings on different Tussock Moths, well it seems that this is my summer for finding this creature. I was out walking by the pond last week when I saw this bizarre creature on a tree trunk. It is hard to see from the photo but there is a mat of creamy coloured silk which is apparently a cocoon, the white foamy substance is an egg mass. I have to be honest when I saw this insect I had absolutely no idea at all what it was. Usually I can make an approximate guess, maybe beetle, ant, wasp and then I can narrow it down and work out what it is but this one had me completely flummoxed. So I consulted my 'oracle,' otherwise known as Doug - my department head. He is a pretty good entomologist and can usually answer any questions I have but even he was completely stumped! (At least that made me feel a bit less ignorant!) So I posted the picture on http://bugguide.net Within a few hours I had an answer - you guessed it - a White Marked Tussock Moth Orgyia leucostigma (again!) but this time it is the female moth. The female, as you can see, is flightless. It emerges from the cocoon, waits for a male, mates, lays its eggs on the empty cocoon and then dies. So mystery solved. What a fascinating creature.

Photo Credits - CJT

SKYWATCH FRIDAY (with leaves!)

Keeping it simple this week. Nothing more perfect than the clear blue sky.Especially when viewed through the leaves of a tree.

Photo Credits - CJT

ESCAPE!

For a few weeks now my husband and I have been feeling the need to escape the city and spend a weekend somewhere peaceful. Thanks to a dear friend of mine, we were able to do exactly that, this past weekend. My friend is a ceramic artist and once a month he uses an outdoor kiln to fire some of his work.


He had done this last week, so this week he was going up to empty the kiln. (It takes a week to cool after the firing!) The kiln is located in a beautiful valley, beside a stream.
The work he produces always seems to me to have a wonderful living quality to it, some of the pieces seem as if you turn your back on them that they may scuttle off!
This one was a particular favorite of mine from this firing.
We spent our time sitting in the grass, listening to crickets chirping, birds singing and bees buzzing. Couldn't have asked for a better alternative to sirens wailing, traffic roaring and planes droning!
The evening consisted of sitting by a camp fire, looking at the stars, chatting and cooking steak on the open fire, just the kind of pace we were looking for. On Sunday we continued the hectic pace by snoozing in the sun, walking through the fields and looking at the local flora and fauna.

There were brilliant blue damselflies all around the stream, I haven't managed to determine the exact species yet but I suspect it is one of the Bluets.

There were also masses of butterflies, tiger swallowtails, black swallowtails, pearl crescents, red admirals and monarchs. Also this delightful little Chickweed Geometer moth Haematopis grataria, this one is a male (check out the branched antennae)
Of course the stream was brimming with life, both invertebrate and vertebrate
It never ceases to amaze me how much better I feel after spending just 48 hours enjoying nature and not hearing man made sounds. It is better than any medication or psychiatrists office! Thanks Jay.

Photo Credits - CJT

BLUFF SPRING FEN

On Friday we were able to escape the confines of the Museum for a day outside. We went to Bluff Spring Fen www.bluffspringfen.org. The area covers over a hundred acres and includes four different ecosystem types: Oak Savanna, Sedge Meadow, Mesic Prairie and Fen. Fens are spring fed with an underlying limestone rock layer, as the water comes up through the limestone, minerals dissolve into it making it mineral rich but also rather alkaline. This can be a fairly stressful environment for plants, but, of course, there are several species that have adapted to this rarefied environment. Doug, our department head, has been a volunteer at the Fen for several years and has put in many hours of restoration work, he is justifiably proud to be able to show the area to an appreciative audience. The weather was about as perfect as it could possibly be and we spent several hours outside enjoying the surroundings and its inhabitants.

One local inhabitant that Doug wasn't too happy to see was this doe with her twin fawns! I suppose you can understand, after all the hours he has spent seeding and planting native plants and removing invasive ones, the last thing you want to see is a four legged 'strimmer' devouring all your hard work!
There were a lot of coyote scats around and the dung beetles were very busy rolling little pieces away to lay their larvae in. Unfortunately my pictures didn't turn out too well but you get the idea.

Another cool thing that I failed miserably to photograph properly were these ants that were 'farming' aphids. The aphids produce a liquid that the ants use for food so in return the ants will protect the aphids from potential predators! It is the invert equivalent of diary farming!


One such potential predator is the Goldenrod Soldier Beetle Chauliognathus pensylvanicus they were very numerous and very striking with their bright orange and black colouring. The adult beetles feed primarily on nectar and pollen and so are important pollinators, but they also eat small insects such as aphids.


Another brightly coloured beetle that was around in great numbers was the Goldenrod Leaf Beetle Trirhabda canadensis which I have posted before.
Not to be outdone in the vivid colouring department there were a number of Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillars Euchaetes egle I have to say that the Tussock Moths are rapidly become one of my favorite group of moths - their adult form is almost invariably a very drab brown unremarkable individual, but their caterpillars are a riot of colours, tufts and whiskers!

Another bright individual that put in an appearance was the Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle Labidomera clivicollis, not to be confused with the Milkweed Bug. This, unfortunately was another failure in the photographic department! If you want to see a good image, go to bug guide.

There were also numerous different crickets and grasshoppers, this one made it onto the post because he actually hitched a ride on one of my co-workers so I was able to snap him!

We had a great day and enjoyed getting away from the 'office' whilst still doing something work related and learning more about restoration of native habitat. After the Fen we all headed to Doug's house and had a bar-b-que!

Photo Credits - CJT

SKYWATCH FRIDAY (Over Lake Michigan)

I thought these were verging on the abstract with the horizontal bands of colour. We had violent storms a couple of days ago and now the weather is slowly clearing.
These pictures were taken over a couple of hours yesterday evening and you can see the gradual improvement.
As the sun slowly broke through the clouds, the first couple of sail boats appear............
Soon to be joined by more as the first patches of blue sky appeared
Until eventually there was a whole flotilla of white sails and more blue sky than grey - HURRAY!

Photo Credits - CJT

AFTER THE STORM.

On Monday night our area was hit with a string of violent storms, there were three tornadoes recorded, winds of over ninety miles an hour and torrential rain.The thunder was akin to a heavy military bombardment, no gentle rumbling, just incredibly violent cracks that sounded as if they were coming from the next room. Incongruously, the lightening was rather like a strobe light at a disco!Sadly, as a result of all this extreme weather, over two thousand trees have been uprooted in our area, many of them coming down over power lines and leaving people in the dark.Interestingly in our immediate neighbourhood it looks more as though a giant creature has been through twisting and ripping limbs off trees, very few of them were actually uprooted. As you can see, the destruction is still pretty impressive though.The 'locals' seem to have come through relatively unscathed though (above!) And still as cheeky as ever!

Photo Credits - CJT

NATURE'S DIAMONDS

This morning we had a violent band of thunder storms that blew through the area. The sky turned black, quite literally. It was far darker at 7.30am than it was at 6.30am, all the street lights actually came back on because it was so dark. The wind howled, the thunder cracked and there was lightening all around us. Once everything had blown itself out I went outside to see the raindrops.They always remind me of jewels as they glint in the light, hence the title of this post. Unfortunately the sky is still very overcast so the light was rather flat, but I think you can see wht I am aiming for.
I love this effect because the rain drops actually look like little planets or something! Not easy to catch as the wind was still blowing the grass around so one minute it was in my viewfinder and the next minute it was gone so I never quite knew what I was going to get!
Of course there was a down side to going out after the storm - the mosquitoes were everywhere so I have several bites to show for my time outside. They do seem to find me quite irresistable damn them!
Even the birds around the pond seemed a little subdued by the storm, they were all sticking very close to the edges and not moving around very much which is pretty unusual for this time of the day.
Funny really, I have never liked diamonds but I find the ones created by raindrops to be quite perfect (and considerably cheaper!)

Photo Credits - CJT