Midsummer Medly

The subtitle of this installment could be “Cool Beings I got good photos of in my yard this July and August.” At least a few hours of most of my weekends are spent slow birding. The more and the faster you move the more you are going to drive birds, and other wildlife, away from yourself. Stopping to smell the proverbial (and literal) roses isn’t just about enjoying their fragrance. The stopping part leads to observations, and while one quietly ponders them wild creatures nearby are put at ease. Next thing you know there might be birds foraging just a few arms lengths away. If you’re only interested in birds slow birding will have mixed results, and you should really consider broadening your horizons. A bit of botany, herpetology, mycology, geology, etc, can make any outdoor spot interesting. And as long as you don’t get tunnel vision in these other pursuits either I promise you, the birds will come to you. On that note let’s move on to those Cool Beings.

I feigned dismay when I saw this Chipmunk eating my blueberries, but I had already opted against putting nets over the bushes. She paused her harvest to make sure I wasn’t out to get her, giving me the opportunity to frame her sweet little profile with fruit-laden blueberry branches.

Ghost Pipe aka Indian Pipe, Monotropa uniflora, is a plant of the Heath Family, Ericaceae. Members of this family, including blueberries, often share mycorrhizal networks with trees, especially conifers. photosynthesis products from the trees are shared with the mycorrhizal fungi who reciprocate with minerals and nutrients reclaimed from the decomposition of organic matter. Many forest understory plants rely on the sugars made by the trees, who enjoy much better access to sunlight. In some cases species completely lose their own ability to photosynthesize. The complete lack of chlorophyll (a green pigment used in photosynthesis) in Ghost Pipe is a classic example of this phenomenon. Non-photosynthetic plants are generally referred to as parasitic. They do rely on the photosynthesis of the trees on the other end of their mycorrhizal networks, but it’s important to recognize the contributions these flowering plants make to the greater ecological communities to which they belong. Bumblebees are the pollinators of Ghost Pipe, and they raise their young on the pollen they gather from them, as is generally the case with Bumblebee-flower relationships. I have also noticed that this plant very often gets eaten, although I don’t know by who. Likely deer and other plant-munching mammals.

After glimpsing Garter Snakes fleeing my footsteps in my yard a few times, just a tail disappearing into a thicket, I was delighted to see this one’s sweet little face as he climbed a Mugwort. If you are afraid of snakes please let me assure you that Garter Snakes are not at all dangerous to people or pets. They are however predators of slugs and snails (and many other little critters), so gardeners should welcome them with great enthusiasm.

Great Spangled Fritillary on Common Milkweed.

Milkweeds are rightly famous as favored food plants of Monarch Butterfly larvae (caterpillars), their flower nectar feeds many many species of insects, including adult Monarchs.

American Toad in Polytrichum (his butt parasol is a Wild Strawberry leaf).

Toads are delightful creatures, and I am always happy to see one. The Hair-cap Moss complemented his portrait quite nicely.

Chestnut-sided Warbler fledgling in Red Maple.

Chestnut-sided are one of the most abundant and conspicuous wood warblers in central Vermont. But once the chicks have fledged the songs of warblers, and other birds drop of dramatically. This is the time listen more carefully for the little voices of fledglings begging their parents for food.

Common Loon with chick

This is the only observation in this post that wasn’t made at home. This could well have been right up the road, but it was actually on Rollins Pond in the Adirondacks, where a friend of mine rents out boats.

Blackburnian Warbler male in Red Oak.

I heard him singing quite a bit this spring, and got a few way-up-in-the-trees shots of this. But as I often say, when they (various tree-top-singing-warblers) go quiet you might actually get a decxent look at them foraging in lower branches. In this case he was gathering food for his chicks. Continuing to hunt with prey items in the bill, rather than stopping to eat it before proceeding, is indicates that you’re watching a parent on one of their hundreds of daily foraging trips to feed their rapidly growing chicks.

As Douglas Tallamy keeps trying to tell us, one of the major contributions of wild plants to their ecosystems is in the feeding of myriad species of caterpillars, many of which are primary sources of nutrition for the young of most species of birds. Oaks, he reports in ‘Nature’s Best Hope,’ are one of the ecological heavy hitters in this way. “If you think of a plant as a bird feeder, which is exactly what it is, then in most regions the oak makes the most food” Tallamy writes.

Three weeks later I spotted this juvenile Blackburnian Warbler, who is almost certainly one of the progeny of the father pictured above. It’s awesome to have one of my favorite birds successfully breeding virtually right outside my door.

That’s all for now, folks. I hope you found some beauty here, and learned a thing or two. If you are reading this as an email please consider forwarding it to someone that might enjoy it. If you’re reading this on my website please consider subscribing at my home page, www.geraldlisi.net. Thanks for reading, and best wishes to you all.