Welcome Spring

Last Friday was the first day of Spring. Here in Minnesota mid March does not typically look like Spring, especially the past couple of year. We often still have a lot of snow on the ground and temps that barely reach above freezing. This year has been different though. This winter we have had very little snow and with a couple of weeks with temps in the fifties and even some sixties most of what we had has already melted, although we just got another coating last night. With the warm spring like weather we have been having I have even begun to see woolly bear caterpillars come out of hibernation.

The woolly bear caterpillar is the larval form of the Isabella tiger moth. Woolly bear caterpillars are found in paces with colder climates, including the Arctic. They over Winter in their caterpillar form by producing cryprotectant in their tissues. This natural anti freeze allows them to freeze solid over the winter. When the weather warms up they thaw up, pupate and become an Isabella Tiger moth. They will then lay eggs that will hatch in the early fall starting the process over again.

Hints of Autumn

 As I have been out over the past few weeks I have begun to see many of the signs that autumn has arrived and that winter will soon be here. Some of the signs are very obvious. The leaves on the trees have all turned red, orange, yellow or brown and have begun to fall.

 Some signs are more subtle like spotting woolly bear caterpillars scuttling across a path. The banded woolly bear is found mainly in northern regions. It hatches from the egg in the fall and over winters as a caterpillar. During the winter they will literally freeze solid. Their heart stops and only able to survive by producing a cryoprotectant or organic antifreeze. When the temps warm up in the spring the caterpillars thaw then begin to feed. Eventually they pupate and emerge as an Isabella tiger moth. These caterpillars are found as far north as the Arctic.In these far north regions where the winters are very long the woolly bear may hibernate over multiple winter.

Another harbinger of the coming winter in the dark-eyed junco. During the summer it is rare to see a dark-eyed junco in the southern half of Minnesota but during the winter it is probably the most common bird species that we see. Most of these migrate down from Canada during the winter looking for places where there is a more seeds to eat. Since it estimated that there may be over 600 million juncos, most of which migrate south, it is possible that if you live almost anywhere in the U.S. or Mexico you probably see this same omen of winter as I do here in Minnesota. It is possible that you may not recognize them though because the dark-eyed junco has a variety of different colorations. 

Macro Monday: Woollybear Caterpillar

It is only July here in Minnesota but the unseasonal weather that we had earlier this month has made me already begin to think about fall. Fall is my favorite season of the year. Fall is the time of the year when many birds migrate through on their way south, the weather is usually very pleasant, and the countryside comes alive with fall colors. Even though we have had some fall like weather fall is still a ways away because it can not be fall until the banded woolly bears come out.

The banded woolly bear is the larval form of the Isabella tiger moth. It is called a woolly bear because of the long bristles, setae, which resemble fur. Banded woolly bear caterpillars emerge from their egg in the fall, which is why they are a good indicator for the fall season. They will spend the winter in their larval form, producing a biological antifreeze to help them survive the cold. When things warm up again they will eat and then spin a cocoon. The emerged Isabella tiger moth will live out through the summer reproducing the next generation.

Old Cedar Bugs

If you have been a constant visitor to Ecobirder you may have noticed that the number of posts featuring insects has decreased dramatically from a couple of months ago. That is because winter has arrived and early this year and days with high temps in the 30s are a bit of a problem for the insect community. So the only insects that I see these days are the occasional spider that Michelle, my wife, hollers about or once in a while a centipede that my kitten Misty is stalking with her mad bug pawning skillz. Don't worry though I am saving some bug picks to post through out the winter to continue to bring you as much variety as possible. One of the last time that I went out and photographed several insects was at the Old cedar Bridge area at the beginning of October (10-2).
All during the late summer and fall my bug photography was hampered by grasshoppers. Most of the places that I visited where filled with grasshoppers at that time of the year. As I would walk through the fields, or even down dirt paths, quietly stalking a butterfly or dragonfly grasshoppers would go flying from the grass in front of me. Like an early alert system they would startle my prey which would, very often, take off right before I got my shot.

Once in a while I would get lucky though and my subject would not notice the hoard of grasshoppers fleeing before my gigantic size twelve hiking boots. Like this cabbage white butterfly who was too intent on sucking the nectar out of this flower to notice my approach.
This eastern tailed blue did not even flinch when it came face to face with my 9" Canon zoom lens.

Woolly bear caterpillars are a sure sign of fall. During the falls months, like October, they quit their eating and look for a sheltered place to hibernate for the winter. When the temps warm up again and spring arrives the woolly bear will wake up and spin a cocoon. A couple of weeks later they will emerge as an isabella tiger moth.

Sparrows, woodpeckers and bluebirds at Wood Lake Nature Center

It was still light out when I left Minnesota River Valley NWR on Saturday the 6th so I decided to run over to Wood Lake Nature Center to see what was going on over there. I started out by checking by the visitors center where I spotted a few song sparrows.
Then I went out on the paths and walked my typical figure eight. On the south side of the park I got a nice view of a woodpecker. I identified it as a hairy woodpecker because I did not see any white spots on the tail like a downy would have.On the west side of the park I found another banded woolly bear caterpillar looking for a place to hibernate. Maybe all of the woolly bear caterpillars that I have been seeing lately are a sign that winter will be here soon. There are people who use woolly bear caterpillars to forecast the weather. Can you imagine your TV weather man bringing up images of woolly bears instead of Doppler Radar?

I also got some nice shots of an eastern bluebird. Unfortunately I was trying to get a bit closer and two walkers passed me by and flush the bird. A while later the mosquitoes started to get fierce and the light got low so I packed it up and headed for home.

Butterflies, dragonflies and reptiles at Long Meadow Lake

Since the weather was still very nice that Saturday, it got up into the mid 80s, there was quite a bit of wildlife other then birds for me to shoot at Long Meadow Lake. There were plenty of insects, including:

grasshoppers

common sulfur butterflies

monarch butterflies

eastern tailed-blue butterflies

eastern tailed-blue butterflies mating

banded woolly bear caterpillars

autumn meadowhawk dragonfly

and a black saddlebags dragonfly

Unfortunately the saddlebags was facing me and so it is hard to see the saddlebags on the wings.You can kind of see the black markings on the back wing in this close up. I tried to move to get a different angle but he flew away before I could get into position. I also photographed a couple of reptiles including this turtle who was on checking things out,and later on a red-bellied snake slithering down the path.

Other interesting things that I found at Crex Meadows

On my last trip to Crex Meadows I photographed a few interesting things that were not birds. First I found this banded woolly bear caterpillar walking down the road. Woolly bear caterpillars hibernate over the winter. It is estimated that they can survive temperatures down to -90 degrees. They survive in extreme cold because of their bristly hair and because they produce a type of anti-freeze coating. At this time of the year they are probably looking for a good place to hibernate, usually under a log or a rock. In the spring time they wake up from hibernation, eat for a couple of weeks and then spin a cocoon. A few weeks later they emerges from the cocoon as an isabella tiger moth.

I also found a perched green darner dragonfly. You can tell that this one is a female because her abdomen is red. Males have a blue abdomen where females can have either a blue or red abdomen.It was a beautiful day so it was no surprise to find a few turtles out sunning themselves. You can almost always see them out on rocks, logs, or the shoreline on a sunny day.The highlight of this trip was spotting a river otter. I new that there were otters in the area but this is the first one that I have spotted in Crex. It is actually the first that I have spotted in this part of the country.Otters are very fun to watch. They are often curious and sometimes even playful. In the past I have photographed river otters in Yellowstone National Park and in Big Cypress National Preserve, down in Florida. I have photographed sea otters in Monterey Bay, CA and up in Alaska.