Someone's Been Busy

For the last couple of weeks, we've had visitors coming in saying things like "I see the beavers have been busy." We all thought they'd seen a few chewed trees here and there, nothing unusual.

BUT! It turns out the beavers have been really busy!!

If you take a stroll around the Sucker Brook Trail, you cross a short bridge over the Little Sucker Brook, a small feeder stream that empties into the Rich Lake Outlet.

A short distance up this trail is the old beaver pond (abandoned now for several years),

the dam of which finally blew out this last winter, leaving the Little Sucker Brook flowing through a beaver meadow instead of a pond.

Over the intervening years, young beavers have temporarily taken up residence, patcching up the old dam or building some small ones below, but not one of them has stuck around and called it home.

Until now.

Today I decided to check it out - curiosity, y'know. Boy was I surprised!!! The little bridge now crosses Little Sucker Pond!

Looking below the bridge, before:

and after (shot from the other direction):

(Note that the far edge is actually dam - about a foot high.)

I scrambled through the woods to see the downstream dam (far right in the photo above), because from the bridge one really couldn't tell how tall it was.

In this photo, it looks a lot more impressive than it really is. It is actually maybe about three feet high. The stream here is maybe six feet across.

So far the water hasn't crossed the trail, but if it does, it'll be bye-bye, beavers.

What Happens When You Forget the Milk

Yesterday evening, having returned from my weekly pilgrimage to The City for groceries and errands (approx. 120 miles round trip), and having spent the intervening time ripping out tomato plants, digging spuds, and picking beans (not to mention photographing stuff around the yard), I realized I'd forgotten to get any milk. My choices were a) go a week without milk, or b) make a run to North Creek. It was about 7:00 and I knew I'd be wanting cereal for breakfast in the morning. Toby hadn't had his walk yet, and he was getting antsy. So, I bundled him into the car and off we went to North Creek (about a half hour drive).

I bopped into the grocery store, grabbed a couple half gallons, stuck them in a cooler, and we headed for the Carol A. Thomas Memorial Walking Trail.

This trail was put together by a group of local citizens in honor of another local citizen. It's a pleasant little walk along the stream that feeds into the Hudson River, past where the tannery used to sit. It's a delightful walk through a jungle of greenery, with the stream gurgling away to the side. With all the rain this summer, the stream was in full voice.

One of the things that makes this trail really neat is that is passes along a boardwalk underneath a bridge (State Route 28N). The boardwalk is almost like a shelf clinging to the side of the bridge abutments, with the stream running along below. And all along the supporting structures, from the wooden posts to the ceiling above (the belly of the bridge), were spiders.

I only noticed a couple on our way out, but one was enormous : her abdomen alone was almost as big as the end of my thumb! When we came back through on our return to the car, it was close to 8:00 and the light was fading, but the contrast between the light before the tunnel and the dark inside set off the gigantic web(s) beautifully. And the spider(s).

I decided to watch the spider closest to the entrance for she was now active. At first I thought she was consuming her web (as many orb weavers do in the evening before building a new one), but as I watched, it turned out she was either repairing the old one or was already well on her way to make the new one. It was fascinating to watch (and of course I'd left the camera home).

She was at the lower edge, below the center of the web. She would scramble up one of the spokes, traverse the connector to the next spoke and then scoot backwards down it, trailing a line of silk behind her. Using a front leg, she felt behind her for the last row of webbing laid down (which in this case was the outermost spiral). When she made contact with it, she knew how far away it was and therefore knew exactly where to lay down the next row. Meanwhile, with one of her hind legs, she had grabbed the silk she was spinning and stretched it out. It reminded me of a fly fisherman pulling out line before casting. Then, with a lightening fast, yet amazingly delicate move, she dabbed her abdomen (the spinnerets) against the spoke, instantly sticking the silk in place. She let go of the line she was holding with her hind foot and it snapped right in place, no slack at all. Up she went, across and down, repeating the entire sequence until she reached the end of her row, at which point she turned and headed back across, laying down a third row of silk.

It was fascinating to watch!

Toby decided that five minutes were enough to spend watching, so we went through the tunnel and finished the trail. This time, however, I was was looking for spiders, and there must've been easily a dozen, if not two, many of which were equally as large as the one I'd been watching.

I think I may have to return, if only to get the species recorded "on film."

Frustrating Fritillaries

Orange butterflies can be sooo frustrating!

Here I thought I had an Arctic Fritillary (Boloria chariclea) flitting around my garden.

A few days later I photographed another one that turned out (I think) to be an Atlantis Fritillary (Speyeria atlantis).

While cruising through my photos, I notice that the first one looked an awful lot like the second one. HM. Now I think they are both Atlantis.

The differences are difficult to see, if you don't know what you are looking for. When you know the answer, of course, it's easy!

So, for your elucidation, it seems that for the Atlantis, the borders of all four wings have solid black margins.

The Artic has solid black triangles sitting along a black diamond margin (and we really are a bit south for this species).

The Aphrodite has a solid black margin along the outer edge of the forewing only.

The Spangled has no solid black margins at all.

Good luck!

It's almost as bad as warblers!!!

Slogging Through a Ditch

A fellow nature nut, and orchid enthusiast, who works for the National Park Service downstate, advised me to keep an eye open for Spiranthes at the roadside ditch where I found the smaller purple fringed orchids.

Spiranthes are the Ladies' Tresses orchids (there are several species). The name Spiranthes refers to the spiraling shape of the flowers' location around the stem. Think "spiral staircase." It seems that most have a single spiral, but some are double. The double ones are difficult to actually discern as a spiral, but with imagination you might see it.

According to Dave, Spiranthes like to have their feet damp/wet, so if I had purple fringed, I was likely to have ladies' tresses as well. So, I've been looking. I knew they were white, but every white flower I've seen in the ditch was an aster...until two days ago.

One stalk of white flowers looked different, so I dragged the dog down the ditch and there it was!

I'm leaning towards it being Nodding Ladies' Tresses (Spiranthes cernua) because it had grass-like leaves (as opposed to a rosette of leaves at the base of the stem).

I took these photos last night after work. The ditch had standing water, and the rest of it was thoroughly sodden. I had to kneel down to get the photos, so I got thoroughly sodden as well. Then it started to rain. So, I figured that since I was already wet, I'd see what else I could find in the ditch.

Eyebright (Euphrasia americana) was all over the place.

I find this flower very difficult to photograph, mostly because purples just don't turn out well in the photos! There must be a secret to capturing purples.

I was most pleased, however, with this small dragonfly.

I believe it is a White-faced Meadowhawk (Sympetrum obtrusum), for it did have a white face (which only showed up in one shot that is a bit blurry). According to the Stokes Beginner's Guide to Dragonflies, this genus is difficult to ID to species.

"The red meadowhawks of North America present an intractable field problem. ...The White-faced/Cherry-faced/Ruby complex is partcularly troublesome. Although face color can be useful, it can be difficult to see in the field and is not always a reliable indicator."

Most of the other flowers were asters and goldenrods. One of these days I'm going to start a photo collection of the different species of goldenrod in Newcomb. It'll be interesting to see how many we have.

Floral Pics

Here are some shots I've taken with the new camera of an assortment of flowers blooming in August. Some are wildflowers, others from my gardens.

This is a tall coneflower-type plant from my garden. I'm not 100% sure which one it is.

This calendula was caught in the early morning light, kissed with dew from the night.

For some reason this lupine is sporting a witch's broom! I've never seen this outside of trees and shrubs, so it intrigued me.

Viper's Bugloss (Echium vulgare) is a non-native plant found along roadsides and in desolate areas, but it's one of my favorite flowers. The play of colors, blue with a touch of pink, is just so pretty.

Sweet Annie, an artemisia, is one of those flowers encouraged as a companion for veg gardens. I suspect this is because it attracts pollinators. It also reseeds itself very well. It's cheerful yellow blossoms are a welcome addition to the garden.

Another Nifty Insect and a Spelling Lesson

I love http://www.bugguide.net/ - it is a great website for identifying insects! Thanks to their help, this lovely insect I found the other evening has been identified as a Goldenrod Leatherwing (Chauliognathus pensylvanicus), alternatively known as a Goldenrod Soldier Beetle and the Pennsylvania Leatherwing.

First I saw one, as it flitted around the spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa), but then I saw pairs of them, clinging to each other as they clung to the blossoms.

I had my work cut out for me chasing them down to photograph.

Anyway, these insects are found in old fields (or, in this case, along roadsides) where there are plenty of flowers. The adults feed on nectar and pollen, but are also predatory, supposedly eating locust eggs and cucumber beetles, although references I found could not say for sure if it was the adults or larvae that ate the eggs and beetles.

Eggs are laid in the soil, and it is also in the soil that the larvae pupate in the spring. Adults are found in late summer and into the fall, most often on goldenrod (hence the name). The ones I found this evening were all on knapweed.

Now, some of you might question the single "n" in pensylvanicus; after all, Pennsylvania has a double "n." Well, it turns out that when DeGeer named this insect in 1774, the single "n" was commonly accepted in the spelling of Pensylvania (and similar words, like pensylvanicus). Because this was so, and not merely a typographical error, the rules of scientific nomenclature dictate that it stays as it is. So, the single "n" is correct, and anyone telling you differenly is wrong. There's a very good write-up about this over at bugguide.net if you don't believe me.

Another New Blog

Another new natural history blog is starting up, Adirondack Natural History, and I've been asked to be a contributor. This one is the brain child of Larry Master (a phenomenal birder and naturalist who works for the Nature Conservancy and travels all over the world to exotic places like Patagonia) and Brian McAllister (another birder, well-known in the Adirondacks, and founder of the Adirondack Naturalist Club and the Great Adirondack Birding Celebration). They have several natural history writers lined up already (Eric Teed, John Thaxton, Ed Kanze, Ted Mack, and Julia Goren), so it should be chocked full of good information!