Back Yard Wildlife

I usually do at least a couple of 'Back Yard Wildlife' posts each year, but this is my first for 2018. That doesn't mean there hasn't been any action....far from it! However the earlier season heat and drought didn't help, nor did the fact that I was away for several weeks. So I've got some catching up to do.

A few weeks ago I noticed a raptor feeding on something. Turns out a Red-tailed Hawk had picked off one of the neighbourhood Eastern Grey Squirrels!

The hawk eventually flew off....apparently it did not appreciate some of the extra attention, especially since some neighbourhood kids were watching it from a bit of distance but closing in on it due to their curiosity. It flew off with part of the carcass and this was all that was left where it had been.

A surprise nesting species was a Mallard, with a nest under a small shrubby tree in the front yard.  It didn't even leave the nest when the mower was within about a metre of it, although it kept an eye on it. It was getting close to hatching, I think, but the eggs were predated by something....a skunk perhaps, although we seldom see or smell skunk in our neighbourhood.

On the smaller scale of wildlife in the yard, it has been quite diverse. There have been a few butterflies, but not many except for Monarchs.

 There has been at least two males in the yard for several weeks, and a few females have been passing through. We have not seen many caterpillars, but it isn't for lack of trying. There have been lots of eggs laid, but perhaps the heat and drought earlier in the season took its toll. The eggs are so tiny, barely one millimetre in diameter.

Red Admiral

 This Question Mark was investigating my tomato plants.

 Clearly one or more Black Swallowtail butterflies had been in the area, although I didn't see them. But we've found at least 5 larvae on different plants. Note in this next photo the old skin which this caterpillar has just crawled out of.

A lot of the plants in our yard and in our pollinator patch nearby are tallgrass prairie types, so they are able to withstand the heat and drought better than others. And the pollinators, which come in all shapes, colours and sizes, have loved it!

Metallic Green Bee (Agapostemon sp)

Ailanthus Webworm

A Braconid type of wasp (Macrocentrus sp)

Cicada Killer (Sphex speciosus)

A Stink Bug (Euschistus variolarius)

 This next one is a Feather-legged Fly. It is named because of the feathery material on its lower hind leg. It is sort of visible in the photo.

Trichopoda sp

 This next one is an ultra tiny fly, being only about 2mm in length. I am not sure what kind it is. It may be a male mosquito, although the size and wings don't look right. I have posted it on BugGuide, but no one there has responded to it yet.

Thread-waisted Wasp (Isodontia sp)

Green Bottle Fly (Lucillia sericata)

Wasp (Monrobia quadridens)

 This next one is huge, with a body length of at least 30 mm. It mimics a wasp in both appearance and behaviour, but it is a fly!

Mydas Fly (Mydas clavatus)

Paper Wasp (Polistes sp)

 This next one is a large wasp, the Great Black Wasp (Sphex pensylvanicus). It isn't as large and bulky as the Mydas Fly, but is about 25-30 mm long.

Swamp Milkweed Leaf Beetle (Labidomera clivicollis)

A Syrphid Fly (Syrphus torvus)

A Tachinid Fly (Dexiini sp)

Two-spotted Longhorn (Melissodes maculatus)

 There are other critters that aren't pollinators but have other roles. This next photo is of an Ambush Bug, lying in wait for a tasty insect to come within reach.

 Next is a day flying moth, the Chickweed Geometer (Haematopis grataria). The adults don't feed, but the larvae do, on Chickweed.

 I'm not sure what this next one is. It is a tiny nymph of some kind, but again, I've posted it on BugGuide without any results yet.

 The Red-banded Leafhoppers are always fun to find. They are so colourful and most easily seen on milkweed leaves, but occur on other plants as well.

There is always a lot to see, especially when you have a healthy pollinator garden!

Fun with insects

I made successful another attempt at black lighting for insects a few weeks ago. Actually with a little bit of work, it is hard not to have it be successful: choose a warm, calm night at a location without many competing lights and it is almost sure to bring a good variety of invertebrates to the black light shining on a white sheet. Attracting and photographing them is half the challenge, with the other half being trying to identify them! And that is the main reason for this post being several weeks after the event.

Even using the best reference material can sometimes cause confusion. These next two images are of the same species, the Ipsilon Dart (Agrotis ipsilon), but most references show only one profile.

Another medium sized moth was this Maple Spanworm (Ennomos magnaria).

Some critters are extremely tiny. This next one is a mere 3-4 mm long, and looks at first like a fly. Actually it turns out to be a female Braconid Wasp of the Euphorinae family.

Some variability in a species can also cause some challenges. These next two images are of a Faint-spotted Palthis (Palthis asopialis). There are strong similarities, but subtle differences as well.

Some critters are large and bumbling. This large dark beetle is well over 2 cm in length. It is a member of the water scavenger beetle genus known as Hydrophilus. There was no water within several hundred metres of where I was located, and I had several of them visit my black light set-up, so this species is clearly a hardy flier.

One group of small insects I am becoming more fascinated with is the Leafhoppers (Cicadellidae). They are numerous, with more than 20,000 species described world wide. Some are merely 2-3 mm in length, while some of the larger ones are 6 mm or more. They mostly specialize in feeding on the sap of plants, but can be harmful by transmitting disease to commercial crops. Many are colourful, but being so tiny, are difficult to photograph even with good macro equipment. One of the most colourful ones I have encountered I see regularly on milkweed plants in bright daylight.

Red-banded Leafhopper (Graphocephala coccinea)

Here are a few that came to my black light.

Bespeckled Leafhopper (Paraphlepsius irroratus)

Eight-lined Leafhopper (Gyponana octolineata)

Ponana quadralaba

 This next one reminds me of candy corn.

Saddleback Leafhopper (Colladonus clitellarius)

Sharpshooter (Draeculacephala robinsoni)

More Life.....and Death....in the Backyard

Backyards can be great places to observe wildlife, especially if one has a garden or natural area. Yards that look more or less like a golf green will not be so productive.

This morning, I had several species of warblers in the yard. For anyone who knows where we live, warblers of any kind are a novelty! On migration I might see the occasional one, and only because I planted so many trees when we moved here more than 27 years ago. Today I had a Black-and-white,  at least two Bay-breasted, two Wilson's and a Yellow Warbler, all in just a few minutes. I also had a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, the first one for my yard list.

Black-and-white Warbler

But the veggie and flower garden is what draws most of the action, and the wildlife is fairly small. We've had several Black Swallowtail butterflies visit our yard, and soon after the caterpillars show up on the dill.

 One of them has now formed a pupa.......hopefully in less than a couple of weeks, it will emerge successfully.

Black Swallowtail pupa

 Monarchs are present regularly, sometimes to feed and sometimes to lay eggs. The eggs are incredibly small, only 2-3 millimetres in diameter.

Monarch egg

 And some have hatched. We haven't noted any chrysalis yet, but with over 30 Common Milkweed plants, they have lots to choose from.

One time when I was searching for monarch eggs, I came across this tiny Long-legged Fly. And when I looked closer, I saw an even smaller fly being munched on by the Long-legged one! You have to look closely....I didn't realize there were flies that small!

It has been a bad year for Japanese Beetles. Our raspberries and many other plants have been enjoyed by them, it seems. They also like Wild Grape leaves, as evidenced by the 33 or so that were resting, feeding, mating, etc on this grape leaf all at the same time.

 According to the experts, the Japanese Beetle traps don't work well. At least not in ridding the beetles from your yard, as the scent actually draws the beetles from throughout the neighbourhood. If you have a trap, it is best to place it away from your yard (like maybe in your neighbour's.......just kidding!). The most effective way of getting rid of the beetles is to collect them in a bucket of soapy water. Unless it is a windy day and they are hanging on tightly, they usually drop down if disturbed. Therefore placing the collecting jar immediately underneath before you jostle them, will usually catch them. We sometimes collected over 100 a day during the peak.

Bucket of beetles

In trimming a tree not that long ago, I came across this recently vacated nest in the crotch of a maple tree.

It is a nest of an American Goldfinch. The shallow cup of fine hairs is a clue, but the clincher is the ring of baby bird poop ringing the outside of the nest. The adults of many bird species will remove the fecal sac from the nest almost immediately. Not the goldfinch.....they are messy in that regard. I knew they were around, but never knew they were using our yard to nest in.

I found this very small fly visiting our dill. It isn't much bigger than the tiny flower. Thank goodness for a good macro lens!

Toxomerus marginatus

Another time I noticed this large dragonfly zipping through, but it landed near the top of the Austrian Pine. I couldn't get a close look, but managed this photo using the equivalent of a 640mm lens, and cropped it further. I think it may be one of the mosaic darner types, but I am open to suggestions.

A Large Milkweed Bug (not a beetle, which has a different wing type) was on some of the various Echinacea plants.

Large Milkweed Bug

If you have tomatoes, or as my very English grandmother would have said, tomahrtoes, you probably have big juicy hornworm type caterpillars of the sphinx moth family from time to time, such as this Carolina Sphinx. They can do quite a bit of damage to the tomato plants.

Carolina Sphinx caterpillar

But if you keep an eye on it, you may see it ending up like the one in this next image.

This one has been parasitized by a Braconid wasp. The adult wasp has laid its eggs inside the caterpillar, and when the larvae hatch, they feed on the insides of the caterpillar. After a few days, they emerge and form their pupae, looking like small eggs, on the outside of the caterpillar. By this time the caterpillar has had much of its insides sucked out but may live a bit longer, at least until the pupae emerge. A tough life for a hornworm caterpillar, but the gardener can appreciate this natural control.