More Backyard Wildlife

There is a lot of wildlife to enjoy in our back yard. And as someone who really enjoys macro photography, the opportunities are almost endless. The names of some of the invertebrates are descriptive and interesting as well.

While checking out a Tall Ironweed plant recently I came across this critter....it is an Assassin Bug. It isn't big, but I imagine it could be quite intimidating to a small insect.

The patch of dill often attracts a variety of insects. I came across this colourful Twice-stabbed Stinkbug.....

.....and a little later, these tiny critters. These are the larval form of the Multicoloured Asian Lady Beetle.

 Adult Multicoloured Asian Lady Beetle

The Multicoloured Asian Lady Beetle is not native to North America, as one would guess from the name. They were brought to this continent to help control aphids, quite successfully I might add. Unfortunately that was to the detriment of some of our native Lady Beetles, many of which have declined severely.

Milkweeds are favourite haunts of insects. One of the most colourful ones is this Red-banded Leafhopper. They don't look this bright from a distance. In fact they are only about 5-8mm long, so one has to get up really close to even see them, and a macro lens is a necessity to see the detail and colour.

 It looks like another generation of this colourful creature is not too far off.

While I was looking for these leafhoppers, I turned over a milkweed leaf and saw this rather peculiar sight. I watched for a few minutes and decided it was an immature insect emerging from an early stage of development.

 These photos were just taken a minute or two apart, and show how this insect transforms from a small, early development nymph stage to an older one. (In case you wanted to know, this is incomplete metamorphosis, going from egg to nymph to adult. The nymph stage can go through several growth stages. Complete metamorphosis goes from egg to larva to pupa to adult)

 The end result is that it is a more mature looking Large Milkweed Bug, which are often seen in clusters on milkweeds.

 The full adult Large Milkweed Bug is shown next.

Milkweed leaves make great landing spots for flies. This first one is a Long-legged Fly. It is tiny as evidenced by the leaf venation for scale, but if you look closely, you can see that it is feeding on an even smaller fly!

 I'm not sure what kind of fly this next one is, but it is colourful (as are many flies).

On the developing goldenrod was this Flower Fly.

Marie was keeping an eye on the strawberries, and came across this next critter. It is a moth, known as The Herald.

On a tomato plant was this Tobacco Hornworm. There is a Tomato Hornworm that looks similar, but this one is a Tobacco Hornworm. It is the larval stage of the Carolina Sphinx Moth.

 Even though these hornworms can do a lot of damage to tomatoes, they in turn can become food for something else: parasitic wasps. This next photo shows a hornworm that has had a lot of eggs laid in it by a parasitic wasp. The eggs hatch and the larvae feed internally before pupating. The pupae, or cocoon, are on the outside of the caterpillar and are shown here as grains of rice. The caterpillar eventually succumbs.

Nature can be fascinating even in its life and death struggles to survive. The insect world has no shortage of such events! A future post will highlight some of the other fascinating invertebrate creatures I've recently come across in the yard.

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.

Life on a milkweed

I'm a big fan of milkweeds. There are 9 species that are native to southwestern Ontario, some of which are quite rare. The most common species is...you guessed it...Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca). It can vary in colour......

...but they all seem to be very fragrant. To me, it seems to be the most fragrant of all of the Asclepias species, and judging by the number of pollinators and others that can be found on it during the time it flowers, it is quite fragrant to all of these insects as well.

Fortunately I have a dozen or more plants in my yard, which enables me to keep close tabs on what insects are visiting, and many of the following photos were taken there. But whenever I am out in a natural area, I try and take a look to see what I can find and photograph on the milkweeds there.

Some of the critters are quite tiny. This first image shows the Ailanthus moth, which is named for its association with Tree-of-heaven. This tree is not native, but does well in disturbed areas and abandoned city lots. They are also invasive in even higher quality natural areas, unfortunately, but at least the moth is colourful.

Ailanthus moth

This next one is a very small day flying moth, called a Currant Clearwing. The larvae feed on raspberries, which we have in fair abundance in our yard.

Currant Clearwing

 An even tinier flying insect is this iridescent Long-legged Fly resting on the milkweed leaf. It is incredibly fast. I couldn't use the Through The Lens flash metering system of the camera as that system sends a quick burst of light to the subject to evaluate how much light is needed before generating a second flash during the actual photo. In the less than 1/1000 sec between the initial burst and the one given during the time the photo was taken, the fly had disappeared completely out of the frame, so I had to resort to manual flash where just a single burst is given.

Long-legged Fly (Condylostylus sp)

 This next one is a One-spotted Stinkbug. I didn't get a chance to see if it lived up to its name. This was photographed at Bickford Oak Woods and is the second time I have seen and photographed one there.

One-spotted Stinkbug

 Next is the aptly named Red Milkweed Beetle. They are fairly abundant.

In a previous blog post I highlighted how death comes to insects looking for nectar. This next image shows a medium-sized bee that has just been 'caught'. Note its right hind leg which is outstretched behind and up into the flower. The bee struggled and struggled and eventually was able to escape.

Even butterflies can end up with their legs caught. This Mourning Cloak in the next image

is a good-sized butterfly, but it was caught. At first I just thought it was busily feeding on the nectar, but after awhile I realized it couldn't get away. It struggled for a long time. I eventually gently grabbed its leg and tugged just enough to get its leg out intact, whereupon the butterfly moved over to an Echinacea plant nearby and just sat there for the longest time, presumably exhausted by its struggle and trying to decide whether the nectar at that fragrant milkweed was worth the risk.

Mourning Cloak

 Other butterflies include this Banded Hairstreak, only the second one I have noted in our yard.

Banded Hairstreak

Northern Broken-Dash Skipper

Question Mark

Tawny-edged Skipper (tentative ID)

 Sometimes one comes across a more vicious looking creature. While prowling around looking for something tiny to photograph, I came across this cluster of Earwigs tucked in waiting for darkness so they could head out searching for plant or insect matter to feed on. Those pincers are impressive!

Another impressive looking insect is this quite large Great Golden Digger Wasp. Most members of the bee and wasp family that are found here are mostly interested in the nectar or other insects. I've never been bothered even though I am using a macro lens and flash. Moving slowly and carefully is the key, I think. There is one extremely large bluish black wasp that I have yet to photograph, but when it comes around it is constantly on the move and I haven't been able to get close enough....yet.

Great Golden Digger Wasp

 This next critter is one of the several different kinds of Flower Long-horned Beetles that can be found visiting flowers. Characteristic of this group is the very long antennae, usually at least half the total length of the insect's body.

Flower Long-horned Beetle

It looks like I can expect another generation of Red-banded Leafhoppers on my milkweed next season!

Red-banded Leafhopper

We don't have any squash growing in our yard, but we had this Squash Vine Borer, another type of day-flying moth, visiting the milkweed.

Squash Vine Borer moth

There isn't much water near by, but we get the occasional dragonfly. This female White-faced Meadowhawk is just using the milkweed as a resting place, and probably waiting to launch itself out to capture a flying insect for its next meal.

Milkweeds are indeed, great places to look for wildlife!