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!

Transformation of a monarch

It is always fascinating to see the transformation of invertebrate life. In my opinion, there is no more interesting example than to follow the development of a butterfly, and in this case, the Monarch butterfly.

The following images weren't all taken in the last few days, but many of them were. This first one shows an adult female with the tip of her abdomen turned up to the underside of a milkweed leaf as she lays an egg.

 The egg is very small, as to be expected. It is only a couple of millimetres in diameter.

 After a few days, it hatches (hopefully!). Ants are known to find and consume the developing larva, so not all eggs will hatch. Upon hatching, the larva consumes the remains of the egg and will chew a small hole through the leaf.

 This next one shows a larva that is probably 2-3 days old. It hatched out on a small milkweed plant that I was growing from seed in some plug trays.

 Over the course of several days it feeds ravenously.

 After several periods of growth, it gets to the point where it seeks out a place to change to its pupa stage. This usually is in a more obscure location, and often happens well away from the milkweed plant. The caterpillar hangs upside down with its hind end producing a sticky mass of threadlike substance which will provide an anchor, holding it in place while it develops into the adult. While hanging upside down, the caterpillar splits its skin and wriggles out of it, revealing this beautiful chrysalis of the pupal stage. It is decorated with black and gold spots.

When the above photo was taken, it shows a slight darkening of the chrysalis at the bottom. Just before the adult emerges, the outer part of the chrysalis turns clearer and somewhat brown. A close look will show some of the detail and colour of the newly formed adult inside. I wasn't expecting it to happen quite so quickly, and so I missed that part! This next photo was taken less than 24 hours after the one above. The new adult emerges and climbs a bit to a surface where it can hang for several hours while its body fluids are pumped into the venation network making the wings rigid.

 Usually within 4 or 5 hours of emerging, the butterfly is able to take flight and will hopefully survive to continue the propagation process.

It truly is an amazing transformation!

Now that the end of August is close at hand, over the next few weeks, Monarch butterflies will be heading south and west by the hundreds of thousands, on their long journey to the wintering ground in some Mexican mountains. In southwestern Ontario, the peak of their migration seems to occur from about the middle of September to the end of the month, although some individuals can be seen up to the end of October or even after. It all depends on when the latest generation emerges as an adult, which is somewhat weather related. Corridors of natural vegetation and lots of milkweeds are critical for the butterflies to make it to Mexico as well as for future generations to return.

Backyard Wildlife

With the recent hot and humid weather, I found it difficult to spend much time outside. So it was great to have a variety of plants in the back yard to attract wildlife. I can get out for brief periods, and head back to the A/C when necessary.

The drier than normal conditions have not been conducive for a lot of butterfly activity, as anyone who has participated in recent butterfly counts will be aware. Marie noted in her facebook entry of 5 years ago on this date, that we had 7 species in our yard that day. This year I've only seen about a dozen species all season! But there has been some interesting action on the butterfly front.

One day I noted a male, and then a female, Black Swallowtail. The male was busily feeding on milkweed, while the female was searching for a place to lay eggs on the dill. At one point, I saw her lay an egg and was able to pick it out from the edge of a dill leaf. Out came the camera with 100 mm macro lens as well as all the extension tubes. This first image is of an egg, and it is barely one mm in diameter. I didn't notice until later, that there was an even tinier aphid type critter on another dill leaf, just a bit lower and to the left of the egg.

I watched it for a few days, and then one day it disappeared. Thinking that something had come along and picked it off, I figured I wouldn't see any larva, but then I read where upon hatching, it then consumes what is left of the egg. A few days later, I saw a tiny larva on the dill. At this point, it is quite dark, except for a light-coloured saddle across its middle, and is between 5-10 mm in length.

 The 'saddle' gradually disappears as it goes through several instars, or stages.

 It has a voracious appetite.

Once it gets looking like this, with the saddle all gone, it disappears from the dill plant and looks for a suitably obscure place to form a chrysalis or pupa. The pupa is hard to find if it is left in the wild.

During the early part of the season, after a couple of weeks more or less, it will emerge as an adult. Pupae that are formed in the late part of the season will overwinter as such, and emerge in the spring.

Monarchs, too, have been in the yard.

The egg is laid on the underside of a young milkweed leaf. It is slightly oblong, is about the same diameter as that of a Black Swallowtail and has slight grooves from top to bottom.

After a few days, a caterpillar hatches out, and feeds voraciously on milkweed leaves. In my experience, they seem to prefer Common Milkweed over most of the other milkweed species. I have over 100 milkweed plants in the yard, hoping to attract lots of Monarchs. However the numbers have been down this year throughout their range, due to an unfortunate severe weather event just as they were leaving their Mexican wintering ground, where an estimated half of the population died off. The two caterpillars in this next image left the milkweed plant the next day, presumably to find a suitable place to form their chrysalis.

Other butterflies have been through the yard, including Red-spotted Purples.

Silver-spotted Skippers

 Question Marks

 Red Admirals

 and the ubiquitous Cabbage Whites, plus others. There isn't a day that goes by without at least one or two Cabbage Whites around.

 And at least some of them lay eggs, hatch larvae and get to the pupal stage, as shown next.

 This next image shows one just emerging from the pupa.

With so many plants in the yard, there is lots of other invertebrate action, often around one of the milkweed plants. This next image shows the Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus), a fairly large wasp often found on milkweeds.

An even larger and more formidable looking one is the Great Black Wasp (Sphex pensylvanicus), shown next. Its body can be up to 35 mm long, and looks menacing. However in its frantic flight, it is expending energy either looking for nectar or looking for katydids. These wasps specialize in capturing katydids and other members of the Orthopteran (grasshopper) group. After capturing one, they sting them to paralyze them and then deposit them at the end of a tunnel under ground where the adult wasp lays an egg. The paralyzed katydid will live for a few days until the wasp larva emerges from the egg to feed on the katydid.

Apparently they very seldom sting people, unless they are handled, and so it is purely a defensive action if they do sting. In fact with so many plants providing sources of nectar, the yard is sometimes quite a-buzz with bees and bee-like critters. I always move slowly, so as to not threaten them. I often can use a macro lens and flash for them, and they don't seem to be bothered a bit.

 Milkweed beetles abound.

 One other attractive, although not desirable critter if you have squash or similar vegetables, is the Squash Vine Borer.

Mayflies did not seem to be as abundant as some years, although some were around.

A few dragonflies passed through, such as this female Blue Dasher, either for a rest or on the search for other flying insects that would do for a meal.

Wildlife action isn't limited to invertebrates. House Wrens like the abundance of insects in our yard. This family group was busy in our yard for weeks while feeding themselves and eventually their young. I suspect some of the small caterpillar larvae disappeared from the plants I was watching them on and went down the hatch of the youngsters in the wren box.

What's in your back yard?