Bald Cardinal

At bird banding this past Sunday at Springbrook we caught the sad looking female cardinal in the picture above. A very bad hair...ahh...feather day.  We often capture cardinals with some of this "baldness" in the summer months, but this poor gal has it really bad. 
There is some debate over what "it" is. Some feel it is normal molting, some think a skin mite, and others think a feather mite.

All I know for sure is that she can't get much more pathetic looking.  And her ears are very noticable, the opening below and behind her eye.  She should have her feathers back in a few weeks and look more like her old self  in the picture to the left here.

Dragonfly Obelisks and Cannibals

 Saturday was Springbrook's annual dragonfly count day.  We saw many, and learned interesting things.  This Twelve Spotted Skimmer was on the Beaver Pond trail pond.  This is a male based on the white spots, which the females don't have.

Down below is a Blue Dasher sitting in the "obelisk" position.  Some dragonflies point their abdoman directly at the sun to reduce their exposure and potential over-heating.

 The Blue Dasher moves his body up until his shadow is the smallest it can get.  The smaller
shadow means less exposure to the sun.

 A different Blue Dasher wasn't watching close enough and this Eastern Pond Hawk dragonfly ate him for lunch.  The wings of the Blue Dasher are in the middle and smaller than the Pond Hawk's, so size means survival in this dragonfly eat dragonfly world. Cannibalism is an everyday occurance in this habitat.

This beautiful Ebony Jewelwing Damselfly, along with several other species of damselflies, were also seen on the hike.  This is a female, which is made known by the white spots on the end of the wings. 

Dragonflies all hold their wings out flat all the time, while damselflies bring their wings together over their backs when at rest.

Dobsonfly Pupae Becomes Adult

 Above is the picture I posted two weeks ago just after the Hellgramite larvae shed its skin into this interesting pupae.  Nine days later I photographed it again the night before it emerged as an adult Dobsonfly. 

The color changes in the wings, legs, eyes, jaws, head and thorax. The wings especially will grow enormously after it emerges, as can be seen in the pictures below.

 If this picture is compared to the close up of the head in the previous post there are a lot of color changes.  The skin of the pupae seems to be separating from the new skin underneath of the adult Dobsonfly around the eyes and on the back of the head.

Even at this point the pupae was very active and trying to bite with its jaws.  It was difficult to get it to sit still long enough for the pictures.

 Here is the cast off pupal skin I discovered the next morning.  It is entirely intact with only a split on the back where the Dobsonfly emerged.  Except for the vacant head and eyes, it looks alive, but a bit transparent.

 Here is the adult female Dobsonfly that emerged from the pupae.  She is a little over 4 inches long and very agressive and defensive.  At night after dark she was flying strongly around the room.


The day after I took this picture someone brought a male into the nature center. Its photo is below. The big difference between the males and females is very obvious.  The pincers on the male are huge, and he can use them effectively, drawing blood from a finger that is not protected when positioning him for a photo shoot!

 Here is a last shot of the two heads showing the difference.  Notice also the two extra eyes in the middle of the top of the head that face slghtly backwards.  I had some interesting reflection from these eyes with the flash from the camera.  I will put those pictures up in a future post.

June Beetle Pupae

 The June beetle larvae molted last night into their pupal stage.  They moved from laying on their side to laying on their back.  The skin splits in the middle and the old skin becomes their new bed.

I think they look like a baby Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars.  They are very active squirming around.  But remain on their back in the bed of their old skin.  Several have made chambers down in the dirt an inch or two.  Four came to the surface and molted while laying on the top of the dirt. 

 Here again is the larvae.  It was pretty quiet for two weeks, then started forming the chambers under the dirt, and now has molted this thin transparent skin.

The old larvae skin is easy to see here.  It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the adult beetle to emerge.

Stay tuned for the next stage of this insects life.

June "Bug" Larvae Demo Insect Breathing Spiracles

 I'm finding many June "Bug" (beetle) larvae in my wood chips. To the eye they look like normal white grubs with orange heads and legs.  But the camera flash makes their skin transparent, and the design of their breathing holes, or spiracles, is revealed.

Look at the incredible network of tubes that take the air in and exhale carbon dioxide.  Probably not a major contributor to global warming, but fascinating to see up close.

Flowers and Froglets

On the edges of Springbrook's wetlands the wild Iris is in full bloom.  The splash of color mixed in with the new greens of summer adds to the scenery on the trails. 

And at the same time the Iris is blooming, the male green frogs begin to call near the base of the plants, staking out territories, trying to attract females into their space.

 The Green Frogs are all along the long floating boardwalk at Springbrook, and easy to see.  I took this picture from the boardwalk on Friday.

This is a male, and is distinguished from the females by the eardrum being bigger than its eye.  The female's ear drum is smaller.

At the same time the males are setting up territories, last year's tadpoles are metamorphosing into frogs.  They have legs and breath air, but still have a long tail.  The tail on this one near the boardwalk goes under the little feather at the far left of the picture.

Yellow Slime Mold That Isn't

 Yellow Slime Mold has been showing up in the woodchips and dead logs at Springbrook lately.  If you see it shortly after it "erupts" it looks like a plate of macaroni and cheese. Really!

But it turns out that it is not a slime mold at all, or even in the fungi family.  Science has reclassified it as an Amoebozoa. Kind of like the very old scary movie "The Blob."  But this one is real, and it eats micro-organisms in dead plant material, helping with decomposition. 

Scientists have determined that what appears to be a "mold" like organism is actually thousands of protozoa like amoebas that behave very differently when they come together.  Under the surface they first form these filiment-like "gatherings" and within an hour or so they multiply and sort of bubble up to the surface, as you can see in the next picture.

 Within another hour this "blob" grows and becomes shiny and wet.  It may get big enough to cover a dinner plate, and 2 or 3 inches high on the top of the surface of the woodchips.

 It begins to fade after a few hours, and by morning it has lost its color, and is either some tan filiments, or a faded brown blob that must be dead amoebas, because it stays for days until washed away, as can be seen in the pictures below.

 I think this picture is remaining amoebas escaping back into the woodchips. 

Writing this blog gets me to double check my facts, and also learn new things.  For many years I have been telling folks about slime molds, thinking this was one. 

What is great about science is that it keeps checking on itself, and when a mistake is discovered, it corrects itself, and everyone moves on with the new knowledge.  Wouldn't it be great if that worked for other life issues as easily?

This Yellow Slime Mold that isn't is very interesting, and I hope some time to look at it under a microscope.  Maybe I can get some pictures and post them here.