My Commonplace Book

I did some more work on getting photos posted and organized today!

Yesterday I got some great pictures of a Red-winged Blackbird. He must have been nesting in one of the cherry trees and I guess I came too close -- he didn't dive at me, but he did start screeching and was obviously very upset. He flew to to the top of the next tree, yelling his head off at me, and then to the very tip-top of the one after that, still hollering.

( Here's one of the pics )

The other three are on this page.

I also posted two pictures (from last month) of an interesting little creature called a Red Velvet Mite. Apparently they're not unusual in the woods, but I don't recall ever seeing one before -- and I don't think I'd have forgotten this vivid red creature if I had!

( Red velvet mite )

There's another picture of it here.

The other pic is an Eastern Tent Caterpillar, taken last week. At this time of year the last instar of this moth is all over the place, crawling across lawns, paths, sidwalks and roads looking for a likely place to pupate. The moths they'll become don't even have a name -- they're just Eastern Tent Caterpillar Moths. Tent caterpillars are very social, and make large silk nests together while they're eating and growing. The nest "tents" are very unsightly but they don't harm the tree -- these caterpillars are native to this area and have evolved in partnership with the trees they eat. If the trees died the caterpillars would have died out too. 

Ken had come up last week to do some weeding for me, and I took him to see my bluebird boxes (more on those soon!).  I've barely seen any tents at all this spring, but the caterpillars are obviously around. I noticed this one crawling across the path only a couple of feet from another one that had been mashed flat by a runner or cyclist. When I picked it up to rescue it and saw how pretty it was I had Ken hold it so I could take some pictures.

Ken was worried that it was a Gypsy Moth Caterpillar -- they're very similar in appearance, but the invasive exotic gypsy moth caterpillars are one of North America's most devastating plant pests. I was in a quandary for a minute -- I would have killed it if I'd been sure it was a gypsy moth caterpillar. But I'd already rescued it and I really wasn't sure what it was, so I played with it for awhile and then released it. Now that I know it was a harmless native, I'm glad I saved its life.

Caterpillars are fun to play with -- you can keep it on an endless treadmill by letting it crawl along your hand, then putting your other hand in its way. It'll crawl right onto your other hand and you can just keep going like that and the caterpillar just keeps going and going and going. If you tilt your hand they rear up on their hind legs and crane their little heads to look around -- it's really cute. After a few minutes I put it at the edge of the woods where it would be safe -- as long as it kept going and didn't turn back around onto the path! 

( Orange, turquoise, black and white caterpillar )

Two more pictures of it (and some other interesting and pretty caterpillars) in the Caterpillars gallery.