Creatures

Chipping Sparrow (Spizella passerina)

I dropped Dorothy off at school today for one of her finals (AP Literature, I think) and went in to visit briefly with a few of my friends in the lower school and office. On the way back to the car I heard a high-pitched chirping coming from the top of a small oak tree next to my van. This is the source, sitting high in the tree. I wasn’t sure what it was, partly because of the angle from which I was seeing it but mostly because I don’t know my birds nearly as well as I might. So, I did what any self-respecting person would do, I asked my brothers. Albert and George both thought it looked like a chipping sparrow (the dark line through the eye) and Albert asked if the song sounded like those presented at the All About Birds page for the chipping sparrow. Indeed it did. Quite recognizably.

Narceus americanus (American giant millipede)

I thought I’d post a second photograph from our walk on the Billy Goat Trail. This is an American giant millipede (Narceus americanus, also called an iron worm) and it really is quite large, about four inches long. We saw a few of them and they are fairly common.

These millipedes do not have venomous stingers or fangs and are not dangerous to humans. They can secrete bad-smelling and bad-tasting chemicals from pores in the sides of their bodies. These chemicals help keep many predators away.

Red-tailed Hawk and Easter Bunny

This is an Easter picture that I took seven years ago, on April 8, 2007. We were at my in-laws’ house and had eaten our meal. At about 4:10, Cathy and Dorothy were in the yard when they heard a scream. It was clearly not human but they didn’t know, at first, what it was. When they saw that a hawk had attacked a rabbit, Dorothy came running into the house to get me. She said that she and her mom wanted me to do something. I’m not sure what, precisely, they wanted me to do but I’m pretty sure taking pictures was not it. That’s what I did, though. Did they really expect me to do anything else?

I took 85 pictures before the hawk flew away. When I first went out the rabbit had stopped making noises but was still alive. It’s fate was sealed, however, and I wasn’t going to deprive the hawk of its meal simply because it happened to pick the Easter bunny for its menu.

Coronal and Sagittal Sutures

It was a cool day today but not really cold. I took a break shortly after noon and went out into the empty lot next to my office building. I say empty lot but really it isn’t empty, it simply hasn’t been built on. There are trees, shrubs, woody and herbaceous perennials, and annuals in abundance. There are also animals, although mostly I see birds and (especially later in the year) insects and spiders. It’s clear that there are deer there and I’ve seen them on rare occasions.

Deer Skull

I came across one today, or what was left of one. There were a few leg bones and then I found the skull, half buried under some Japanese honeysuckle. The first picture if of the top of the deer’s skull, showing the intersection of the Coronal and Sagittal Sutures, where the frontal and two parietal bones all come together. It looks to me like a river, meandering through an arid waste. Or maybe not. The second picture shows the skull, as I found it.

Scutigera coleoptrata (House Centipede)

I’ve seen these fairly often but I don’t think I’ve had the opportunity to get a good picture before this evening. This is in the corner of a room and she is facing into the corner (having a “time out” I suspect). While this isn’t in our house, I have seen them there, as well. If your first impulse is to squash these when you see them, you should know that they eat pretty much exclusively things that you probably want around the house even less: cockroach nymphs, flies, moths, bedbugs, crickets, silverfish, earwigs, and small spiders.

Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus)

As I walked out to the car this morning I heard a very happy sounding bird chirping at the top of the holly tree in our front yard. He was right up at the very top, happily calling out, “drink your teeeeea.” I was happy to have him stay where he was long enough for me to get a few pictures, even though at this low angle, it isn’t as good a picture as I’d like. The Eastern Towhee was, until recently, called the Rufous-sided Towhee and what is now called the Spotted Towhee was considered to be the same species. If you have an older bird guide, that’s where you will find this fine fellow.

Foxes

The foxes were back this morning, cavorting in the snow. The back yard is filled with their tracks. It was still fairly dim light so I took this at ISO 3,200 and it was still a 1/15 of a second, which explains the softness of this picture. This was the second of three pictures I got of them. After the first one, they stopped and turned towards me. So, even through the glass of our kitchen door they heard the camera and it alerted them to my presence. After that they left for the day.

White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis)

The snow is basically all gone. There are batches in shadier spots and wherever it was piled when shoveling or plowing but the lawn is basically clear of it. Yesterday there was standing water in parts of the yard but now most of that has drained or soaked into the already waterlogged soil. It’s still quite wet out, but that’s normal and good this time of year. I walked around the yard looking for things to photograph. There are the snow drops but I posted their picture yesterday, so I wanted something else. I was looking at last years fern leaves when this little fellow landed in the hedge and let me take his picture. This is a white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis), a friendly winter visitor, probably getting ready to head back to Canada for the summer.

Foxes

Yesterday it was snowing and there was about an inch of new snow on the ground. We looked out the back window and saw two foxes playing in the back yard. I was going to post one of those pictures for yesterday but before getting it posted, today happened. Yesterday the pictures were taken through two panes of glass in an upstairs window with a 100mm lens. Today I had time to go down stairs, switch to the 75-300mm zoom lens, and take the picture through one pane of glass.

These two foxes are living in the area, obviously, and I couldn’t be more pleased. I’m looking forward to a rabbit free (or at least greatly diminished) spring and summer. That is unless some busybody decides that foxes aren’t safe to have around. Look, I understand that these are wile animals and not pets (or Narnians). But they aren’t going to attack and we aren’t raising chickens. They run away when I even just start to open the back door. Our neighbors have small kids but they also have a dog. The foxes aren’t going to hang around when he’s in the yard. Anyway, for now, I’m enjoying the foxes, long may they prosper. They may look like they are fighting in this picture, but they are playing.

Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)

It was a little chilly out today but I went out for a bit because the snow was so pretty. I walked around my office building, looking for things to take pictures of. At one point I heard a tap, tap, tap sound and looked up to see this little downy woodpecker on a dead branch hanging on a tree. She was quite busy looking for things living in the branch and most of my pictures aren’t very good. She kept moving around the branch, and of course I was looking up at a fairly steep angle. This one turned out pretty nicely, though, when she looked over her shoulder.

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)

When I was little I thought that the appearance of robins was a sign of spring. They do migrate and that even contributes to their Latin binomial. Turdus migratorius translates as migratory thrush. In our area, however, they are pretty much a year round feature. Those we have now probably travel to the north in summer, to be replaced by their sun-bird relatives coming up from Florida. The American Robin is not to be confused with the smaller, daintier, and in my mind prettier European robin, Erithacus rubecula.

Cæsar

I went over to Cathy’s mom’s this evening to work on her computer. Between doing things I took some pictures of the birds. This one of Caesar was taken through the bars, which is what makes the lower part of the image a little soft. The bars are about 3/4 inches apart, so I can’t just shoot between them. By keeping the depth of field low, I was able to mostly ignore them. I did take a few of Roscoe through the opened cage door, but didn’t risk it with Caesar.

Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)

Yes, squirrels are cute. They can be hugely fun to watch. They run around, up and down trees, leaping from branch to branch, and when it comes to getting food, particularly food left out for birds, they are ingenious. We have a bird feeder outside our dining room window. It’s a nice platform feeder with a glass top and really good for feeding birds when there is snow on the ground. Of course, the squirrels know about it and in fact, they end up eating most of whatever is left there. I’ve been meaning to rig up something to discourage the squirrels but haven’t gotten around to it yet. So, this morning I enjoyed watching a squirrel eat a few leftover wasabi peas. Yes, wasabi peas. They had gone a little soft from being left out and without the crunch of the dried pea, they just were not the same. This fellow, however, didn’t seem to mind at all. At least he didn’t actually complain. This is, of course, our own furry-tailed rat, the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).

Female Cardinal

Outside our dining room window is a small garden bed that doesn’t get a lot of special care. It’s partially under the eaves so the back is fairly dry but that doesn’t seem to deter the things growing there. We have a clump of maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum) that came from our old yard in Gaithersburg and before that from my parents’ house. There is a big clump of blackberry lily (Iris domestica) that blooms wonderfully through the middle of the summer. There is also a huge butterfly bush (Buddleja) seedling that would be nicer if it were not so huge. All the spare space in the bed is taken up by Virginia Knotweed (Persicaria virginiana var. filiformis ‘Painter’s Palette’). That has loads of very tiny red flowers followed by brown seeds (achenes, technically). Apparently, and I didn’t realize this, the birds love the seeds. I’ve noticed cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis) and white-throated sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis) on them a few times over the last few days and managed to get a few decent photographs through the dining room window. So far, only the female cardinal has sat high enough in the them to be clearly visible.

Dead Woodpecker

My apologies to those of you who are a bit squeemish. As I left work today, this is what I found on the sidewalk outside the back of my building. I’ve posted pictures a few times of the mirrored glass on the back of my building — January 31, April 02, and June 20, 2012. I have to assume this fellow (or lass) saw an ideal perch in a tree that was simply a reflection in that glass. I felt sad, of course, but that didn’t stop me from taking a few pictures. Have I been doing this too long, do you thing?

Update: I labeled this as a flicker without really stopping to think. It is, as Albert so quickly pointed out, a red-bellied woodpecker, not a flicker. Thanks, Albert. I hate it when I do that.

Pyrrharctia isabella, the Woolly Bear Caterpillar, Isabella Tiger Moth

This woolly bear caterpillar was speeding across my driveway this afternoon. I got out my bean bag and got down at his (or her) level to take some pictures. He (or she) was moving so fast that the first few pictures were blurred! Seriously. I touched him and he stopped and played dead for about a minute. I was able to get a few close pictures and then he took off again. The woolly bear is the larva of the Isabella Tiger Moth, Pyrrharctia isabella. According to folk lore, the wide brown strip on this little fellow indicates a mild winter ahead. Of course, what it actually means is that he inherited the trait for a wide brown stripe from his parents.

Neoscona crucifera

This is the same spider I had a picture of on September 13. At least it’s the same species. I don’t actually know if it’s the same one, but it certainly could be. This time it is in the back yard with its web between the flower stalks of Verbena bonariensis. I find that to be a much better place for a spider than across the entrance to my house. I tried to get pictures of it from the other side but it wouldn’t let me get close enough. Also, I was shooting into the sun from that side, which was difficult.

Neoscona crucifera

Yesterday Cathy noticed this spider out in front of our house. There are two pillars holding up our front porch and it was between one of those and the house, to the side of where we walked. Since it wasn’t bothering anyone and since in general I consider spiders a force for good, I left it alone. This morning as I came out I didn’t see it there where it had been yesterday. With the heavy rain we had last night (and it was still coming down this morning, off and on) I wasn’t too surprised to find it gone. As I walked out from under the porch, though, I found where it had moved when I got a face full of web. As much as I like spiders, I’m not a big fan of spider webs in my face, especially when they are patrolled by a spider as big as this one.

This is a common spider in the Neoscona genus, the Spotted Orbweavers.

Philanthus gibbosus (Beewolf)

I saw a new type of wasp today. Well, new to me, anyway. They’ve been around for a while. The genus Philanthus are known, collectively, as beewolves, because they prey on bees. The female hunts for bees, buries them in brood tunnels, and lays an egg on each. When the larvae hatch, they have a nice, readily available food supply.

This particular species, Philanthus gibbosus is the most common of the north American species. It’s not all that big, between 15 and 18mm in length but it’s brightly marked with yellow. You can see the three simple eyes (ocelli) on the top of the head, although if you didn’t know they were there, you might not notice them. This wasp, like many others in our yard, it particularly fond of the mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum).

White-tailed Deer Fawn

I didn’t get outside during the day today but I did get this picture from my office window. There were two fawns, actually, both along the side of the parking lot between our lot and the empty lot next door. I’ve seen deer in that empty lot a few times and have come across the bones of deer quite a few times. This is the first time I’ve seen them out in the open on our side of the fence (not that the fence is going to stop them — it’s low enough that I can step over it without any trouble).

Oncopeltus fasciatus Nymphs (Large Milkweed Bug)

We have a few butterfly weed plants (Asclepias tuberosa) in our back yard. They are mostly done blooming and actually have mostly gone to seed. One of them is totally covered with these beautiful little nymphs of the large milkweed bug (Oncopeltus fasciatus).

Calycopis cecrops (Red-banded Hairstreak)

I went out after butterflies this afternoon. It was quite warm and they were all over the place, especially on the black-eyed Susans. This is one of two that I photographed. The other was an Eastern Tailed-Blue (Cupido comyntas) but they were not as good so that will have to wait for another day. I’m pretty happy with this picture, though. The tricky thing is to get both the head and the trailing edge of the wing in focus at the same time. I also like the fine line shadow of the antenna on the wing.