Box Elder Bug

The fall season is definitely upon us.  The maples are exploding into dazzling crimson foliage, and the Box Elders Bugs are swarming on the south side of buildings.

Box Elder Bugs, Boisea trivittata, as their name implies, are partial to Box Elder trees, but also to maples and ashes.  They feed on sap, leaves, flowers and twigs, but usually do not do too much damage to the trees. The oddly patterned bug on the lower, center edge of this photo is an immature Box Elder Bug.

They are also known as Garage Bugs, since Box Elder Bugs invade homes to overwinter.  They usually remain in walls or behind siding, where they are inactive.  Like some other bugs, they produce glycerol that they use as an internal antifreeze. Often these bugs make their way deeper into our houses, usually as we turn the heat on for winter.  These bugs smell and taste bad--as their coloration seems to predict--and are sometimes called stink bugs (although other bugs also share this name). They do not feed during the winter.  The fact that they do not damage houses is fortunate, since there is little you can do to control an infestation of Box Elder Bugs once they get into your home.  You can try vacuuming them (Iowa State University).

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

While exploring the Carleton College Arboretum on Sunday, Erika and I encountered a juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  The young birds do not completely molt out of this brown plumage until their first spring.  Curiously, I have never banded a juvenile sapsucker.

Due to their sap-sucking habits, sapsuckers depend an flowing sap.  They are, therefore, our most migratory woodpecker.  Sapsuckers breed across Alaska, Canada, and the northern United States.  They winter in the southeastern United States, Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies.  (Individuals breed as far south as southeastern Minnesota and will occasionally attempt to winter here.)  Females winter further south than do males (most birds in Central America are females, most in central regions of the United States are males). 

Males do the lion's share of breeding duties.  They stake breeding territories, pick and do most of the excavation of the nests, share egg incubation, and provide all the nighttime care of the young.  The males also do most of the nest cleaning and feeding of the young.  If one parent dies, young are most likely to survive if they are raised by the male (Smithsonian National Zoological Park).

Eastern Chipmunk

The word chipmunk probably comes from a Native American word for squirrel.  I was tempted to title this post "Zombie Chipmunk," due to the eye reflecting my camera flash.  This reflection is caused by  the tapetum lucidum, a layer behind or in the retinas of many vertebrates.  We humans lack this layer, which improves night vision.  The down-side to the tapetum lucidum is that it does not result in sharp vision like ours.

Eastern Chipmunks are rodents found across much of eastern North America.  They make extensive burrows for sleeping, nesting, and storing food. They are usually quite common, and their loud, repeated chirps can easily be mistaken for bird calls.  Their vocalizations are used for staking out territories and for alarm. In the winter, chipmunks go into torpor, waking frequently to eat from their food caches, but usually staying in their burrows.

Shaggy Mane

The Shaggy Mane, Coprinus comatus, is a common mushroom of yards and roadsides. In my recent post on The Chicken of the Woods, I commented that only fools eat wild mushrooms. Really what I meant is that only a fool would eat a wild mushroom based on MY identification! According to The Mushroom Hunter's Field Guide by Alexander Smith (1967), the Shaggy Mane is edible and choice.

Steve Weston, who helped me identify this mushroom, writes, "There are no toxic look-alikes. This is one that I like to eat. I take a pint of mushrooms and a package of cream cheese and melt them together in a frying pan. If memory is correct, that's all there is to the recipe. Great dip. A related mushroom, the Alcohol Inky (Coprinus atramentarius) is interesting. The mushroom is edible, except that it contains an amino acid that interferes with the metabolism of alcohol causing an interesting set of alarming symptoms if alcohol is consumed within the next 48 to 96 hours." Another name for this mushroom is Tippler's Bane.

Once Erika assigned me to her kitchen. I made lamb with mushroom sauce. I bought the mushrooms at a local grocery store, including a bag labeled "mushroom medley." The bag must have contained the Alcohol Inky that Steve mentions above. Erika and I were sick puppies. Erika missed work the next day, the only time in memory. Ever since I have had an aversion to wild mushrooms. My physician commented that the Alcohol Inky is sometimes used as a folk treatment of alcoholism--nobody will mix a bottle of wine and and an Alcohol Inky twice! Erika never invited me back into her kitchen....

Winter Wren

On Tuesday I banded a Winter Wren.  This wren was once thought to range from Europe and Asia across North America.  In 2010, however, this changed.  The American Ornithologists' Union now recognizes two species in North America, in addition to a third species in the Old World. The American species are named the Winter and Pacific Wrens. Pacific Wrens are found in the Rocky Mountains from the Aleutian Islands south to the San Francisco region and, further inland (but still in the mountains) in Canada and Montana.  The Winter Wren is found east of the Rockies across boreal Canada and in the northern United States (northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New England, and the Appalachians).

David Sibley writes about the difficulties involved in identifying these two new species.  Telling them apart is very difficult, and best done by their call notes.  Even differentiating the call notes is challenging.  So why are these species recognized?  The DNA patterns of these two populations do not mingle and are consistent, even where the two forms overlap, for call and song types.  (For a detailed discussion of these wrens' genetics, follow this link.)  I guess fortunately for us Minnesotans, the Pacific Wren is very unlikely to occur here--see the maps posted by Sibley.  Birders along the front range of the Rockies, where both species migrate or winter, will probably not be sure which species they encounter.

Eastern Tailed-Blue

I figure this butterfly is an Eastern Tailed Blue, common across much of North America.  Erika and I found discovered it in the Carleton College Arboretum last week. The wiry tails that should be sticking out from its hind wings are often destroyed, as in this critter.  Liking open country, this species benefits from deforestation, and is common in fields, roadsides, and mud puddles. According to Wikipedia, Eastern Tailed-blues secrete a substance that attracts some ants. The ants, in turn, protect the butterfly larva from predators.

Large Milkweed Bug

On last Wednesday's Carleton College Arboretum stroll, Erika and I came upon a Common Milkweed that was crawling with orange and black bugs.  Definitely a photographic and blogging opportunity!  The bugs were the wrong pattern for the somewhat similar Elm Bug, and, besides, they infested milkweed.  Googling the words "milkweed bug" took me right to the Large Milkweed Bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus.

As this bug's name implies, all stages of this bug mainly feed on milkweed. In May or June, adults that survive the winter begin to mate. Males and females can be connected for up to ten hours. Females lay about 30 eggs a day during the summer. Nymphs molt up to five times before becoming adults. Because they fed on milkweed sap and seeds, these bugs accumulate glycosides. You may recall Monarch Butterflies do the same thing. Both insects sport bright orange colors, serving as a warning to potential predators that they are distasteful, if not downright poisonous. Animals with such warning colors are often seen in nature, and the acquisition of such patterns is called aposematic evolution.

Most of the information for this blog was gleaned from Wikipedia.

Goldenrod Galls and Downy Woodpeckers

Last Wednesday Erika and I strolled in the Carleton College Arboretum. Our goal was to find a Canada Goldenrod gall.  Erika found one almost immediately. 

The thick, hard gall is produced by an insect grub, the offspring of the Goldenrod Gall Fly. The presence of the larval insect causes goldenrod cells to produce the gall, a growth much like a cancerous tumor.  Inside the gall is a chamber in which the larva overwinter. You can see the chamber and the grub in the next photo.  In addition to the gall, the grub. winthin its body, produces glycerol, which works like antifreeze. 

Grubs are used as bait during the winter when fishermen can not find worms.  The larvae are also preyed upon by Downy Woodpeckers. Because the woodpeckers prefer large galls (they have bigger grubs), areas with lots of woodpeckers tend to have smaller galls. However, a wasp preys upon Goldenrod Gall Fly larvae by laying eggs in the gall. The larvae are eaten by the young wasps. In areas with lots of wasps, goldenrod galls tend to be large (harder for the wasps to penetrate).  Areas with both wasps and Downy Woodpeckers support galls of intermediate size.  (Most of this information is from the Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History.)

Blackpoll Warbler

Fall Blackpoll Warblers have few field marks.  Even compared to other fall Blackpolls, this bird is drab.  A Confusing Fall Warbler, this species is identified by a streaked back and sides.  These field marks are not very evident in this photograph.  The clincher is the Blackpoll Warbler's yellow toes (some even have yellow continuing up their tarsi)--but seeing warbler toes in the field might be tricky. Note my blog posting from 5 September 2010--the similarly plumaged fall Bay-breasted Warbler has black toes.

Blackpolls breed across northern Canada and central Alaska and winter in South America.  Alaskan birds wintering in Brazil may migrate over 8,000 km.  During the fall migration, some birds fly from the northeastern United States to the Antilles, a route that carries them over some 3,000 km of open water, a journey that probably takes up to 88 hours.

Blackpoll breeding behavior is virtually unknown.  At least some Blackpolls are polygnous.  Early in the breeding season, if some males are slow to arrive from the south, females will mate with already mated males; furthermore, males with rich territories attract multiple mates.  Blackpolls are also poorly studied in South America. Erika and I observed Blackpoll Warblers in the winter when we birded in a coffee plantation in eastern Peru. In South America, Blackpolls travel with other migrants in mixed species flocks. Much of the information in this post is from Hunt and Eliason (1999).

The Chicken of the Woods

My elderly mother peered out our back window and asked, "What are those yellow flowers in the back woods?"

"Don't know Mom, " replied I, but to placate her I said, "I'll walk up there and take a look."

I was amazed to come upon several two-foot wide excrescences growing on a fallen tree. A bit of Internet research came up with Sulphur Shelf, vaguely related to the edible mushrooms from the grocery store.  This fungus is also called Chicken of the Woods, as it is edible if you collect the correct stages and if you are foolish enough to eat wild mushrooms (Smith, the Mushroom Hunter's Field Guide, 1867). 

The Chicken of the Woods causes heart rot in standing and fallen oaks (and other hardwood trees).  The fungus was once thought to occur across much of North America, but genetic experiments indicate that, what once were thought to be a single species, are actually a half dozen species.  The Chicken of the Woods is limited to eastern North America. This shelf fungus attacks trees, usually high up in the branches, well before it is visible to the casual observer.  By the time you notice the fungus, you probably can not save the tree (Michael Kuo).