Black-headed Grosbeak

Posted on March 8, 2024 by tspuckler

While hiking on Mount Charleston, Nevada (near Las Vegas), I spotted a bird which I have never seen before. In western North America the sweet song of the Black-headed Grosbeak caroling down from the treetops sounds like a tipsy American Robin welcoming Spring. The flashy black, white, and cinnamon males and the less flamboyant females sing from perches in desert thickets, mountain forests, and suburbs.

This bird eats pine and other seeds, berries, insects, spiders and fruit. During the Summer, it mostly eats spiders and insects, switching to seeds and berries in the Fall and Winter. At feeders they effortlessly shuck sunflower seeds with their heavy bills.

The Black-headed Grosbeak is one of the few birds, along with the Black-backed Oriole, that can safely eat the poisonous Monarch Butterfly. This species consumes many Monarchs, perhaps over one million per year in the overwintering colonies in Mexico. They eat them in roughly 8-day cycles, apparently to give themselves time to eliminate the butterfly’s toxins.

This bird prefers to live in deciduous and mixed wooded areas. It likes to be in areas with large trees and thick bushes, such as patches of broadleaved trees and shrubs within conifer forests, including streamside corridors, river bottoms and suburban areas.

The Black-headed Grosbeak’s scientific name is well-suited. Its species name, melanocephalus, means “black-headed.” And its genus name, Pheucticus, refers either to the Greek pheuticus for “shy” or phycticus meaning “painted with cosmetics,” fitting for a showy bird that forages in dense foliage.

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Indian Paintbrush

Posted on March 1, 2024 by tspuckler

While hiking on Mount Charleston in Nevada I came across a number of wildflowers; this one was particularly distinctive.

Indian Paintbrush is a hemiparasite, meaning that although it is green and can photosynthesize, it also has the ability to sequester nutrients from other organisms, in this case, perennial grasses.

Despite being parasites for part of their lives, these plants, like other flowering plants, rely on pollinators for reproduction. A variety of insects visit Indian Paintbrush flowers, especially bees. This is somewhat surprising since the color red is difficult for insects to see.

However, like most red flowers, it is especially adapted for pollination by hummingbirds. Hummingbirds have long bills that allow them to reach the nectar rewards at the end of long, tubular flowers.

Ironically, this plant was used by Native Americans as both a love charm in food and as a poison used to against their enemies, as this species is known to have toxic properties.

Indian Paintbrush generally prefers sunlight and moist, well drained soils. Their root systems connect with and grow into the root systems of other planets to harvest nutrients from their host plants. For this reason, they are not able to be transplanted easily.

That red color we so often admire is actually bracts, or specially modified leaves, as opposed to flowers. The plant’s true flowers are actually smaller, slender green growths hidden among the bracts.

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Desert Spiny Lizard

Posted on February 23, 2024 by tspuckler

I often encounter this fine lizard on Cottonwood Trees that line waterways in the Mojave Desert. In some cases I hear them before I see them, as they run up tree trunks making a surprising amount of noise. They are squirrel-like in how they case each other around tree trunks as well as how to go to the opposite side of the tree trunk as a percieved predator.

Usually, during the morning hours, they will be out basking in the sun on rocks or any hard surface that is in direct sunlight, but like many desert reptiles, they seek shelter, usually underground in burrows or any suitable cover that provides shade, during the hottest part of the day.

These are medium-to-large lizards that can grow up to a foot in total length. True to their name, these robust reptiles have keeled, pointed scales and feel rough.

Adult male Desert Spiny Lizards usually have conspicuous blue/violet patches on the belly and throat, and a green/blue color on their tails and sides. They stake out areas and as part of their territorial displays, can frequently be seen doing push-ups on tree trunks, logs, rocks and even roads.

The Desert Spiny Lizard is widely distributed throughout the Mojave, Sonoran and Colorado deserts, as well as parts of the Great Basin and and Central California Coast, in arid and semiarid environments.

They primarily prey on insects such as ants, beetles, caterpillars, flies and grasshoppers. They also feed on spiders, centipedes, and small lizards, as well as consuming some plant material.

These lizards exhibit metachromatism, meaning they change color depending on the temperature. Desert Spiny Lizard change to darker colors during the Winter to allow them to absorb more heat from the sunshine, and become lighter during the Summer to reflect the sun’s radiation. They also change color with the seasons and for mating.

Although not the largest species of lizard in the Mojave Desert, it is spectacular in its own way and quite a challange to catch.

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Wolf’s-Milk Slime

Posted on February 16, 2024 by tspuckler

While hiking in a wooded lot across the street from my house, I noticed tiny orange globs on some on the logs on the forest floor. The fruiting bodies of this organism are small in width and height – about 1/3 -5/8 of an inch.

This slime mold resembles a tiny orangish-pink puffball. Before it is fully mature, you can pop it and a pinkish-orange substance, with the texture of toothpaste, will ooze out. As the fruiting bodies age, they turn brown or purple. Found after rains on well-rotted logs throughout North America, Wolf’s-Milk Slime is probably our continent’s most frequently noticed slime mold. This species feeds on bacteria, yeasts, and fungi that colonize decaying materials such as rotting wood.

Like fungi, slime molds are interesting and strange – and well worth learning about. Slime molds are so weirdly beautiful that they have even inspired science fiction movies (such as “The Blob” in 1958). They are also studied for their unusual cellular characteristics.

Wolf’s Milk Slime Mold is a plasmodial slime mold, a group of slime molds that live part of their lives as a large single cell (from tiny to over 12 inches) containing many nuclei called a plasmodium. The plasmodium spends its time moving through the soil, under logs and over dead leaves and grass feeding on bacteria.

Thought it may seem like one, this species isn’t actually a mushroom or fungus. Slime molds, or myxomycetes are a group of fungus-like organisms that at one time were regarded as animals, then thought to be plants, and then fungi. Now, because of DNA studies, slime molds are believed to be most closely related to protozoa.

Slime molds are colorful, fanciful creatures. Blackberry, Toothpaste, Many-goblet, Chocolate Tube and Scrambled Egg Slime all have interesting stories to go along with their names. Wolf’s Milk Slime, for example, is so named because when the non-moving, reproductive structure is young, the pinkish, milky substance it secretes evidently reminded someone of wolf’s milk.

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White Spruce

Posted on February 9, 2024 by tspuckler

While visiting Indiana I came across this tree which I have never encountered before. Its seed cone is longer than wide, with woody scales attached at the base. White Spruce has the smallest cones of any of the spruces. They are typically 1 to 2 inches long, cylindrical and pendulous, often clustered near the top of the tree.

White Spruce hails from northern climes and is one of the first tree species to colonize after glaciers recede. This evergreen usually grows to heights of 50 to 100 feet. This species is the northernmost tree species in North America, reaching just north of 69°N latitude in Canada’s Mackenzie River delta.

The pale green, pointed evergreen needles are 1/2 to 3/4 inch long. They are four-sided, often crowded on the upper surface of the stem. The aromatic needles can persist for three to four years before dropping. Scientifically known as Picea glauca, the waxy coating on its needles gives them a blue-green (glaucous) appearance, hence the Latin species name.

This tree adapts to a surprising variety of environments and climates. It prefers moist, well-drained alluvial soil, but grows on a wide diversity of sites. White Spruce is rarely found in pure stands.

White Spruce is the most commercially important timber species in the far north woods. Almost white, its wood is soft, light-weight, and moderately strong with a straight grain. It is used for wood fiber, house logs, and musical instruments.

Its bark is thin and scaly, flaking off in small circular plates 2 to 4 inches across. This tree was an important fuel source for early colonists and Native Americans of the north woods. In addition to human use, this tree provides cover for Moose, Martens and Lynx.

White Spruce has been the most popular selection for the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree, being used 13 times (as of 2020) since the tradition began in 1964.

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Spotted Lanternfly

Posted on February 2, 2024 by tspuckler

While visiting Bronxville, New York, I noticed several insects on the wall outside a sports outfitter store. The Spotted lanternfly is an invasive insect insect from Asia that primarily feeds on Trees of Heaven (Alianthus altissima) but can also eat a wide variety of plants, such as grapevine, hops, maple, walnut, and fruit trees.

The Spotted Lanternfly belongs to a family known as planthoppers – this name comes from their remarkable resemblance to leaves and other plants of their environment and that they often “hop” for quick transportation in a similar way to that of grasshoppers. However, planthoppers generally walk very slowly.

Like other True Bugs, planthoppers begin life as an egg and then, growing, undergo a number of immature stages (nymphs) before a final molt renders them a winged, sexually mature adult.

Adults begin to appear in July and are approximately 1 inch long and ½ inch wide at rest, with eye-catching wings. Their forewings are grayish with black spots. The lower portions of their hindwings are red with black spots and the upper portions are dark with a white stripe. They are laterally flattened and hold their broad wings vertically, in a tent-like fashion, concealing the sides of the body and part of the legs.

The Spotted Lanternfly is indigenous to parts of China and Vietnam. In addition to the United States, it has also spread invasively to Japan and South Korea. Planthoppers use their wings to assist these jumps rather than to make sustained flights. On September 29, 2014, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and the Pennsylvania Game Commission first confirmed the presence of the Spotted Lanternfly in Berks County, Pennsylvania, northwest of Philadelphia.

Although it is an attractive-looking insect, a large potential range exists for the Spotted Lanternfly to become established in almost all of the eastern part of the United States, as well as critical wine- and hop-growing valleys of the Pacific coastal states.

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Leatherleaf

Posted on January 26, 2024 by tspuckler

While visiting a bog on Kent, Ohio, I came across this neat plant. It is a species characteristically found in sphagnum peat bogs. Leatherleaf provides cover for nesting mallards and some other ducks. It recovers quickly in peatlands that have been severely disturbed or mined for peat.

This plant has a distribution throughout the cool temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere from eastern North America to bogs in Finland and Japan.

Leatherleaf is often the first woody plant to encroach on the open water of a kettle hole lake. It is a small, dense, mound-shaped shrub, growing to 5 feet high, often spreading to form thickets.

As its common names implies, Leatherleaf has thick, leathery leaves to minimize water loss from transpiration. To conserve nutrients and maximize photosynthesis, its brownish evergreen leaves persist for nearly two seasons and are gradually shed as new leaves become established.

It’s urn-shaped white flowers appear in early Spring, often while ice is still present.

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Canada Goose

Posted on January 19, 2024 by tspuckler

The big, black-necked Canada Goose with its signature white chinstrap marking is a familiar and widespread bird of fields and parks. Thousands of “honkers” migrate north and south each year, filling the sky with long V-formations. The size of this goose varies considerably – some are the size of a large duck and others are two to three times larger.

At least 11 subspecies of Canada Goose have been recognized, although only a couple are distinctive. In general, the geese get smaller as you move northward, and darker as you go westward. The four smallest forms are now considered a different species: the Cackling Goose.

Once rare in the Buckeye State due to overhunting, in 1956, the Ohio Division of Wildlife introduced 10 breeding pairs of Canada Geese to three state wetlands. That helped populations rebound. By 1979 the geese were nesting in half of Ohio’s 88 counties. Today, they’re nesting and breeding everywhere, with an estimated population of well over 100,000.

In recent years, Canada Goose populations in some areas have grown substantially, so much so that many consider them pests for their droppings, bacteria in their droppings, noise, and confrontational behavior. This problem is partially due to the removal of natural predators and an abundance of safe, human-made bodies of water near food sources.

Canada geese are protected under both the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Ohio state law. This protection extends to the geese, goslings, nests, and eggs.

Canada Geese are primarily herbivores, although they sometimes eat small insects and fish. Their diet includes green vegetation and grains. The Canada goose eats a variety of grasses when on land. It feeds by grasping a blade of grass with the bill, then tearing it with a jerk of the head.

These birds fly in a distinctive V-shaped flight formation, with an altitude of 3,000 feet for migration flight. The maximum flight ceiling of Canada geese is unknown, but they have been reported at 29,000 feet. Flying in the V formation has been the subject of study by researchers. The front position is rotated, since flying in front consumes the most energy.

During the second year of their lives, Canada geese find a mate. They are monogamous, and most couples stay together all of their lives. If one dies, the other may find a new mate. The female lays from two to nine eggs with an average of five, and both parents protect the nest while the eggs incubate, but the female spends more time at the nest than the male.

As soon as the goslings hatch, they are immediately capable of walking, swimming, and finding their own food (a diet similar to that of adult geese). Parents are often seen leading their goslings in a line, usually with one adult at the front and the other at the back. While they might appear short-tempered, snappy and threatening, Canada geese are really much like any doting parents — fiercely protective of their brood.

Nonmigratory Canada Goose populations have been on the rise. This species is frequently found on golf courses, parking lots, and urban parks, which would have previously hosted only migratory geese on rare occasions. Owing to its adaptability to human-altered areas, it has become one of the most common waterfowl species in North America.

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Camel Cricket

Posted on January 12, 2024 by tspuckler

Although it’s cold outside, the inner temperatures of caves is remarkablely stable. So some cool creatures can be found if a person is willing to do a little bit of exploring.

Camel Crickets get their common name from their humpbacked appearance, which is similar to that of a Camel. Also commonly known as Cave Crickets or Spider Crickets, this species can be found in caves, as well as damp, cool areas underneath damp leaves, stones and rotting logs.

These insects are widespread in the United States and in the world and have a lifespan of about one to two years. They do not possess sound producing organs, and therefore they do not chirp. Additionally, unlike other cricket species, the adults do not have wings.

Camel Cricket have very long antennae as well as long back legs, which enable them to jump several feet. They tend to be light tan to dark brown in color. These crickets are almost entirely nocturnal, so long antennae and other appendages allow them to feel their way around in the dark.

At the tip of the abdomen is a pair of long cerci (paired appendages on rearmost segment), and in females, an ovipositor (a tube-like organ used for laying of eggs) which is cylindrical, pointed, long and narrow, smooth and shiny.

Camel Crickets need to shed their exoskeleton periodically, a process known as molting. This is done as the insect grows, because the exoskeleton cannot expand.

These creatures are omnivores and eat what is readily available, from plants to carrion to fungi.

I enjoyed finding these unusual creatures as a kid and still like coming across them in the present day. I most often find them under rocks and fallen limbs in slightly damp locations. I usually come across them in the Autumn months while flipping logs, looking for salamanders.

Growing to about an inch long, there are about 150 species of Camel Crickets in the United States.

In 2023 this fine insect was named The 2023 USA Cave Animal of the Year: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/cave-cricket.htm

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Canadian Wild Ginger

Posted on January 5, 2024 by tspuckler

While hiking in Carmel, Indiana, I can across this bit of greenery on the forest floor. It is a herbaceous, perennial plant which forms dense colonies in the understory of deciduous forests throughout its native range in eastern North America.

Canadian Wild Ginger is unrelated to commercially available ginger; however, it is named “wild ginger” because of the similar taste and smell of the roots. Early European settlers used to dry the rootstalk, grind it to a powder and use it as a spice.

The plant’s two velvety, heart-shaped leaves barely reach 12 inches in height. Its flowers bloom from the base of the plant, often hidden by its wide leaves.

Many a hiker has walked past the large colonies of this early Spring wildflower not realizing that it has an interesting and peculiar flower hidden underneath its canopy of foliage.

Canadian Wild Ginger evolved to attract small pollinating flies that emerge from the ground early in the Spring, looking for a thawing carcass of an animal that did not survive the winter. By being so close to the forest flower, it is readily found by the emerging flies.

Not only is this plant cool to see in the wild, it is often grown in gardens as groundcover in shady situations.

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Tim Spuckler's Blog

Reptile Ramblings and More

Black-headed Grosbeak

Indian Paintbrush

Desert Spiny Lizard

Wolf’s-Milk Slime

White Spruce

Spotted Lanternfly

Leatherleaf

Canada Goose

Camel Cricket

Canadian Wild Ginger