Sable Dunes Audubon Society Field Trip - Ludington State Park 10/17/15

   This morning I met up with the Sable Dunes Audubon Society at Ludington State Park for their field trip led by Dave Dister.  The chilly air and moderate north winds dampened expectations, but Dave's familiarity with the park helped make the outing productive and enjoyable.

Hermit Thrush

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Dark-eyed Junco

Flock of Redheads

   My shoot-first-ID-them-later approach to birding caught a Lesser Scaup among the flock of Redheads that may have been overlooked without the photo.

Lesser Scaup to the upper right

Rusty Blackbird

White-breasted Nuthatch

Downy Woodpecker

Eastern Phoebe 

Red-headed Woodpecker

Great Blue Heron

  Photos from earlier in the week

Orange-crowned Warbler at Buttersville Park

   This caterpillar is one of many that repelled down silk threads out of my oak trees the past few weeks.  Its hard to get a sense of scale from this photo, but this larvae is the size of a man's ear....

...more specifically FDR's ear as it appears on a US dime.

   I discussed these caterpillars with Dave Dister last week when I ran into him at Ludington Harbor and he proceeded to point out a cocoon one had made on my car.
  This one is on the rim of one of my tires.

   And these are inside the rear driver-side door.

Imperial Moth Life Cycle

  After finding an Imperial Moth back in July, I finally have a complete series of photos showing the progression of the offspring from egg to chrysalis.

  The above moth laid over 100 eggs over a 2 day period.

   The caterpillars hatched about 2 weeks later.

  The caterpillars fed on Sycamore or Maple leaves for 6 weeks

  They grew to 5" long.

  The fifth skin shedding revealed the pupa or chrysalis

Discarded skin  and resultant chrysalis

Sarcophagus-like chrysalis 

  The moth will overwinter in the chrysalis and emerge early in the summer to start a new generation.

  Of the ten eggs that I kept, only six hatched, two caterpillars died during the middle stages and one died in the pupation process, leaving three surviving chrysalises.

Summer winding down and heating up.

  This morning after work I photographed this Bonaparte's Gull enjoying breakfast in the warm water outflow of the Erie power plant.  

  When I got home I rescued this cicada that couldn't get out of the 5-gallon bucket that he landed in.  It was the classic story...guy finds cicada in distress, guy rescues cicada, guy throws cicada in the air to set it free,  House Sparrow watching from the wire grabs cicada in flight and disappears in the sycamore tree.

Getting misty-eyed

   The Imperial Moth caterpillars that I've been raising are progressing nicely. Most of them are bulking up on Sycamore leaves.

    Only one prefers Maple leaves.

The Maple kind?

Great Black-backed Gull in Erie

    Been working a lot of hours lately, so I haven't had a whole lot of spare time.  While doing an outside round at work the other day, I came across a Great Black-backed Gull  resting on a post.

  The same day I found three large bucks hanging out in the late afternoon.

9-point

same buck

Two 8-points and the nine

   Back at home, the eggs of the Imperial Moth that I found a few weeks ago started hatching on July 25.  The larvae are still in their first of five instars(stages).  Larvae from the same brood can come in a variety of colors including green, gray, green, brick red, orange and purplish.  It looks like I'm going to get a couple of those colors.

    The female Imperial Moth ended up laying nearly 100 eggs, I knew I wouldn't be able to raise that many larvae that grow to 4-6", so I contacted retired biology professor Don Sherwood who has experience with large quantities of moth larvae and gave him all but 10 of the eggs.  Of the 10 that I kept only 6 hatched.   In exchange for the eggs Don gave me a few Luna Moth and Polyphemus Moth cocoons.  In the past couple of days they started to eclose.  The Luna and the Polyphemus Moths are in the Saturniidae family, same as the Imperial.

Luna Moth

Polyphemus Moth