Olive-sided Flycatcher v. Monarch 8/21/2021

 

   Yesterday I added the 170th bird to the yard list when 3 Olive-sided Flycatchers stopped by to feed on the local flying insects.  Dave Dister says that 3 represents the high daily count for the county, breaking the old record of 2. 

    This morning the Monarch that formed a chrysalis on the exterior of my basement wall, broke out and grew some wings.

   The newly emerged butterfly left the local Monarch population with a net zero gain for the day, as a lingering Olive-sided Flycatcher started the day by taking a taste of one of the newbie's unwary brethren.

       As caterpillars, monarchs only eat milkweed which contains toxins that give the insects a bad taste throughout their life.  Therefore it came as no surprise that flycatcher ended up dropping the Monarch after mouthing and mangling it for a couple minutes.   

   On a happier note, warblers have been migrating through my yard this week.  Today's Cape May Warbler shown below beat the county's old early fall date by 8 days.

  The Magnolia and Nashville Warblers were seen on Wednesday.

Snow Geese (Blue Morphs) 3/15/16

   Early this afternoon Dave Dister called to alert me to 5 Snow Geese in Freesoil, Mason County.  I made it out there about a half hour later and was able to get some long distance photos of it.

   Out on my deck this caterpillar kind of caught me off guard as it crawled across the top of my grill.

Any idea which species? (editor's note With help from Dave Dister the caterpillar is identified as   Haploa Contigua...The Neighbor Moth Larva)

    When I had the Tundra Swan migration pass over my house on Sunday I couldn't help but wonder where they were coming from and where they were heading in such a deliberate manner.  My immediate thought about their port of departure was that it was somewhere on Lower Lake Huron.  A check of ebird's species map showed that at least 4000 were seen on Saturday on the extreme southern portion of Saginaw Bay. On Sunday only a few dozen were reported in that same area.
   To find out where they might have touched down, I checked ebirds Wisconsin reports to see if great numbers made their way onto anyone's checklist.  Sadly no such reports made it to ebird.  Not to be deterred I checked the Wisconsin birding listserve and....JACKPOT.  It seems that a birder in Shiocton, Wisconsin found thousands of them on Sunday afternoon in a field with more flocks still pouring in.  I can't say for sure that they were some of the same swans that I saw but as the map below shows, Saginaw Bay to Ludington to Shiocton is pretty damn near a straight-line.

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.

Ludington Monarch Roosts

   Hundreds of migrating Monarch Butterflies spent last night roosting near the south breakwater of Ludington Harbor.  I got out there early this morning a found and couple of roosts of 50+.

Line forming for this Loosestrife stalks's last bloom

This roost had more than 50 Monarchs

Cropped view of previous photo

   The roost in the photos below contained over 100 Monarchs but they were spread out over a larger area.

There are more than 60 in this photo

Cropped view of roost in previous photo

Coming in for a landing

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.