My son Jasper loves books. While his go to favorites vary over time, there have been a few that he always comes back to. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle is one of our regulars. But he doesn’t just like to have the story read to him, he likes finding and pointing to the illustration of the caterpillar on each page. In fact, he likes pointing out the insects in pretty much any book where they appear. Besides caterpillars,…
My winter walks are often focused on lichens, winter tree ID and birdwatching (birds are so much easier to see when there are no leaves in your way!). But every now and again there’s an interesting unexpected sighting. With the exception of a few species of evergreen fern, notably Christmas fern, rock polypody and evergreen woodfern, winter is not generally a good time to locate and identify ferns. But there are a couple species that have parts that are persistent…
Thanks to the recent wet weather we’ve been having, my husband and I spent most of our walk through the Great Woods Conservation Area in Mansfield yesterday navigating around flooded sections of the trail. While most areas were simply flooded, one area was still largely frozen solid. In addition to ice, this section was unique in that it was the only one to have clusters of tiny bugs covering its surface, creating an interesting polkadot pattern. Closer inspection revealed that…
In the past, I have outlined “nature study goals” for the year (if you’re curious about my past goals, you can find them here: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018; perhaps some of these will serve as inspiration for goals of your own). However, I’m not going to make such lofty goals this year – my 13-month-old son Jasper keeps me busy enough that I’m lucky if I can write a single blog post once a month. That said, I do intend…
With our nitrogen-poor, acidic, sandy soil, one of the more successful native shrubs on Cape Cod is northern bayberry (Myrica pensylvanica). It is found in habitats ranging from sand dunes, to open forests, to the edges of bogs and marshes, and can tolerate a wide range of moisture. Despite its commonness, for someone new to plant identification, this can be either a very difficult or very easy plant to identify. On the difficult end of the scale, when I was…
When I came home from work earlier this week, my front walkway was covered in winged ants (referred to as alates). They were crawling on the bricks, the timber border, the solar-powered perimeter lights, and the nearby vegetation. Closer inspection revealed that in addition to the larger, darker winged ants, there were also clusters of tiny yellow ants on the ground. Although different morphologically, both are the same species of citronella ants, likely Lasius claviger. The smaller yellow individuals were…
Over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed a number of common eastern bumble bees (Bombus impatiens) resting on the sedum flowers along my front walkway when I first walk outside in the early morning. As the season turns and the evenings get cooler, bumble bees start to slow down. Bees require a temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit or higher to fly easily without using up all of their nectar stores; even overnight temperatures in the 50s or low 60s will…
Virginia meadow beauty (Rhexia virginica) is a small perennial wildflower, typically found in areas of sandy acidic soil or in low wet meadows. I often find them around the edges of cranberry bogs (active or abandoned). The plants pictured here were seen blooming at the edges of the restored wetlands where the cranberry bogs once were along the Childs River in Falmouth. The hot pink to magenta colored flowers always seem so fragile to me. I often have a hard…
This weekend, while sitting on my back porch between thunderstorms, I noticed a small fuzzy patch of something on one of the deck chairs. From a distance, I thought it might be a small patch of lichen; this wouldn’t be odd, as the chairs are fairly speckled with various small lichens. But as I got closer, part of my potential lichen started to move! What I had found was a cluster of newly hatched spiny assassin bugs (Sinea spinipes). Although…
So many of our wildflowers are relatively small and easily overlooked; blue toadflax (Nuttallanthus canadensis) is one of these. Common in “waste places”, sandy areas and the sides of roads, this little beauty is native to Canada and the eastern United States. Although the plant itself is typically a foot or two tall, its thin stem, narrow leaves, and tiny flowers (each only ~1/4 long), cause this wildflower to be easily overlooked. Next time you take a walk, give yourself…