Blues

Spring is a time that blues make a welcome appearance: blue sky, blue birds, blue flowers –

and the small butterfly known as the spring azure –

The spring azure is the most common butterfly in northcentral Pennsylvania during the spring. Along any unpaved road, especially one with puddles lingering after April showers, there will be numerous spring azures –

These are small butterflies, with a wingspan of about an inch (25mm). The upper portion of their wings is a bright light blue while the undersides are grayish with small black spots and streaks.

Female spring azures have a wide black margin on their upper wings –

Since these butterflies are often quite abundant, males are often seen in numbers “puddling” on the edge of puddles or on feces to obtain minerals that are vital to breeding –

Spring azure larvae feed on the buds, flowers and fruit of a wide variety of trees and shrubs.

There are two other related species of azure that occur in our area, the Appalachian azure and the summer azure. These butterflies are on the wing later in the spring and summer and are almost indistinguishable from the spring azure. It appears that the taxonomy of the azures is complex, so we can just enjoy seeing these small butterflies that bring color on the wing to forest and field.

Good Weather for Ducks

When I was a boy and it was a rainy day, my grandmother always said that it was good weather for ducks. And so on a cloudy afternoon with rain in the forecast I headed for a wetland that’s a favorite with migrating ducks and therefore one of my favorite spots in the early spring.

When I got there, I parked the car, walked about 300 yards to the edge of the wetland, donned my leafy camo jacket, hood and gloves and settled in to wait.

photograph taken on a different day

About 15 minutes later a light rain began and shortly afterwards the first bird arrived, a male green-winged teal –

He didn’t stay long, flushing and flying far into the wetland. The next arrivals were several American coots; coots aren’t ducks, they’re actually rails with a duck-like lifestyle.

The rain increased a bit so I put a rain cover on the camera and lens even though they’re both rated as weather sealed (one user of the same gear takes them in the shower to clean them).

As the rain fell a number of wood ducks arrived, some flew in while others swam from an area of flooded shrubs. Male wood ducks are often said to be among the most beautiful of ducks –

On the other side of the open water a lone tundra swan swam with several mallards and a couple of wood ducks –

Another male green-winged teal flew in to land near a coot –

A while later the rain increased and the sky darkened; the wood ducks began to leave, a few at a time –

 

And, since my clothes were wet through, I left too.

Mr. Sapsucker

After watching the male yellow-bellied sapsucker feeding on the sap of a small bitternut hickory (seen in this post) I decided to go back for more photos. Sapsuckers live up to their name, feeding heavily on tree sap all year ‘round, primarily the various varieties of birch, maple, apple and hickory. The birds drill through the bark, creating rows of what are called sap wells –

Sap flows into the shallow holes where the birds feed on the sugary liquid. Sapsuckers have a series of trees where they’ve created sap wells; the birds fly from tree to tree feeding and tending their sap wells. The birds also feed on insects that are attracted to the sap as well as insects that they find on or beneath the bark.

As I approached the tree where I’d seen the bird, there he was –

After getting a lot of still images, I decided to take a video of Mr. Sapsucker –

He then flew over my head and disappeared. After 10-15 minutes he was back again and then few off in a different direction. Back again, and then off again. With that I decided to attempt to locate the other trees on his circuit. So I walked in concentric circles without knowing how far he may have gone each time or what species of tree I was looking for.

Well that was unsuccessful – after almost an hour I was back looking at the same tree where I’d last seen the bird, and there he was again. This time he was higher in the tree tending the sap wells there –

At 46 seconds into the video he quickly dropped lower on the tree to snatch an insect from the bark and then seemed to carry it back up where he stuffed it in a sap well before dismembering and eating the insect.

Sapsuckers have a fascinating way of making a living.

Wet Morning

A heavy mist was coming down but the Big Woods beckoned so off I went. Water glistened on every fallen leaf and every twig – which is a good thing if you’re a photographer because it makes colors look more saturated.

First up was a small flock of dark-eyed juncos that flushed from the forest’s shrubby understory. They went so suddenly that only a couple stayed to have photos taken – my reaction time with flushing birds is abysmal.

The juncos left behind two birds that were more interesting anyway. The first was hitching itself up the trunk of a tree – a brown creeper –

There was a second species that didn’t fly off with the juncos but instead flitted through the shrubs, a golden-crowned kinglet –

About a half mile into the Big Woods there was a commotion in a tree not far ahead. The commotion turned out to be two yellow-bellied sapsuckers disputing the possession of the series of feeding holes in a small tree –

The bird that drove off the other turned out to be a male sapsucker with his bright red crown and throat –

For a while I stood and watched him as he fed on the sap flowing into the shallow holes and the insects attracted to the sap –

Moving on there were the glowing wet leaves of a small American beech –

The next thing that caught my eye were the bright white conks of birch polypore growing on a dead black birch that had snapped off –

Speaking of fungi, the small bright red fruiting body of a scarlet cup was there among the fallen leaves –

Everywhere I went the wet moss fairly glowed –

As did the fronds of the fern called rock polypody –

Part of the loop I was walking followed an old woods road; the roadside ditch was full of water and in the water were amphibian eggs, those of a wood frog –

And of a spotted salamander –

As I completed the loop, a white-tailed deer stood watching –

Thus endith the morning.

An Evening at the Beaver Pond

It was a beautiful early spring evening; barely a breeze and warm, record setting warm in this age of a changing climate. The last ice on the pond had melted but a few days before and the beavers’ food cache showed signs of use. This was a good night to sit beside the beaver pond to see what was going on.

First up was a muskrat, the little look-alike of the resident beavers. Muskrats weigh but 2-5 pounds and therefore are much smaller than the beavers (35-65 pounds) whose ponds they share. A muskrat swam across the pond, then sampled some of the water lily stems in the beavers’ food cache –

After the muskrat disappeared from view a tree sparrow came by; by the time you read this it probably will have left for its arctic breeding grounds –

The next arrival was a mink; mink frequently make a meal of muskrats. It ran along the dam, then up on the shore and down again, then quickly entered the water where it swam back along the pond's edge –

After a while an adult beaver surfaced, swam over to the food cache and began feeding on some of the water lily stems stored there –

It fed for quite a while before noticing the human with a camera watching it. With that it stopped feeding and swam around its pond –

Quietly it submerged, not to reappear that evening. While I waited another muskrat appeared, swam to a raft of floating cattail stems and began eating –

It ate a bit, then swam over to a fallen tree and climbed up on a limb –

The muskrat disappeared into the water as a noisy pair of Canada geese flew over –

As the sun set at the end of a great evening it was time to leave and let the beavers do what beavers do and the muskrats do muskrat things.