I still haven't had a chance to explore any of the parks near our new home, but I also haven't really felt the need to, because there are already so many things to see right here. We're getting used to seeing adorable little American Toads hopping out from underfoot whenever we walk through the yard:
And I was super happy the other day when one tiny fleeing amphibian turned out to be a Spring Peeper:
Hello wonderful creature! Sorry about the flash for this next picture, but I needed to admire the lovely pattern on your back:
The insect life around here is wonderfully varied, with lots of cool creatures to meet. I already shared pictures of the big Northern Walkingstick and Luna Moth that showed up in past weeks, and the big bugs keep coming! This large ornate dragonfly (possibly a Shadow Darner, Aeshna umbrosa, or another darner species) was hanging out at the end of a recent day (yes, we have blueberries in our yard):
This dragonfly was either injured or just really tired, because it let me pick it up for a closer look (and to admire its size) before it flew away:
Smaller brilliant red dragonflies (a meadowhawk species, I think) cruise around our house, staking out posts mostly at the tops of flower stalks:
Although my car's antenna apparently serves this purpose just as well:
Cicadas frequently call from the trees, and we spotted this one handing out under a wooden sign:
A stand of milkweed near the road is currently feeding a horde of Milkweed Tussock Caterpillars, fuzzy little things that will eventually grow into moths:
A Painted Lady butterfly let me take its picture the other day as it visited the flowers around the house. These wings are so bright and pretty on top:
But I absolutely love the intricate patterns on their undersides:
I'm definitely learning to bring my camera along whenever I'm outside, because you never know what might show up next!
Silver Sands State Park always has lots of interesting things to see. Yesterday morning's shore-side walk featured several cool creatures, but my favorite was this fellow, who had found a nice shady spot in which to browse on some fresh-cut vegetation:
I see White-tailed Deer pretty frequently at this park, but this guy seemed especially calm. He just kept on munching while I walked closer:
Those are some wonderfully velvety antlers you're growing, Mr. Deer!
Finally, he ambled away, but he kept his ears pointed at me and my clicking camera:
At the beach, a cloud of gulls roiled over the Charles Island sandbar:
A frumpy-looking juvenile tern sat on a rock, calling frequently. Perhaps this youngster wandered over from the Least Tern breeding colony at Milford Point, a couple miles down the shoreline? [Update 8/4/13: I suspect now that this was a juvenile Common Tern, although I still don't know for sure.]
A Great Blue Heron stood in the marsh, fitting in so well with the surrounding tall grass:
In the meadow-ish area behind the marsh (near the deer), a female Common Yellowthroat groomed herself in a sunny patch in the middle of a bush:
And perhaps the adult cicada I heard calling from the top of this tree was recently inside this discarded exoskeleton on a lower branch:
Here we are in August, and summer is still going strong!
The good news: Brood II of the periodical cicadas (genus Magicicada) is here! These big bugs have emerged from their 17 (or for some species, 13) years underground, shed their nymphal exoskeletons, and are now crawling and flying around in Connecticut.
The not-as-good news: I had somehow gotten the impression -- with all the media hype -- that this was going to be a big and widespread emergence (which it is in the sense that it covers many states), and since Connecticut is in this brood's range, I figured there would be cicadas pretty much all over the place. It turns out, however, that Connecticut's Brood II cicadas really only occupy a small portion of the state, and unfortunately that portion is not where I live. So my dreams of a cicada-covered yard (fueled by memories of the extreme can't-take-a-step-without-stepping-on-cicadas Brood X emergence at my parents' house in Maryland in 2004) were not to be. BUT, luckily enough, Brood II is hanging out only a couple towns away from me. So today I went on a field trip to see the Magicicadas, and Paul -- who seems to have a complex ew-gross/hey-cool relationship with bugs -- came with me.
And through the magic of the internet (where you can find maps of recent Magicicada sightings), and by following the UFO-like sounds of hundreds of cicadas calling, we found them! Hello, fancy bugs!
It's amazing how different these guys look from the normal cicadas that we get every year. The spot we found was buzzing with the periodical cicadas, black and orange/red blobs on all the bushes and trees. There weren't as many as I was expecting to see, but it was still a lot of cicadas. Most bushes had both brightly colored adults and brown shed exoskeletons clinging to them:
And some of the adults seemed to be pairing off:
It was amazing to see these guys up close. Paul absolutely refused to touch a cicada, but I loved interacting with these very placid creatures:
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| (Photo courtesy of Paul) |
The shed exoskeletons from the cicadas' nymph forms were interesting, too:
But the adult periodical cicadas were just way too pretty:
After a few weeks, the mating will be done, the eggs will be laid, and all these adults will die. Then their babies will burrow underground and emerge again only after another 17 years. As far as I can tell, Brood II is the only brood of Magicicadas in Connecticut, so the state will be without these fancy bugs until then. I don't know when I'll next get to see periodical cicadas, so I'm very happy we made the trip today. Hooray for unusual creatures!
For more cool stuff about periodical cicadas, check out this article on cicada life cycles, and this high-def video of the sights and sounds of periodical cicada courtship.
I started hearing (loud!) cicada calls in the woods this past weekend, and yesterday morning, I found my first cicada of the year!
This cool creature was moving sluggishly on the ground in the garden when I first saw it (perhaps it had recently emerged -- I found a discarded cicada casing in the same area this morning), and it soon began trying (in vain) to climb up a metal post in the garden's corner. I took pity on the little guy and moved it to a nearby tree trunk, where it immediately started climbing, looking much happier to be on a surface it could actually grip.
A kind and knowledgeable person on BugGuide.net helped me out by identifying this as a Lyric Cicada (Tibicen lyricen). These types of cicadas are not the 13- or 17-year periodical varieties that people get so excited about. (I remember when those cicadas emerged in Maryland a few years ago... talk about an intense experience!) The Tibicen larvae live for only a few years underground before emerging as adults, and their cycles are staggered, so you're likely to see the same species every year.
I think cicadas are super awesome, partially because they're so big and monstrous, but also because they're really quite beautiful. That's a nice shade of green on those wings, and if you look closely in the first two pictures (click to zoom in), you can see the three ocelli, small light-sensitive eyes, glimmering like orange jewels in the middle of this creature's forehead.
I hope I picked a good tree for you to live in, little creature! Yay, cicadas!
(P.S. I'm playing around with a new format for the blog, with bigger pictures, so do let me know if the pictures are TOO big!)
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