This White-marked Tussock Moth (Orgyia leucostigma) showed up on our porch last night:
The pattern on its wings is pretty enough, but not really anything to write home about (or to write a blog post about, as the case may be). But the things that struck me most about this little creature were its super furry legs and, of course, its big hulking antennae. I bet those things can pick up some serious pheromones! (And they're kind of adorable.)
Here's a fun/strange fact: White-marked Tussock Moth females don't have wings. They just wait for the males to come to them, they mate and lay eggs, and then they die. Meanwhile, this male is out cruising around, putting his big antennae to good use. Insects are so weird!
I arrived at Naugatuck State Forest early this morning, just as a light rain had finished falling, making the woods moist and cool. (Chilly, actually.) Despite the rainy start, this turned out to be a great day for a woods walk!
Soon after I entered the woods, I turned around and was surprised to see big, dark shapes melting out of the damp forest to cross the path behind me:
I really just never see deer in this part of the woods, so this was a cool beginning to the day. Two deer emerged, looked at me, then went on their way.
Fall has officially begun, and the woods are filling up again with the creatures we'll see through the winter -- this morning, I saw Dark-eyed Juncos and White-throated Sparrows for the first time since spring. I've missed the White-throated Sparrows' funky clown-painted faces, and I'm glad to have these birds around again:
Tons of warblers were moving through the trees, most of them too high up for me to identify (let alone get pictures). A couple of Yellow-rumped Warblers came down to my level, though, and I was happy to see them -- I've missed these dainty birds and their yellow butts during the summer, too:
Several woodpeckers made an appearance this morning, including a group of raucous Northern Flickers, flashing their bright yellow tails:
And a handsome Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was hopping around as well -- I think this is a young male, whose red cap and throat feathers haven't quite all grown in yet (I'm reminded of a scruffy adolescent goatee):
While I was watching the woodpeckers, a Red Squirrel took up a post on a nearby tree and started chittering at me:
At that point I heard another sound behind me, and I turned to see a second Red Squirrel, just a few feet away and staring me right in the face:
This squirrel kept skittering from one side of the tree to the other and peering around at me, clearly agitated, and trying really hard to find a way past this annoying human standing in its path. I finally got the hint and walked away, so the squirrels could stop scolding. (Also, it looks like someone's been digging in the dirt -- clean your face, squirrel!)
There were a few more cool creatures around, including this Green Frog with its stylish yellow leaf hat:
And a small snail wandering around -- I see snails only rarely, actually (much less frequently than slugs), and I'm not sure why that is:
Here's hoping for a long stretch of lovely fall walks like this one before the weather gets really cold!
Perhaps "caravan" would be a more suitable word, but either way, the stream of south-bound birds passing through our yard just keeps going, and today brought some very cool new visitors.
A juvenile Red-eyed Vireo (its eyes are still brown, so it's not yet an adult) stopped to search the Red Cedar branches for tasty bugs, and we got to look each other over:
And in the vireo's wake was a pretty little Magnolia Warbler:
Magnolia Warblers are strikingly marked with black, white, and yellow in the spring, but even in its more subdued fall outfit this bird was amazingly bright! (This next picture provides a better representation of the bird's colors in real life.)
I never get to see vireos so close up, because they're usually high in trees while I'm far below, and Magnolia Warblers only pass through Southern Connecticut in the spring and fall, so both of these birds were pretty awesome to see. It feels positively luxurious to be home and have such a wide variety of creatures come to me. What a fantastic time of year!
Well, they've finished filming that giant-fish-eating-people movie at Naugatuck State Forest! I made my return to those woods this morning, and except for a few tire tracks, you'd really never know a film crew was set up there for weeks. I was pleasantly surprised at how unchanged the place was, actually. Go film crew!
Anyway, the place was just as awesome as always, with lots of wildlife out and about. That thing happened where I got stuck standing in one spot for half an hour, because a constant stream of various birds just would not stop passing through. This time, that spot was on a little bridge over a stream, with tall conifers on one side and small leafy shrubs on the other, and birds were going crazy all over.
Among those birds was this sweet little Northern Waterthrush -- a type of warbler -- who sat bobbing its tail in the brush over the stream and chirping at me:
I've seen Louisiana Waterthrushes in these woods a few times before -- they look very similar to Northern Waterthrushes, but have brighter white eyebrows and an unstriped throat -- but this is my first time seeing this species. The close view made the encounter extra cool.
And another awesome bird was climbing up and down the tree trunks nearby -- a Red-breasted Nuthatch:
Red-breasted Nuthatches appear year-round in Connecticut, but they're much less common than White-breasted Nuthatches, and I'd never seen any around here at all until I happened to spot a few passing through the trees in our yard a couple of weeks ago. I'm so used to seeing White-breasted Nuthatches, and these birds are quite dainty in comparison -- they're just as talkative, though! And after years of never seeing Red-breasted Nuthatches, of course, I saw them several times during today's walk. :P
Update 9/13/12: According to this post from the Connecticut Audubon Society's blog, we're currently experiencing an irruption of Red-breasted Nuthatches in Connecticut, meaning that (for whatever reason) there are many more of these birds in the area now than there have been in previous years. That would definitely explain why I'm seeing them now when I'd never seen them before!
I'm kind of in love with these birds, actually, and I wish I could meet them more often. I think their stripey heads are very cool looking, from any angle:
I hope to see you around again someday, little bird!
While watching the birds in this spot, I got distracted by some other things in the trees, too. This moth was doing a pretty good job at camouflage, and I think it's a type of underwing, so it probably could've broken its cover pretty dramatically if it had wanted to:
Higher up, an active paper wasp nest hung from another tree -- I could see the wasps going in and out, and I was glad that I was down on the ground:
I have one last sight from today's walk to share. Is that rock moving?
This location for the film suddenly seems appropriate, because there's definitely something lurking under the water. Two somethings, in fact!
It'd better be two, actually -- not even considering the two heads in the previous picture, I'd rather not consider the possibility of a Common Snapping Turtle this big:
(Really, though, I'm pretty tickled by these two snapping turtles hanging out together. They seem like such solitary creatures, and I love the idea of snuggling snappers.) Hooray for a fun woods walk, as summer comes to a close.
I already knew that Blue Jays make lots of funny sounds -- we hear frequent screeches and screams and creaks through our apartment windows -- but I had no idea, until this afternoon, that these birds also look hilarious when they make those sounds. This Blue Jay sat outside our window for several minutes this afternoon, calling its weird call and bobbing enthusiastically at the same time (sorry about the tree branches in the way):
Blue Jays are such entertaining birds! I promise someday I'll get some decent pictures of these fancy creatures onto the blog -- they're not only entertaining, but gorgeous as well.
Speaking of pictures, I'll leave you with this Black-capped Chickadee to fill your cuteness quota for the day:
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