Creatures of the Night: Moths, Leafhoppers, and More

There seems to be an endless parade of creatures who come to my porch light at night, and whenever I step outside and look around, there's pretty much always something new and interesting to see. Here's a selection of some of the awesome creatures (mostly insects) I've met on my porch over the past several days.

I think of leafhoppers and their relatives as primarily daytime creatures, so I'm still always a little surprised when I see these guys under the lights. This Speckled Sharpshooter (Paraulacizes irrorata) is pretty weirdly shaped compared to other leafhoppers I see more commonly around here, but it's also very cool looking -- its bulky head reminds me of a snake:

Two very pretty species of planthoppers have made several appearances as well -- Acanalonia conica:

And its paler, almost ghostly cousin, the Northern Flatid Planthopper (Anormenis chloris):

Every once in a while, I get another glimpse of a Green Stink Bug nymph (Chinavia hilaris), which I first noticed on my porch a couple weeks ago. This one has its sucking mouth part stuck right in the stem of this bean plant -- mmm, plant juices!

Another stink bug, though, I definitely wasn't happy to see:

This guy is a Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (Halyomorpha halys), an invasive species introduced from Asia only in the last dozen or so years -- according to the internet, those white bands on its antennae are a good way to distinguish it from similar-looking native species. This is the first time I've seen one of these bugs in Connecticut, but they've been a horrible nuisance for my family in Maryland in the past couple of summers -- they get so numerous that my dad has taken to vacuuming them off the back porch, and they get pretty much everywhere (in windows, in the dog's long fur...). Not to mention the agricultural damage they cause. So yeah, it's not a great situation, and I'm not at all pleased to see them in my yard.

But there have been plenty of other, happier bugs around, too, including several very pretty moths. I'm always amazed at how even all-brown moths can have just the coolest, most intricate patterns. This Adjutant Wainscot (Leucania adjuta) has some pretty awesome stripes when you get up close to it:

Even bolder was this carpet moth (I'm not sure the exact species):

 

(Update: A kind person on Bugguide.net helped identify the above moth as a Toothed Brown Carpet (Xanthorhoe lacustrata).)

 
And two American Idias (Idia americalis), a darker and a lighter individual, showed off some interesting variations on a striking design:

Finally, I'm not the only one benefiting from the bug-attracting qualities of the light. A few medium-sized spiders have set up webs in the corners around the door, and they seem to pretty much always have something on hand to eat:

I love expanding my knowledge of the huge variety of creatures who pass through our yard, and a porch light is a great way to get some of those creatures to come to me!

A Shorebird Explosion

This morning I made my last scheduled visit to Silver Sands State Park for the year in my official capacity as a volunteer shorebird monitor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I'm sure I'll be back to the park again at some point (and without my semi-dorky official hat), but the end of these weekly visits makes me feel like summer may actually be coming to a close.

The birds certainly know that summer is ending, and I saw just gobs of shorebirds on their southward fall migration. Whole stretches of the shoreline were packed with Semipalmated Sandpipers (the mottled gray and white birds) and Semipalmated Plovers (the brown and white birds with fancy black bibs), blending expertly in with the rocks:

I counted over 300 sandpipers and 100 plovers in just one area -- hardly the largest gathering of shorebirds ever, but more than I've ever seen at this beach before.

Many of the sandpipers were sleeping, just completely zonked out. We'd had a heavy thunder storm earlier in the day, so I wonder that contributed to the birds' tiredness:

(I know these birds look dead, but I promise, they're just sleeping. Or at least, I think I saw most of them open their eyes while I was there....)

Hanging out with the group of semipalmated creatures (the internet tells me that this adjective refers to the webbing between these birds' toes... who knew!), there was also a sleek Least Tern -- I love the markings on this bird's beak:

And this totally weird-looking shorebird, a Ruddy Turnstone:

That's a nice angry mask you have, bird!

Away from the shore, an immature Cooper's Hawk surveyed the area from its perch on a small tree:

And when it took off, it flew past me, right at eye level -- what an awesome bird:

It was great to see so many creatures, and I definitely enjoyed the cooler breezes on the beach. It's hard for me to believe, but summer really does seem to be winding down!

Baby Deer are Pretty

While we were visiting Paul's family in southern New Jersey this weekend, we saw a lot of deer. I already knew that White-tailed Deer were really common (and something of a nuisance) in their neighborhood, and we often see a few at a distance whenever we visit. But this weekend, the deer seemed especially numerous, and bold. At one point, we saw a doe and an antlered buck grazing a few feet from the road, and they barely moved when we drove slowly by and rolled down our windows to stare at them. And on Saturday morning, we watched a pair of fawns browsing through a neighbor's yard:
 

We walked closer -- talking and cameras clicking, not really trying very hard to be stealthy -- and the deer kept an eye on us but didn't show any signs of fear:
 

I guess these babies -- and the adults we saw earlier -- are pretty used to people now, after wandering through many neighborhoods without meeting any danger. These two fawns were getting quite big already, and I wonder how much longer they'll keep their lovely spots.
 

After a few minutes, we turned around, and the deer continued on their way. Booming White-tailed Deer populations certainly cause problems, but these creatures are still really cool to see.

Weird Avian Visitor

This afternoon, I looked out my window and saw this totally strange bird on top of the house across the street:
 

It's definitely pigeon-shaped, but with a strangely long neck and legs, and an overly-large and bumpy beak. That pale skin around its eyes is pretty weird, too. It also had a purple band around its left leg (hidden in this picture), which is what tipped me off to a possible ID: I think this is someone's domestic pigeon! I don't know pigeon breeds at all, but it looks like it could be a racing pigeon, maybe something like this, or this.

So while this bird doesn't exactly count as wildlife, it was still pretty cool to see. It stuck around for a few minutes, alternating between pacing and resting, and then flew off. I wonder if it was in the middle of a race....

You just never know who's going to stop by next!

Green Stink Bug Nymph

This morning, I found this very pretty bug on my porch:
 

As it turns out, this is a nymph (that is, juvenile) Green Stink Bug (Chinavia hilaris), a native insect which I see fairly frequently around here. I just cannot get over the gorgeous colors and patterns on this creature! These bugs eat all sorts of different plants, but they've not (yet) become so numerous that they cause problems in my yard, so I'm happy to have them around.

Keep on munching and growing, pretty little creature!