Nodding Wild Onion Project

After eight years of trying, it appears that I’m finally learning how to raise captive Nodding Wild Onions, Allium cernuum.  It’s a good thing too, because the last of the wild plants disappeared from Blue Jay Barrens three years ago.  The onions in this pot represent the offspring of six plants taken from the wild and relocated into my prairie garden.  That left only a dozen plants growing in their original location, a site that was too shady for the plants to produce flowers.  You can read about the original relocation by clicking HERE.

The plants in this pot appear to be doing their best to break through the chicken wire barrier and reclaim their positions as wild plants.  There are more onion flowers this year than I’ve had in total over the last seven years.

This spring, I took a few young plants from the pot and relocated them to one of the native plant beds in my vegetable garden.  All of those plants have grown wonderfully.  They are currently sharing the bed with Spider Milkweed, Leavenworthia uniflora, and Draba cuneifolia.  I think the species in that mix should work well together.

Nodding Wild Onions produce lovely blooms that attract a wide variety of insects.  Here we have a beetle, a fly and a bunch of ants.

The most common pollinators this year are small green Sweat Bees.

Butterflies are not frequent visitors of the onion flowers, but there are sometimes exceptions.  This Olive Hairstreak spent close to five minutes exploring the onion flowers.  The Olive Hairstreak spring brood was quite successful this year.  The second brood is now coming on more strongly than I have seen in many years.

Early onion flowers are already producing seed pods.  I should have ample seed to increase my captive population of plants, as well as scatter some seed out into suitable wild sites.  It’s taken longer than I had originally thought, but I’m now becoming optimistic that this project could be successful.

Redbuds and Butterflies

Blooming of the Redbuds coincides with the emergence of two of my favorite butterflies.  Unfortunately, this is also the season for windy days, so each year my efforts to photograph these species is thwarted by gusty winds.  Today, about two hours before sunset, the wind stopped.  I took advantage of this uncommon calm to make a search for the elusive Henry’s Elfin and Olive Hairstreak butterflies.

I soon found Henry’s Elfins, but the position of the Redbuds allowed only backlit views.

I took my search to the east side of the field where I found a group of Redbuds receiving sunlight from just the right angle. 

Several Henry’s Elfins were in the trees, but they were keeping to the tree tops.  Besides that, most seemed to have buried themselves in the clusters of Redbud blooms.

Finally, I found some that offered a clearer view.  Their numbers are already higher than usual, and their season has not yet peaked.

Larvae of the Henry’s Elfin feed on Redbud.  Early season eggs are commonly laid on the Redbud flower.  Young larvae will consume flower parts and developing seed pods.  Older larvae typically move on to consume young leaves.

The bright green of the Olive Hairstreak is easy to spot among the pink Redbud blooms. 

Olive Hairstreaks visit Redbud flowers strictly for the nectar.  Their larvae feed on Eastern Red Cedar, which is extremely common here.  Looking for these butterflies on the Redbuds is the easiest way to assess their numbers.

Butterfly Update

Butterfly numbers are still low, but I’m seeing several different species.  The Olive Hairstreak is trying to outdo its first brood success and is becoming more abundant every day.

Other Hairstreaks are quite noticeably absent.  Besides the Olives and two Edwards’, this Gray Hairstreak is the only other of that group that I’ve seen so far this summer.  Many Hairstreak species are normally common here.  It’s disturbing to have them so obviously absent.

Great Spangled Fritillaries are still around in very low numbers.  They’re appearing just one at a time instead of in their usual flocks.

Pipevine Swallowtails are still the most abundant of the Swallowtail group.

Tiger Swallowtails began showing up just a few days ago. 

Silvery Checkerspots seem more common this year.  That may be because the number of Pearl Crescents, which the Silvery Checkerspots resemble, is way down.  It’s hard to see the Silvery Checkerspots when Pearl Crescents are constantly flying by.

Little Wood Satyrs are becoming more abundant, but are still less common than normal.

I got this out of focus shot of a ragged Carolina Satyr after following the butterfly for several minutes.  First sight led me to believe it was another Little Wood Satyr, but it had a little different look that made me want to get a closer look.  It lit just long enough for me to get one quick shot from a position much too far away.  Then it took off over an embankment and easily evaded any further pursuit.  Carolina Satyrs are rather rare in this area, so I guess I’ll go back out and see if I can find a nicer looking individual and get a clear shot.

Skipper numbers seem to be about normal this year.  This Northern Broken Dash is one of many that appear to have emerged in unison. 

Almost as suddenly, every dark skipper is a Wild Indigo Duskywing.  They are gathering just about everywhere they can find a bit of mineral laden moisture.

The Southern Golden Skipper is one of many skippers that will hold fore and hind wings at different angles to expose all sides simultaneously.  This always fascinated me as a child and each time I saw one, I couldn’t keep from thinking about the inside of a cat’s eye marble.  Of course, back then I didn’t have any camera or binoculars, so I had to employ some pretty nifty stalking skills to get a close view. 

Five in Five Within Five

We entertained guests over the weekend and I took them on a short walk around the field trail.  As they were preparing to leave, they lamented the fact that they didn’t have anything of interest to see at their own house.  Now, I’ve been to their house and I know there’s plenty of interesting stuff going on, at least as far as the natural world is concerned.  I told them they should just go outside and look.  Some discussion followed and somewhere along the way I wagered that we could step out any door of my house and I could show them five interesting items in five minutes all within five feet of the door.  They accepted the wager and chose the rear door to the garage.

The wager changed as soon as we got out the door.  They felt that the Virginia Creeper covering the wall to one side of the door had too much potential of harboring interesting creatures, so I agreed to exclude that area from consideration.

As they smiled at my, in their opinion, impossible situation, I held up my hand and announced item of interest number one, a Walnut Husk Fly.  They acted as if I had pulled it from my pocket, but I argued that it was not unheard of for a fly to land on someone who was standing outside.  These colorful fruit flies feed on Black Walnut husks.  Since we were standing beneath a walnut tree and could see fallen walnuts on the ground around us, it wasn’t hard to see why the fly was here.

Item number two met with some resistance, but I convinced my guests that animal droppings could be quite interesting.  This particular item adhering to the garage wall was evidence that treefrogs were in the area.  After finding this, a person might schedule a night visit to view the frogs prowling the wall in search of prey.  I offered to dissolve the dropping in water and show them the various insect parts too tough for the frog’s digestive system, but they insisted they had to leave as soon as our five minutes was up.

Movement overhead proved to be a ragged Olive Hairstreak alighting on the gutter.  Olive Hairstreaks have two broods per year and had an extremely successful first brood this past spring.  I hope that means that the second brood will be even more impressive.

Item four was a nice mid-sized species of Robber Fly.  I’ve seen many different species of Robber Fly this year, ranging from small to large.  If I stand still for more than a minute, the small Robber Flies begin using me as a perch from which to hunt passing insects.

We were admiring this fifth item with two of my five minutes still remaining.  Many small larvae choose the side of our house as a pupation site.  Cocoons are usually placed along the mortar joint.

Not far from the exposed larva was a moth larva enclosed in a case.  These little guys also like to use the bricks as a secure place to anchor their case and pupate.

One minute left and I pointed out a spider feeding on an Allegheny Mound Ant. 

Several other empty ant exoskeletons hung in the spider’s web, so this must be a regular prey item.  Forty seconds left and my guests, admitting defeat, said they had to go.  Since we never identified stakes, there was no settling up required.  I did ask them to take a few minutes to look around at home and to let me know what they found.

Butterflies - Early April

Butterflies are certainly out in impressive numbers and a first impression might indicate this to be the beginning of an outstanding butterfly year.  Olive Hairstreaks are certainly making a superb showing.  They showed up weeks earlier than expected and may be the most common butterfly species currently in the air at Blue Jay Barrens.  Every gravel bar in the creek seems to have one or two of the colorful creatures.

Many have staked out territories on their host plant, Eastern Red Cedar.  I’ve seen this butterfly in every prairie opening here.  I’ve probably seen more Olive Hairstreaks this year than I’ve totaled in all of my years prior to this.

They’re the only small butterfly I’ve seen at the Redbuds.  While I’m enjoying the bounty of this uncommon species, I’m wondering about the absence of other species.  Henry’s Elfin, which I mentioned earlier, usually appears a couple of weeks prior to the Olive Hairstreak.  So far this year, I’ve seen no Henry’s Elfins.  I’m wondering why.

Eastern Tailed Blue made its appearance early this year and is also common on the wet gravel along the creek.  A common butterfly that I haven’t seen this year is the Spring Azure.  Spring Azures are usually seen several weeks earlier than Eastern Tailed Blues.  What happened to the Spring Azures this year?  I’m out often enough that I shouldn’t have missed seeing them, no matter how early they emerged.

Clouded Sulphurs are all over the place.  Populations of this species always increase as summer progresses, so this may indeed be a record year for Sulphurs.

The white form of Clouded Sulphur is also abundant, but once again there’s a similar looking butterfly that is conspicuous by its absence.  I counted just a single Falcate Orange-Tip this year.  Falcate Orange-Tips show up about a week before the Clouded Sulphurs and I usually count dozens of them before the sulphurs begin adding their numbers to the mass of white butterflies.  This absence of regularly seen species makes me wonder if the weird winter weather is somehow responsible.  Warm wet winters have been known to cause fungus and disease problems in some overwintering insect species.  I hope that hasn’t happened to these butterflies.

Some species are here on their normal schedule.  Gemmed Satyrs show up early and are never very numerous.  It’s also hard to catch them sitting still, so I don’t have an excess of quality photos.  This is about my average shot for this species.

Swallowtails are around in near normal numbers.  Most stay on the wing and are just seen briefly as they pass.  This Zebra Swallowtail was visiting a damp spot along the creek.  Now that we’re in the season when rain is to be expected, all the rain storms seem to be giving us a miss.  We’re getting the wind, but the water has stayed away.  Most damp spots have turned dry and the creek is the only suitable area for puddling.

Juvenal’s Duskywings have flocked to the creekside.  This is a large skipper that is quite conspicuous in flight.  I saw up to a dozen of these sharing the same gravel bar.  Having them all take wing at once was quite an impressive sight.

This Mournful Thyris is a day flying moth, not a butterfly.  The tiny little thing was feeding on a bird dropping in the gravel along the creek.  If it hadn’t flown in just as I walked up, I would never have noticed it.  It’ll be interesting to see how things develop this year with our typical summer time butterflies.

Fence Row Natives

Despite the mess of invasives, the old fence row has maintained a nice collection of native species.  This Wild Plum has put on a good display of blooms, but it’s been several years since any of the Blue Jay Barrens plums have produced ripe fruit.  Late freezes are rough on this tree, so early warm weather just sets it up for failure. 

It would be nice to see all of these lovely flowers turn into bright yellow-red fruit.  We’ve had a hard mid May freeze each of the last three years and Wild Plums have dropped their fruit after each freeze.  It’s hard to imagine that we’ll make it through to summer without at least one more freeze this spring.

A Brown Thrasher entertained me for an entire morning.  It produced quite a variety of mimicked songs.  Many of the songs were unfamiliar to me, so I’m guessing these were learned somewhere far from Blue Jay Barrens.

Despite the abundance of Japanese Honeysuckle, many native flowers are showing themselves in the old fence row.  Several colonies of Mayapple are present.  I’ll be sure to leave enough native trees and shrubs to give the Mayapples the shade they prefer.

Bluets are common in the areas that hadn’t been completely shade covered.  It’ll be interesting to see if these persist or if they become overwhelmed by other sun loving species.

Spring Beauties have covered large sections of the fence row.  These plants seem to compete well against many invasives.

Adder’s Tongue Fern has colonized the entire fence row.  I originally found this plant growing in limited colonies in the fence rows.  It has since spread across the old crop fields.  It’s definitely a species that’s on the increase.

I’m still finding Olive Hairstreaks everywhere I look.  This guy was using one of my marking flags as a perch from which to fly out to chase other butterflies crowding into its territory.  The abundance of these butterflies makes me optimistic about finding some of their larvae feeding on Eastern Red Cedars.  I see the adults each year, but I’ve never seen a larva and I would really like to enjoy all stages of the butterfly life cycle.