Edwards’ Hairstreak Adult

The Edwards’ Hairstreak adults have emerged in impressive numbers. If you missed the post last week about the Edwards’ Hairstreak pupa and its relationship with the Mound Builder Ants, find the story in the archives list to the right.

I counted a dozen Edwards’ Hairstreaks nectaring in a clump of about 20 Dogbanes.

The Edwards’ Hairstreak moves its hind wings up and down in a scissor-like motion. This causes some photos to look as if the butterfly has more tails than it should.

These butterflies won’t be looking so fresh and clean for very long. The crisp bright colors will fade as scales are lost from the wings. The soft fringe along the wing margin will gradually wear off. Hopefully there will be a lot of eggs laid during the couple of weeks these adults will survive.

I went back to the place where I photographed the pupae to see if I might be able to retrieve a pupal skin, but the ants had choked the opening down to a narrow slit. I didn’t want to disturb anything for fear the pupae were still inside awaiting the transformation to adult.

I’m glad to see such a successful hatch this year. Last year’s Periodical Cicada emergence resulted in a lot of damage to the small oaks in the prairies. Seventeen years ago, the oaks were much younger and the damage was more severe. It was three years after the Cicadas that I again saw Edwards’ Hairstreaks.

If you move slowly, you can usually get quite close to these butterflies when they’re visiting flowers. They can still be tricky to photograph since they never seem to stay still on the flower.

It was twenty years ago that I saw my first Edwards’ Hairstreak. I had read about them the year before, but had no good photograph to use as a guide. I spent hours chasing Eastern Tailed Blues, a slightly smaller butterfly, thinking that one of them might be an Edwards’. It was quite an experience when the Edwards’ Hairstreak and I finally came nose to antenna.

Here’s what was enticing the Edward’s Hairstreaks. This is Indian Hemp, Apocynum cannabinum. These plants were knocked back by a late frost in May and the regrowth has developed flower clusters that are smaller than normal. Of course, there’s an ant mound in the background.

Archeological Sites

As is common in this part of the State, I inherited a couple of old family dump sites when I purchased Blue Jay Barrens. I knew from the beginning that these dumps did not fit the image I had of what Blue Jay Barrens should be, but there were so many urgent things needing done that I didn’t have time to deal with this type of clean-up. Besides, the dumps were old and, except for the aesthetic aspect, were not causing any trouble.

I found a way to get rid of the dumps quickly, completely and without sweat. I’ve learned that the best way to change something is to redefine it. Instead of dump sites full of trash, I now identify these as archeological sites filled with historical artifacts. To make this more than a bit of verbal deception, along with the redefinition must come a change of perception. I had to begin looking at the dump sites as another thing that had to be explored and understood. Oh, I’ll eventually remove all of this stuff, but as I do it, I’ll be thinking about the lives of the people who used this land and how they brought it to the state it was in when I arrived.

These sites support a good population of native vegetation. The hazard is getting tangled in old fence wire or stepping on shards of broken glass or jagged metal.

The previous owner worked for a time in a radio and television repair shop. He brought a lot of his work home with him and some ended up here. I’ve disposed of several dozen TV picture tubes and hundreds of radio tubes.

Some more appliance parts along with automotive supplies.

The old rocking horse was put out to pasture. Looks like it was rode hard and put away broke.

Remnants of the old swing set in the foreground. Farther back you can see the remains of several units from a stacked battery of cages for raising poultry. I understand that there was a brief interest in raising pheasants a couple of generations ago.

Gas brooders used in the pheasant operation. The brooder is seen sitting upside down. When used, a small gas flame from a burner in the center of the hood would produce warmth for the young chicks. The chicks entered through the open ports located around the edge of the brooder. The rectangular framework seen sitting on top of the brooder is the frame from a bench seat out of an old pickup truck. Do you think I could sell this on E-bay?

Some general household trash. I’m particularly impressed by the glass with the 1960’s pattern.

You never know when you’ll need a barrel full of used concrete. I’m concerned that when I do clean up some of this stuff, the bare ground that will be exposed from beneath objects like this will provide a suitable seed bed for some exotic weeds. I’d rather have the trash than the weeds.

Some privycy please.

I know why this trash can ended up here. No one knew what it was supposed to be used for.

Jefferson Salamander

I found this young Jefferson Salamander under some wood near the edge of the yard. After they lose their gills and become land dwelling, they travel away from the water until they find suitable habitat in which to live and grow. From the size, I’d say he left the water within the last two weeks. They travel when the ground and vegetation are wet from rain or dew.

This is the place the salamander most likely came from. This pond leaks badly and provides habitat more commonly found in vernal pools. It usually goes completely dry in early July. Late developing salamander larvae don’t survive the loss of water.

Saturday Color

It was suggested to me that I should not leave the picture of a Multiflora Rose thicket all weekend as the first thing people see when they visit the site. I was told that the rose photo looked like any old tangle of briers and I agreed that it did look that way, if the tangle was one of Multiflora Rose. So, here’s a bit of color for your Saturday morning. This is Butterfly Weed. It and many other flowers are just starting to bloom here. I’ll get out in the prairie and share some of the blooming plants with you next week. For those who prefer insects to flowers, there’s a blurry Milkweed Bug between the two flower clusters.

If you like a little music in the morning, I give you Catbird on a wire. I was serenaded the entire time I was photographing the Butterfly Weed. This is one of those silhouette shots. The background color is the true color of the sky this morning. Things keep getting darker instead of lighter and there’s a very strong breeze. The Catbird’s wire was bouncing up and down and I had to sway along with the Butterfly Weed to get a shot even close to being focused.

Roses

I’ve been out taking an inventory of the Roses of Blue Jay Barrens. I’m not doing this to enjoy the beautiful blooms or the lovely fragrance, since there are no blooms now. I’m searching for those Roses that are not welcome to live here. The unwelcome guest is Multiflora Rose, Rosa multiflora, shown above.

I do a lot of hands-on management at Blue Jay Barrens in an effort to encourage the growth of native plant species. Most of the intense stuff is done during the winter so my activities don’t do damage to the actively growing plants. During the summer I do a lot of evaluation of the previous year’s activities and planning of activities for the coming year. It seems as though one of the most common activities associated with managing land for native flora is killing plants. There is a constant competition amongst plants for available growing space. In order for one plant to thrive, others must die. Non-native plants that offer a lot of competition to the natives are usually labeled as invasive species. One of the worst at Blue Jay Barrens is Multiflora Rose.

If you are going to begin eliminating invasive species it is vital that you be able to clearly identify that species among others of similar appearance. Multiflora Rose produces two types of growth, short leafy branches that bear fruit and long branches that grow up, then fall over to form an arch. If you were to confuse Multiflora Rose with any other species, it would probably be the Prairie Rose, Rosa setigera. Prairie Rose also displays the tall arching branches. Many Prairie roses have been killed by people mistaking them for Multiflora.

The easiest way to tell the two apart is to look at the stipules of the leaves. A stipule is a wing-like structure beginning where the leaf attaches to the branch and running a short distance along the edges of the leaf stem. That of Multiflora Rose, shown on the left in the photo above, bears long branching filaments, while Prairie Rose stipules show a uniform margin, coming to a point in the direction of the leaflets. Prairie Rose also tends to have a straight thorn while that of Multiflora is usually hooked. This helps identify the plants during the leafless period.

This bush is infected with rose rosette disease, which was predicted to sweep the country free of multiflora rose in the late 1980’s. Infected plants typically show clumps of distorted sprouts with a yellow or red coloration. The disease will kill the plant after a few years. The problem is that the disease is carried by a mite that lives on the multiflora rose bush and that mite is not very mobile at all. It’s hard for a diseased bush to infect another bush even a few feet away. The second problem is that new bushes develop much faster than the infected ones die.

Three species of rose have been found living at Blue Jay Barrens. The third is the Pasture Rose, Rosa Carolina. The Pasture Rose grows to several feet on sites with available moisture, but rarely reaches a foot tall in the dry prairie areas. This species does not produce the tall, arching canes.

I’ll map the Multiflora Rose locations so I’ll know where I have to spend some of my time this winter. We’ll discuss control techniques then.

Wild Turkeys

We have a very healthy Wild Turkey population in our area. The Toms have pretty much stopped displaying, and are now visiting the yard to eat corn. It’s amazing that something this big and brightly colored can be so hard to see in the woods.

Here’s a look at the beard and spurs. The beard grows continuously throughout the male bird’s life, but is limited in total length by being constantly trimmed by the turkey’s toenails as it feeds and scratches for food.

I’ve seen several hens trailing broods of youngsters. Normally the hens don’t come into the yard looking for corn when the young are this small. They spend most of their time wandering the fields, looking for the protein rich insects the young require for healthy growth. I’ve seen three different broods in the yard during the past few days. This youngster isn’t very old, but its wings are already developed enough to carry it high into the trees. Young turkeys can usually use flight as an escape mechanism around one week of age.

The hen decides it’s time to leave, you can see her tail moving out to the right, but the kids aren’t paying attention. To tell the truth, she slipped away so neatly, I didn’t even know where she got to. I know I wasn’t detected, so I wasn’t the reason for her disappearance. The hen only had two young with her when she came over to eat corn, although I saw several more of the same size scattered around the yard.

Now the search is on to find Mama. First thing to do is to look around to see if you really have been abandoned.

If you don’t see your parent, you start yelling.

Next step is to bunch up for security.

If Mother doesn’t come to you, you go in search of Mama. I never did see the hen return. These two wandered around the yard for a while, then went off into the field. I saw another youngster this size leave with four young males. That’ll be an interesting development if the five stay together. Four Men and A Baby.

I kept finding small turkeys around the yard most of the day. This one isn’t more than a day or two old. His camouflage doesn’t do much good in a green lawn. I wonder why so many youngsters, from at least two different broods, were left on their own like this. Does this sort of behavior occur out in the fields and woods where we don’t notice it?

Water Garden

Monday, I mentioned the water garden located just behind the snake’s tail. Since a lot happens here and some of it will probably get mentioned in this blog, I thought you should be introduced to this obviously non-natural feature. I love dabbling in the water, but that’s an activity that’s definitely limited when you live in a xeric habitat. In order to satisfy my indulgence, I built an artificial pool, lined with a heavy plastic liner.

The basic size is 25 by 12 feet with a total depth of 32 inches. Why not deeper? Because 24 of those inches were chiseled by spud bar out of fractured limestone bedrock. I stopped excavating when I hit a layer that required either power equipment or explosives to penetrate. Around the edge is a shelf about 10 inches wide at a depth of about one foot. A pool like this is just what you want if you like wildlife right outside your door.

The pool is kept full by rainwater running off the roof. You can see the downspout outletting into the plastic tub with the attractive slap of brown paint decorating its outer surface. I’m still looking for just the right thing to replace that tub. The tub catches debris from the roof and keeps it from entering the water garden.

From the tub, some water is diverted into the pool seen in the foreground. This is a 100 gallon stock watering trough that houses pet goldfish during the summer. The overflow from the goldfish pool enters a drain that outlets in the front yard and does not enter the main pool. I wanted the main pool to develop its own natural ecology and didn’t want to take any chances of it becoming full of goldfish.

The water headed for the main pool passes into a small, shallow pool as it leaves the tub. This pool catches any debris that happens to make it out of the tub and helps to dispel the energy of the running water so it has a more docile entry into the big pool.

I’ve tried to introduce native plants found on the property to this artificial habitat. This Field Horsetail, Equisetum arvense, was brought up from the creek. It was planted in a small area with a plastic liner intended to keep the plant from getting out of control. OOPS. It’s on the run now and hasn’t responded to my verbal suggestions that it stick to its designated area. Looks like I’ll have to take a more active approach here.

The water lilies were purchased from the local discount store. I know it’s not native to this site, but there’s no place for it to go if it does escape and I’ve always wanted a pool with water lilies.

This is Small-Flowered Water Plantain, Alisma subcordatum. It used to grow in a small pond near the house. This plant couldn’t survive the increasingly erratic water levels in this leaky pond, and is no longer found there.

Most of our guests see the water garden and immediately think mosquitoes. No chance of mosquitoes when the predatory larvae of insects such as these damselflies are present.

Another super aquatic predator is the larva of the dragonfly. Several dozen of these skins appeared overnight. Apparently we’ve had metamorphosis of the nymphs into flying adults.

An adult Blue Dasher dragonfly. This dragonfly is a little too small to have come from the preceding skin. The wing veination is fairly easy to see in the shed skin, so maybe a little investigation could tell us what species it represents.

Some adult Water Striders have found a meal of tree frog eggs stranded on top of a water lily leaf.