Have you ever wondered about those inconspicuous tiny little blossoms on unimpressive looking tangles of stems and leaves, or those little sticky balls attaching themselves to your trousers seemingly out of nowhere? What's their name, are they "good" or are they "bad" in the Preserve? Native or exotic? Steve Sentoff, a Friend and Preserve Steward, has been looking just for those on his many walks in the Preserve. Steve has posted his photos on iNaturalist, an apps where you can post photos with their exact GPS location. You can also post a name for your plant, if you know it. But if you don't know the name of what you found or are mistaken in your guess, a volunteer somewhere in the world will surely confirm or correct your ID within a day or two. "A great way of learning", says Steve. Many of these fairly unremarkable looking plants are in bloom right now. Have a look and see which ones you had always wanted to call by name by didn't know it.
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What a unique experience -watching the eclipse wax and wane from a high point in the Preserve, with the view of the lake moving into and out of twilight and the wildlife taking note. Luciano Palmieri Rocha met with Glenda Denniston on August 21, to watch this most awesome event and is sharing his photos with the Friends. At the Preserve, the eclipse began at 11:50am, 42 seconds and ended at 15:15pm, 59 seconds. At one time the moon covered 85% of the sun's disk. What great photo sequence of the event. Thank you Luciano. ![]() Last week Glenda Denniston photographed a tiny, beautifully colored gray tree frog sitting on a shagbark hickory re-sprout in the upper part of East Savanna (Old Orchard). At this time of year, during non-breeding season it dazzles with its solid lime green on the back. In Wisconsin it is seen quite commonly, but you have to look for something small. They are at most 2 inches long. They live primarily along forest or woodlot edges and in oak savanna, favoring brush over trees. Preserve staff Bryn Scriver, Adam Gundlach and Laura Wyatt report having found gray tree frogs in various locations in the Preserve, and also during breeding season. See the photos below are by Bryn Scriver. The DNR website explains that the two gray tree frog cousins, the Cope's gray tree frog and the Eastern gray tree frog, are tough to distinguish, especially during the breeding season when both are usually heavily mottled on the dorsal (top) side. Cope's, like the eastern gray, has bright yellow inner thigh markings when viewed from the underside or laterally when the legs are extended and has obvious toe pads.
Glenda Denniston always has her camera ready to snap photos of interesting critters she spots in the Preserve. Here are her latest captures:
The Abbott sphinx moth larva, an odd fellow with brown bands and pale green spots, is crawling toward the left, using six claw like feet behind his rather small head and eight feet fitted with suction cup-like devices. What looks like a rather large eye is a big knob meant to scare any predator. Early instars of this larva are a pale greenish-white, with a horn on the hind end. (An instar is the developmental phase between two periods of molting as a insect larva grows to maturity.) These instars are said to eat Grape and Porcelain berry, but in this sighting it is feasting on Virginia creeper in the 2013 spring planting area of the Friends at Frautschi Point. The larva of the late instar Milkweed tussock moth or milkweed tiger moth, Euchaetes eagle, was found on a Common milkweed behind main Upper Field Edge planting area. It is common mid- through late-summer and sports chemical defenses to deter bats and other predators, which it acquires from its host plants. While early instars appear slightly 'hairy' and gray and eat the fleshy parts of leaves, leaving behind only skeletal vein remnants, the late instars sport tufts of black, white and orange and sometimes yellow setae. The head capsule is black. The Hermit sphinx larva, Lintneria eremitus, is finding food on Wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa, at what Glenda calls Cedar Hill in the Frautschi Point area. This larva feeds on the mint family and the adult moths take nectar typically from deep-throated flowers. It is common wherever the larva and moth host plants are found. Five years ago, a visiting bee specialist searching for the rare Rusty-patched Bumble bee found it at the Arboretum, later notifying Arboretum gardener and member of the Friends, Susan Carpenter. The Rusty-patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis), placed on the endangered species list this spring, also resides in the Lakeshore Nature Preserve. Susan, who led the Friends Pollinator field trip at the Preserve last Sunday, explained that the Preserve’s patchy landscape of woodland with early spring flowers and open prairie with flowers all summer long is ideal for bumble bees. Of the 14-15 possible species of bumble bees in this part of Wisconsin 13 kinds have been found in the Arboretum. And many of those live in the Preserve. While the entire state has only 20 or so species of bumble bees, there are 400-500 different species of native wild bees in Wisconsin. 85% of these species are solitary bees. Some are tiny, some are black, some are green. They build their nests in small cavities and cracks or underground, and often emerge the next season. New bees emerge in spring from the eggs laid the previous summer. These solitary bees cannot fly very far, and need about 30 trips to collect the pollen needed for one egg. In contrast, bumble bees live in colonies, and the queens overwinter. A queen emerges in mid-April seeking for nectar in early wood flowers, even Creeping Charlie, and initiates a nest in leaf piles or in the ground. She stocks the nest with pollen balls as provisions. She lays several fertilized eggs into the pollen balls to produce worker bees, all females. Once these bees emerge they take over the foraging, provisioning and brood care while the queen stays in the nest and creates nectar pots, tiny wax cups filled with pollen balls, and lays and incubates eggs. Throughout the summer she produces several generations of worker bumble bees. Finally, the queen will begin to produce male bumble bees and future queen bumble bees (about 20). At the end of the season the males die. So do all worker bumble bees, and only the new queens stay on and dig into loose soil to go into dormancy, overwinter, and begin a new colony next spring. Already at this time of year we observed male bumble bees perching and buzzing on tall flower stalks to make their presence known to future queen bees. Bumble bees can surprise you when performing “buzz pollination”. Their steady Bzzz at a lower pitch suddenly agitates to a high pitch bzzz bzzzz, when they cling to the anthers of a flower with their forelegs and noisily vibrate their flight muscles, releasing pollen which collects on their abdomen. The female bumble bees then comb the pollen into the pollen baskets on their hind legs. Males don’t have pollen baskets.
We paid attention to bumble bees working up the stalks of wild white indigo. The bumble bee collects pollen by pressing the keel of the flower downward and then rubbing its hind legs on the exposed anthers. As the bumble bee works its way up the plant stalk, the pollen from the male blossoms at the top of the plant is deposited on the bee and then transported to the next white indigo plant it visits. While Bumble bees often prefer certain flowers, such as columbine or Monarda or white indigo, they develop deft approaches for extracting the nectar from flowers with very different architecture. For example, they will approach a wild columbine by thrusting their head into the spur of the hanging flower. A rusty-patched bumble bee may perforate the top of the spur and reach the nectar the easy way. On an oxeye sunflower bumble bees forage across the flower head to gather pollen from the many tiny flowers when in bloom. On a yellow cone flower, or culver’s root, or catnip they will work their way around the flower cone or stalk, visiting all the tiny blossoms. Thank you Susan, for teaching us. What a great show and tell session we had in the Preserve. To learn more about bumble bees visit https://beespotter.org/topics/key/ What privilege to show the Preserve to young people. Justin was visiting for three days and looking forward to see the Biocore prairie and especially the purple martins. The more time we took to stand still and observe, the more we noticed the diversity of plants and insects.
Justin writes: "On July 12, my mother Angela, my grandmother Gisela, and I enjoyed a fascinating walk in the Preserve. The early morning consisted of strong thunderstorms, however we took advantage of a short break from the rain and took a short walk in the Preserve. The highlight of the morning was when we were lucky enough to spot a beautiful Barred Owl near the large oak at Frautschi Point. The owl seemed relatively unconcerned by our presence, but flew off after about four minutes. In addition, we watched in awe the flight of a Purple Martin, who spent several minutes flying about the house and the surrounding area. The bumblebee population, as well as the insect population in general, was thriving, and we had countless sightings of them among the flowers. The Tree swallows were quite active while we were there, as well as the finches. We were able to take these pictures before some ominous clouds began to form once again." With the Legler book on Wisconsin Dragonflies, we identified a male and female Eastern Amberwing, a Bluet, and Dot-tailed Whiteface and also a Silver-spotted skipper butterfly, a Monarch and an Eastern black Swallowtail. All photos by Angela Currie Enjoy this photo gallery by Mike Bailey who knows just where to spot the birds in the Preserve and how to wait for the right moment to photograph them. Mike visits the Preserve about every two weeks on his birding walks and regularly posts his observations and some photos on eBird. Thanks for sharing with the Friends.
On a walk through Biocore Prairie on June 30, I had fun taking these photographs. There is so much to enjoy in the prairie at this time of the year. From insects, to birds, to flowers, all bursting with life and colors. Take time for a visit. – Gisela Kutzbach
These spectacular photographs by Mike Bailey exemplify what is so unique about the Preserve: a natural area in an urban setting that abounds with a diversity of delights for its visitors. The Preserve is a favorite of area birders and photographers. Enjoy these photographs of a Baltimore Oriole near the community gardens, just after it launched from a perch, carrying food, and probably on the way back to a nest with young; the Prothonotary warbler at the Picnic Point Pond marsh; a pair of red-bellied Woodpeckers working on a huge dead tree in Bill's Woods, and a curious Yellow Warbler looking backward at Mike's camera. Thank you, Mike, for sharing these photographs with the Friends.
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AuthorGisela Kutzbach and contributors Archives
May 2022
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