We’ve had a few sunny days with little humidity. Perfect summer weather! Now the heat and humidity have built up and thunderstorms have arrived.
On a clear, hot, sunny day last week, we went to Hawk Cliff where we thought we might find some butterflies and other pollinators in the open field and the wildflower garden.
We were happy to see a few different butterflies.
Summer Azures were sipping nectar from Sweet White Clover blossoms. When they landed, their wings closed, hiding their pale blue upper wings. We usually see Red-spotted Purples on the ground where they soak up the heat from the sun. These are a subspecies of the White Admiral; together they are sometimes referred to as Red-spotted Admirals.
We have often seen Red Admirals since early spring. They are a different species from Red-spotted Purples/Admirals. Monarchs and Viceroys look very similar but are not closely related. Viceroys are Monarch mimics. Since predators avoid Monarchs because they are toxic, Viceroys have evolved to adopt similar colouration to Monarchs in a bid to avoid predation.
There was a variety of insects on some of the flowers.
Insects comprise about 65 percent of all known species on the planet. Although they are are integral to the health of all ecosystems and life on Earth, they are under-valued and unloved. Insects are near the base of food chains that support birds, bats, reptiles, amphibians and others. They
play vital roles in decomposition, pollination, pest control, medical discoveries, and much else.
Carolina Grasshoppers come in a variety of colours. They flew up from the path as we walked along. We looked for Monarch larvae on Common Milkweed leaves, but only found the larvae of the Milkweed Tussock Moth. A Hickory Tussock Moth caterpillar was crawling across the road.
On Queen Anne’s Lace, we came across a small spider we hadn’t seen before. It was white with pink “racing stripes” on the sides of its abdomen. It was perfectly camouflaged on the white blossom where it had captured a small bee. For those who would like to avoid this photo, we have placed it at the end of this post!
Salthaven
Salthaven Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Centre had a booth at the Saturday Covent Garden farmers’ market. Brian Salt, the founder of the centre was there with Chankar, a Lagger Falcon (a non-native species from the Indian subcontinent), to bring attention to the centre’s work.
Wandering Bee Flowers
It was too hard to choose between these bouquets, so we ended up with both:-=)).
Osprey Update
On Sunday, July 28th, the male Osprey delivered a fish to the nest where the female and the youngster were waiting. After the female took charge of the fish, she eventually flew off with it without any attempt to eat or share it with her offspring. Her departure prompted a good deal of wing flapping by the youngster during which it managed to bunny hop and gain a few inches of height.
Our friends thought this was a clever tactic by the female parent to motivate flight and independence. Once young Ospreys have fledged, the female parent departs for the journey south while the male adult remains to provide food until the young learn to fish and have gained the flight skills needed for migration.
We thought it would still take time for the youngster to fledge given that we had not seen it exercising its wings very often. To our surprise, Wednesday morning, July 31st, we found the adolescent perched beside the female on the tower adjacent to the nest! When we looked a while later, it was perched on one of the other light towers at the park. How quickly they grow up!
Later that morning, the female and her offspring were on a light tower when the male Osprey delivered a fish to the nest. The youngster immediately flew to the nest to consume the fish while the female stayed on the light tower.
A 7-minute video in three sections.
On Thursday, August 1st, we saw the young Osprey consuming a fish on the low platform while the female perched on a light tower. Throughout the rest of the day, we saw the young one perched or moving between the stadium lights and low platform, but the female was nowhere in sight. The youngster’s flights and landings were almost always steady and accurate. We wonder if this is the last we will see of the female before she returns next year.
The Osprey videos are on the London Ospreys YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@LondonOspreys/videos
Songs of Separated Lovers
This list came to me quickly while thinking about “Leaving on a Jet Plane”. I avoided corny pop songs and limited myself to only two country songs and two Beatles songs.
Spider Alert!!!
Avert your eyes!
