Ημερολόγιο της/του makielb

Hi all:

I'm finally having some time to get caught up on all of the wonderful field trip and moth photos that I have accumulated over the past ten months - yeah it's been a while. So, I am batches of photos by the day. Some with have minimal identifications, others more detailed.

This year school and a new grandson have kept us busy. And somehow I have fallen behind. When simple things go up with minimal id, it's just a lack of time for identification (my photos and journal entries are separate). Please be tolerant of my massive photo dump.

On another note I have been working on trying to get a more complete moth list for the cabin (at Whitefish Point) with some repeat species across the season. This allows me to have a greater understanding of flight-season for the diverse moth-fauna.

Thanks for listening, and always feel free to comment on anything.

Mike

We now make an annual trip to Florida in February. This year I had targets in mind and an anticipated visit to a site I had not been to in some 30+ years. Everything went as planned.

The main target was Torreya taxifolia, the endangered Florida Torreya. Which we were able to easily find at Torreya State Park. The wild trees are all pretty much fenced off and easily located. This tree has a very limited range along the Appalachicola River and tributaries. There are apparently less than 500 trees left in the wild, all in some state of poor health.

Then we were hoping to find an array of four wakerobins (Trillium decipens, Trilium lanceolatum, Trillium maculatum and Trillium underwoodii) all of which I believe we found. They are a difficult group. We spent a lot of time on our knees and bellies measuring leaves, stems, bracts and petals as well as photographing. It was an amazing day of botany at Florida Caverns State Park.

Finally, for the relaxing portion of our Florida Panhandle trip I had rented cabin at T. H. Stone Memorial State Park. What a treat. We spent several days walking trails, wading in the bay and snorkeling. The highlight was finding a glass lizard on our own 'private' boardwalk to the bay.

On our way to our cabin on the beach we were made aware of the Sumatra area. Here there are extensive fen, fen-like areas filled with carnivorous plants - pitcher plants, sundews, bladderworts and butterworts. A botanical dream.

So, I've managed to post an overabundance of photos of wakerobins and some of the other highlights from this February escape from the Michigan winter.

Mike

I finally took some time and put up sonograms of three types of Red Crossbills that Susan has recorded and I photographed here at Whitefish Point. The type-10s are the ones that are breeding here. Type-3s are the "typical" migrants that we have been seeing and hearing the past few years. The type-2 is new for us at the cabin.

Interestingly, crossbills are building in numbers already - and in mixed flocks. Types 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, and 10 have been around.

We will be participating in a study of these interesting birds where they will be banded, bills measured, blood collected (for DNA analysis) and flight calls recorded. Phew, that's a lot to do.

Stay tuned - I'll update as the work proceeds. Hopefully, we will be doing this through the Fall, Winter and into the Spring.

The cone crops in the west are minimal, while the cone crops in the east are huge. This "should" make for a mass movement of crossbills, so keep your eyes open and ears tuned.

Hi All:

Susan and I spent parts of the past two days visiting a black spruce/tamarack bog on Farm Truck Road, west of Paradise in Chippewa County, Michigan.

The plants are now dominated by goldenrods along the road and into the sedges, then cotton grasses in the bogs and fens.

The highlights were dominated by flies coming to the goldenrods. A fly-lover would have been in 'Paradise' (sorry for the pun, that's the closest town just east of here). Flower and bee flies dominated. For me the fly highlight was Hunch-backed bee fly (Lepidophora lutea) - I have never seen so many. I am working through the many bee and flower flies.

A delightful highlight, as always was a Least chipmunk. I love those little guys.

Butterflies were less that I would have liked, but it's always nice seeing a Green comma.

Now back to identifying flies and goldenrods (yeah, I do not care for id'ing them, but the dominate the floral landscape at the moment.) BTW, aster are just getting going.

Michael