Wetmore Landing
north of Marquette, Michigan

White on White

Trumpeter Swan

Fallen Fruit

Not fully ripe, this Persimmon was very astringent.  Even my teeth were dry after taking a bite.

I was surprised that the tree fruited at all after the dry summer.  More persist in the treetop and the local critters will be wiser when choosing when to partake.

September morning

Perhaps these river shots get old but some days the light slays me and I have to try to capture it.

Isaac Moves North

Rain from Hurricane Isaac was finally falling when I went to bed Friday night. I left the window open so it could sing me to sleep. This has been the driest Summer in memory and it was sweet music.

A steady, heavy downpour awakened me at 4:00 a.m. Saturday. Everyone got up, windows were thrown open, porch lights were turned on, and there was happy dancing throughout the house.

By dawn, 4.3" (10.9 cm) had fallen.  (The inner tube holds 1" and there are 3.3 additional inches in the outer tube.)

This was confirmed by my garden tin.

I could have sworn I heard a chorus of "Ahhhhhhhh's" from the trees, insects, frogs, and birds.

I took some "before" pictures after the rain, which I planned to use in a dramatic photoblog documenting the latest devastating flood. After all, the ground was hard as concrete and the downpour was expected to run right off the surrounding fields and into the floodplain.


But it didn't happen. The river rose three feet and then started to recede. The thirsty earth had absorbed it all.

the tree across the road

From Caterpillars to Pupae

The caterpillars ate and grew, ate and grew. Leaves were replenished in the aquarium every couple of days.

They were eating machines, but considering they won't feed while pupating in their cocoons all winter, and won't eat as adult moths for that short cycle, it's astounding they can get by on so little for so long.

They became extraordinarily active in the fifth and final instar. This one was swaying and squirming at the end of a walnut twig and refused to pose for a decent picture.

They grew to about 4" (10 cm) long.

I was fascinated by their blue "toes." (If I were a toenail-painting kind of gal, I would paint mine the same shade in their honor.)

With such strong grippers, I can't imagine a caterpillar ever falling out of a tree.

Too soon, they began the spinning of their cocoons. They started by pulling leaves around themselves with the help of silken threads.

Silk is formed in silk glands and produced from a tube in the spinneret, located beneath the mouth.

It becomes a solid strand as it makes contact with air and is said to be, pound for pound, stronger than steel.

The cocoons were snow white at first but within a few days, turned brown and blended in nicely with twigs, branches, and dying leaves -- perfect camouflage for a long season to continue metamorphosis.

I'm at work more than I'm home and wished I'd have seen moltings and more cocoon spinnings. There are several websites that detail the life cycle more than I could:

• Wormspit shows the entire life cycle from egg to moth. (If you go deeper into the website, you'll see silk processed at the expense of many lives. Not recommended.)
• Another site has slideshows and videos of egg laying and hatching, molting, and even life inside the cocoon.

Rearing the kids was a great experience. I'll never look at another caterpillar, moth, or butterfly in the same way.

Babysitting

A friend of a friend raises Cecropia Moths (the ones we saw hatch a few weeks ago) and gifted us with some caterpillars to raise.

The caterpillars shed their skins four times before they spin their cocoons. Each stage between molts is called an instar.

They were just itty bitty things.

They live in an aquarium stocked with fresh Black Walnut leaves. They can eat a wide variety of leaves, including some species of maples, elderberries, dogwoods, ash, cherries,willows, and oaks. They ate only Black Walnut during their first instar and should eat the same species during their growth, so that's what we're feeding them.

It wasn't long before they shed their skins and entered another instar.

The next day, the colours had brightened.

The red end is the head. I think of "bugs" as having six legs so I was momentarily confused by all the limbs. Moving from head to tail, I learned that the first three legs are thoracic legs, the next four are abdominal prolegs (not true legs, they don't have joints), and the final leg is the anal proleg. All the better to grasp twigs and branches. As moths, they'll have the typical six legs.

The toes of the abdominal prolegs are blue! Anal proleg, gripping.

Munch munch munch, you can see the bite marks on the leaf. They eat a lot, systematically and efficiently. The bigger they get, the faster the leaves have to be replaced.

This is as close as I've gotten to seeing a face.

Before they molt, they remain still for a time. This one didn't move or eat for three or four days, and then...

ah, fresh skin!

They've been eating the molted skin; it's additional nutrition and would be a signal to predators if left lying about. I'll keep watching and shooting as they continue to eat, grow, and spin their cocoons.

A Bird, a Turtle, and the Garden

We've been downright astonished to see a Red-headed Woodpecker at the feeder the past two weeks. Populations are declining and the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists them as Near Threatened. They use snags (dead standing trees) for nesting, which are scarce due to the misguided removal of dead trees, clear cutting, and agricultural development.

I'm usually lucky to see one once a year on my drive home from work, along open fields and edges.

RHWs are the most omnivorous of the woodpeckers, eating seeds, berries, nuts, and insects. They've been known to take an egg occasionally, too. Flashes of red, white, and black are striking to see when they fly.

A pancake across the river caught my eye last weekend. S/He was there for 2 days. I saw some disturbed soil the second day and wondered if she was laying eggs. Most likely an Eastern Spiny Softshelled Turtle, various sources list egg-laying time as June or August.

As crazy as the weather's been, I wouldn't be surprised if she left some eggs in the riverbank. Females don't lay until they're 8 to 10 years old, so if that's what was going on, she's been around a while.

The garden grows.

Lettuces

Red and Yellow Onions

Last Summer was so wet, many of the tomatoes turned to mush on the vines. They're all in pots this year, so I'll have more control over the water they receive. It's drought-y this season, so I've been busy with the hose.

Amish Paste Tomatoes

Black Cherry Tomatoes

Juliet Tomatoes

In my next post, I'll tell you about our Summer visitors.

More Moths and Some Raccoons

A second Cecropia Moth emerged from her cocoon and she's a beauty.

She reminded me of I Love Lucy.

Her antennae are thin,


compared to her mate's. The receptors in his antennae helped him to pick up her scent.


I don't know if male and female wings are typically different, or if they just vary by individuals. The female had more crimson

than the male.

As with the last pair, the female appeared, waited throughout the day, and next morning, a male had found her.
Again, they mated all day and were gone the next morning. But this time, I saw them part. I went out at 10:00 p.m. and they were still together, but flapping their wings vigorously, as if struggling to separate. Eventually they uncoupled and each clung to the twig, rapidly fluttering their wings. It was a cool night and I thought they were trying to get the blood flowing in preparation for their flights. She took off first -- and landed on my arm! I realized it was her first flight, ever, and it moved me. I let her rest a bit, then, realizing it was late and way past my bedtime, I gently lifted her off. She flew a couple of feet to a lit window on the back of the house. He flew into the treetop. I went inside, and a few minutes later, she had flown away to lay her eggs.

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Mama 'Coon has been coming to the feeder regularly.

Later, she showed the kids where the food was. They've been chowing down on sunflower seeds and we've been supplementing it occasionally with dog food, peanuts, and apples.

Now they come to the feeder by themselves.