Woolly bear caterpillar. Photo contributed

OUR TEMPERATURES ARE BEGINNING TO COOL OFF, and our little woolly bear caterpillars are starting their march across driveways, sidewalks and highways. They are off in search of a suitable crack or crevice to spend the winter months until warm weather allows them to complete their life cycle and reproduce. Their scientific name is Pyrrharctia isabella, also known as the Isabella tiger moth. In spring when the temperature gets to 40-50 degrees F, the caterpillar wakes up and spins a cocoon incorporating some of its own stiff hairs in the matrix. When the adult emerges in 2-3 weeks, it is a yellow/orange moth with a wingspan of about 2” and only lives 1-2 weeks.

In June, the moth finds a mate, lays eggs and dies soon after. The eggs hatch in 10-12 days to go into the larval stage. It is a small caterpillar at first and can hold on to a wisp of cocoon silk that it uses as a balloon for travel. It eats a variety of vegetation like clover, dandelions, maple leaves and grass, then goes through molts and increases in size to the 2” caterpillar we see in fall. It has 13 segments with the end segments usually black, and the center one a reddish brown.

When I was a little girl, I found a woolly bear, and my parents told me to be careful or it might bite. I was curious so picked it up anyway and found that unlike some other caterpillars, this kind did not bite. I was lucky. It did feel weird though, because of the stiff bristly hairs that touched the palm of my hand when it curled up in a tight ball and played dead. I carefully put it down and watched it slowly uncurl and go on its way. Read more…

Common redpoll. Photo by Nancy Jane Kern

CANADIAN FINCHES STAY PUT when there are lots of seed containing spruce cones which anchor them in the north. It is good for them but not for birders down here who want to see them at their feeders. Reports are the opposite for this winter, with an apparent dearth of spruce cones in areas of Canada. Pine siskins are already being seen in New York State from Ausable to near Kingston, and a birder emailed last week to say she had a few pine siskins and evening grosbeaks at her yard in Chatham. I visited Nassau Lake last week to look for waterfowl and saw a few, and no winter finches.

Waterfowl are scarce and large flocks of Canada Geese are just beginning to pass through. This likely reflects our warm fall weather. If you have trees with cones keep an eye on them for seed loving finches like red or white-winged grosbills. Other northern finches we may see are male yellow, black and white evening grosbeaks, reddish pine grosbeaks, common redpolls, and some of our more usual birds such as purple finches, and area goldfinches.

I will put out one old test feeder containing sunflower seed to see if the bears have gone into hibernation yet. There has been no sign of the bears lately, so I may put up some suet next week. As it gets colder, I will put up more feeders. The finches like sunflower seed, but they are particularly crazy about Nyjer seed, which is sometimes incorrectly referred to as thistle seed. The seeds are small like thistle seed, but they are from an entirely different plant, Guizotia abyssinicia, grown in Asia and Africa, and has been used to feed birds for more than 40 years. The black seeds resemble very small grains of rice and contain a high content of oils that provide more calories per seed for the birds. These seeds are not native to the US and there have been concerns that they will be an invasive species, so the seeds are heated to make them unable to germinate before they are allowed into our country. This also kills other plant contaminants too. Read more…

Photo by Nancy Jane Kern

IT WAS LATE OCTOBER and good weather to do a final cleanup of the old rural cemetery before the winter snows began. The secluded little cemetery was surrounded by woods that still retained a few colorful leaves and lots of leaves and branches lay on the ground. The crisp, clean air had that wonderful, indefinable smell of the damp earth of fall.

The late 1700s to 1800s headstones had death’s heads and flower-like carvings on slate and sandstone, someone died of smallpox, another grave contained several children who had died from another disease or mishap. One man was buried near his three wives. Dates showed he had quickly remarried at the death of each wife. It was hard not to think about what these lives had been like and wonder if it was the wind or their spirits rustling through the leaves.

The old pickup truck was filled with debris as work continued from the front to the darkest corner in the back of the cemetery. Here were the remains of an old rotted tree with the modest stump almost sitting out of the ground. Soon it was excavated and found to have an interesting artistic shape, like a piece of driftwood. It was placed in the truck for addition to a home flower bed. The greenish coloration of the old wood would look very nice centered in the ferns. The now tidy cemetery was reverently left to itself for the winter. Read more…