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| Ominous clouds at Chadwick Lake, MSU |
As the summer winds down, I’m finding myself observing
insects nearly as much I observe birds.
For one thing, it’s a buggy time, and the periods of heavy rain we’ve
had have seemingly caused population explosions of some of them, especially
mosquitoes. For another, the mad
scrambles of birds to find territories and mates and to produce and raise young
are basically over for the year; simply holding down those territories,
"parenting" fledglings, and preparing for migration are the new priorities, and, at least from our
human perspective, these can appear
to be slightly more leisurely pursuits than the previous ones—even though they sometimes aren't.
The Mississippi Kites that have been gracing the neighborhood this summer are a migratory species that will leave the area in another month or so. I’m pretty sure that at least one pair nested
nearby earlier in the season, even though I never actually saw a nest. But three kites—two adults (like the one in the pictures below) and a juvenile—have
been hanging around lately, occasionally perching in the snags along the creek or
soaring over the open fields. Their
two-syllable, whistled calls alert me to their presence.
Mississippi Kites feed heavily on large insects, such as
cicadas, grasshoppers, and praying mantises.
At the moment, the trees are filled with droning choruses of annual
cicadas, so it’s no wonder that the kites are spending so much time here.
As most readers probably already know, cicada nymphs burrow
into the ground and emerge to shed their exoskeletons and become adults. This picture was taken at Jeff Busby Park a little
earlier in the year, but it shows a cicada in the process of molting:
And here’s a picture of a different cast “skin” (really the exoskeleton)
in a garage:
This praying mantis that I photographed in the garage at
night was enormous—around 4 inches long!
I’m sure that there are many more like it in the area.
July and August have also been great months for viewing
butterflies. Around here, these insects
vary in size from the (aptly-named) giant swallowtail (top
pictures) to tiny, delicate species like the red-banded hairstreak (bottom
pictures), the eastern tailed blue, and the summer azure.
The folded wings of the hairstreak in the photo
bulged out slightly on one side, which led me to suspect that the butterfly had
only recently emerged from its chrysalis and hadn’t finished drying and
stiffening its wings. This drying process takes a while and can render a butterfly highly vulnerable to predators and the elements. There's no telling whether or not this little creature survived its ordeal, but, of course, this is an uncertain time of year.
