Late Summer Birds and Bugs

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.