April 28, 2024

Back for another week!  Nature's Birthday Party is just revving up.  Full of surprises!  Let's start off with the ever-popular Forget-me-nots...  It turns out that there are quite a few species out there.  @douggoldman of iNat says the left-most one is Wood Forget-me-not.  I've sent out a question as to how do we tell which kind we are staring at?

Another  Plant that we have been following is now blooming at the back of the garden, near the back fence.  It is the Virginia Bluebells.

Here is one that is on its way out.  The Coral Berries keep the winter bright with its balls of magenta but by June they will all be gone,  replaced by new buds.  Those buds will attract some busy little Fraternal Wasps.  You'll see! We might almost always say that one thing is on its way out and another is coming.  Second here is the White Violet with the pale blue centers.  I haven't seen any of that till today.  Last is the Flowering Quince.  Its flowers seem much less brilliant now. 

The Celandine Poppies are still bright yellow.  They will eventually fade and go away.  But they will come back several times all summer.  The Epimedium, aka Barrenroot, is peaking now.  I don't think it will bloom again this year.  The Peonies have expanded to several patches.  This one (with the reddish leaves) is in the Back Yard - it has spread to quite a few places.  It's happy to drop its seeds and I am not going to discourage it.

The Tulips and the grape hyacinths have lasted a good long time already, but once they have finished they will be gone till next year. This tiny pink tulip only blooms once and is about to finish now for the year.  Picture 2 shows it open.  Picture 3 shows the one litttle Primrose from what used to be a nice group of them.  I will have to take a few little ones that I bought or was given this year and plant them out and cross my fingers!  

The Annual Honesty comes in two colors: pink and white.  In this front yard, the Pink one started a couple of weeks ago in the shade and is still going strong after a couple of weeks.Meanwhile the White one, which comes out on a sunny corner, started a few days later and is also still going strong. Last year the white one re-bloomed in October!  I don't really know when they started to bloom in my yard!  But I'm glad they do!

This tiny pink Tulip is just magnified  - I love it!

The Hostas are starting to send up nice strong pointed plants.  Soon they will open up to lovely robust pointed buds, and then lovely flowers.  Look how much they grew overnight in the last two pictures.

Here are some more green plants.  This first one is a mystery plant to me.  Second is Twinleaf.  Third is Solomon's Seal.  Those little dangling flowers are a great treat for Hummingbirds.

Let's now turn to some Insects.  This first one is an Ant of genus Camponotus,  subgenus Myrmentoma.  Second is a European Black Carpenter Ant. Third is a Nearctic Carpenter Ant, and last is an Acorn or Acrobat Ant.

Since we actually have a few Bees, let's look at them before the Beetles.  This first one is the Western Honey Bee.  I'm told that if you see a Honey Bee, it is automatically the Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera).  Now the second one LOOKS a lot like the first, but beware!  It is NOT a BEE, it's a Fly, a Common Flower Fly in genus Syrphus.  These two insects look ALMOST alike, but they aren't.  One is a Bee, the other a Fly.  Now quickly!  What is picture 3?  In case you really don't know, look at the little pollen balls on the legs of the third one.  So it's a Bee, and probably the same species as number 1.  In fact, I'm told that here in Michigan there is really only ONE kind of Honey Bee, the Western one.  

Now look at this one.  I cheated and asked iNat what it is.  The ID app came up with "a Bee".  Now I just said there is only one kind of Honey Bee in Michigan, but this one isn't a Western Honey Bee, so it isn't a Honey Bee at all.  So I decided it was a Bee but had to ask an expert what kind it is!  It turns out to be a Mining Bee!

So let's look at Beetles.  This first one is Dromius piceus, a kind of Ground Beetle identified by @borisb and verified by @carabid.  Next is a Redbud Seed Beetle.  Remember, this  Beetle's larva lives inside a Redbud pod, eating the little .  Third is another Weevil, in fact a True Weevil.

That was it for Beetles, so now we look for Bugs.  Here is that White-margined Burrower Bug.

Another Bug - this is a Treehopper in genus Erythroneura.  These are two very tiny hoppers. and they seem to be in different genera (genuses).   Last is Zelus luridus.   Here "lurid" doesn't mean sickly, but rather "green".  It's a Pale Green Assassin  Remember this:   Assassin Bugs can come in many colors or a mixture of colors.  So now we know there are more than one color combo in genus Zelus.  Those red eyes are another way to spot Z. luridus.  If you are taking a class and learning the Zelus genus,   this simple way to spot Z luridus  is the shape and the red eyes.

We are now  gettting into the Flies.  This first one is in the genus Docosia.   The second is also.    The Third looks almost like a housefly, and is quite closely related to one.

Here are more Flies.  This first one is a Midge.  Second is another Midge, this one in the tribe Chironomi.  I used to think all these little greenish Midges were in the tribe Tanytarsini, but now I have been convinced by @Zdanko that they aren't.

Here we have some of my favorite creatures, the Lepidoptera. That group contains the Butterflies and the Moths.  You've seen before the Red Admiral (two pictures here), one of the few Butterflies that comes to my yard.   You may recall also seeing a lot of Loopers, the caterpillars of Geometrid Moths.  There are so many of those! Most of them are brown and loop along the ground or along a branch.  Picture 3 shows a typical Looper.

Let's take in the view of some of the Yard's Spiders.  First here is one of the many ant-mimic Spiders. As its name suggests, it makes camouflage of its resemblance to an Ant, though a strange one. 

Here are some ghost-like little Spiders.This first one is Lavinia directa.  And I don't know what the second is.

I would really like to go out and see what's going on in the Pond. Here are a bunch of little frogs.  

These two frogs seem to be performing amplexus.  The smaller male is pressing on the female's tummy to get her to express eggs, which he will then fertilize.  I never before saw them do this out of the water.  We should soon be seeing tiny tadpoles.  I have a problem with this part so far.  That is, the American Toads have also begun their trilling songs - I'm wondering if the top frog in the next two pictures isn't really an American Toad!  See, it is very hard always to label things correctly until you have been practising a long time. 

The trouble is that ordinarily the male Toads arrive in April, trill for a couple of days, trill to attract females and to tell other males that no help is needed at this time.  After a couple of days of operatising, the boys and the girls sort themselves out.  Now I don't usually hear my  Green Frogs trilling, though they do vocalize.  Later I'll show you how you might be able to imitate a Green Frog and even be able to carry on a conversation of sorts with them, Males only!  This doesn't mean NO frogs trill, just that female Green Frogs do not talk.   And when the males do talk, it is in one-word sentences.   Some time after the Toads have their ingathering, Frogs begin their silent mating ritual. 

  See you next week!   love, Martha