This Week in the Woods we were excited to find a Canada warbler. These are exceptionally beautiful birds – especially the males, with their dramatic black necklaces – but they can be hard to spot as they hop around the canopy. They are also, sadly, much less common than they used to be. So, it was a cheering sight to see one of them singing on a sugar maple branch! Keep an eye out for these small warblers if you’re passing through wet forest (ex. walking by wooded swamps or around beaver ponds). If you’re a forest landowner who would like to learn more about how to promote their habitat, check out this informative page from the Vermont Center for Ecostudies.
Silvery blues – small, iridescent blue butterflies with velvety gray underwings sporting white-lined dots – have been out for a couple weeks now, but their numbers are noticeably increasing as they move into their peak month of June. They lay their eggs on plants in the legume family, including non-native cow vetch, which is abundant in many fields. Look for these butterflies in meadows and other sunny places. We’ve seen them nectaring in patches of wild strawberries.
Chokecherries are in full bloom, and their flowers are especially attractive to pollinators, including a variety of native bees and wasps.
Barn swallows and tree swallows are performing their insect-hunting acrobatics over fields and waterbodies. Two easy ways to distinguish them are that barn swallows have orange throats and much longer forked tails. Also, if it’s popping out of a nest box, it’s probably a tree swallow. Barn swallows prefer to nest in more open spaces, such as eaves and the gaps between bridge girders.
While pulling garlic mustard plants behind the Lyme office, we discovered a number of Jack-in-the-pulpits, and lifted the hood of this one to get a better look at its stripes. According to this Outside Story essay by Meghan McCarthy McPhaul, the unusual looks of this wildflower help it to attract fungus gnats and flies. As McPhaul notes, Jack-in-the-pulpits can switch genders depending on how much energy they’ve been able to store for the growing season.
Finally, when you’re out in deciduous woods, keep an eye out for the fruiting bodies of Dryad’s saddle. Also known as pheasant’s back polypore, the fungus can grow on dead wood, but it has a destructive side: it can parasitize living trees (as shown here) and cause white heart rot. This specimen, alas, is growing out of a favorite yard tree.
What have you noticed in the woods this week? Submit a recent photo for possible inclusion in our monthly online Reader Photo Gallery.