next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects
Add to the note below: We also found quite a few MUSHROOMS -- Russula species, Amanita species, boletes, etc., many of which had SLUGS feeding on them, especially on the undersides of the caps. Nancy promised us a list of the fungi noted by her over the past week or so. ---------- From: Jim Wolford <jimwolford@eastlink.ca> Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2006 10:43:35 -0300 To: NatureNS <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca> Cc: Laurel McIvor <laurel.mcivor@acadiau.ca>, Ruth Newell <ruth.newell@acadiau.ca>, Melanie Priesnitz <melanie.priesnitz@acadiau.ca> Subject: evening walk at Irving Ctr., Wolfville -- stink bug eating monarch caterpillar, galled jewelweeds, etc. Aug. 8, 2006 - I joined 4 others for the weekly evening walk at the Irving Centre in Wolfville. Present were Mary Schofield, Nancy Nickerson, Harold Forsythe, Tony Cookley of the Irving Centre, and myself. In the Botanical Gardens on SWAMP MILKWEED (still in bloom), Nancy found 2 tiny MONARCH CATERPILLARS, but unfortunately one of them had been caught and impaled on the extended beak of a nymphal STINK BUG. She also found a second stink bug nymph on the same plants. Nancy also told us that at her home in Port Williams, she had just released a second batch of 10 hand-reared adult MONARCH BUTTERFLIES, after having found them on the swamp milkweeds in her yard. Also in bloom in the Botanical Gardens were BONESET (white Joe-Pye-Weed), pink JOE-PYE-WEED, 2 varieties of BLACK-EYED SUSAN, TALL CONEFLOWERS, TALL SUNFLOWERS, PEARLY EVERLASTING, etc. Along the Woodland Trails, blooming were FIREWEED, WILLOW HERB species, PRICKLY LETTUCE, various GOLDENRODS, MANY-FLOWERED ASTER (last week we found NEW YORK ASTER), JEWELWEED (TOUCH-ME-NOT, IMPATIENS), TALL WHITE LETTUCE, etc. Nancy also spotted a DEAD FEMALE HUMMINGBIRD lying on the Gardens path along the stream. At the cattail pond a DARNER DRAGONFLY (GREEN?) was patrolling. At least one other DRAGONFLY was seen hawking insects along the Woodland Trail; hopefully it was eating MOSQUITOES? At the cattail pond there was a very disturbed-sounding ROBIN, and along the Woodland Trail we heard a GRAY CATBIRD and heard and saw a group of 3 EASTERN PEWEES. In the coniferous woods east of Univ. Ave. we found a BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE seemingly stuck in/on the end of a horizontal broken tree-trunk about 2.5 metres off the ground, and there may have been a cavity in that trunk -- the chickadee allowed our approach to armıs-length, and it seemed undisturbed by us, even when we prodded it away. Nancy spotted a swollen fleshy GALL on JEWELWEED (touch-me-not or impatiens), and then we found such galls were common; either the flower or ovary is greatly swollen, and a totally different shape from the fruiting structure of impatiens. I cut open one gall to show several chambers inhabited by orange-coloured (why?) maggots/larvae of GALL MIDGES?? (or possibly gall wasps?). Elsewhere a single GREEN LACEWING was seen.
next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
Index of Subjects