Banded Alder Borer

I ran into this dapper beetle about a week and half ago. I wondered if it was attending a masquerade ball or perhaps it was in town as part of a vaudeville performance or magical act out at the Oregon Country Fair.

This beautiful creature is native to the Northwest. As the name suggests, one of its hosts is alder trees, but they will also use ash, willow, oak, and California bay which all can be found at the arboretum. The adult lays eggs singly on a dead or dying branch of a tree. After hatching, the larva will feed under the bark for the next 6 or 7 months. They will then bore into the middle of the branch, pupate and overwinter. In the spring, the adult will emerge and chew its way out. These beetles are essential to breaking down dead or dying wood and recycling the nutrients bank in to the ecosystem.

Its body is 1-1.5 inches in length, not including the antennae.

The pattern of this beetle is a protective measure to evade predators known as disruptive camouflage. The bold stripes break up the form of the beetle especially if it is in dappled sunlight or on lichen growing on the tree.

Oddly enough and for reasons unknown, they are attracted to fresh paint. People reported seeing them show up while painting their house, fence, etc. So keep an eye for them if you have a painting project going on this summer.

Resources
“Banded Alder Borer, or California Laurel Borer.” UC Statewide IPM Program, Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California, https://ipm.ucanr.edu/home-and-landscape/banded-alder-borer-or-california-laurel-borer/. Accessed 18 July 2026.

"Camoflage 101 – Cryptics." Field Station, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, 18 Mar. 2014, https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/camoflage-101-cryptics/. Accessed 18 July 2026.

Oregon State University Plant Clinic. The Banded Alder Borer. Oregon State University, https://entomology.oregonstate.edu/sites/agscid7/files/entomology/Banded_Alder%20Borer_13.pdf. Accessed 18 July 2026.

"Rosalia Funebris (Banded Alder Borer)." 10,000 Things of the Pacific Northwest, 29 June 2021, http://10000thingsofthepnw.com/2021/06/29/rosalia-funebris-banded-alder-borer/. Accessed 18 July 2026.

Painted Lady

This butterfly is beautiful!

Its body is a shimmering sandy-gold that slightly spills out onto its wings. From there, the top of the wings are a pattern of warm blacks and oranges with white spots. It gives its upper body the appearance of dappled sunlight on the ground. The underside of the wing has a more checkered pattern with a subdued coloration of light browns and whites. When it folded its wings together behind its body, the underside resembled the mottled drying of the sandy shore as it sloped away from the water. I imagine these earth tones and patterns help camouflage it to protect it from predators.

This butterfly is tricky!

The underside of the hind wing also has conspicuous eyespots to deter predators. First, it is thought that the eyespots mimic the eyes of predators, thus discouraging an attack from a real predator. Second, it might cause a predator to to go for the wrong end—the butterfly might lose part of its wing, but it will escape with its life.

This butterfly is amazing!

Let me start off by saying that this butterfly has a migratory behavior that is multigenerational. What this means is that as they make their annual migration north following wildflower blooms in the spring, they will complete their lifecycle multiple times as they journey north and return back to their wintering grounds. So, as this wonderful creature fans out across North America, the map to navigate back to its wintering ground is somehow passed on to the next generation. On Art Shapiro’s website he writes, “Apparently the entire North American population winters near the US-Mexico border, breeding in the desert after the winter rains generate a crop of annual Malvaceous, Boraginaceous and Asteraceous hosts. The resulting butterflies migrate north.” On the website of The Natural History Museum of The University of Colorado Boulder it states that “it takes about 6 generations for the Painted Lady’s round trip journey from Mexico to Canada and back.” This is incredible and gets even more incredible!

This butterfly is the most widely distributed butterfly in the world and it has the farthest known butterfly migratory route. From its wintering grounds in tropical Africa, it undertakes an unbelievable, multigenerational 9,000-mile round trip to the Arctic Circle and back!

After reading about the miraculous journey of this butterfly, my imagination was awakened. Its coloration and pattern really struck me differently. Its golden body is a comet. The orange of its wings is fire emanating outwards as it zooms across the sky. The white dots on a background of black are trailing embers mixing in with the stars of the mysterious depths of the universe.

As always, I try to inspire you to do more research and learn more on anything that I write about and to go out in nature to experience it.

Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I hope to see you out there.

Resources
Mahr, Susan . “Painted Lady Butterfly, Vanessa Cardui.” Wisconsin Horticulture, https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/painted-lady-butterfly-vanessa-cardui/. Accessed 16 July 2026.

Shapiro, Art. “Vanessa Cardui | Art Shapiro’s Butterfly Site.” Ucdavis.Edu, 2025, https://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/butterfly/vanessa/cardui. Accessed 16 July 2026.

“Painted Lady Butterfly.” Museum of Natural History, 24 June 2020, https://www.colorado.edu/cumuseum/2020/06/24/painted-lady-butterfly. Accessed 16 July 2026.

“Painted Lady Migration Secrets Revealed.” Butterfly-Conservation.Org, https://butterfly-conservation.org/news-and-blog/painted-lady-migration-secrets-revealed. Accessed 16 July 2026.

A Wanna Bee

Check out this fuzzy little fly that has deguised itself as a bumblebee. Mimicry is when one organism like a fly (the mimic) closely resembles another organism like a bumblebee (the model). By imitating the coloration of the bumblebee, the fly is hoping to protect itself by being left alone by potential predators that have learned to avoid the painful sting that can be inflicted by a bumblebee.

It seems like a made up, bedtime story. The kind little fly was fuzzy and soft. She loved to buzz around in the summery sun feeling the warmth on her back. She loved the intoxicating aroma of flowers and their yummy, sweet nectar. She was a happy-go-lucky little bee with a warm-hearted spirit. She wouldn’t hurt a fly. She was smart and observant of the world around her. She was very aware that she was a scrumptious, little morsel and that there were other creatures lurking about that would love to gobble her up. In order to stay safe, she knitted a sweater to wear that mimicked her friend the bumblebee. Her bumblebee friend had a piercing dagger that could inflict a painful sting to protect herself. So she would wear her little sweater when she was out and about to imitate her friend and trick all the carnivorous, nasty-breathed, stinky monsters that wanted to devour her sweetness into thinking she was her friend the powerful bumblebee. She lived happily ever after. The end.

We are constantly experiencing this unknowable force that has and still is imagining and creating life over an incomprehensible vastness of time. It’s so miraculous and unexplainable.

Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I hope to see you out there.

Site Tenacity

Check this out! I posted the nest of a Western Wood Pewee last year (06/24/25 Western Wood-Pewee Nest). This year I walked by the same area and found another Western Wood-Pewee nest. As I stood there watching it and taking a couple of photos, my memories came forward and I started feeling like the nest was on that same limb last year. When I got home and compared the photos, the two nests are in the exact same spot! The first photo is this year and second photo is last year. Incredible!

This phenomenon is known as site fidelity or site tenacity. Cornell’s All About Birds gives this definition: “Loyalty shown by birds or other organisms to places they previously occupied; the places may be breeding locations, nonbreeding locations, or stopover points between the two.”

The general belief is that if birds are successful at breeding they are likely to return to that area again. This bird spends our winter in South America which is considered to be a medium to long range migration. Check out the range map on All About Birds.

I just have to write this out because I find this whole phenomenon quite miraculous and mysterious. This little bird migrated here last year from South America, nested at the arboretum, flew back to South America for their summer, migrated back here to the arboretum for our summer the following year, and built its nest on the same limb, in the same spot! I know I just said this but I want to say it again. It’s in the same spot! How is that possible!? The world we live in is so unbelievable!!!!

Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I hope to see you out there!

Resources
Birder, Jeff. “Bird Academy’s A-to-Z Glossary of Bird Terms | Bird Academy • the Cornell Lab.” CornellBirds, 9 Sept. 2016, https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/bird-academys-a-to-z-glossary-of-bird-terms/#s. Accessed 6 July 2026.

Western Wood-Pewee Range Map, All about Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Wood-Pewee/maps-range. Accessed 6 July 2026.

Juvenile Steller's Jay

I saw this earlier in the spring, and I am a little behind in posting it. I heard this juvenile Steller’s jay begging as I walked up the creek trail and found it perched on a fallen tree. I watched it for a bit as it sat quietly observing its new world outside the nest. Nearby I saw the parent swoop in with a bill full of unidentifiable food. It was a sizable chunk of what appeared to be animal guts of some kind. It rearranged them and tried mashing them up a little, presumably to form an appropriate sized bite. It flew over to a now begging juvenile that was calling and fluttering its wings with its mouth fully agape. The parent stuck its bill down into the juvenile’s mouth and deposited the food. Afterwards the juvenile just sat there with the food in its mouth, not swallowing. The parent stood there and curiously turned its head and watched. The juvenile continued to just sit there with a mouthful of food. I am not sure if the juvenile was feeling that the bite was too big to swallow or just savoring this new cuisine. Either way, it was swallowing it. The parent could see that this food wasn’t working, so it stuck its bill back into the juvenile’s mouth and took the food back out. The juvenile didn’t protest and sat there seemingly a little relieved. The parent stood there for a moment with the food in its mouth contemplating whether or not to try again. The juvenile sat there looking slightly dazed, definitely not enthusiastically begging like before. The parent then flew off to a nearby tree branch and decided to consume the food itself. Afterwards it flew off in search of more food. It returned to find that the baby bird had recovered from the previous attempt and was happily begging for more food. It was amusing to see that even juvenile birds, like young people, can be picky eaters sometimes especially when a parent brings home something new to try.

Downy Woodpecker

I have posted about this before (Cow Parsnip Cache, 07/28/21). I felt like it was worth reposting because Downy woodpeckers are beautiful birds and I am seeing them everyday. There are heaps of cow parsnip plants down the river path and out in the wetlands where you can observe them foraging. Walk quietly and listen and you will likely hear the pounding of Downy woodpeckers opening the stems of cow parsnip to extract the caterpillars or the cocoons of a carrot seed moth that are inside. Downies are usually quite tolerant of your presence and will allow to observe at a fairly close distance. There is a nice patch right next to the bathroom that I have seen them frequently foraging on as I have waited for the bathroom. It’s fun to watch them hop along the cow parsnip stems exuberantly opening them and a few times I have seen a juvenile Downy following a parent from stem to stem impatiently begging for food too. I saw tons of the caterpillars this year eating the seeds and burrowing into the stems which are hollow and provide an excellent home. That probably explains why I am seeing Downies on them so frequently. You can see one of the cow parsnip stems below and it has been absolutely shredded by Downies.

It’s a beautiful world. I hope you are enjoying your summer. See you out there.

Ornate Checkered Beetle

Check out this cool beetle, Trichoda ornatus! The genus name Trichoda comes from Greek word trichos meaning hair which refers to the stiff hairs called setae that cover its body. As these hairs brush up against flower stamens as the beetle crawls around on a flower, they naturally collect pollen making this beetle a good pollinator. The species name ornatus comes from Latin and means decorated or adorned. The elytra are the hardened, modified forewings of beetles and in this case they are decorated with a mottled yellow and bluish-black pattern that is very striking.

The adult beetles are out in spring and summer looking to mate and continue the lifecycle. The mated female will lay an egg in a flower head near the center. When the egg hatches, the larva will attach itself to the leg of a Hymenoptera which is usually a leaf cutter bee or a potter wasp. The larva is transported back to the nest where it will detach into a cell created by the host for its offspring. From here it will develop by eating the food stored for the host larva and it will also consume the host larva. Depending on the size of the host larvae, the beetle larva may need to move into adjacent host larvae cells and will consume between 1 and 8 host larvae as it develops. The beetle larva will enter the pupal stage, overwinter, and emerge as an adult in the spring.

The ornate checkered beetles are found on flowers as they forage on pollen. The adults will also eat other insects like bees, flies and wasps that they encounter on the flower. I found them on the rosy plectritus in the wildflower garden in front of the pavilion and on the yellow cinquefoil in the south meadow.

Researching the life of this beetle was fascinating! It reminded me that there are millions of unseen forces that are part of the fabric of life shaping the world in which we live giving it endless wonder and beauty.

Resources

iNatrualist: https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/89030-pollinator-of-the-month-ornate-checkered-beetle-trichoda-ornatus

Ornate Checkered Beetles Eat Bees and Pollen | Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine | University of Colorado Boulder. https://www.colorado.edu/asmagazine/2018/06/28/ornate-checkered-beetles-eat-bees-and-pollen. Accessed 17 June 2026.

“Trichodes Ornatus (Ornate Checkered Beetle).” 10,000 Things of the Pacific Northwest, 25 June 2021, http://10000thingsofthepnw.com/2021/06/24/trichodes-ornatus-ornate-checkered-beetle/.

Ticks

Patrick and I went out birding for a little while last Sunday evening and while we were walking down the road that goes out to the quarry, I saw a tick on the tip of a grass stalk sticking out over the road. Then Patrick saw one. Then I found another one. And so it went for the next 100 feet or so until we had counted 25! That was enough to give us a little bit of the creepy crawlies and we decided that was enough scanning the tips of grass stalks for ticks and went back to birding.

I was certainly amazed out how many there were and how all of them had found their way to the tip of vegetation at the edge of the road where they could easily latch on to a dog or to someone’s pant leg as they brushed against the grass. They were all facing head down at the tip and most of them had their front legs spread out ready to grab on to their next host, hopefully it wasn’t me and Patrick. I learned that this behavior of crawling out to the tip of vegetation, spreading their front legs, and waiting for a host to come by is called questing.

Ticks go through 4 stages: egg, larva, nymph, and adult. A female tick lays her eggs in the fall in leaf litter most likely near animal trails so the newly hatched larva can easily find a host when they hatch. I read varying figures on how many eggs a female tick will lay. Depending on the species it can vary from one to three to five thousand. That seems like a ton of eggs to me for such a small creature. This completes her life cycle so after laying eggs, she will die. When the egg hatches and the larva emerge,it only has six legs. I imagine that it would take magnification to observe this because the larva are about the size of a grain of sand. At this stage the tiny larva will feed on its host and can become infected with the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. After feeding on its host, the larva will detach and overwinter in leaf litter and molt into nymphs in the spring. At this stage they have eight legs, are as small as a poppy seed, and will find another host to continue their life cycle. Because they are so small and difficult to detect at this phase, a number of websites reported that the nymph stage is primarily responsible for the transmission of Lyme disease. After feeding on their host, they will again detach, continue to develop, molt into adults by that fall, and mate. Then the female will lay eggs to start the life cycle over again. Adding it all up and depending on the species, the life cycle of tick takes two to three years to complete. I was surprised that it takes so long.

Ticks fall into two categories: hard ticks and soft ticks. This one is a hard tick. In attempting to identify this tick, I learned that identifying ticks isn’t as easy as I thought. So at this point, I am not sure which species this one is.

On the Dechutes County government website it has this to say about tick species in Oregon: “About 20 species of hard ticks are found in Oregon, but only four are known to prey on humans: western black-legged tick, Rocky Mountain wood tick, American dog tick and Pacific Coast tick.

The western black-legged tick is the only known carrier of Lyme disease in Oregon. The other known vectors of Lyme disease in the United States are the deer tick in the eastern part of the country and the eastern black-legged tick in the southeast.” That said, the other ticks can carry the bacteria that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Ticks and the diseases they transmit are a serious concern. It is important to do research on how to prevent ticks from getting on you by do things like avoiding high tick areas or treating your clothes with repelents. It is also essential to do tick checks and know how to remove them properly. It is also necessary to know how to kill ticks that might be on your clothes after a hike in order to stay safe once you are back home.

I always recommend that you do research into to ticks or any subject I write about to learn more. I try to make my blog informative and inspiring, but I keep most entries short and there is always far more to know and investigate into any subject than I present. I put some online resources that I read below.

Thank you for taking time to read my blog and your interest in becoming more connected to the word around us.

Resources
CDC. “Tick Lifecycles.” Ticks, 11 May 2026, https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/about/tick-lifecycles.html.

“Oregon Hard Tick ID.” Columbia Drainage Vector Control District, https://www.cdvcd.org/oregon-hard-tick-id. Accessed 13 June 2026.

The Tick Lifecycle – Lyme & Tick-Borne Disease Testing & Statistics. https://www.ticklab.org/blog/2020/12/01/the-tick-lifecycle/. Accessed 13 June 2026.

Ticks and Tick Prevention | Deschutes County, OR. https://www.deschutescounty.gov/773/Ticks-and-Tick-Prevention. Accessed 13 June 2026.

Veterinarian, ADEC Office of the State. Tick Identification | AK Dept. of Environmental Conservation. https://dec.alaska.gov/eh/vet/ticks/tick-identification/. Accessed 13 June 2026.

The No Mad Nomad Bee

I took a photograph of this bee, put it into iNaturalist, and it said that it was a nomad bee. This bee was so chill that it let me photograph it and check it out up close. So, my first thought was to play with around with the name and call this bee a “no mad” bee. Its motto is “bee happy.”

The genus name Nomada means roaming or wandering. They wander the landscape in search of host nests of solitary bees like mining bees where they will deposit their eggs. When the nomad bee egg hatches, it will kill the host offspring and eat the provisions of pollen and nectar gathered by the host bee for its offspring. Nomad bees are kleptoparasites. Klepto means to steal and parasite means to live at another’s expense.

Since they don’t build their own nests, they don’t gather pollen. So they lack the specialized hairs on their legs or underneath their abdomen known as a scopa for carrying pollen. In the photo, you can see that some pollen has incidentally collected on the front of its head as it foraged for nectar on the flowers of Oregon sunshine.

I found these bees in the wildflower garden in front of the pavilion. I also wandered around looking for where they might be laying their eggs and was unable to locate their host bee nests. I’ll keep looking and let you know when I find one.

I hope that everyone has been enjoying spring. Sorry I haven’t posted much lately. I have been a super busy bee myself. Looking forward to some lazy days of summer right around the corner. I look forward to seeing you out there.

Mosquitoes

As all of us have experienced, mosquitoes can drive you crazy while you are trying to sleep or enjoy a hike and their bites are itchy. I know that it is difficult to recognize that mosquitoes are a valuable food source in a diverse, healthy, thriving ecosystem. During their aquatic life cycle they provide food for animals such as fish and macro invertebrates like dragonfly nymphs. As adults, mosquitoes are food for animals such as bats, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects and spiders.

The female bites mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians in order to obtain the blood she needs to produce her eggs. She lays her eggs on the water or along the perimeter of wetlands or moist, swampy areas. The egg, larva, and pupal stages are aquatic and so water is essential to a mosquito’s life cycle. Depending on the species, females deposit their eggs singly or in clusters called rafts. The male adult mosquito doesn’t bite. It lacks the mouthparts needed to pierce the skin.

Interestingly, both male and female mosquitoes feed mainly on nectar and other carbohydrates like fruit juices. I wondered if mosquitoes pollinated flowers. According to a page on the US Forest Service website, they do! Here’s an excerpt from that page: “In 1913, it was first determined that mosquitoes are pollinators too! In the early 1970s, scientists determined that the Aedes communis was an important pollinator of Platanthera obtusata, the blunt-leaf orchid. In fact, many mosquitoes around the world pollinate small flowers that live in wetter environments.

This snowpool mosquito eats the nectar from the floral spur of the Platanthera obtusata, during which time its eye naturally comes into contact with the pollinium, a cluster of pollen. The pollinium sticks to the mosquito's eye even when it flies away. Thus, when it eats from another flower, the pollinium touches the stigma of that flower, and the flower is pollinated!” With all of the aphids I see on the leaves of oak trees at the moment, I imagine mosquitoes are drawn to the sugary secretions of aphids as a food source as well.

While recognizing their role in the environment, I also want to acknowledge that in many parts of the world mosquitoes are a serious issue. They transmit many viruses and parasites that cause terrible diseases that lead to much suffering and death. In the United States, West Nile virus, for example, is transmitted by mosquitos and is a growing health concern for humans and for birds. It is highly lethal to crows and other corvids like jays. To say the least, our relationship and history with mosquitoes is complex and I hope that someday it will find its way to a being in balance.

I hope this post inspired you to learn more about mosquitoes. Nature is an exhaustible source of wonder and mystery. I hope to see you out there!

Resources
Falkner, Mirna. “Mosquito Facts - 29 Things You Didn’t Know about Mosquitoes.” Www.cumberlandcountynj.gov, www.cumberlandcountynj.gov/mosquito-29.

Kachur, Torah. “New Study Finds Mosquitoes Don’t Just Lay Eggs in Standing Water.” CBC, 13 Apr. 2017, www.cbc.ca/news/science/mosquito-eggs-water-1.4069272.

“Mosquito Biology | Cape May County, NJ - Official Website.” Capemaycountynj.gov, capemaycountynj.gov/489/Mosquito-Biology.

Rafferty, John P. “What Purposes Do Mosquitoes Serve in Ecosystems? | Britannica.” Www.britannica.com, 3 Mar. 2022, www.britannica.com/story/what-purposes-do-mosquitoes-serve-in-ecosystems.

Statman-Weil, Zoe. “Aedes Communis: The Pollinating Mosquito.” Www.fs.usda.gov, www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/aedes_communis.shtml.

Portal

I was walking along the trail and looked over to see a caterpillar making a hole in an osoberry leaf. As soon as I saw the caterpillar, it stood straight up and became as still as a statue. It had a majestic air with its erect posture and its feet poised in front of its body. It felt like a sacred guardian was standing watch over a portal, a doorway that led to a deeper awareness of the interconnectedness of nature. How would I fit through this small hole? I became captivated by wonder as I watched the stillness and patience of this creature. Its body had a beautiful color, pattern, and shape. Its back feet were strong and had a sturdy grip on the leaf. It kept its posture and balance as the leaf swayed in the wind. After watching the caterpillar for a bit, I leaned back up to look around. I noticed the air was filled with singing birds, rustling leaves, rushing water, and buzzing insects. A light breeze swirled around with the sweet scent of flowers and it felt good as it brushed across my face. The light shimmered across the landscape of spring green. I looked back at the leaf and the caterpillar had disappeared. I said thank you and waved goodbye.

Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I hope to see you out there.

Caterpillar on Larkspur

On a patch of Larkspur, caterpillars were steadily eating the leaves. Small black pellets of frass dotted the leaves below. They were becoming plump and green. Pregnant from the energy of the sun captured by the leaves, they were ready to perform some of their own mysterious alchemy. They were going underneath the leaves. Where the leaf petiole met the base of the leaf blade, they were eating the underside of the leaf. This was causing the leaf blade to began to wilt as it nutrient supply was being cut off. As a result, the leaf died, turned a mottled brown, and draped like a cloth over them. Hidden inside they started spinning their silk cocoons. I don’t know what beautiful creature will emerge on some starry night, maybe it will visit me in my dreams.

Black Fly Larvae

There is a small creek that flows down the hillside at the entrance to the arboretum. The creek’s source of water is rain. So it starts flowing in the fall when the rain returns and stops flowing sometime in June when the rain mostly dries up for the summer.

Below the bridge next to the White Oak Pavilion, there is a small rocky bed where black fly larvae are attached to some of the rocks. Its body is shaped like a bowling pin. The bulbous part of its abdomen is attached to the rock. Moving upward, its body tapers in a little before slightly expanding outward to its black head.

To adhere to a rock, stick or other debris, they weave a silken pad and use small hooks located on their abdomen to hold onto it. They will position themselves in the current where they can capture food from the water flowing over their bodies. They use comb-like structures near their mouth that look like eyelashes to filter out microscopic food like algae and bacteria.

Like all organisms on the earth, they have evolved to have a role in the well-being of the environment where they live. They contribute to the health of the ecology of the stream by filtering algae and bacteria out of the water for food which provides the benefit of improving water quality. In addition, black flies are an important food source for fish such as trout. In the last source listed below, the Angler’s Covey website has a Bug of the Month fly tying video by Brian Hilbert at the end of the article. Trout will eat the larvae and the emerging adults floating to the surface. Dragonflies, birds and amphibians will forage on the adult flies. I have often seen American dippers gleaning the rocks in the current of a stream and I now wonder if they were eating black fly larvae.

I tilted one on the rocks a little to try and get a better photo and their bodies quickly contracted and hugged the face of the rock for protection. Seeing that wasn’t going to work, I returned the rock, but the larvae were a little out of the flowing water. As I watched, some of them starting moving back over into the current. They grabbed onto the rock with their mouths, detached their abdomen, moved it over, and then reattached. They repeated this until they were back in a suitable spot.

Some of them were disturbed enough that they detached. They are able to move downstream on a silken thread and reattach in another location by weaving another pad. The silk is thin like a spider silk and mostly undetectable in the water. I managed to get my camera at an angle where I could catch the sunlight on the thread. I pointed it out with a red arrow in a photo below.

After reading about the life cycle of black flies, I went back to try and find the pupae or emerging adults. I found the pupae on the underside of the rock. The pupae were inside these cocoons that were open on one side. A branched respiratory organ that looked like root hairs waving around in the water extended outward on one side. To adapt to the fluctuations in the water level, the pupae are miraculously able to obtain oxygen in or out of the water. I was unable to locate any newly emerged adults on the rocks or vegetation next to the creek. I’ll keep checking and let you know if I find any.

Thanks for reading my blog. I recommend reading some of the articles listed below for more information. Spring is exploding with life and I hope you are able to get out and do some exploring.

Sources
“Black Fly (Family Simuliidae).” Field Station, 3 Apr. 2012, https://uwm.edu/field-station/bug-of-the-week/black-fly/.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Black Fly Biology. https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dep/programs-and-services/bureau-of-labs/vector-management/black-fly/biology. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.

Leinweber, Rachel. “Bug of the Month: The Often Ignored Blackfly Larvae.” Angler’s Covey, 14 Feb. 2024, https://anglerscovey.com/2024/02/14/bug-of-the-month-all-about-blackfly-larvae/.

Fimbriate Gall Forming

I’m back with an update on the fimbriate gall wasp. The leaves are emerging and there are fuzzy, bright crimson galls starting to form! I love the vibrant red color and as posted before, I want to add my own common name crimson comet gall for this gall.

There is an unimaginable amount of life unfolding around me that it is dizzying to think about. An event, such as the laying of eggs by these gall wasps, has a tiny window in which to witness it. On top of that, the wasps are tiny and easily overlooked too. Observing nature is a mix of things. Sometimes it involves researching what I am interested in seeing and being informed so that I set myself up to be successful by being at the right place at the right time. Most times it is about being curious, staying tuned into my awareness of all my senses, and trying to quiet my mind.

In the poem Sometimes by Mary Oliver, she wrote:
“Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”

So here I am trying to pay attention, be astonished, and tell you about it in my blog in hopes that you will be inspired to spend time wandering around outside exploring nature. Thanks for checking out my blog. I hope that you are enjoying spring. See you out there!

P.S. The last photo below shows an old leaf from last year that is still hanging on and it looks like it had a fimbriate gall on it.

Gall Wasp Laying Egg

The leaves and the male catkins have been bursting out of their buds over the past week. I have been out exploring the oak limbs and admiring the beauty of the rose-colored tips of the new leaves. I found a tree where the buds were just about to open and discovered a small insect clinging to many of them. It appeared that it was injecting its ovipositor into the bud to lay eggs. I was so excited to find these, and I immediately wondered if it was a gall wasp. My guess is that it is possibly the fimbriate gall wasp (Blog Post: Fimbriate Gall Wasp, May 1, 2024). To find out, I went and fetched a couple of pieces of twine and tied them to 4 or 5 places where the insects were laying their eggs. When the leaves emerge, I will see if a gall is forming. I’ll keep you posted on what I discover.

As the days grow longer, I hope that you are finding time to be out in nature immersing all of your senses in the spring weather, wild flowers, hatching insects, bird song, etc. Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I’ll see you out there.

Northwestern Salamander Eggs & Algae

It can take from 4 to 8 weeks for the eggs of northwestern salamander to hatch, develop into larvae, and exit the gelatinous egg cell. As the salamanders develop, a symbiotic relationship forms. Algae starts to grow inside the gelatinous fluid surrounding the developing embryo. The algae uses the carbon dioxide and nitrogenous waste from the developing embryo for photosynthesis and cell growth. In exchange, the embryo gets the vital oxygen it needs and a balanced embryonic environment from the removal/recycling of its waste. Amazing!

Humble Bumble House

The weather has been very springy out this week with unseasonably warm temperatures and sunny skies. The flowers are starting to bloom and bumble bee queens have awoken from their long winter’s nap. I have seen them nectaring on red-flowering currant, hound’s tongue, and Oregon grape. To seize the day, I made a small bumble bee house to hopefully attract a queen to build a hive.

I cleared a small bit of ground and put some sticks down to form a base. Then I put a flat rock on top of that to act as a platform for a mouse nest. This will hopefully keep it off the ground to help it stay dry. Bumble bees are attracted to the scent of old rodent nests to start new colonies in the spring. The rodent burrow provides a dry cavity and the old nest provides insulation to help the queen keep the new hive warm. I put a flower pot on top to act as the cavity. I added some some rocks on top to slightly elevate the lid so the drain hole in the bottom of the flower pot can allow for some ventilation. I created a small entrance with a few branches and put some rocks in between as a porch for bees to land on. I covered the pot with leaves and put some old pieces of wood in the front as a small roof for the entrance.

The life of a bumble bee colony is an annual cycle. It starts off in the spring when the overwintering queen emerges. She will start the nest by building small wax cells to lay her eggs which will be female worker bees. When these bees hatch, they will start helping to build the nest and forage for nectar and pollen for the developing larvae. At this point the queen will stay in the hive and focus on laying eggs. Depending on the species and the availability of forage in the environment, the nest will grow over the summer to be about the size of a small football and contain 50 to 400 or 500 bees. In the late summer, the queen will lay eggs that develop into males and new queens. The males and new queens will leave the colony in search of mates from other colonies. The males don’t return to the nest at this point and you might see them spending the night on plants. The new queens will continue to return to the colony until it is time to search for places to hibernate at the end of the summer. The old queen, the female workers, and the male bees will all die at the end of the season. Next spring the cycle starts over again.

The bumble bee nest is not as orderly as that of the honey bee with its honeycomb of hexagonal cells. Bumble bees make clusters of spherical cells for raising brood and storing small amounts of honey. Over the summer as the colony grows, the nest develops into this fascinating conglomeration of cells. Hopefully a queen bumble bee will find my flower pot and find it an enticing place to start a new colony.

Source
“Bumble Bees: Nesting and Overwintering | Xerces Society.” Xerces.org, xerces.org/bumble-bees/nesting-overwintering.

“Bumblebee Nests.” Bumblebee Conservation Trust, https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/learn-about-bumblebees/beginners/bumblebee-nests/. Accessed 18 Mar. 2026.

Wolf Lichen

I took a photo of this brightly colored yellow-green llichen and iNaturalist identified it as a wolf lichen. I wondered if the color of the lichen resembled the color of a wolf’s eye or its eye shine seen at night. Or perhaps wolves were known to use it as food to gain vital nutrients or medicine in some way. Or perhaps it was somehow used in courtship and pair bonding. I didn’t know and my imagination was filled with wonder and curiosity.

The Latin name of this lichen is Letharia vulpina. Letharia translates to “lethal or deadly” and vulpina translates to “fox.” From the results of DNA testing this lichen was split into two species to include Letharia lupina. Lupina translates to “wolf.” It is lethal to foxes and wolves because of the bright yellow pigment in the thallus known as vulpinic acid, which is toxic to meat eaters. I read that in Northern Europe in the 1750’s this lichen was ground into a powder and sprinkled on meat or mixed into fat with ground glass and put into dead animal carcasses to poison and kill wolves and foxes too as the Latin name suggests. That is where the name wolf lichen originates. The only association with wolves and this lichen is humans using it as a poison to kill them! This name has to be changed. Many peoples and cultures revere wolves, foxes, and other members of the Canidae family like coyotes, myself included. They are beautiful, sovereign creatures that share and call the earth their home and are important in supporting the balance of nature.

The part that also struck me as interesting is that with some lichens like this one, I forget that it has a photobiont inside that is photosynthesizing because it isn’t green at all. The cortex of some lichens contain pigments like the bright yellow vulpinic acid of Letharia vulpina. These pigments serve as a sunscreen for the photobiont against excessive UV radiaton from the sun. Some lichen pigments also contain antimicrobial properties that protect it from bacteria and other fungi. I also learned on a lichen walk out at the arboretum that this antimicrobial property deters the growth of surrounding moss from overtaking it.

The cortex of many lichens also change color in response to moisture. For example, when the cortex of Lobaria pulmonaria becomes hydrated, it becomes translucent revealing the photobiont inside and the lichen turns green. When Lobaria pulmonaria dries out, the cortex becomes opaque to protect the photobioant inside and the lichen turns brown or gray color. See my post: Rehydrating Lichen 01/30/23.

I hope that you are enjoying the lengthening daylight and all of the birdsong and spring flowers. Nature is an inexhaustible source of wonder. I hope to see you out there.

Resources
“Letharia Vulpina Complex (Wolf Lichens).” 10,000 Things of the Pacific Northwest, 4 Dec. 2020, http://10000thingsofthepnw.com/2020/12/04/letharia-vulpina-complex-wolf-lichens/.

Mirus, Rachel Sargent, and The Center for Northern Woodlands Education. “Lichen Colors Offer Protection.” The Center for Northern Woodlands Education, 20 Dec. 2021, https://northernwoodlands.org/outside_story/article/lichen-colors.

Xanthorhoe

This day I had noticed small debris drifting through the air. Chickadees and jays were poking around the upper canopy of the trees dislodging bits of leaves, lichen and moss as they looked for food. This fragment was different. It danced across the sky above me. It fluttered up and down. There was the slightest movement of air that I only noticed as I stood still, which I often do. This papery snippet seemed lighter than air. It floated. I watched it gracefully tumble down in front of me. It landed. I briefly lost it, like it had been absorbed into earth. I walked over and slowly kneeled on the ground where it landed. A creature was resting. Small waves washed over its body—brown bands of sediments settled on a sandy shore as the water slowly receded after a rain. These undulations reminded me of the elements of the earth that are pulsing through its body the same as mine. We are alive together in this moment. We sat quietly observing the world.

Coyote Marking Territory

This coyote has been hanging around the entrance to the arboretum for a while this winter, which I have seen individuals do in years past at this time of year. Usually it keeps its distance as it hunts and roams around the open, grassy areas, but this year this one has become a bit more comfortable with people. A few people have reported to me that they have seen people feeding it in the parking lot, but I have not witnessed it myself. That might help explain why it has been seen more frequently in and around the parking lot. Please do not feed any animals at the arboretum. This day, I was photographing some lichen on an oak branch, when I looked over to see that it had snuck up on me. It was watching me and inquisitively sniffing the air. It then slowly trotted a little ways up the gravel road leading to the administrative building, stopped, and defecated on the road—a bold statement indeed. What is it saying?

Coyote scat is frequently found on the trails at the arboretum. Like other canines, it defecates in conspicuous spots like trails, roads, prominent rocks, or other elevated spots such as fallen trees. The intentions of placing the scat in these locations is primarily to communicate to other coyotes and animals that this is its territory. Under the section on red foxes in his book Tracking and the Art of Seeing, Paul Rezendes says, “Most wild canines have anal scent glands and are actually depositing scent on scat. Some scientists believe that animals can identify other individuals from these scents.” Beyond establishing who you are and your territory, what information is being passed on to other coyotes and animals in these scents is not fully understood, as far as I can ascertain from the reading I have done so far.

The message I took away from the coyote defecating on the trail is that the coyote is a beautiful, fascinating creature that calls the arboretum its home. I need to honor its life by respecting its right to be here, and be a thoughtful steward of the arboretum in order that it may flourish and give it space to live out its life here in peace and harmony.

Resource
Rezendes, Paul. Tracking & the Art of Seeing: How to Read Animal Tracks & Sign. 2nd ed., HarperCollins, 1999.