The Ancient Dread

Reptiles evoke a strong reaction in people.  Fear, disgust, horror are all quite common responses to these cold-blooded creatures.  I am not in that group but when I come upon a snake by surprise, it can make me jump.  Think of the stories.  The serpent in the garden.  Dragons and maidens.  Man-eating crocs.  There are good reasons for these stories.  Snakes are a perfect embodiment of the other.  Cold blood, no legs, forked tongue, and some can kill with a bite.  The largest reptiles, the crocodilians, can eat us.  As David Quammen wrote in his book on top predators, The Monster of God, “It is one thing to be dead; it is another thing to be meat”.   The otherness, the fear of death or even the fear of consumption tint much of humankind’s view of reptiles. 

People have an innate, genetically based, fear of snakes.  Young children do not initially fear snakes but are very good at detecting them.  With a little training, that high degree of perception can turn to fear.  This leeriness had survival value for our ancestors and it is still with us today. 

A large Western Diamondback Rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox)
in Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, Texas

The largest venomous snakes in North America are the Diamondback Rattlesnakes. There are Eastern and Western species and these big snakes (Crotalus adamantus and Crotalus atrox) and they are the most dangerous venomous snakes in the United States.  Their great threat is because they can deliver a large dose of venom through their hollow fangs.  Diamondbacks are pit vipers, so named because of two pits that lay between their eyes and nostrils.   These pits are the snakes’ infrared detectors used to find their warm-blooded prey.  Pit vipers have broad heads and menacing eyes with vertical pupils. Diamondbacks usually consume small to moderate sized mammals, ranging from mice to rabbits. When a Diamondback Rattlesnake bites, the prey animal staggers off to die.  The snake tracks the stricken animal by its heat signature and smell, using its tongue.  When the unfortunate mammal is incapacitated, the snake eats it.  Diamondback venom works by interfering with blood clotting proteins, destroying red blood cells and damaging tissue.  Mortality for people bitten by the Eastern Diamondback is 10-30%.  Eastern Diamondbacks are listed as a species of least concern but the last Eastern Diamondback in Louisiana was seen in 1995.  The species may also be extinct in North Carolina.  Western Diamondbacks are more common but are also under pressure including rattlesnake roundups.  

A small Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix), showing its vertical
pupil split, Rowan County, North Carolina

In our part of the world, the most common pit viper is the Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix).  

Copperheads are handsome snakes with a brown background with a pattern of darker brown, irregularly-shaped stripes.  The head of this species is reddish-brown and gives the snake the name Copperhead.  Copperheads hunt small animals including mammals, other snakes and frogs.  Interestingly they have a real taste for cicadas, large insects that emerge each summer and fill the air with their songs.  Copperhead bites are painful but rarely fatal to people.  This is good because Copperheads have taken to living among people in rural and suburban settings.

A Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpintina)
lumbering on land. Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Florida

Turtles generally do not elicit the repulsion or fear inspired by some other reptiles but Snapping Turtles are a special case.  The Common Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina) is found in the eastern two thirds of the United States and southern Canada inhabiting freshwater lakes, ponds and streams.  Adult Common Snapping Turtles can reach a length of 18 inches and weigh over 35 pounds. Common Snapping Turtles have a large head with a beak, a long neck, a long saw-toothed tail and keels on the shell. It looks dangerous.  These turtles spend most of their time in water, but will come on land to move between bodies of water or to lay eggs.  Common Snapping Turtles are the top predator in their environment and consume fish, amphibians, small mammals and even plants.  Common Snapping Turtles usually do not bite people but have a fearsome reputation and will respond aggressively if picked up.    

The head of a Common Snapping Turtle.  Note the strongly hooked beak
and spines on the top of the head.

The tail of a Common Snapping Turtle with spines.

Alligators and crocodiles are the largest of the living reptiles and they are the most feared.  The American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) is native to the Southeastern United States.  American Alligators are black with wide heads and laterally compressed tails.  The males can reach 15 feet in length and weigh up to 1000 pounds.  American Alligators cruise the water with just their nostrils and eyes showing and that is a chilling sight.  These large reptiles were hunted to near extinction in the 20^th Century but their numbers and range have increased with protection. They eat anything they can catch including fish, crustaceans, snakes, turtles and mammals.  While human fatalities due to American Alligators are rare, they do have a taste for dogs.  

An American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) swimming
in a South Florida waterway.  Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.

The silhouette of an American Alligator with its nostrils,
 eyes and spiny back above the surface of the water.
 Payne's Prairie State Park, Florida.

American Crocodiles (Crocodylus acutus) are even larger than American Alligators.  Large males can reach 20 feet and weigh up to 2000 pounds.  American Crocodiles are found in northern South American, Central America, Caribbean Islands and extreme South Florida.  American Crocodiles are lighter in color than American Alligators and have a pointed snout with teeth protruding from the lips.  Populations of American Crocodiles have increased in South Florida and they are now classified as threatened rather than endangered.  There are some documented cases of attacks on people by American Crocodiles and a few fatalities.  

American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) basking on the banks of the
Rio Tarcoles, Costa Rica.

An American Crocodile in the Rio Tarcoles, Costa Rica.  Crocodile's teeth
are visible when the jaw is closed.  

There is no question that some reptiles are dangerous.  When someone is bitten by a snake or attacked by an alligator there is a tremendous amount of public interest.  Around 20 people died of alligator attacks in the United States since the year 2000.  About five people per year die from snakebites.  Despite these relatively low numbers of fatalities, reptiles have an exaggerated place in our collective sense of danger.  I say, resist your ancient dread, be cautious, and enjoy the reptiles. 

Something About Maples

Maple trees run deep in our consciousness.  These magnificent trees grace the national flag of Canada, give us maple syrup and even give us some of the bats in Major League Baseball.  Maples are classified in the genus Acer and most are found in the Northern Hemisphere from Asia through Europe to North America. All maples have opposite leaves (two leaves come out at a node) and the leaves are lobed, or in a couple of species compound.  In the fall of the year, maple leaves turn red or orange or yellow and generally put on a spectacular show.  Another characteristic of maples is their winged seeds that fly like helicopters to disperse the plant.  There are more than 120 Acer species worldwide.  Asia has the highest diversity of maples but there are about a dozen species in North America. 

The winged fruits, the samaras, of Red Maple (Acer rubrum)

Acer rubrum, the Red Maple is perhaps the most common deciduous tree in North America.  It grows from the Canadian Maritimes, west to the Great Lakes, South to Texas and down the length of the Florida peninsula.  Red maple’s great range is due to its adaptability.  This tree can grow in poor rocky soil or with its feet wet in a river bottom swamp.  Red Maple thrives in rich, slightly acidic, soil and can grow to a height of more than 100 feet.  Red maple reproduces in late winter when it puts out small red flowers. Each tree bears separate male and female flowers.  The petals of maples are tiny because they are not trying to attract insects but are wind pollinated.  The female flowers produce winged fruits, the samaras.  Red Maples usually make a pair of samaras per flower and these are bright red.  The fruits mature and fly from the tree during the summer. 

Early spring male flowers of Red Maple.  These flowers have highly
reduced petals and five stamens.

Female flowers of Red Maple.  Each has two
stigmas extending from the top that accept pollen .

Female flowers of Red Maple with young developing fruits.

Red Maple with maturing samaras.  They
will turn red in a few days.

A large group of Red Maple fruits beginning to turn red.

Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) has a more northerly distribution than Red Maple.  It was originally absent from the Southeastern United States but is now widely grown as an ornamental tree.  Sugar Maple’s claim to fame is as the source of maple syrup.  In late winter, the tree begins to mobilize sugars that were stored in the roots and transports them to the shoots.  There the sugar is used to power the growth of the new leaves.  For the last couple of winters students and professors at Catawba College in Salisbury, NC, have been tapping maples on campus and making their own syrup.   These sugarers inserted taps into the sapwood of the tree, collected the sap and boiled it to make the syrup.  North Carolina is not the best place for a maple syrup operation but these students and professors collected 20 gallons of sap and made a half gallon of syrup.    

Fall leaves of Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum).

A Catawba College student using a drill to tap
a Sugar Maple tree. Photo courtesy of Dr. Jay Bolin.

                                         
                                              Sap dripping from a tap in a Sugar Maple tree.
                                                       Video courtesy of Dr. Jay Bolin.

A Catawba College student sampling maple syrup.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Jay Bolin.

Maples offer delight throughout the year.  They signal the end of winter with their red flowers.  They enchant with helicoptering fruit. And in the fall, they dazzle with their brightly colored leaves.  Enjoy.

Spring Ephemerals

In early spring, before the trees leaf out, the forest floor is flooded with light. In this narrow window of warming temperatures and abundant sunshine, a hardy group of plants rush to reproduce. They are the spring ephemerals. These plants are perennials that spend most of the year underground, as a root or stem. But, as the days lengthen the spring ephemerals push up their leaves, produce flowers, make fruits, then die back to await the next spring. In colder regions, the spring ephemerals can flower while there is still snow on the ground.

Hepatica (Anemone americana), a spring ephemeral, in flower and showing
its three lobed leaves.  

A Piedmont deciduous forest
in late February.  This is prime habitat for spring ephemerals. 

Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) is a beautiful spring ephemeral with oblong, pointed green leaves mottled with purple. This leaf pattern looks like a trout in a stream and gives the plant its common name.  Plants bearing flowers usually have a pair of leaves. Trout lily flowers are yellow with reflexed petals and deep reddish-brown stamens. Trout Lilies can propagate vegetatively and grow in large colonies.

Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) with its trout patterened
leaves and yellow flowers.

Closeup of Trout Lily flower showing its reddish-brown stamens
and yellow, reflexed petals..

Trout Lilies showing the paired leaves. 

Bloodroot’s (Sanguinaria canadensis) dramatic name comes from its deep-orange colored sap. Bloodroot, like other members of the poppy family produces toxic molecules to protect the plant from animal grazers. Bloodroot flowers in late winter and makes a single flower with many white petals and bright yellow stamens. Bloodroot generally makes one multi-lobed leaf that wraps around the base of the flower.

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria candensis) flower just opening. Note the lobed
leaf at the base of the flower. 

Bloodroot flower opening. 

Closeup of Bloodroot flower. 

Bloodroot flower. 

Bloodroot plant with lobed leaf and a developing fruit.

For such a small plant, Hepatica or Liverleaf (Anemone americana) is quite spectacular. The name Hepatica comes from the Latin for liver. The second common name, Liverleaf, echoes the Latin because, like livers, the leaves of this plant have lobes. Hepatica found a use in folk medicine to treat liver disease based on the Doctrine of Signatures. This medieval medical idea stated that plants advertised their usefulness by their appearance. So by the Doctrine of Signatures the Toothwort plant was used to treat toothache, Spleenwort to treat disorders of the spleen and Hepatica to treat liver disease. Hepatica makes the first purple flowers of spring. These flowers rely on the earliest flying pollinators like bumblebees for reproduction.  But, if the spring is cold and pollinators are not available, Hepatica can also carryout self-pollination. Unlike most spring ephemerals, the leaves of Hepatica persist through the year. The leaves turn dark red in fall and the following spring they are replaced the by new, green leaves.

A Hepatica plant with multiple flowers.

In the Piedmont of North Carolina, look for spring ephemerals from late February to mid-April. They run their rapid life cycle in the leaf litter of mature forests. But look quick, they are ephemeral.

Pelicans, Brown and White

A Brown Pelican (Pelicanus occidentalis) soaring
over the bay at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas

In 1910, Dixon Lanier Merritt, American educator, journalist, poet and ornithologist published the beloved limerick:

A wonderful bird is the pelican,

His bill will hold more than his belican,

He can take in his beak

Enough food for a week

But I'm damned if I see how the helican!

Mr. Merritt got to the heart of pelican uniqueness, that extravagant beak.  Pelicans plunge dive or scoop up a volume of water from the surface that contains fish or other small animals.  They force the water out of the pouch and swallow their food.  But there are other fascinating aspects of pelican life to consider.  There are eight species of pelicans in the world and they range from the tropics to temperate areas.  Pelicans are found along seacoasts and the interior of all continents except South America and Antarctica.  The name pelican is derived from the Greek word for axe and that axe is the beak.  The pelican was an important symbol in medieval Christianity.  Female pelicans were thought to pierce their own breasts and feed their young of the blood.  The bleeding pelican is an iconic image found in cathedrals throughout Europe. 

Brown Pelicans and White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) on a sandbar. 
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Texas 

In North America, we are blessed with two species of pelicans, the Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) and the American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos).  The scientific name of the Brown Pelican means “western pelican” since its distribution is limited to the New World.  The scientific name of the White Pelican means “red-nosed pelican”.  While the American White Pelican’s beak is not exactly red, it is bright yellow. 

Brown Pelican at Huntington Beach State Park, South Carolina.
This is an immature bird with a brown head and neck. 

Brown Pelicans are found along the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts of North America, the American tropics and the Galapagos Islands.  They are not a strongly migratory species but they will wander after nesting.   Brown Pelicans are large with a wingspan of over six feet.  Their overall color is brown, with a white head and neck.  The top of the head turns yellow in the breeding season.  Brown Pelicans are gregarious and are often seen flying in vee-formations along the shoreline.  They also nest is groups, sometimes on small islands.  One such nest island is in the Indian River on the Atlantic coast of Central Florida.  Named Pelican Island, this tiny dot of sand and mangrove and has an outsized role in the history conservation.  Pelican Island was designated first National Wildlife Refuge in the country at the opening of the 20^th century.  At that time, plume hunters provided feathers for ladies’ hats and were destroying bird rookeries throughout southern Florida.  Pelican Island and several Audubon Society refuges in Florida marked the beginning of modern bird protection.  As populations of Brown Pelicans recovered from hunting, another threat arose.  The insecticide DDT came into widespread use in the latter half of the 20^th century.  This toxin washed into waterways, found its way into the food chain and reached dangerous levels in top predators like the Brown Pelican.  One of the most pernicious effects of DDT was it interfered with eggshell production.  Pelicans still mated and laid eggs but the shells of these eggs were so thin the parents broke the eggs while incubating.  Brown Pelican numbers crashed because of DDT and the bird was placed on the Federal Endangered Species list.  With the banning of DDT in the 1970's, Brown Pelican populations have rebounded and it is now listed as a species of least concern. 

An American White Pelican at High Rock Dam in Rowan County, North Carolina.
This pelican has the horn on the upper beak indicating
the onset of the breeding season.

American White Pelicans, with their 9-foot wingspans, are even larger than Brown Pelicans and second only in size to California Condors in North America.  American White Pelicans are white with black flight feathers.  Their legs are orange and the large beak is yellow.  During the breeding season, American White Pelicans develop a horn on the top of their beak.  Male and female pelicans both grow the horn and it falls off after the female lays her eggs.  The distribution of American White Pelicans reflects their highly migratory nature.  American White Pelicans breed on inland lakes and rivers in Central and Western US states and north into Canada.  These pelicans winter from Florida to California to Mexico and Central America.   

Two American White Pelicans landing in the Yadkin River below
High Rock Dam, Rowan County, North Carolina

A flock of American White Pelicans along with Double-crested Cormorants
in the Yadkin River at High Rock Dam, Rowan County, North Carolina

Visits to the southern coast allow us to see Brown Pelicans in any season and American White Pelicans during the winter.  Here on the Piedmont of North Carolina we are lucky enough to be in the migratory pattern of American White Pelicans.  A few miles from our house is a hydroelectric dam across the Yadkin River that forms High Rock Lake.  Each February, dozens of American White Pelicans stop below the dam and catch fish in the raceway.  The pelicans are already showing small horns on their beaks in February and so they are getting ready to breed.  These gigantic white birds, bobbing in the river, fascinate the fishermen who are amazed they don’t have to go to the beach to see pelicans.  This is a brief stop on American White Pelican’s long flight to the breeding grounds,  but I am always pleased to see them.    

American White Pelicans and Double-crested Cormorants at High Rock Dam,
Rowan County, North Carolina

The Winter of Monarchs

Monarchs (Danaus plexipus) are iconic butterflies.  They are the most charismatic of lepidopterans and they have captured the imagination of North Americans.  First, they are brilliantly colored and patterned; orange with black stripes and white spots.  Second, their caterpillars eat and thrive on toxic milkweed plants (Asclepius sp.).  Finally, they undertake the most epic of insect migrations.  Each year several generations of Monarch Butterflies do a serial migration from Central Mexico to the Northern United States and Southern Canada and back. 

A Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexipus) resting on the trunk of an Oyamel (Abies religiosa) tree
at the El Rosario Sanctuary in Michoacan, Mexico

We have seen all the stages of the Monarch life cycle from egg to caterpillar to adult, throughout the US.  We have also seen small parts of their migration.  In September Monarchs pass south through North Carolina.  The migration is more dramatic at gaps along the Blue Ridge Parkway with dozens of butterflies steaming through a mountain gap in an hour. 

In the mid-1970s, after decades of searching, researchers announced that millions of Monarch Butterflies spend the winter high in the fir forests of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt west of Mexico City.  This winter, Diane and I went with another naturalist couple to Mexico see this final piece if the Monarch story.  To close the circle on the Monarch life cycle.

After spending a day enjoying the cultural splendors of Mexico City we piled into a 15-passenger van with our driver and guide for the three hour drive to the mountain town of Angangueo in the state of Michoacán.  This former mining boom town is now ground zero for Monarch viewing.  Our first stop was the Sierra Chincua Monarch Sanctuary north of Angangueo.  After paying our fees, we mounted horses and rode them about halfway to the butterfly colony.  A guide accompanies every group that ascends the mountain.  This arrangement keeps visitors on the trails and provides income for people living in the area.  

Oyamel trees in the Sierra Chincua Sanctcuary, Michocan, Mexico

As we gained altitude, we entered the fog that shrouded the mountaintops and the temperature dropped. Leaving the horses, we continued to climb on foot through a moist montane forest.  Large trees including pines and broad-leafed species gave way to Oyamel, the Sacred Fir (Abies religiosa).  The understory of the forest had a variety of sage species in flower, a yellow composite and abundant mosses and lichens.  Finally, at over 10,000 we reached the butterflies.  They coated the Oyamel trunks and hung in pendulous bunches from limbs.  The temperature was in the low 50s and the humidity was 100%.  These conditions allow the Monarchs to live for months during the winter rather than the weeks typical of the butterflies in the breeding season.  We saw many butterflies through the mist and they were all resting and conserving their energy.

We visited another Monarch Sanctuary near Angangueo called El Rosario.  El Rosario was the most developed of the sanctuaries.  Shops, food stands, souvenir vendors and an impressive gate with a butterfly theme welcomed us.  Even the restrooms had butterflies enameled in the sink.  

El Rosario Sanctuary gate, Michoacan, Mexico

Butterfly sink at El Rosario Sanctuary.

Rather than ride the horses up the mountain we decided to hike.  Our guide, Pepe, was knowledgeable and very enthusiastic.  He learned we were also interested in birds and pointed out many along the trail including the impressive Red Warbler (Cardellina ruber).  This tiny bird is bright red with silver cheek patches and is abundant in the forests where the Monarchs winter.  There were also many hummingbirds including the Mexican Violetear (Colibri thalassinus).  

Red Warbler (Cardellina ruber).  El Rosario Sanctuary, Michoacan, Mexico.

Mexican Violetear (Colibri thalassinus).  

As we reached the tall Oyamels we could see the large bunches of Monarchs hanging from limbs and dead butterflies littered the ground.  Some had probably died of natural causes but some were missing their abdomen.  This is a sign the butterflies were eaten by birds.  Avian predators usually avoid Monarchs because the milkweed toxins ingested by the caterpillars are retained in the adults after metamorphosis.  But, two species of birds in these mountains, Black-backed Orioles (Icterus abeillei) and Black-headed Grosbeaks (Pheucticus melanocephalus) eat monarchs.   

Monarch Butterflies on Oyamel trunks and limbs.
El Rosario Sanctuary, Michoacan, Mexico.

Dead Monarchs, El Rosario Sanctuary, Michocan, Mexico.

Not all is rosy for the Monarchs or the people who work to offer them sanctuary.  The number of Monarchs wintering in these mountains has been in a long-term decline.  The usual suspects are to blame; habitat loss, pesticides, climate change.  People that defend monarchs are also at risk.  The director of the El Rosario Sanctuary was murdered days before we arrived.  A former guide at the Sanctuary was killed while we were in Mexico.  The poverty and economic interests to convert forest to agricultural land are pressuring the wintering grounds of the Monarchs.  There is some good news, wintering Monarch numbers have increased in the last few years, perhaps because of milkweed plantings in the US and Canada.

Monarchs resting on Oyamel trunks and flying. 
Pierda Herrada Sanctuary, Mexico, Mexico.

While it was impressive to see hundreds of thousands of Monarch Butterflies resting on tree trunks and branches, we had hoped to see them flying.  The weather had not cooperated so far. However, we had one more sanctuary to visit.  In Mexico State, Piedra Herrada Sanctuary is in the mountains above Valle de Bravo.  We hiked to the butterfly roosts at this sanctuary and it turned out to be the longest and steepest walk.  After two hours on the trail and numerous stops to enjoy the plants, birds and to breathe, we made it to the Monarchs.  The day was warm and sunny.  The forest in this sanctuary was more open and diverse than the first two we visited and the butterflies were flying.  

Monarchs feeding on a yellow composite.  Piedra Herrada, Mexico, Mexico.

Monarchs were flying high and low, landing on people, sipping nectar from the abundant flowers and putting on a fantastic show.  However, this was not a show for our benefit.  When their internal body temperature get high enough the butterflies must feed on nectar to replenish their energy supplies.  They need the energy because in late February the Monarchs begin to reproduce and begin their migration north.  The Monarchs leave their winter mountain refuges, lay eggs on milkweed plants in Northern Mexico and the Southern US and die.   Their offspring continue the migration and complete the circle. 

Monarchs on Oyamel branches, Piedra Herrada Sanctuary, Mexico, Mexico.

Cranes and Crabs

Whooping Crane at Aransas National
Wildlife Refuge, Texas

The Whooping Crane (Grus americana) is a comeback species. These cranes once ranged across North America. They were contemporaries of the great ice age animals like Giant Sloths, Mammoths and Dire Wolves. Whooping Crane fossils have been unearthed from California to Idaho to Florida. European settlers found these large birds numerous and delicious. Market hunting as well as habitat loss drove the Whooping Crane to near extinction. In the 1940s the Whooping Crane population in the wild was twenty-one birds. Now it exceeds 800.

Two adult Whooping Cranes in a marsh at Aransas

The last natural population of Whooping Cranes breeds in Northern Canada then migrates to Texas to winter in coastal marshes. Conservationists have established a new migratory population that breeds in Wisconsin and winters in Central Florida. Two new non-migratory Whooping Crane populations have also been established in Florida and Louisiana.

In November, Diane and I saw Whooping Cranes on their wintering grounds in the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge near Rockport, Texas. The day started by boarding Captain Tommy Moore’s boat the Skimmer. Upon leaving the boat harbor we entered Aransas Bay. The bay is brackish and shielded from the Gulf of Mexico by low barrier islands. Salt water from the Gulf enters the bay through Aransas Pass and Cedar Bayou.  The gulf water and mixes with freshwater that flows into the bay from the Aransas and Mission Rivers. Captain Tommy piloted the Skimmer past natural gas wells and oyster bars covered with pelicans. We soon reached a large marsh and Whooping Cranes were scattered about, feeding in small pools. Whooping Cranes are large birds, standing 5 feet tall and weighing up to 16 pounds. Adult cranes are white with black wingtips, a red crown and a dark, dagger-like beak.

Whooping Crane with freshly caught Blue Crab

Another crane another crab

In the Texas marshes, the cranes eat whatever they can catch, including frogs, fish, and mollusks. But, their favorite food seems to be Blue Crabs (Callinectes sapidis). The cranes stalk through shallow ponds in the marsh, probing with their beaks and stabbing their crab dinner. They then throw the crab up on the bank and eat it in pieces.

Someone asked me once what the rarest bird I had ever seen was. I did not have an answer because I do not think about birds in those terms. Now I have an answer. Whooping Cranes, those relics of the ice age, numbering in their hundreds, living on the edge of extinction and on the edge of the continent, are the rarest birds I have seen.

Florida Interlude

Our visits to Florida always turn up interesting revelations in natural history. A brief stay in late December presented Diane and me with three small wonders.

Puss caterpillar (Megalopyge opercularis).  Its long hair gives it a
cat-like appearance. 

While hiking at the Wakodahatcheee Wetlands in Delray Beach, Florida we saw a longhaired caterpillar crawling along a handrail of the boardwalk. It was a Puss Caterpillar (Megalopyge opercularis) the larval form of Southern Flannel Moth. Puss Caterpillars got their name because they look like miniature versions of long-furred cats. The name for the genus, Megalopyge, translated big rump, comes from the long hairs of the caterpillar combining to form a tail. This caterpillar is quite dangerous because those long hairs conceal stinging spines. If you make contact with these spines, they release a venom that immediately raises red welts on the skin then cause severe pain, nausea, fever, rapid heart rate or even convulsions. These fascinating and dangerous caterpillars metamorphose into a very hairy moth that we did not get to see. The Southern Flannel Moth ranges throughout the Southeastern US and west into Texas.

Psychotria nervosa (what a marvelous name) or Wild Coffee, is a plant native to Florida, Central America, the West Indies and South America. We found Wild Coffee growing in abundance in the coastal hammock at Lantana Beach Nature Preserve. Wild Coffee bears shiny green leaves and produces white flowers. These flowers develop into red fruits, each of which contains two hemispherical seeds that resemble the “beans” of its relative, true coffee (Coffea arabica). Birds eat the bright fruits and disperse the seeds in their droppings. The small seeds of Wild Coffee is not a good substitute for regular coffee because the seeds do not contain caffeine and drinks brewed from them taste bad and cause headaches.

Wild Coffee (Psychotria nervosa) plant with fruits.

Wild Coffee fruit cut in half showing its two seeds.

Wild coffee seeds.  They look very much like
regular coffee beans but much smaller.

In the late afternoon of a short winter day, we found a spectacular butterfly, the Ruddy Daggerwing (Marpesia petreus). Ruddy Daggerwings are found from Brazil, through Central America, the West Indies and into south Florida. A few even make it to south Texas and Arizona. When we first saw this butterfly flying fast and low in a park in Palm Beach County, we thought it was a Monarch or Julia. As we approached, it was clearly something different. The Ruddy Daggerwing is bright orange with dark brown lines of the upper side of the wings. Each hindwing has a long tail, the dagger in its name. The underside of the wings are brown and resemble dead leaves. Ruddy Daggerwings lay their eggs on the fig (Ficus) trees that are abundant in South Florida.

Ruddy Daggerwing feeding on the nectar of Spanish Needles (Bidens pilosa) 

People from around the country and around the world go to Florida in winter. Florida is warm, green and bright when many places are cold, brown and dim. However, beyond the weather and landscaped housing developments, Florida offers a peek at the tropics, a whiff of rain forests from the south.