Whimbrel in the sand

Summer Wind

Female hummingbird feeding her young one day before it fledged or left the nest. After each feeding the nestling hopped onto the rim of the lichen covered nest and began to practice flying by revving its wings while remaining on the nest.

 Here is a juvenile Cooper's hawk feeding on a fresh kill brought in by the adult female (just out of frame) which was perching directly above the immature bird. I was not able to identify the bird prey to species...Maybe somebody out there can...

Cod

Olive oil. Cod. Salt. Lemon. Diced jalepeno. Bread crumbs. Scallions. Oven. 

Pink and yellow

http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Dryocampa-rubicunda

Cuckoo Food

The eastern tent caterpillar (Malacosoma americanum) works in massive family groups of up to 300 siblings to form thier large protective silken tents. 

The caterpillars are the larval stage of a snout moth which is strickly nocturnal. The adult moths lay their egg masses on Prunus trees. The newly hatched larvae work together to construct their tent. They emerge from their silk barrier three times a day to feed on the cyanide rich Prunus leaves. The cyanide is imparted to the caterpillars making them unpalatable to nearly all would be predators. However, cuckoos are know to slurp down the hairy cyanide ridden larvae. This sparks my curiosity as to how the cuckoos are able to metabolize  the enzyme inhibitor while most other can't. 

On another note, a prairie warbler was seen twirling up a nice portion of the tent around its bill, presumably to use for nest building. 

Gros Oaks

May is a phenomenal month. The Wind blows from the SW and the Sun is now well north of the Equator. The increasingly direct insolation primes the area for flowers, insects, and birds galore.  Most sources indicate that oak trees are Wind pollinated (anemophilous), but below is some evidence that shows other modes of pollination are also in use. 

Here is a rose-breasted grosbeak that is stuffing its mega beak with white oak catkins. This male was seen at Forest Park, Queens County. He was jumping from branch to branch eating the strings of male flowers. He was also seen chomping up American sycamore samaras (2nd photo below).  Both the white oak and American sycamore are native trees that are part of a bigger picture. Keeping in mind how much habitat we have usurped, please consider planting natives when landscaping. 

American sycamore samaras hanging. 

Maine-iac

The coast is the edge of the world.  The Maine coast is the edge of a wild world.  There are many inhabitants of the coast, but in the winter there is a single coast master that keeps things wild.

Over the winter an exceptional number of snowy owls irrupted to the south of their Arctic breeding grounds.  Scientists are still learning lots about these raptors. There is now evidence indicating that these large owls hunt over the open ocean at night. They use ice packs up north and their wings down south to get out to rafts of sea ducks. 

Their feathers are thicker and heavier than most, which account for them being the heaviest owl in North America.  Plus, they have feathers up and down their zygodactal feet to help keep their warm blood separated from the energy stealing snow that they often stand on.

The above coast master was working the marsh adjacent to some ocean swells where there were plenty of scoters available for night plucking. 

Another nice site was a wisp of Wilson's snipe. 

Those fanned retraces are the source of the winnowing noise that is produced during courtships displays. 

Superspecies in Babylon

Common teal, eurasian teal, teal, singing teal...people love naming things and it takes plenty of effort to get everyone to agree on a name. Even when a name is agreed on, the scientific classification may remain disputed and murky, as in the case of the green-winged, common, and speckled teal clade. Above is a picture of two "species" within the super-species trio, green-winged teal and a surprise Eurasian teal. The story gets even more complicated as Speckled teal has been split into two separate species.

 Check out this link to the American Ornithological Union, which has a committee dedicated to examining and deciding upon avian taxonomy and phylogenetics.  The fact that it can be so difficult to define species  sheds light on the perpetual march of life and that our naming and classification systems are excellent tools to aid in biological understanding, but they are not perfect tools. 

And lastly, how are super-species different than subspecies?  Well it has to do with vicariance and a few votes from a taxonomic committee.

Divergence