As promised I participated in International Rock Flipping Day (IRFD) today. 

Yesterday I tried to get a head start by flipping a few rocks in a stream in Schenley Park but there was nothing under them except smaller rocks.  Today in Butler County I turned over a big rock in Portersville.  Nothing but dead leaves underneath. 

Back home at Schenley Park I hunted for a likely candidate and finally found a winner, the rock pictured above.  There was an earthworm and a millipede underneath but you can’t see them in my lousy cell phone photo.  They were trying to burrow underground but it’s drought-y here so the ground is too dry for them.

The biggest thing I learned is that southwestern Pennsylvania is just not a rocky place.  I had no trouble finding rocks everywhere when I was in Maine early this month but around here the only real rocks we have are those used in landscaping.  I think we have to import them.   

No wonder I came up with nothing.  Sort of.

For more IRFD results see Wanderin’ Weeta’s blog.

p.s.  IRFD rules include putting the rock back the way you found it without harming what’s underneath – which I did, though not pictured here.

(photos from my cell phone)

p.p.s.  Look how many bloggers participated in International Rock Flipping Day!

• The Natural Capital
• Fertanish Chatter
• Roundrock Journal
• Just Playin’ Around
• What It’s like on the Inside
• KrisAbel
• BugSafari
• Sofia_Alexandra
• Growing with Science
• ChickenSpaghetti
• NaturalNotes
• Yips and Howls
• Rock, Paper, Lizard
• Outside My Window
• The dog geek
• Dave Ingram’s Natural History Blog
• via negativa
• Unplug Your Kids
• ORCA: Observar, Recordar, Crecer y Aprender
• Will Rees Fine Woodworking …
• The Marvelous in Nature
• Ontario Wanderer
• Bare Baby Feet
• The Homefront Lines
• Crazy Maize World
• Dr. Omed’s Tent Show Revival
• Wanderin’ Weeta

Founded in 2007 by Dave Bonta (from Plummer’s Hollow, Pennsylvania!), this will be the third year for people all over the world to take the time to flip a rock, record what they see and tell this year’s coordinator, Susanna Anderson the Wanderin’ Weeta blogger from British Columbia. 

I plan to participate but I can’t decide whether to flip a small rock in my city back yard (boring but quick) or go somewhere far away and turn over a big one (time consuming and potentially exciting).  My decision will be influenced by my earlier rock-flipping experience.

Years ago my husband and I took a 6-hour Reptiles and Amphibians class in which we watched a two-hour slideshow presentation, then went on an afternoon field trip.  The class was in the city, the field trip was in Elk County – timber rattlesnake country.  My husband has never been interested in nature classes but he did want to learn about snakes.

Before we began to flip rocks, Dr. Art Hulse explained it was very important to pull up the rock from its far edge so the rock shields your body from what’s underneath.  My husband is very near-sighted (he can’t drive or watch birds) so we were a team.  He pulled up the rock, I looked under it. 

On our first rock we found a ring-necked snake - harmless, kind of pretty and very stinky.  On our second rock we found something that was coiled in a circle and silently shaking its tail.  I called out, “It looks like a milk snake.”   Dr. Hulse said “Careful!  Hold on!” and came running with his snake handling stick.  He pinned the snake’s neck and held it up for all of us to see.  It was a baby timber rattlesnake, so young its rattler made no noise.  Half the class jumped back in fear.  The other half peered forward in fascination.

Since that day I have a motto for those who tell me they’re afraid of snakes, “If you don’t want to see snakes, don’t flip over rocks.”  I hope this doesn’t eliminate half of my reading audience from tomorrow’s activities. 

In any case, tomorrow’s the day.  The rules are simple.  Susanna describes them here.  Go flip a rock and send your findings to wanderinweeta@gmail.com

p.s. Remember!  Pull up the far edge of the rock and, please, carefully replace the rock without harming the creatures you found under it.

(International Rock Flipping Day logo via IRFD coordinator Susanna Anderson)

I’m back in western Pennsylvania and…  

Odd-shaped purple things have been scattered across the state for months but I only learned their purpose recently – and soon they’ll disappear. 

These gorgeous three-sided panels can be seen from the roadside hanging in trees or on stakes.  At a distance their labels aren’t visible but their color is so beautiful and their shape so clean that I assumed the first one I saw was a decoration.  Miles and days later I saw another.  Was this a new fashion?  More miles and days I saw a third.  Rural installation art?

No, these are emerald ash borer traps strategically placed by DCNR to detect the leading edge of the emerald ash borer invasion.  These Asian bugs kill ash trees and there’s no cure yet.  The only way to stop them is by quarantine. 

Emerald ash borers are not great travellers.  They were first detected in Michigan in 2002 where they probably arrived as stowaways in wooden pallets.  They would have been isolated in Michigan for a long time but humans helped them across state lines by carrying their own firewood and selling infested nursery trees.  That’s how the bugs made it to Pennsylvania – in landscaping trees planted in Cranberry Township, Butler County.  We’ve been under quarantine since they were found in 2007.

Foresters want to know where the bugs are going so they’ve placed these sticky panels in ash trees to trap them.  The panels don’t attract the bugs long distances, just trap them if they’re already present.  At the end of the growing season, DCNR will collect the traps and note the locations of emerald ash borers.  Inevitably the bugs will have expanded their range so the quarantine will expand too.

By now the panels have been out there for about four months.  Their colors have faded and their sides are coated in bugs but you might still catch a glimpse of one before they’re collected for study.  

If the project continues we’ll see them sprout again next spring.  This time I’ll know what they are.

(photo linked from this article at the University of Illinois Extension)

If snakes give you the creeps, don’t look at these pictures.

Yesterday was hot and humid so I made sure to get my hiking done early.  I was out on the Youghiogeny River bike trail by 8:45am, not “early” for most of you but a feat for me.  Bike trails are great in August because there’s usually a breeze and fewer mosquitoes.  This proved to be the case.  Still, it was hot. 

Most of my hike was uneventful but when I got to Cedar Creek two cyclists said, “Watch out on the right.  There’s a black snake on the bridge.” 

Cool! 

The black rat snake was probably about three feet long but he was coiled up with his tail drooping off the bridge deck so I can’t be sure.  He’d been in the middle of the bridge and the cyclists had shoved (or chased) him to the side so he wouldn’t get run over.  They warned me he could bite but I knew he wouldn’t leap at me so I got close enough to take his picture.   

On my return hike the snake was on the other side of the bridge contemplating another trip toward the middle of the deck.  I urged him to get away from the bike traffic and he slid backwards into the void.  Did he cling to the underside of the bridge?  Black rat snakes can climb trees so maybe this guy climbed the bridge pillar.

I hiked the grassy edge on my way back to the car and halfway there I encountered another black rat snake.  He too was contemplating a sprint across the bike path.  (He’s the one on the right.)  When he stuck out his tongue to smell me he decided not to proceed. 

Black rat snakes are relatively harmless to humans.  They are non-venomous constrictors who eat rats, mice, other snakes, squirrels, chipmunks, birds and bird eggs. 

I saw a lot of birds on my hike so I hope these two snakes were hunting for rodents.  Or perhaps they were sunning themselves. 

The heat made it a snakey sort of day.

(photos by Kate St. John (using my cell phone).  For more information on the bike trail, click here.)

The crickets are silent too.  What’s going on? 

Is this an unusually “bug-less” year or is this absence only happening in my neighborhood? 

Let me know if you’ve noticed it too.

(photo of cicada on swamp thistle by Chuck Tague)

“The world is so full of a number of things,
     I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings.” - A Child’s Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson

That happy thought perfectly describes the month of June in western Pennsylvania when “children go to bed by day.”   Our days are long and warm, filled with flowers, birds, babies and butterflies. 

Here’s a quick list of what to look for through the rest of June.  For even more, see Chuck Tague’s phenology.

• The summer solstice – and our the longest day of the year – will occur at 1:45am on June 21.  Will you be awake for it?  Not me.
• Babies are everywhere.  Fledgling birds, including juvenile peregrines, chase their parents for a handout. Young squirrels pursue momma hoping she wasn’t serious about weaning.
• With June flowers come even more butterflies and moths.  I’m “Butterfly Challenged” but here’s one I can identify that I know you’ll see this month:  the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.   Chuck has an excellent list of June butterflies in his phenology.
• Enjoy birdsong in these last weeks of June.  In July the birds will begin to fall silent, species by species, as the purpose of their songs – territory and mate attraction – ends for the year.  The birds who raise more than one brood (robins and cardinals) will continue to sing, but others like the ovenbird will stop.
• Watch for fledglings.  Listen for the begging calls of baby birds.  Sometimes you can locate a nest this way.
• Watch out for mosquitoes and ticks.  Look for the fun bugs.  The dragonflies are here, even at Schenley Plaza.  Soon we’ll see fireflies.
• Enjoy June wildflowers.  Visit a state park, forest or woodland bike trail near you. 

Enjoy it now.  No need to wear a coat!

(photo by Dianne Machesney)

I shouldn’t be surprised at this.  Fifty years ago Pittsburgh was very smoky and housed 680,000 people inside the city boundaries (which end at Ross, Wilkinsburg, Dormont and Crafton).  Today it is not visibly smoky and the city population is about 300,000. 

There’s lots of room for wildlife as I am finding out.  The critters have been especially noticable this month … “in your face” if you ask me.

It started with the squirrels who’ve become very bold and more numerous as the month progressed.  The extra squirrels are newbies who were probably led to my feeders by their mother.  Now they lounge, play and fight in my backyard - and periodically try to break the bird feeder.

We have raccoons.  They live across the street and come out at night to dig up my garden and wash their hands in the bird bath.  I am really annoyed at the damage they’ve done to my front garden and I fear they may be eating eggs and baby birds as they did at Marcy Cunkelman’s a few days ago.  My neighbor suggested red pepper as a way to discourage their digging.  Marcy suggests removing the raccoon.  She’s going to trap hers because he’s systematically eating every baby bird in her yard.  Grrrr!

If I had a vegetable garden I’d be angry with the rabbits and groundhogs too.  Yesterday a rabbit strolled into my backyard and ate all the dandelion leaves.  This is good!   The groundhogs have stayed across the street because I have nothing interesting for them to eat.

And the most surprising find … a toad on my neighbor’s steps at dawn on May 1.  I have never heard frogs or toads singing in the city so it’s a wonder that this one showed up.  Maybe the day will come when I hear spring peepers at home.  Now that would be amazing!

(photo of an American Toad by Chuck Tague)

Coming soon to a cherry tree near you… tent worms! 

Their real name is the Eastern Tent Caterpillar but in my family we’ve called them “tent worms” ever since one memorable spring in the late 1960’s when they overran our neighborhood.  They were everywhere.  We couldn’t walk without stepping on one.  Ewwwww! 

Eastern tent caterpillars are actually moths that specialize in eating plants in the Rosaceae family including apples, chokecherries and black cherries.  Most people only notice them in the spring when they build silken tents in the crotches of trees. 

The tents first appear just before the leaves burst open.  Every day the caterpillars emerge to eat the leaves laying scent trails as they walk so they can follow them back to the tent.  As the caterpillars grow they make their tents larger to bury their waste and provide a place to hide between eating excursions.  When they’re ready to become moths, each goes off on its own to weave a cocoon.  To see these life stages, view Chuck Tague’s excellent photo essay.

I’m not fond of tent worms but they’re a favorite food of black-billed and yellow-billed cuckoos who will be arriving soon on migration. I saw my first tent last weekend.  Bring on the cuckoos!

(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)

On Monday morning Sam sent me this picture from his cell phone.  Here he is on the wild shores of Coraopolis holding the Monster of the Ohio.  Who knew a walleye this big lurked near Neville Island?

It was nearly dusk last Saturday when Sam felt a nibble on his line – not a fish this big.  He thinks a smaller fish was going for the bait when this big guy came in to eat it.  Zap!

The Monster was hard to land.  Sam says river walleye are muscular because they swim against the current all the time.  Sam’s line was strong enough to pull the fish through the water, but when he got it to shore the line was too weak to land him so Sam had to push him out by hand.  The fish bit him.  Undaunted, Sam got the walleye out of the water, detached the hook and asked some people nearby to take his picture.  Then he let him go.

By Sam’s estimate this walleye is about 30 inches long.  Who knows what he weighs! 

As Sam wrote:  “Saturday evening at the mouth of Montour Run as it goes into the Ohio, at least 5 pounds bigger than any walleye I have ever caught in the rivers.  Thought you guys would get a kick out of these pix.  Just a photo opportunity for he and I together and now he is swimming around there again.  Might go back and see if he wants to chat again this coming weekend.  He took a nice chunk of my left index finger and thumb with him, might have a taste for human flesh now.”

The Monster’s back in the Ohio, folks.  Watch out!

(photo from Sam Hall)

Unfortunately, my office has become a favorite overwintering site for alien insect species.  They sneak through the cracks around my office window, then crawl and fly around until I can’t take it any more. 

A few years ago I was invaded by Asian lady beetles (harmless ladybug look-alikes).  This year it’s Asian stink bugs.  Lady beetles are kind of cute in small numbers but even one stink bug is too many.  The battle is on! 

Perhaps I need a bug that will eat them.  Maybe a praying mantis?  My coworker, Jenny McGrail, says she has a lot of them in her yard right now.  Should I try one?  Or are they invading too?

No, they’re just being conspicuous so they can be promiscuous. 

Praying mantis adults can’t live through the winter but their eggs do, so they have a burst of mating activity in autumn.   Mantids are normally hard to find but that changes in mating season.  Unlike cicadas and crickets who call to attract a mate, mantids use their eyesight.  They hang out in likely feeding areas and try to be noticeable.  I’m sure they don’t want us to see them but it’s hard for such a large insect to advertise for a mate without being seen by everyone. 

Though there are 20 native mantids in North America they all live south of here so it’s likely that Jenny’s bugs are Asian too.  Chinese praying mantises were imported to eat agricultural pests, as were Asian lady beetles.  Happily the mantids are not as annoying as the lady beetles…

…unless you bring an egg mass indoors. 

If you do, you’ll be overrun by them unless you take precautions.  The egg masses, like the one pictured at right, contain up to 400 eggs that hatch after several weeks of warm weather.  It’s always warm indoors so they’re going to hatch inside – ready or not! 

If you bring an egg mass indoors, my friend Marcy suggests keeping it in an open jar with a paper towel securely fastened over the opening with a rubber band.  And store the jar in a cold place.  Better safe than sorry!

(Thanks to Marcy Cunkelman for her photos of a praying mantis and its egg mass.)