Long hot days make the cool shady woods appealing. Spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) think so too, spending most of their time in cracks and crevices between woodland rocks. These shy amphibians are abundant, widespread, and rarely seen. Look for a seven-inch long lizard-like creature, bluish-black with bright yellow/orange spots. Now you may be shocked to notice the sun setting a little earlier. Yes, the days are getting shorter while it seems that summer has just begun.
Canada geese (Branta canadensis) are laying low for two reasons: flying is difficult because they are molting, and their young have not yet learned the art. Don’t bother them. Crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos), too, are raising their chicks at this time. They may get help from their year-old offspring. Holes on the leaves of the alder, or smooth alder (Alnus serrulata), are from the black larvae of the alder flea beetle (Agelastica alni), an invader from the Eastern Hemisphere. Usually few in number, their periodic population booms are obvious: some alder leaves are more hole than leaf.
Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), starts blooming now or soon, attracting honeybees (Apis mellifera) and bumblebees (Bombus ternarius), among other insects. The stalks of milkweed are edible (and delicious) in the spring, but not now. The leaves are never edible for humans. The caterpillars of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) famously prefer milkweed leaves, which contain certain poisons known as cardiac glycosides which make the caterpillar poisonous to predators. The poisons persists in the adult butterfly (which does not eat leaves), protecting them, too.
American bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus), are transforming about now from tadpoles into adults. They may have already spent one, two, or even three years as tadpoles, and typically live ten years or more altogether. Also slow to mature is the dragonfly. The green darner (Anax junius), the most abundant of many dragonfly species in New England, spends up to five years underwater in the larval stage, eating mosquito and other larvae with strong jaws. Five or six months is a typical lifespan for an adult. Populations peak in July, as these predators become prey for birds, lizards, frogs, fish, and spiders.
Down in the wetlands, cattails (Typha latifolia), are now waving their brown cat-tails in the breeze. Many birds, notably Red-wing blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus), pick the cat-tail apart and use the fluffy seeds as nesting material. Cattails are plentiful, and would be much more so if it weren’t for the muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus). This prolific breeder uses the cattail for building large communal lodges, and for food, turning acres of cattails back into open water. Many animals rely on cattails for food, shelter and cover, and man has put it to many uses: food, building material, textile fiber, insulation (in clothing and buildings), medicine, tinder, biofuel.
Shallow open water invites great blue herons (Ardea herodias) to go fishing. Standing motionless or moving very, very slowly, then striking with lightning speed and a sharp beak, they rarely miss their prey, usually a fish but often a frog, snake, small mammal or bird. Following the recovery of beaver (Castor canadensis) populations and the spread of beaver ponds in recent decades, great blue heron habitat has expanded and their numbers have grown.
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