June Week 2

Some guys are just a bundle of energy. The male redstart (Setophaga ruticilla) weighs just 8 or 9 grams, migrates from the Caribbean, and rarely stops moving in his pursuit of insect prey. Plus he often has two mates nesting as much as a quarter-mile apart, with separate territories to defend.

The star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata) gives birth just once a year, unless a litter is lost to predation or flooding (the excellent swimmer is found near streams and lowland marshes). They are the only remaining members of their genus and tribe. They and their extinct relatives are studied intently, mainly for their noses, which have 22 super-sensitive feelers (with taste and smell organs on them) arranged in a star shape. No other animal exceeds the star-nosed mole in sensitivity to vibration, temperature, and touch; their reactions to minute seismic vibrations have kept scientists busy for 100 years.

New England hosts two foxes, the grey and the red. Easy, right? No. The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is a rock star—the largest member of it’s genus, Vulpes; the most widely distributed in its order, Carnivora; almost the most important animal in the fur trade; and, in Austrailia, a banned invasive species. The red fox and his subspecies do not always dress in red, so a grey-looking fox could be either. The grey fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), is not a “true fox” (a Vulpes), but it can be positively identified in three ways: a ridge of black guard hairs on the tail; oval, rather than slitted, pupils; and it’s habit of climbing trees, the only North American canid to do so. It is also the most primitive and unchanged of the original canids, a regular living fossil.

Broadwing hawks (Buteo platypterus) are hard to see this whole month. Their chicks are hatching, in a nest that is often very high in a tree. They keep a low profile until the chicks fledge.

June is when the brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) lay eggs. They don’t bother building a nest, they just lay a dozen or more eggs in the nests of other species. It seems to work for them: they are widespread. June is also the most likely month to see snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina). They are on the prowl, looking for nesting sites with light soil or gravel, not often found in their pond-edge foraging grounds. June bugs (genus Phyllophaga) show up around homes and street lights. Members of this genus (260 or so) vary only a little in their appearance and behavior. Black or reddish brown, these nocturnal beetles are drawn to the light like a moth, but can die from exposure to light for too long. That’s why their dead bodies are found on porches and driveways.

Eastern bluebirds (Sialia sialis) are hatching the first of two broods. Spring fledglings will leave their parents by summertime, but young from the later brood may overwinter with their parents. Bluebirds mostly migrate, some as far as 2000 miles, some not at all.