Last week, I wrote about the bad news: that monarch butterfly populations have been plummeting since the 1980s. The good news is that a revolutionary new tracking device may help those populations recover. Naturalists have been trying to track monarchs for nearly a century, but mass ID-ing (with tiny stick-on tags) only began in large […]
butterflies
Posted inField Notes
Monarch Butterflies
Part 1: Migration Magic It’s not easy being a monarch butterfly these days. Your caterpillar’s essential milkweed food is no longer abundant; illegal logging and beetle infestations threaten your main winter roosts in Mexico, and climate change is playing havoc with nectar plants on your migration routes. Where hundreds of millions of monarchs roosted annually […]
Posted inNews
Butterflies, Real Estate Mysteries and Pop-up Dining
This week we’ve got a story about how conservationists are working to bring an endangered butterfly back from the brink of extinction. Also, the Eureka City Schools’ property sale mystery continues. We’ve got a brief on the hostage situation and police shooting in Eureka. Finally, we’ll look at how pop-up nights at Alchemy Distillery are […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
HumBug: Early Spring Pollinators
Spring is on the way. I saw my first trillium bloom of the year, and the daffodils and stone fruit trees are in full bloom. The last few sunny days have brought forth pollinators. I think it’s kind of a chicken-and-egg problem. The flowers get pollinated by bugs. If the flowers aren’t open the insects […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
HumBug: Bugs in the City
A quick trip to San Francisco a few weeks ago, when that was still possible yielded familiar creatures. At a rest area we saw at least three California tortoise shell butterflies frolicking in the sun. There were western box elder bugs on one of the picnic tables. They suck juices from box elders, maples and […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
HumBug: Strategy
I had to remind myself it’s still winter as I watched a mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) and two smaller orange butterflies flutter by, too high and fast to get a photo of. The orange specimens were most likely rustic anglewings but there are several other locally common species which overwinter as adults, emerging on warm […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
HumBug: Late Butterflies, Hornets and Moths
A quick walk along the Van Duzen River turned up one each variegated meadowhawk and shadow darner dragonflies neither of which allowed me to get close enough to get a photo. It’s OK, I have hundreds of shots of the meadowhawk and dozens of the shadow. We got glimpses of a California sister butterfly, a […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
HumBug: An Innocent Imposter
Being the local “Bug Guy” I was recently asked about a spider that looked “almost exactly like a black widow,” but lacked the distinctive red hourglass on the underside of its abdomen. This is a spider with which I am very familiar. They were nearly everywhere where I grew up in Pacifica, California. I hadn’t […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
HumBug: Late Bloomers Get All the Action
Flowers being few and far between lately, nectar-sipping insects are also scarce. A few straggling rabbit brush plants concentrate relict butterflies, having completed their reproductive cycle living out their lives on instincts alone. I saw five species today, only two of which allowed me to get close enough to take their pictures. Tattered wing margins […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
HumBug: Fall along the River
There are next to no flowers blooming now. Most adult insects have lived out their lives, their eggs and larvae sequestered in anticipation of winter. The showiest life is along the river. The large body of moving water moderates the temperatures and many species employ this time of reduced predator numbers to complete their lifecycles […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
HumBug: Butterflies vs. Moths
One of the most common questions I get as a bug guy is, “What’s the difference between butterflies and moths?” Although most consider them separate clades within the order lepidoptera, another answer is “maybe nothing.” Some authorities regard butterflies as a day flying sub group of moths. Their lifestyles are very similar. Starting life as […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Who’s Hungry?
Deadly Darlingtonias About two hours north of Eureka on State Route 199, a few miles past Gasquet, a small sign announces, “Botanical Trail.” It’s a very short drive on a good gravel road to the parking area. A little walk on the well-marked trail puts you in the middle of a Darlingtonia Bog. Here, where […]