When I awoke, the land was damp from overnight showers and the sweet smell of the earth filled the air. The rain has arrived just in time to herald the beginning of fall.
Read more →Small, seed-shaped jumping true bugs have a multitude of names, and several different lifestyles. Today, I’m going to focus on one that’s brightly colored as a nymph: a pine spittlebug in the genus Aphrophora.
Read more →Every time I go out to the arboretum, I remind myself to slow down and take my time.
Read more →This week’s column features an aquatic moth. That’s right. The Petrophila confusalis moth has an amazing life story, and it starts under the water.
Read more →I was sitting at the edge of the river seeing what interesting animals might wander by, when this little creature hopped out in front of me.
Read more →Here’s a butterfly that’s relatively easy to see this time of year. The Common Wood Nymph is generally dull brown but it has some snazzy highlights that make it stand out.
Read more →This little bat was found dead last fall clinging to the side of a tree. Since then, I would occasionally remember to check to see if it was still there.
Read more →It’s time for an interruption for Gasteruption!
Read more →A small stained glass window is resting on a leaf. The opalescent panels shimmer with the slightest breath of wind, reflecting the radiant halo of mother nature. It is a passageway, an opening to a locket. Inside are luminous keepsakes. The song of the Chickadee. An inchworm measuring your arm. A sweep of wind across a meadow. An unrestrained river.
Read more →The cicadas in the western U.S. aren’t the periodic cicadas that emerge by the jillions on the east coast. But they do live underground as larvae, leave behind spectral pupal casings, and make buzzing and clicking calls with a unique and fascinating organ—more on that later.
Read more →River jewelwings are beautiful, sparkly insects, even if the common name isn’t completely accurate. It’s not so much the wings, but mainly the thorax and abdomen of these broad-winged damselflies that is strikingly colorful.
Read more →For me, the whistling, buzzy pee-wee of the Western Wood-Pewee’s song signals that the warmth and blue skies of summer are here.
Read more →A rather large and colorful fly landed in dappled light on the Buford trail recently. At first I thought it was a midge, because midges hold their front legs in front of them like they’re getting ready to dive. But after more research, I’ve discovered it’s an awl fly.
Read more →Lazuli Buntings are small finch-like songbirds. The male is a dazzling blue with a warm orange breast, a white belly, and a prominent white shoulder patch.
Read more →Recently, I came across three small beetles on a blade of grass near the Jette Trail. As often happens, I took lots of pictures, but when I got home and had a chance to really look at them, I wished I’d taken more. It turns out this little blue beetle is a rarity.
Read more →A warbling vireo. I love this bird’s soft gaze, and its tranquil, gray body. A sentient being cut from the cloth of a quiet mist drifting through the willows in the cool dawn air. Its song is a warbling stream gently smoothing the surfaces of stones. I reach down into the stream and pick one up. Its fluid rind is
Read more →Finally, the weather has been more favorable for our six legged friends! On my most recent visit to Mount Pisgah, I saw bees, butterflies, flies, lacewings, a snakefly, beetles, an earwig, a caddis fly, and several true bugs, including this interesting shield bug: Aelia americana.
Read more →The Golden-crowned Sparrow is a fall and winter resident along the Pacific coast and commonly encountered at the Arboretum. They migrate north in the spring to nest in Alaska and western Canada.
Read more →The western calligrapher is a small fly that looks like a bee.
Read more →Tree squirrels are amazing acrobats. They fearlessly climb out onto the tips of branches to reach seeds or take fearless leaps between limbs. They chase each other up, down, and all around the trunk of trees with speed and agility. Their lives seem to involve a great amount of risk or chance.
Read more →The honeysuckle sawfly, or Abia americana, has a shimmering copper sheen, and its round, striped body mimics a bee. But if you get close to one, you’ll notice it has knobs on the end of its antennae, which is something butterflies have, but bees don’t.
Read more →The California Scrub-Jay is a magnificent bird that is a year-round resident out at the Arboretum.
Read more →The shore bug is a jumpy character with an oval shape and bug-eyes.
Read more →Breeding season is here, and many birds are beginning to establish territory and trying to attract a partner, both of which Wrentits most likely have already accomplished.
Read more →Bristle flies won’t win any beauty contests, but these early spring insects are fairly rare, and worth a closer look.
Read more →The Downy Woodpecker is a delightful little bird that can be seen throughout the year at the arboretum. I love watching it curiously traverse the landscape searching for food.
Read more →Moths in the Gracillariidae family are especially good at hide and seek, even as caterpillars … and that doesn’t take into account the fact they are so minuscule (less than a centimeter long).
Read more →The Dark-eyed Junco is a small hooded sparrow about 6-6.5 inches. The “Oregon” Junco is generally the most widespread species in the West and the one I commonly see at the Arboretum.
Read more →The small cedar-bark borer is a striking beetle, with a pleasing, fuzzy pattern and endearing, long antennae.
Read more →A pair of Mallards have been paddling around and exploring the wetlands this winter.
Read more →Damsel bugs have a graceful look and a feminine name that’s in stark contrast to their fierce natures.
Read more →The Golden-crowned Kinglet returns to the Arboretum every year to spend the fall and winter months. This beautiful little bird always warms my heart when I catch a glimpse of it on a cold winter’s day.
Read more →This tiny beetle may not look noteworthy but it sure has made a name for itself. Or rather, various people have made many names for it.
Read more →The Brown Creeper is a gentle little bird with a cheerful spirit.
Read more →There’s just a slim chance you’ve seen this slender insect, even though it’s fairly common. True bugs in the Berytidae family have a lanky look that has led to the common names “stilt bug” and “thread bug.”
Read more →Meet the Bewick’s Wren. It is a year-round resident that feels right at home in the thickets and shrubby areas in the open country of the oak savanna landscape of Mount Pisgah Arboretum.
Read more →It’s not a stretch to understand why these moths are shaped the way they are. Their pose mimics the look of sticks, stems and twigs to a T.
Read more →Shrouded in a cloak of quietness, the Great Horned Owl listens to the song of the forest.
Read more →Over the past few weeks I’ve seen three nymph stages of the Western Conifer Seed Bug (Leptoglossus occidentalis), or WCSB. These colorful, strutting youngsters become handsome adults and they have an interesting life story.
Read more →As I look at a leaf with its veins fanning out across its undersurface, I feel like I’m flying over a landscape.
Read more →In the world of butterflies and moths, caterpillars look nothing like their adult counterparts.
Read more →Pocket gophers are fossorial rodents named for their fur-lined, external cheek pouches. A fossorial animal is one adapted to digging and lives primarily, but not solely, underground.
Read more →There’s an attractive, mid-sized black wasp out and about this time of year that has a unique home-making habit.
Read more →Recently, I have been delighted to see a small group of Common Mergansers on the river.
Read more →The other day at Mount Pisgah, I found an insect that I’ll likely never see again. Neither will you. That’s because this individual isn’t colored like the others in its species.
Read more →There’s a good chance you can spot this little blue-gray butterfly at Mount Pisgah—or in your yard.
Read more →I have been watching this wonderful vine grow throughout the arboretum this year. I have followed it from the beginning as it sprouted its first vibrant, green leaves in spring to now, as the dried, brown seed pods split open to release their seeds.
Read more →I’m a sucker for weird antennae, so this plant bug was an obvious choice for this week’s column.
Read more →Dragonflies earn a lot of superlatives. Their order, Odonata, is one of the oldest insect orders, and fossilized dragonflies look just like today’s, but more convincingly dragon-like (imagine a 27-inch wingspan!).
Read more →Red-tailed Hawks can often be seen soaring in the clear blue skies of summer. As they circle overhead, the sun illuminates their tail’s warm, red feathers from where they get their name.
Read more →What do you call a fly that eats grasshoppers, bees, and even dragonflies?
Read more →I have been seeing this beautiful creature on dead snags, stumps, the bases of oak trees, and the small wooden bridges throughout the arboretum. These places allow it to regulate its body temperature and blend into its surroundings as it hunts for prey.
Read more →The common name for this fantastic beast is the Douglas-fir glowworm. I know, it doesn’t look like a worm. But, believe it or not, the female of the species does!
Read more →Walking along the river path, I hear the high-pitched, trilling whistle of the cedar waxwings, and see them as they swoop down to the lower canopy for berries.
Read more →The first thing you notice about fairy moths are the white, waving, and impossibly long antennae.
Read more →The Western Screech-Owl is a beautiful bird that lives year-round at Mount Pisgah.
Read more →I was lucky to spy this gorgeous, large wasp on a cool cloudy day—low temperatures slowed it down. Normally, these predators are in constant motion, and near impossible to photograph.
Read more →One of the most beautiful animals in North America lives among us here at the Arboretum—the coyote. The color of its fur is a varied palette of earth tones. Myriad hues of browns, grays, blacks, and whites are woven together to form a magical coat. It is a thatch work of clay, dry grass stalks, morning sun, bird songs, river
Read more →Soft-winged flower beetles are colorful little critters often found on spring blossoms. Beetles in the family are usually about the same shape (ovoid) and small size (2 to 7 mm) but there’s lots of variation—There are over 520 species in the U.S.
Read more →“A nobler want of man is served by nature, namely, the love of Beauty.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
I featured a more common green lacewing on this blog back in September, 2020. Last week, I found a rarer, earth-toned cousin: the San Francisco Lacewing.
Read more →The western gray squirrel is a marvelous creature. Its defining feature is an amazingly bushy tail that is nearly as long as its body.
Read more →Given the common names marsh fly and snail-killing fly, you can guess the habitat and peculiar diet of this splay-legged, long-faced fly. But if you read further, you’ll learn some other fascinating traits, and two new vocabulary words.
Read more →Owls will often spend consecutive days around the same perch from where they will roost during the day and hunt at night Most owls are nocturnal, but Northern Pygmy-Owls mostly hunt by day. Under these roosts, you can often find evidence of an owl’s presence: owl pellets.
Read more →ada genus bees have a lot of unlovable qualities. They not only steal food stores from pollinating bees, but they eat their larvae. Then there’s the cannibalism. Yet, these clever and colorful bees are an important part of, if you will, the bee-cosystem.
Read more →Standing at the top of the zigzag trail, I could hear hammering resounding through the forest. I walked down the path to find a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers on a dead tree. They were excavating small holes in the wood using their chisel-like bills as they searched for food.
Read more →A rove beetle is proof that something you might first take for a nondescript creepy crawly creature has astounding capabilities. It all has to do with their wings.
Read more →The Hermit Thrush blends well into the winter landscape. Its head and back are medium-brown and are accented by a warm, rufous tail. Its breast is patterned with brown spots that appear slightly smudged.
Read more →Small winter stoneflies are an intrepid group built to emerge as adults in the winter. To survive the chill, they create their own antifreeze. In fact, they’re so acclimated to the cold that they estivate—which is like hibernating—in the summer.
Read more →Chipmunks are diurnal, which means they are active during the day. You will see this pocket-sized Townsend’s chipmunk quietly scampering over the forest floor as it curiously searches for food.
Read more →The white-crossed seed bug (Neacoryphus bicrucis), like a lot of true bugs, lives through the winter as an adult and this one, at least, was living at Mount Pisgah last week. Where it spends the rest of the year is anyone’s guess.
Read more →I frequently see a small flock of Western Bluebirds at the Arboretum. When the mistletoe berries are ripe, I see them in the oak trees around the parking lot.
Read more →This week’s subject is a teeny beetle with skimpy biographical information. It’s hardy enough to survive winter as an adult, and has features that can fake out an expert.
Read more →A familiar sound at the arboretum is the rustle of leaves from Spotted Towhees foraging. They hop backward with both feet to sweep away the leaf litter in search of food. Their diet consists of insects, spiders, seeds, acorns, and berries.
Read more →Recently, I have been fortunate to observe a muskrat out in the lily pond area.
Read more →Water striders live on the surface of the water, as if it were solid ground. They perform some other magic tricks too.
Read more →Over the last 3 or 4 years, I have seen a Black Phoebe spending the fall and winter months at the Arboretum.
Read more →For a long time, ladybugs intimidated me. That’s because I knew there were lots of species, and I was hesitant to dive in and figure them out.
Read more →As I head up the Zigzag Trail, I find myself shuffling through a colorful mosaic of bigleaf maple leaves.
Read more →The other day, I saw what I thought was a moth flutter past and land on a tree. What I found sitting on the bark, though, was a caddisfly, which is neither a moth nor a fly.
Read more →The other evening I watched a Barred Owl zigzagging down the Creek Trail corridor hunting for food. It would sit on a perch about 10-20 feet off the ground and scan the area with its eyes and ears. When it zeroed in on its potential prey, it silently drifted out over the meadow and pounced.
Read more →At Mount Pisgah, Phyciodes mylitta have a fairly long adult season, flying into late summer and at least into mid-October. They spend the winter as late-stage larvae, and apparently they wiggle out to bask on sunny winter days. So look near thistles for small, bristly black caterpillars in the coming months.
Read more →Bushtits are busily moving about the landscape in small foraging flocks. It is common to see around 20 in a group, and I have counted as many as 40 together.
Read more →The first time I saw one of these flashy orange flies, I thought it looked like a cowboy with bow-legged back legs and fringed boots.
Read more →While the Steller’s Jay is busily exploring the oak tree canopy collecting acorns, the Black-capped Chickadee is investigating the speckled oak galls on the underside of leaves.
Read more →I love finding something that flummoxes me. So I was intrigued to spot this three- to four-millimeter long insect parading up and down grasses near the horse area at Mount Pisgah. At that small size, I couldn’t tell if it was a beetle or a bug, and at first I thought the enlarged front legs might be its antennae.
Read more →Acorns are a sturdy nut with some gravity as they fall. As they drop through the tree, I can hear them brushing against the oak leaves.
Read more →If you spotted this insect on a blackberry leaf, as I did last week at Mount Pisgah, you would probably keep moving, and maybe even quicken your pace, to get out of the way of the yellow jacket wasp. And this particular moth would be satisfied that you did.
Read more →Sitting in the shade of a ponderosa pine listening to the river flow, I heard the faint murmurings of the Red-breasted Nuthatch.
Read more →Not only are katydids masters of disguise, they also have a multi-colored life cycle, and they hear with their lower legs! There’s just one good-sized (3 centimeter) green katydid in Oregon and it’s a fun one: the fork-tailed bush katydid.
Read more →Because summertime is wasp time, this column features the second remarkable wasp in a row. Females of the Leucospis genus have a convoluted and somewhat shocking egg-laying system, so fasten your seatbelt.
Read more →This striking red wasp with iridescent blue wings has been fairly visible on Queen Anne’s lace lately. It’s a Western Red Spider Wasp in the Tachypompilus genus.
Read more →In general, I think people should be talking more about moths. In the Lepidoptera order, more than 90% of species are moths, and less than 10% are butterflies. Plus, moths have remarkable variety in body type, wing shape, and antennae form.
Read more →This week’s subject is the rose weevil. Weevils are beetles with exaggerated snouts. The snout, or rostrum, helps the insect munch into its favorite foliage to lay eggs and to eat.
Read more →Seeing an oak treehopper (Platycotis vittata) was on my long-term wishlist, and it was so exhilarating to find one that I was on a nature high for a couple of days. These brightly-colored, odd-shaped true bugs look like they should live in tropical forests, but they’re fairly common in the Pacific Northwest.
Read more →Scarab beetles in the sub-family Melolonthinae have two common, common names: May beetles and Junebugs (more later). There are over 600 species in North America, and all have frilly, fanning antennae, claws on their forelegs, and a large plate near the mouthparts…
Read more →What insect starts life like a butterfly or moth, but emerges from its cocoon looking like a wasp? If you’re like me a few months ago, maybe you’ve never heard of them before, but the mystery morpher is a sawfly.
Read more →Crane flies are the gawky, spindly creatures that sometimes flap awkwardly around your ceiling. While many of the 15,000 species are brown or tan, a few Oregon varieties have orange and yellow markings…
Read more →Many insect species have such subtle differences that it takes an expert with a microscope to tell them apart. The Western Ash Borer ( Neoclytus conjunctus) didn’t get that memo.
Read more →Insects in the true bug class, Hemiptera, are a wildly diverse group. It’s hard to imagine that cicadas, water striders, tree hoppers and this column’s subject: lace bugs are as related to each other as butterflies and moths, but they are. What ties them together is a juice-sucking bodily straw, or rostrum, which usually folds under their thorax.
Read more →March is a great time to observe the incredible insects inside ponds and pools. Even temporary puddles are host to some really cool characters. I found predaceous diving beetles (PDB’s) in a couple different places around Mount Pisgah recently, and they sport some flashy features like tail-breathing and larvae with 14 eyes!
Read more →The moth is often portrayed as the butterfly’s homely, drably-dressed cousin. In truth, they can be quite colorful in hue and in life history.
Read more →Warmer and more insect-filled days are coming soon, but for now I’m still scratching in the leaf litter. This week, I uncovered a bug-eyed predator in the Notiophilus genus.
Read more →The boxelder bug is a familiar fellow to many. Sadly, the first word that comes to mind about them probably has a negative connotation: something like “nuisance.” I’d like to re-set that impression of this colorful true bug by highlighting some lesser-known facts.
Read more →I’ve found myself turning over rocks and logs lately, and beneath a downed branch under a white oak I was rewarded with this purple-shimmering, rather large and handsome beetle. A few of the things I’ve since learned about it made me wish I’d spent more time with it.
Read more →Lately, I’ve been spotting a few types of dance flies in woodsy areas on sunny days. These flies in the Empididae family are small and seemingly unremarkable, but like nearly every insect I’ve looked into, they have some peculiar and provocative features.
Read more →The star of this week’s column is a diminutive wasp in the Gelis genus. Specifically, with thanks to Ross Hill at BugGuide.net, this is Gelis tenellus. These parasitic wasps don’t have a common name, which is a good sign that they’re not very well studied. However, in researching them, I learned enough to know that they’re worthy of more attention.
Read more →Mayflies are in the insect order Ephemeroptera, which is Greek for “short-lived, winged” creature. While the common name is misleading, the scientific name is spot-on. They are ephemeral indeed. Imagine an animal that spends more than 99% of its life underwater, looking like a shell-less lobster, then matures to live above the water for just one or two days.
Read more →Today’s column focuses on a true bug (in the Hemiptera order) that looks like a reptilian
insect or tiny dinosaur. The first time I saw this Phymata genus bug, on coyote brush in
Mt. Pisgah’s south fields, I only got a good look at its back. I figured it was some kind of
shield bug, but I didn’t get any good pictures of it from the side before it flew away.
The Diurnal Firefly is one of my favorite finds at Mount Pisgah recently. These black insects with red “bracket” markings on their thoraxes are beetles, not flies. And because the fireflies we have in Oregon don’t light up, you could say they are neither fiery nor a fly. Still, there’s plenty about them to spark some interest. Our Oregon beetles
Read more →Note: These pictures were taken a few days before wildfires made it unsafe to visit Mt. Pisgah. Green lacewings are one of the rare insects that are doubly blessed. They’re beloved as predators of aphids and other pests, and they’re nice to look at. Lucky for us, they’re fairly common in Oregon. They also have some fascinating and unique traits.
Read more →Welcome to the second Insect Insights! This post is about a creature nearly everyone has heard, but most people likely haven’t seen. Tree crickets don’t always live in trees, and probably don’t fit your mental image of a cricket. They’re in the same family as grasshoppers (Orthoptera) and in the Oecanthus genus, pronounced “ee CAN thus.” One species of
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