Author: dmetlay

When I was volunteering at a bird observatory during my undergrad years, blue jay was one of birds that we had to be extremely careful when we band them. Because they bite (yes, bite) really hard, we have to be sure that none of our hands, hair, or even a piece of shirt are somewhere near their beaks. Comparing to others, though, blue jays often were more calm. As All About Birds state: blue jays are aggressive birds but are far less aggressive than other species like mockingbirds, northern cardinals, doves and even squirrels.

Blue jays can be found in edge of forest, cities, groves or suburban gardens and they would eat from nuts and seeds to insects. Blue jay sometime eat other birds’ eggs but that is big part of its diet. Blue jays also store their food in the spot in their throat for later.

Blue jays are uncommon west of Rockies, and if you saw a bird that look a lot like blue jay – it is likely that you’ve spotted a western scrub jay or Steller’s Jay, a jay that share same genus as blue jay – Cyanocitta (‘cyano’ kind of gives it away). Both jays are found west of Rockies, only.

Fun fact: Blue jay is blue. But really, they are brown. What is this? Blue/black or white/gold dress debate, again? No, really. Blue jay’s blue feathers’ pigments are melanin (pigments found in our skin), which are brown. Their feathers appears blue instead of brown because of modified cells on the surface of feather barbs scatter light, making feathers blue instead of brown. Makes you reconsider the dress debate, doesn’t it?

Surprisingly, even though blue jays are common, there are not much information on their migration pattern. They don’t have consistent pattern like other birds –  some blue jay will migrate when they are juveniles while other would stay in same area year round then migrate and stay there for a year round before migrating back. Some doesn’t migrate at all.

My iNaturalist observation can be found here.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/blue-jay/

http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/blue-jay

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Blue_Jay/lifehistory

Pictures:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/California_Scrub-Jay/id

http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/stellers-jay

I have been wanting to take a picture of this bird but they were usually too quick for me to snap picture (or rather, I’m too slow). It is easy to identify them mid-flight by catching a glimpse of two outer white tail feathers, one on each side of the tail and white patches on wings (which also can be visible while perching). 

I see them everyday on SEU campus, and you probably have heard them a lot. Mockingbird adds new noises to their songs and a male bird can learn up to 200 songs. Mockingbirds sing all day and all night and apparently they sing more on night of full moon. They have certain songs for fall and spring seasons. They were popular pet birds between 1700s-1900s for their songs. Because of popularity of having caged mockingbirds, they nearly became extinct as wild birds in the East coast (in U.S.) in 19th century. When cagebird trading stopped, the mockingbird population grew again.

Northern mockingbirds are territorial and aggressive birds, they will aggressively defend their territories – attacking other birds, dogs, cats and even sometime humans if they get too close.

My iNaturalist observation can be found here.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Mockingbird/lifehistory

http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/northern-mockingbird

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birding/northern-mockingbird/

In honor of Halloween, I’ve decided to write about creepy crawlies. Orb weaver’s webs are popular design that have been used for Halloween spider web decorations. There is a black-and-yellow garden spider (or yellow garden orb-weaver, golden orb-weaver) that made its home in the bush on the sidewalk leading to SEU. Since I couldn’t take a picture of head of spider, it is covered in short and silver hair. This spider is female because of it’s size; male is only half of the female’s size. Also, only female spiders that create web, male spiders usually don’t create webs and they always wander in search for female spider to mate with.

The web has zig-zag pattern on the web and I was not sure what that is for. It is called stabilimenta and the purpose of it is not determined yet. It had been assumed that it is for keeping birds from flying through the web, increase stability of the web, or capturing the prey (by camouflaging the bright spider). Other suspected that male spiders would make their own zig-zag pattern near or on outer part of the female spider’s web and court the female spider by making vibration with their zig-zag lines.

This spider is active during day and they will capture prey and eat during the day. The prey ranges from grasshoppers, moths, wasps, and mosquitoes. Larger orb weavers (not this species, but in same Argiope genus) had been observed eating small frogs or hummingbirds if they got caught in web. Orb weaver spiders also eat parts its own web and replace with new silk everyday, it is suspected that eating web because it probably have small insects.

My iNaturalist can be found here.

I took a video on other day of the spider eating its prey.

Sunflower is one of my favorite flowers, so I was excited to see wild sunflowers. Sunflower seeds brings back childhood memories since it was staple snack, it was nearly impossible in the summer to see a kid without a bag of sunflower seeds. What I didn’t know that you can eat flowers, you can boil it and serve with butter or  even using shells as substitute for coffee.

Sunflower can adapt to variety of soil and climates, but wild sunflowers are native to Central United States and Mexico. As most people are used to domesticated sunflower that usually have only one (or two) flowers on top of the stem, the wild sunflower have several flowers branching out of from the stem. Wild sunflowers also usually have smaller flowers with smaller seeds than domesticated sunflowers. Sunflowers can grow up to 6 feet but often in the wild, sunflowers will stay short to reduce risk of toppling over during rain. Wild or domesticated, sunflowers remain bright yellow flower with dark brown/black in the center with thick stem and big leaves.

My iNaturalist observation can be found here.

This furry caterpillar was (and still is) chilling on the wall next to my apartment door. I thought it was cute until I read about this caterpillar.

I believe it is Puss caterpillar – it is called puss because it is furry like a kitty. Cute name but this caterpillar is one of most venomous caterpillar in the U.S. so try avoid touching the furry part because that is where venomous spines are hidden. It have been said that the sting is worse than a bee sting, the sting is intense to the point that the sting can hurt person’s bones or last up to 12 hours.

This caterpillar can be found from New Jersey to Florida and southwest to Texas, there are five species of flannel moths and I think this is southern flannel moth, the most common species.

my iNaturalist observation can be found here.

 

This pretty purple plant is called Purple Heart, Purple Queen, or Wandering Jew. There are several kinds of Wandering Jew plants, Tradescantia genus, and this plant is specifically called Purple Heart (or Purple Queen): Tradescantia pallida.

This plant is native to Eastern Mexico and do really well in frost-free climate. Those pretty flowers are actually invasive plants. To be put in garden, the plant requires lot of maintenance to control the plant without having it taking over entire garden. This is partially reason why this plant is better off as household plant, or planted in the pot instead in the garden.

But do be careful when having this plant in the house with pets. Purple Heart is toxic to dogs and cats and can cause allergic dermatitis (rash).

My iNaturalist observation can be found here.

I remember seeing this bird for the first time when I moved to Texas, I thought it was a pretty bird. And I still do. But what I didn’t realize that how common they in Texas and that their range is from Mexico to some parts of Mid-West, all of southwest part of United States. The population is steadily increasing and growing the size of distribution to further north into Mid-West and some parts of western United States.

This bird will eat anything. Literally. Maybe not so literally. They will eat from fruits, vegetables, seeds to insects (slugs, worms, grasshoppers, beetles, moths, spiders, wasps, you name it) and some small mammals like mice and shrews. They also sometime eat bird eggs and nestlings. They eat lizards, snakes and fish as well.

Their foraging range is so broad, and that is probably why their population size is increasing over years. It had been suspected that this species had a part in causing extinction of Slender-billed Grackle in Mexico years ago.

My iNaturalist observation can be found here.

When I saw this for first time, I thought how unusual it looked for a flower. It’s pinwheel like petals make it unique to any other flowers I’ve seen. The plant I saw was only almost two feet tall but it can grow as tall as 9 feet!

This flower can be found in a wide range, from Texas to Florida and can be found in West Indies, Mexico and Cuba. This plant is drought-tolerant but they also can be found humid areas like Houston as long they are under shade. If they are found in full sun, their leaves will get mildew and crinkle (A&M).

This plant is often visited by hummingbirds and butterflies for the flower’s nectar. Birds and mammals visit the plant for the fruit. According to Foraging Texas, this plant is edible. You can cook, boil, or eat it raw with just about anything. Apparently, turk’s cap’s petals are tasty with pancakes. You can eat flower, fruit and green leaves – as they are full of antioxidants, proteins, minerals and vitamin C (depending on which part of plant you are eating – more information can be found in Foraging Texas).

The name, Turk’s Cap, came from the shape of the flower. The flower have been said to resemble to a Turkish turban (Wildflower Center).

My naturalist observation can be found here.

This squirrel was suspicious of me when I watched it hiding nuts inside of tree. I was just trying to figure out which kind squirrel and I’ve come to conclusion that its fox squirrel, not eastern gray squirrel as I’ve assumed. I’ve fostered baby eastern gray squirrels a couple times and this squirrel looked different than squirrels I used to take care of.  It helped me with determination of which type of squirrel. Eastern gray squirrel have gray back and white belly and fox squirrel have reddish-hue brown/gray back and orange/rust belly. More comparison can be found here.

Fox squirrels have wide range of woodland habitats and because of it, according to TPWD, its Texas’ most common squirrel and it is one of important game animals. Fox squirrels are among seed-eating mammals that help to shape forest composition because their tendency to bury seeds in ground and forget about them, and then seed eventually will sprout.

Reading about fox squirrels and I found it interesting that some say that fox squirrels are least concerned species but others say subspecies of fox squirrels are endangered because of overhunting and habitat loss of mature forest.

Fun fact: fox squirrels have pink bones because they often accumulate chemicals in teeth, tissues and bones.

My iNaturalist observation can be found here.

Coming from a region where cacti are just potted plants to be kept inside, it was unusual to see cacti growing naturally outside and this particular cactus can grow up to 5-7 feet. Texas prickly pear is under Opuntia genus and there are about dozen species of prickly pear cacti, and they can be found in the Southwest because of  its dry soil. More information on prickly pear cactus can be found here.

Even though there are immature pears growing right now, this cactus blooms yellow/orange flowers and eventually, purple pears when they matures. Prickly pears are important food for animals; bees, birds and even humans, pears can be roasted, preserved, or processed as syrup.  Prickly pear cactus can be used in many different ways, no wonder why it is Texas state plant.

My iNaturalist observation can be found here.

Resources: