Although the summer was dry we had a fairly wet spring again, and the seeded prairie was dominated by 6'+ Wild Bergamot and 9'+ Cup Plant began taking over (10' tall and spreading)! Given the aggressiveness of the Cup Plant, we dug out all the mature plants in order to achieve a "short grass prairie".
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| The seeded prairie after killing the grass and overseeding, fall 2012. |
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| The seeded prairie late summer 2013. |
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| Mid-summer 2014 |
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| Early August 2015 |
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| Close-up, August 2015 |
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| Mid-July 2016. |
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| Mid-July 2017. Cup Plant dominated the far side of the seeded prairie. |
Flora and fauna
Here are the updates and totals, with some photo highlights.
Vertebrates
Birds: 166 species
Addition to the bird list in 2017 was White-eyed Vireo.
Nesting: A pair of Eastern Screech-owls raised a family in one of our boxes we put up in 2012. Unfortunately, the Great Horned Owl's stick nest was blown out of its tree with a major wind storm in late winter. The next-closest known Great Horned Owl nest which was ~1.25 miles down the road was also blown out in the same storm. Sadly, both nests had eggs/hatchlings.
A cumulative list of breeding birds on our property can be found here.
Busy with various work projects, we did not do much banding in 2017. We banded a total of 128 birds, of which 113 were new -- our banding totals can be viewed here. Among the recaptures from previous years was a female House Wren first banded as a nesting adult in August 2015 that was nesting again and captured in May. Also returning to nest was a male Gray Catbird from last year. Another catbird banded as a youngster last year was also caught during the nesting season. Two wintering American Tree Sparrows, one first banded in April 2016 and the other December 2016, were recaptured December 2017.
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| Gamecam image of Indigo Bunting and Chipping Sparrow at the pond. |
Mammals: 18+ species. The + were due to the small tracks of a weasel found in the snow in December 2017, so an "unofficial" record.
Herps: 12 species. Nothing new in 2017.
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| Gray treefrog as a bench companion. |
Invertebrates
Butterflies: 48 species. No new species in 2017.
One of the early species observed in the year was an Eastern Comma, enjoying some slime.
Butterflies: 48 species. No new species in 2017.
One of the early species observed in the year was an Eastern Comma, enjoying some slime.
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| Eastern Comma |
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| We have a population of Baltimore Checkerspots due to a good number of host plants around the yard. Here is a congregation of caterpillars on English Plantain. |
Moths: We added 28 species in 2017, bringing our property total to 404. We added several species due to a couple of reasons: First, we bought a metal halide lamp at an estate sale and used it a couple of times with our black light.
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| Metal Halide lamp on a shelf. |
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| Our black light (an old bug zapper with the zapper disconnected). All the black specs on the sheet are moths and other bugs. |
Second, in conjunction with a work project, Julie focused on leaf miners.
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Leucanthiza amphicarpeaefoliella leaf mines on Hog Peanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata). |
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| This tiny Caloptilia moth has larvae that mine leaves. Seen frequently at the metal halide light sheet. |
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| This boring little thing, Aster-head Eucosma Moth (Eucosma tomonana), was our 400th species. |
We also heard from a neighbor down the street that he had a Luna Moth on his garage one night....one day we'll find one at our place. We have a few walnut trees in the woods.
Flies: 91 species, up from 78. Several species were added due to Julie's efforts in studying leaf mines.
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| This tiny colorful crane fly (Erioptera venusta) came to the metal halide light sheet. |
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| These are the mines of an introduced fly (Ophiomyia kwansonis) in the leaves of daylilies. |
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| This little fly has the terrific common name "Gnat Ogre." |
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| This interesting fly (Ochthera sp.) is predatory, and snatches insects with those crazy front legs like a mantis. |
Bees/wasps: 79 species, up from 77.
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| This tiny braconid wasp in the subfamily Alysiinae is probing a leaf mine in a milkweed leaf hoping to lay an egg in a leaf- mining caterpillar. We'd show you more wasps that are parasites of leaf miners, but they all look pretty much the same! For ID, we send some to experts around the world for DNA barcoding. |
Dragonflies and damselflies: 41 species. No new species in 2017.
Other "bugs": up to 197 species.
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| Elderberry Borer (Desmocerus palliatus) |
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| Horsemint Tortoise Beetle larva (Physonata unipunctata) |
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| Margined Blister Beetle (Epicauta funebris) |
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| This little leafhopper is the introduced Orientus ishidae; it came to the black light. There are no voucher specimens for Michigan, so we need to collect one in 2018. |
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| Lyric Cicada, one of the several species that occur most years. |
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| Telamona ampliata, a treehopper that came to the light setup. |
Plants
Still not having adequately tackled grasses, we still managed to add 14 plant species to our property list in 2017:
Carex echinodes -- woods (originally identified as C. tenera, but herbarium speciment ID'd by T. Reznicek at UMMZ)
Carex normalis -- woods
Carex scoparia -- yard
Dichanthelium clandestinum -- field
Dicanthelium implicatum -- woods
Dipsacus fullonum -- yard (non-native, eradicated)
Elymus canadensis -- field
Elymus hystrix -- yard, field (spread from our planting)
Erigeron annuus -- woods
Juncus dudleyi -- woods
Lonicera x bella -- all
Robinia pseudoacacia -- yard (eradicated)
Sisyrinchium angustifolium -- yard (spread from our planting)
Viola blanda -- woods
We also purged some misidentifications and uncertain IDs:
Removed Carex bebbi
Removed Carex cristatella
Removed Carex tenera (see above)
Removed Hepatica acutiloba
Removed all Galium other than aparine and concinnum (difficult genus)
Removed Lonicera japonica and L. morrowii
- Whole property: 323 species (67% native), overall/adjusted FQI* 41.3/27.7
- Woods: 202 species (85% native), FQI 46.9/35.1
- Woods + old field: 262 species (77% native), FQI 43.7/31.6
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*In standardized botanical assessments, each species is assigned a "C value" or Coefficient of Conservatism from 0-10, gauging its tolerance to disturbance and affinity for intact historical ecosystems. From this, an index is calculated. Abundance is not figured in (thus a huge population of a rare/specialized species "counts" the same as a single plant) and species not native to Michigan always score "0", even if they are expanding their ranges into Michigan naturally, or are not invasive or habitat specific. In Michigan FQI's of >35 are considered important floristically while most undeveloped land scores <20 .="" font="">
