kestrel visits Wild Birds

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Special thanks to Liz and Tony Cutrone for inviting Doc to stop by and visit Wild Birds Unlimited on a recent game day. 

The American kestrel is the smallest falcon native to the Americas. Weighing only four ounces, they are also the smallest raptor in our part of the world. They are generally found watching over meadows and other grasslands where they eat a wide range of prey animals including grasshoppers.  

Doc is a non-flighted male that was brought into the University of Tennessee Veterinary Hospital last January. He had a badly broken and infected right wing and sadly, will never fly again. He was treated by Dr. Cheryl Greenacre and it was her good care that brought him to me after he spent time on antibiotics with local wildlife rehabilitator Lynne McCoy. 

Doc is now a wildlife ambassador for the State of Tennessee under my care and education permit. He makes public appearances to raise awareness of kestrels and their current status in the wild. By some accounts, the kestrel subspecies (Falco sparverius paulus) found in the southeast has suffered a population decline of 83 percent since 1940 and no one is completely sure why.

In Delaware it is on their state's Endangered Species list. In Tennessee, its population decline is of concern. 

Does Doc feel the pressure of representing kestrels everywhere? So far, he hasn't shown it.  

Wild Birds Unlimited is located at 7240 Kingston Pike.
  

Tony and Liz Cutrone

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Tremont's monarch tagging: first day

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Thank you to all who braved the 95-degree day and joined us for the first day of Tremont’s monarch butterfly tagging in Cades Cove in 2019.

The Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont is celebrating 50 years of connecting people to nature through classes, workshops, hikes and citizen science programs. People of all ages attend Tremont’s offerings. I especially liked this monarch outing because of the wide range of ages out in the field looking for butterflies.  

Originally created by naturalist Wanda DeWaard in 1998, this initiative is one of Tremont’s most popular offerings under the direction of citizen science coordinator Erin Canter.

Thank you for letting me join the fun and especially to my co-facilitators Oliver, Karen, Daniel and Erin.

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Naturalists support Greta

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Fair Use © The Daily Beast

Hey, fellow Baby Boomers, snap out of your malaise, the health of the planet is at stake. If we cannot do anything about it, we need to move over and get out of the way of those who can.

Coming exactly 50 years after Woodstock and the youthful protests of my generation that led to positive change, we totally support 16-year-old Greta Thunberg and her millions-strong, youth-driven worldwide protests for action on Climate Change.

Yes. All birds know not to foul their own nests. 

Click. Greta Thunberg Is the Climate Heroine We Need

Thank you, The Daily Beast!

The protests are taking place across 4,500 locations 

in 150 countries.

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A third visit to West View

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Photo by Vickie Henderson

A sharp-eyed thank you to teacher Tim McGrath for inviting Doc and me to visit his after hours Birdwatching Club at West View Elementary School.

Doc is a male non-flighted, state-permitted American kestrel, the smallest falcon to live in the Americas. He weighs roughly four ounces. Doc was rescued and brought into UT Veterinary Hospital last January with a badly broken and infected right wing and was treated by Dr. Cheryl Greenacre. His name honors her. He then spent time healing and on antibiotics with local wildlife rehabilitator Lynne McCoy.

Doc has now recovered and under my care, but is non-releasable because he cannot fly. He will serve as a wildlife ambassador for the State of Tennessee the rest of his life. I have an education permit for us to travel and raise kestrel awareness.

The kestrel population has declined 66 percent since 1966 and no one is sure why. Probably habit loss plays a role since they prefer grasslands and meadows, but as is the case with other birds in decline there are probably other factors.

Thanks, Tim. You have some truly great students.

First West View Visit: Suet Feeders

Second West View Visit: Bluebirds 

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Day 24: the emergence

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Metamorphosis Watch: Day 24 

If you wade into nature observing it closely, you discover that miracles happen every day. But perhaps none more dramatic than what we have been watching the past 24 days. 

From tiny egg to larva to sherbet-green pupa inside a chrysalis to black and orange winged adult. 

Remember the exoskeleton or shell of the chrysalis is transparent, a window to the change and today that change was very apparent after eleven days our monarch butterfly is ready to emerge.

The caterpillar grew slowly. The transformation of the pupa took days as cells moved about and realigned themselves. But emergence happens quickly, a matter of minutes. It is a deeply moving miracle to behold. 

But birth, like all birth, is a struggle. After freeing its head and antenna it must reach out and with its new legs grab a hold of the chrysalis shell. And cling tightly so that it doesn't fall while it frees its abdomen and pump its wings full of hemolymph, insect blood.

This is what we have waited for and as you might suspect, the new life form is born head first. It sees the world for the first time with its new eyes, feels the world with its new legs for the first time, and soon flaps its new wings to fly away. 

Being a good steward, I took the butterfly back to the same damp ditch where I found the egg over three weeks ago. There I tagged it and released it only a few feet away from its original common milkweed plant. Its Monarch Watch number is ABAZ236. Should you happen to capture it along its way to Mexico, you will now know is provenience.

Such miracles as metamorphosis happen millions of times a day. Roughly, half the species on the planet go through complete metamorphosis, so it is  an evolutionary strategy that has proven to be successful over the millennia.

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Day 23: coalescing

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Metamorphosis Watch: Day 23  

Coalescing. Isn't that a lovely word? After spending ten days observing the coalescence of the monarch butterfly cells—rearranging themselves from caterpillar to winged Lepidopteran, the wait is almost over. But for the butterfly, its journey is only about to begin. Our metamorphosis watch is starting to get very interesting: emergence is near. The last of the miracle is soon to unfold and quickly thereafter, fly away.

After ten days in the chrysalis our monarch butterfly pupa has changed. We have been looking through the glass, darkly. But not now. Today, we see the black and white of the head, thorax and abdomen cradled between the black and orange of the wings. 

There is still a foggy look created by the cellular material that has yet to coalesce into the adult butterfly but, trust me, almost all will find a home. 

Stay tuned. 

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Day 22: golden crown

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Metamorphosis Watch: Day 22  

Many different butterfly chrysalises develop golden markings. The word chrysalis itself comes from the Greek word: chrysos, meaning "gold." 

As to why they do it is a mystery. Perhaps the jewels help to make the pupa look non-living, non-edible with the reflecting glitter serving as a royal camouflage. How it does it is easier to determine. The raised beads are created by their structure, layers of chitin filled with fluid that act like mini prisms to reflect the color yellow-gold. But again, we are back to "why."

At this point in any natural history question the answer has to be, "because it works. 200 million years of evolution has rewarded the processes that are successful." 

Similarly to the jewels, an indigo bunting's feathers are internally structured to reflect a dark blue sheen. Otherwise, it would be another black bird. 

At Day 22, the kids in the back seat are asking, "are we there yet?"

Stay tuned.


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Day 21: taking shape, behind closed doors

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Metamorphosis Watch: Day 21  

If you could see inside the monarch chrysalis, you'd see the butterfly forming. The abdomen is at the top with the thorax and head below it. To the left the outline of one wing is beginning to take shape while the legs and proboscis are on the backside. Very soon, this will all become very apparent. 

Stay tuned.


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Day 20: caterpillars weave silk too

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Metamorphosis Watch: Day 20  

Today, we take a closer look at the silk pad or button the monarch butterfly caterpillar spun, its last official responsibility as a larva. The spinneret is located below the mouth and when the pad is finished, the caterpillar turns around to grasp it with its anal prolegs followed by the insertion of the black stemlike cremaster located on its rear end. The anal prolegs fall off with the molted skin. 

Spiders weave silk as well, but an hour's work for them is far less critical than the hour or so it takes a monarch caterpillar to create the anchoring silk pad. For up to ten days, the chrysalis must hang from it through all kinds of adverse weather.

Will it hold tight?  Stay tuned.

Monarch caterpillar spinning the silk pad with its front end

Monarch caterpillar grasping the silk pad with its rear end

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Day 19: through the chrysalis, darkly

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Metamorphosis Watch: Day 19  

Again there appears to be little change. Yet, keep in mind that change is indeed happening. The exoskeleton or shell of the monarch butterfly chrysalis is as transparent as cellophane. It serves as a window to the evolutionary miracle that is taking place. The green we are seeing is the living butterfly as a pupa. As time goes by, we will start to see the black, white and orange structures forming and soon will see it face to face. But for now, we see through the glass, darkly. 

Stay tuned.

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Day 18: pulling itself together

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Metamorphosis Watch: Day 18  

There appears to be little change. The chrysalis has not moved yet inside there is indeed movement. The monarch butterfly is breathing, its long chambered heart is beating while it is pulling itself together. 

Stay tuned.

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Day 17: Busy at work

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Metamorphosis Watch: Day 17  

Ditto from yesterday. The monarch butterfly is busy at work inside its chrysalis.

Stay tuned.

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Day 16: Now we wait

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Metamorphosis Watch: Day 16  

We're back in a small package. It looks tranquil enough but inside the monarch butterfly chrysalis there is a evolutionary miracle in progress. The pieces are realigning themselves with the imaginal discs. Groups of cells that will become the recognizable butterfly we all know.

The fossil record of ancient Lepidopteran—moths and butterflies—go back at least 200 million years. Both groups go through metamorphosis: egg to larva to pupa to winged adult. So how did the miracle begin? When did the first caterpillar change itself into a winged adult and fly away? And how did it conceive to do such? How? How? How?

That is the miracle.

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Day 15: The miracle begins

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Metamorphosis Watch: Day 15  

Day of excitement! 

Reams of text have been written about this: articles, columns, books, theses. I even wrote about it in my third book for UT Press: Ephemeral by Nature. 

We first learned about butterfly metamorphosis in third or fourth grade. Were we mystified? Well, yes!

How could this be? One life-form becomes another while all the while retaining its singular identity. But somehow until you sit and watch the process up-close, it still doesn't sink-in what an absolute evolutionary miracle it is. 

Today began with the monarch butterfly caterpillar we have been watching for two weeks hanging head down. Its cremaster was embedded in a silk pad it had just spun with its spinneret. It has to do this because it needs to molt its last larval skin and create an isolation chamber to reform itself.

Is it just a green goo that has to rearrange its cells? No, not really. Because inside that caterpillar all along were clumps of cells called imaginal discs that will now begin to grow into the butterfly organs it will need for its new winged life. The nascent wings, legs, proboscis, eyes, are there all along and now it is time for them to mature. But at no time does this wonderful life-form stop breathing. Its heart still beats.  

You could say it goes on hiatus but that suggests it is somehow resting and it isn't, the monarch has a lot of work to do.

And it all happens inside its chrysalis. A perfect chartreuse green jewel. It is now a pupa.

Stay tuned.

     

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Day 14: Let's go for a walk

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Metamorphosis Watch: Day 14

Right on schedule. Two weeks after it hatched, the monarch butterfly caterpillar decided it was time to stop eating and go for a walk.

Like all insects, monarch caterpillars have six true legs near the head on what will ultimately become the butterfly's thorax. But they also have five sets of fake legs called prolegs which they mostly use to hang onto leaves and for this, the most important walk of their young lives. They have to climb and find a safe place to hide and pupate, to shed their last larval skin.

They may spend hours trundling along, climbing, to locate just the right spot. After that, the prolegs will never be needed again. 

Stay tuned. 

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Day 13: eating is almost over

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Metamorphosis Watch: Day 13

When the monarch butterfly caterpillar gets to be roughly two inches long, you know pupation is near. After almost two weeks of eating, it has bulked up enough. It's time to push away from the table and go for a walk.  

Today, it only gave FDR a passing glance.

Stay tuned.

For the first photo with the same wooden ruler, click: Day 2.

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Day 12: simply beautiful

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Metamorphosis Watch: Day 12

Simply a beautiful yellow, black and white striped nugget of nature and only one of many pieces from the whole, like a jigsaw puzzle. All have their place. 

The monarch butterfly caterpillar is shaped like a Japanese bullet train, but their speed is in growth. It has chunked up on milkweed for the transformation that is soon to come.

For a look back at its baby photo taken just ten days ago, click Day 2.

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