What is She thinking?

By Beth Sullivan

Mother Nature must have an amazing sense of humor. At least I’d like to think it is humor and not some angry punishment for our human transgressions against her.

As I sit here and try to think of an upcoming trip to a warmer place, I am looking at a lovely, but at this point unwelcome landscape of beautiful, fluffy white snow. You cannot deny the beauty of a snow fall that sticks just enough to cover branches, to transform the woodlands. It is not yet cold enough to be uncomfortable for the clean-up nor are the winds howling(yet), so it really isn’t a bad storm. The kids were happy. My dogs are happy.

A few weeks ago we got hopeful.

Early Spring

But about 3 weeks ago, on one of those unusual, warm, February days, I was walking through Pequotsepos Preserve, and stopped not believing my ears, when I heard a PEEP of a solitary Spring Peeper in the woods. I was near a vernal pool off the trail; part of it was still ice covered. But the sunnier south facing shore was totally thawed. As I poked into the leaves at water’s edge with a stick, just messing around, as I have done all my life, I disturbed a small, larval salamander. At this time of year it is the Marbled Salamander whose larvae inhabit the shallow vernal pools At only about an inch long with no markings on their black skin, they are identifiable by their feather-like gills.

The larvae of Marbled Salamanders exhibit feathery gills. Photograph by Bruce Fellman.

Then two weeks ago, while driving on a rainy, warm night after an unusually warm couple of days, we noticed Spotted Salamanders and more Peepers. They were making their way across the wet roads from their woodland hibernating areas to the newly filled and thawed wetlands on the other side of the road. For me, the first spring emergence and crossing by the salamanders is a date to be celebrated. But this early event was a little worrisome.

Some Spotted Salamanders already made the trek to breeding pools.

Yesterday, a friend was walking at the Henne Preserve. Those of us who consider ourselves Naturalists are a bit obsessed about getting out and looking for those first signs of spring, especially in the face of the impending return of winter . Some of us even seek out very specific places where we have come to count on a particular species making a first appearance. At Henne, he was serenaded by a chorus of Wood Frogs, quacking happily in the pond near the entrance to the trail. He also looked for and discovered the first Mourning Cloak Butterfly in a spot we have come to know must have a special winter hiding place for them. These butterflies actually hibernate in cracks or crevasses to emerge when the temperature moderates and the sap rises in the trees. I am sure it is tucked back in today-and will be for a while.

Many of us look for Mourning Cloaks in the same places every year. Photograph by Bruce Fellman

Wood Frogs have the ability to survive freezing temperatures due to changes in their cellular fluids. Photograph by Bruce Fellman.

Back to Winter

So, spring has tried to make an appearance. More than once. Those creatures out prematurely have wonderful adaptations for being able to re-enter a hibernating state, dig into mud, or literally adjust their body chemistry so they can freeze without rupturing their living cells. Amphibian eggs will survive in the vernal pools. Those early risers will survive to rise again.

Some flowers were just making it through the last snow.

We may think Mother Nature has gone whacky, but she has given her creatures amazing adaptations to survive her whims.

We don fleece or fly south, even now.

Photographs by Beth Sullivan, unless otherwise indicated.

From caterpillar to beautiful butterfly

by Beth Sullivan

A very young friend of mine has begun a long treatment in a body brace. Years. As a spunky youngster without a clear concept of length of years ahead, she is facing this with optimism and a great deal of support and love. She has decided that the best way to pass the time and decorate her brace is with Butterflies. Maybe there is something symbolic there: the whole transition, metamorphosis and emergence whole and beautiful. Or maybe she just really LOVES butterflies. I am searching my files for photos for her. She can scrapbook, cut out, collect...whatever she chooses. As she gets older, she may really develop a desire to study them in greater depth. But for now they are cheerful and beautiful. Either way, it got me thinking about something “warm and colorful” on a bland gray January day.

Cecropia moths are in a cocoon all winter and when they emerge in the spring they have no mouth parts at all.

Amazing butterfiles

Butterflies are pretty amazing creatures in all stages. As caterpillars, their only job is to eat and grow. Not a bad life! They have chewing mouth parts that munch constantly and devour vast volumes of greenery. Some caterpillars are quite fussy and limited in their diets. Others are generalists. Some stay close to the ground; others are rarely seen as they spend their lives in the tops of trees. It depends on their food choice, and that food choice also determines where the eggs were laid. It’s all part of a very specific cycle.

As adults, most butterflies rely on nectar sources. But many branch out to take nourishment from other liquids: sap, water in puddles, mud and even animal excrement. Lots of minerals there! They no longer have chewing mouths, but a tongue, proboscis, that sucks up liquid as they find it. Many moths do not have mouth parts at all. They never feed, only mate, lay eggs and die.

The Butterfly cannot chew anymore, but uses its proboscis like a straw for drinking nectar.

At this time of year it is pretty obvious there is not much greenery or nectar sources. It is too cold for outside survival. So where are all the butterflies? There is not one single easy answer.

During the winter

Many moths and butterflies laid their eggs in the fall and then died. The eggs and cases remain outside until next spring when they hatch at a time when there is enough food to support the caterpillars. The invasive Gypsy Moth is the best example; their fuzzy tan-orange egg masses are visible on tree bark now.

The Gypsy Moth goes through several stages in one location. Old cocoons are visible on this tree while adult moths are laying eggs.

Many caterpillars went into pupa stage: cocoon or chrysalis, for the winter. They are usually camouflaged and attached to plant material, near or in the ground, or under rocks or logs. These too will be triggered to hatch when the temperatures are warm enough to ensure that there will be food sources for them.

This chrysalis is quite jewel-like but many are are camouflaged. 

Some caterpillars merely hibernated as is: Woolly Bears are curled up in leaf piles and in gardens and can be discovered at any time of the winter. They will awaken in spring to do their transitioning then.

The Woolly Bear hibernates as a fuzzy caterpillar under piles of leaves all winter.

Some of our Butterflies hibernate here and stay alive during the cold winter months. Mourning Cloaks and other Angle-wings, hibernate in crevices and cracks, in trees and stonewalls. Their body fluids do not freeze in the same way as pure water would in the winter temperatures. When there is an early spring thaw, they can be found out and stirring, and searching out dripping tree sap.

The Mourning Cloak hibernates locally all winter to emerge very early in spring.

Our beloved Monarch always has the best story. It is not the only butterfly to migrate south for the winter, but its journey is the longest and most celebrated. Our entire eastern population of Monarchs is in south, central Mexico now. Their story can be found  here.  one of the best Monarch information sites. They are being still and conserving energy. When temperatures and day length dictate, they will begin their journey North with their next generations arriving here in the spring. Their life cycle is studied by children of all ages! The transition from caterpillar to lovely butterfly is a miracle that all can appreciate.

The Monarch is everyone's favorite butterfly.

So as we face gray days of the winter, and a special young lady is “encased in her chrysalis,” we know there is spring ahead and know beautiful butterflies await us.

If you have butterfly photos you would like to share, you can post them with the hashtag #avalonialandconservancy on Instagram and I will try to capture them to pass on.

Photographs by Beth Sullivan.

The Mourning Cloak: Another First

Butterflies are funny creatures. They seem so fragile and ethereal, yet they are quite durable and adaptable. In grade school we learn of their life cycle: Egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult that starts it all over again with egg laying. Here in the Northeast, most of our butterflies overwinter in the chrysalis stage, often protected by camouflage attached to a stick or stem or buried amid the leaves on the ground. They emerge as spring warms up, and they “know” there is an ample supply of flowers ready to supply the nectar they need for sustenance. By the time they are ready to lay eggs, there is also plenty of herbaceous material, leaves and grasses of specific types, available for their caterpillars to feast on and grow.

We have one outstanding exception, another FIRST - Butterfly of Spring: The Mourning Cloak. It is a good sized butterfly, with a deep mahogany color on its wings, which are edged with a band of creamy yellow. It is not hard to identify, there are no others like it.

                        Photo by Rick Newton

Take a walk in the woods on a warm spring afternoon, and you may be surprised to see something take flight, then quickly disappear. Look again and you may spot it take off, flitting quickly in the sunlight before coming to rest on a tree trunk or on the ground. These butterflies overwintered as adults. They hibernated in cracks and crevices, in tree holes and even rocky outcrops. They are roused by the warmth of these early spring days, fly about, but will go dormant again if the weather turns back to cold for a spell. This has already happened several times this year. But what do they survive on? There are no flowers out so early in the spring, and surely none in the woods. The answer is in the trees themselves. The butterflies rely on tree sap instead of nectar. After all the wind and storms this winter, there are abundant broken twigs. The warm days bring sap flowing upward into the trees, the same conditions that those who tap Sugar Maples for their syrup look forward to, and when the sap hits a break in a stem, it begins to drip. The sweet sap is perfect food for the butterfly. By mid-April temperatures are more consistent, and the butterflies remain more active. By May and June, their host food plants, willows, including pussy willows, have leafed out. When the butterflies lay their eggs on the host plant, the caterpillars emerge and are voracious! Many eggs are deposited on the same plant, and a large hatch can really chew a lot of leaves. The caterpillars are black with red spots and black spikes. They will go through their metamorphosis during the summer, and by later summer and fall, the newly emerged adults reappear on the scene to gather nutrition prior to their winter hibernation. And so the cycle continues.

                                  Photo used under creative commons from wanderingnome

The First Mourning Cloaks were out a few weeks ago. We saw one today, 4/2, on the Peck Preserve in Stonington. Look for them as you walk the wooded trails in the warm spring sunlight.

An added Bonus: I know first-hand that the Monarchs have arrived in South Florida. We still have many weeks to go before the first ones are spotted here in CT. Spring is making its way up the coast.

Written by Beth Sullivan.

To learn more about the mourning cloak visit Butterflies and Moths of North America.