Cedar waxwings

I saw these beautiful birds at one of my bus stops this morning. They are on my shortlist of most beautiful birds in North America – I would set them alongside cardinals, orioles, and painted buntings any day. Their plumage has an exquisitely soft, smooth, sanded-silk texture; they look like pastel drawings on wings.
These birds are so beautiful that they can get away with having no song! It’s been scientifically proven that none of their vocalizations serves the purpose that songs do in other species. It’s theorized that the waxy-looking red “droplets” on their wings can accomplish what another bird’s song does: attract females, challenge rivals, assist in courtship. (Which isn’t exactly the same thing as attracting females: once he has her attention, he has to win her over!)
Waxwings do have a call, like other birds; it is a high-pitched, tinkling hum that’s hard to describe. It’s very evocative, and surrounds the tree they’re in like a cloud. Finding them is a feeling in the air for me, much more than sight or sound. And then, when I see them, they are simply heart-stopping; the first time I saw them they were so beautiful I had tears in my eyes. I’ve only had that reaction to a few other things in my life. Waxwings will always be very special birds for me.

RIP, Fluffy

Sadly, my little scymnine lady beetle larva has died. *sniff* I just can’t seem to keep this subfamily alive! I saw more larvae in the same milkweed patch, so I’ll try again – but leave some in the wild, lest I extirpate them from that location! Sigh…I don’t know what it is about scymnines, they just don’t survive in my care. All the other lady beetle larvae do, but not Subfamily Scymninae…

It’s a lady beetle-eat-lady beetle world…

…still, it hardly seems fair for two active larvae to gang up on a prepupal larvae for breakfast. I gave them a lot more aphids and although that particular prepupa is never going to pupate, I hope the rest of the larvae will survive! I suppose that at worst there’ll still be one very fat larva left at the end…I’d rather have enough adults to breed, though.

"Come up and see my paintings..."

Oddest thing happened: I met a friend of my boss while doing an aphid search, got to talking, and he invited me to, well, come and see his paintings. And then he actually did show me his paintings! Not all pick-up lines are pick-up lines.
No, I am not totally naive; my boss knows the guy well, I already knew him as an acquaintance, and the guy’s household staff were in the house. And I made it very clear right up front that I was married and my brother is a police officer. No one wants to mess with a cop’s sister…
Considerable moolah in the neighborhood around my office, and big houses full of well-to-do people, including this guy with his household staff and art collection. There were some really gorgeous and unique pieces, and although it was rather odd to be invited in, I can’t say I have any regrets about it. Oh, one maybe, turns out the guy is also writing a screenplay and when I mentioned I’d been in film school he foisted it off on me to look at. Dude, I am not in the film industry now! But I may as well do him the courtesy of making sure it’s spelled and formatted right. And meet him in a public location to give it back…like I said, I’m not totally naive!

Buggy goodness!

My catch of the day was a 6mm scymnine lady beetle larva, finally! I’ve never been able to raise scymnines – adults haven’t mated or laid eggs in captivity, the larvae I collected last summer all died within days – so I’m really hoping this little guy survives until adulthood. Wish me luck! It is just the cutest darn thing, I don’t usually name my insects but I think I may have to call this one Fluffy.

Plus, another of my captive-reared 14 spotted LB’s made it to adulthood, and it’s a boy! The first one is a girl, so with any luck they will reproduce in captivity for me. I’ve only found a single 14-spot egg and would like to see and photograph more of them. I know it’s a non-native species but it’s still one of my favorites; the larvae are charming and the adults are so pretty. Also, they have an extremely rapid hatch-to-adult life cycle, and I’d like to get a better feel for that.

And in non-coccinellid news, a syrphid fly larva that hitched a ride with some aphids has pupated – I wish I’d photographed it as a larva so I could have a life cycle for it, but I’ll take pics of the pupa, and the adult if it emerges. It was one of those gorgeous lime-green larvae with the brown and white diamond pattern on the back. We have a lot of photos of those on BugGuide but I don’t know how many have been reared to identifiable adults.

Life List Bird #194: Bicknell's Thrush, Catharus bicknelli

I spent a wonderful afternoon sitting in a willow tree in Philly’s Roosevelt Park (incongruously right across the street from all the sports stadiums, but a great birdwatching location nonetheless). I had my binoculars and one hand and cell phone in the other, talking to a good friend while keeping an eye on the birds. The Bicknell’s Thrush slowly crept by about half an hour into the conversation; I sat very, very still and it walked right under me. It just didn’t look like any thrush I’ve seen – I don’t carry field guides when I go birdwatching so I didn’t look it up right then, but I made a mental note of the field marks and checked when I got home. And it looks a lot like all the other spot-breasted thrushes, but not…quite…like them. Unmistakably a Bicknell’s. Yay!

The same afternoon also yielded a plethora of warblers, robins, catbirds, and red-winged blackbirds. A robin’s nest was just barely visible in a nearby tree, and I enjoyed watching the parents fly back and forth to feed the nestlings. There was always a lot of noise as the parents arrived, followed by a brief silence as the chicks had their beaks stuffed with food, then another brief noise session followed by a long and utter silence after the parents flew away. I couldn’t see the babies, but those noises were adorable!