No more dashing, debonair Don, it’s shambling shaggy Sam now! Hummingbirds are molting!
No more dashing, debonair Don, it’s shambling shaggy sad Sam now! It’s molting time for our Ruby throated male. He even sounds differently with his missing feathers. The loss of old feathers and the growth of new is especially noticeable around the beak. Molting occurs in mid-to-late summer before hummingbirds migrate south. In adult males the last week of July seems to be when it starts, and in adult females the first week of August. During the time they molt, all their body feathers are involved but not their wing or tail feathers. He’ll look brand new soon!
Did you know hummingbirds have relatively few feathers; for example, the Ruby-throated Hummingbird has only 940 feathers! Their feathers are proportionately large, and missing feathers tend to be more obvious than on other birds. Missing feathers produce an obvious hole or gap in the plumage that is
exaggerated by the gray bases of exposed adjacent feathers. Incoming sheathed feathers also tend to be somewhat more conspicuous on hummingbirds than on other birds, especially on the head and underparts.
She will start molting soon as well, you can see a few feathers around her neck starting! They are not the only ones resembling ugly ducklings right now! Our little cygnet trumpeter swan has lost it’s white fuzz and now is a dish water gray! That gray beak/snozz! Beautiful!
I’m guessing baby is in the 6-8 week old age bracket now! I check every time we drive by, sometimes they are snoozing, but mostly baby is eating! It may be a few more weeks until baby starts to learn to fly, 90-120 days is when they should be able to! I wonder if they need the 100 meter (yards) runway their parents do? Hopefully we can see him/her practicing in the next few weeks…
The colourful Milkweed Tussock caterpillars are voraciously devouring the leaves around them, so beautiful! Dogbanes and milkweeds produce a sticky latex that can impede larval feeding so they skeletonize the leaves of young milkweed as older larvae sever the veins that supply the latex, which reduces latex flow to the area on which they feed! Smart little guys! Like most species in this family, it has chemical defenses it acquires from its host plants. These are retained in adults and deter bats, and presumably other predators, from feeding on them! (Most insects that feed on milkweeds pick up toxic compounds known as cardiac glycosides from feeding on the poisonous milkweed and become poisonous themselves.) The caterpillars can be irritating to handle so no touching!
The tussock moth does warn its main enemy, night-flying bats, of its toxicity. It does so by actually giving off a warning click that apparently says, “You may not be able to see that I am orange and black, but I certainly taste orange and black!
If the monarch butterfly has to hurry along rapidly in the fall to make it to Mexico before winter, the milkweed tussock caterpillars is in no hurry. It doesn’t migrate. In fact, it feeds right through September. Then it pupates underground for the winter. In the spring, with the return of warm weather and renewed milkweed growth, it emerges as a butterfly, ready to lay eggs for the new season of caterpillars. There is only one generation per year in the North, two in the South.
I have been looking for any new dragonflies, thought I’d found one, turns out to be either a female or juvenile, that looks nothing like it’s parent! Sigh, one day I will learn all these differences!
The Blue Dashers-Pachydiplax longipennis– seem to have the bulk of the parasitic mites! These dragonflies are carnivorous, and are capable of eating hundreds of insects every day, including mosquito and mayfly larvae. The adult dragonfly will eat nearly any flying insect, such as a moth or fly. Nymphs have a diet that includes other aquatic larvae, small fish, and tadpoles. They are not fussy eaters! They are are known to be voracious predators, consuming up to 10% of their body weight each day in food! I am glad I am not a bug! Longipennis means long wings, just in case you were wondering;) Ha!
Our juvenile, well, it’s a boy! His little red feathers are starting to show on his throat! He’s getting a bit braver with Captain Cranky Pants who is still molting…poor guy, he will take another week to start to look his debonair self again. In the meantime, this little brat is giving him the gears! It’s just a constant chase from point A to pint B and back again…thirsty work!
I’ll leave it for now, stay tuned for more glamour shots of our dashing young Ruby-throated and some welcome return visitors! Mr. Oriole! We’ve had warmth, and rain and now it looks like we are headed back to some temperate climes. I had to get out of bed quickly and catch this colour last week, but reminded me Summer doesn’t last forever! 12° C barefoot and pyjamas. I need new slippers! Ha! It faded so quickly! Just like Summer:) Saludos amigos! Rainbows and more to come!
