Summer on Thursday

Astronomical summer will officially begin this Thursday, June 20. I hear that it will hot and humid around Philadelphia and South Jersey -- a perfect day for the beach.

It should also be good weather to look for interesting insects, like this Golden Northern Bumblebee -- the plushy teddy bear of bees, and my personal favorite. Click to enlarge.

And here's a thought to remember from John Lubbock, who said: "Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time."

White Squirrels

 

I was on a road trip from New Jersey to St. Louis, Missouri, last week. Of all the roadside attractions along the way, the white squirrels of Olney, Illinois, were the best. Behold the white squirrel! Click to enlarge.

Here's more.

The town promotes and protects its special squirrel population. The road through the city park where many of the squirrels live is named White Squirrel Drive. There's a law that grants right-of-way to white squirrels on streets and sidewalks.

There are also regular Eastern Gray Squirrels in Olney; white ones are pink-eyed albinos of that species.

You can find white squirrel images all over town, like on the wall of a donut shop.

In the corner of a mural.

There are statues.

And this!

And souvenirs.

I bought myself a white squirrel cookie cutter. I'll show off what I bake with it in a later blog. White and pink icing will be involved.

Olney, Illinois, is worth a visit.

Brood XIX Hits St. Louis

 

I have the good luck to be in St. Louis, Missouri, while a big emergence of periodical cicadas is happening. There are billions of buzzing cicadas out there. People are calling it "Cicadageddon." This brood emerges every 13 years, so they were last seen in 2011. They'll be back in 2037. Click here to read my eyewitness account of the emergence of a periodical cicada brood. Click on the photo to enlarge. Gotta love that face, right?

Memorial Day 2024

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them."

 

from For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon

Pink Lady's Slipper Orchids

 

My search for wild pink lady's slipper orchids in the New Jersey Pine Barrens has paid off.

Behold! Click to enlarge.

Pink lady's slippers are also called moccasin flowers, American valerian, and squirrel shoes.

Like many orchids, the pink lady's slipper has a mutually beneficial relationship with a fungus. The fungus provides nutrients to the plant's seeds and helps them germinate. When the plant becomes photosynthetic, it provides nutrients to the fungus. Fair deal.

Bees pollinate the flowers, but receive no reward. They are attracted to the color and the sweet aroma of the flower. They expect nectar. But when a bee enters the flower pouch through the slit in the front, not only is there no nectar -- it can't back out. To reach an exit, it has to squeeze past the flower's female reproductive structure, the stigma. If the bee has been inside other blossoms, pollen on its body is deposited on the stigma, pollinating it. The bee also has to squeeze past a pollen mass, where it receives a new dusting of pollen to carry to the next flower. Tricky!

According to the U.S. Forest Service, a pink lady's slipper orchid plant can live for 20 years or more. They are unlikely to survive transplanting.

Pink lady's slipper are blooming now through mid-June in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Get out there and find them. 

Happy Mother's Day

 

A patient great egret with three feisty chicks. Click to enlarge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still Looking for Pink Lady's Slippers

 

I spent another day in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, looking for wild pink lady's slipper orchids. According to the New Jersey Pinelands Commission's orchid blooming schedule, the flowers can be found from early May to mid-June. I was on the job on May 1.

I love when clouds reflect in the ponds like this. 

There were lots of pretty things to see, like these red maple seeds. Click to enlarge. 

I can report that purple pitcher plants are growing new insect-trapping pitchers.

And sundew plants are pushing up through the mud. Note the shiny drops of sticky "dew," ready to trap hapless insects. I can attest that the insects are out. But what about the pink lady's slipper orchids? The thing I went there to find?

Behold! I found several. But... they all were all newly sprouted like the one above, all with their slippers wrapped in green. Not pink lady's slippers -- green ones!

So, I did not quite find what I was looking for. I think one more trip to the pines will do it.