Shorebirds at the Shore

Solitary Sandpiper

 When I hear the word "shorebirds," I automatically think of birds seen at the beach. After all, that's the "shore" right? Well, not always.  Shorebirds, or waders, are not simply birds found at the shore, but are the families of plovers, sandpipers and related forms that are part of the order Charadriiformes. Most of these birds can be found along shorelines, especially in migration, but they are also found inland, upland, on arctic tundra or at sea. They are related to gulls, terns and auks, also Charadriiformes. One of the many attractions of shorebirds is the long-distance migration of species such as American Golden-Plover  between the high arctic and southern South America.

As a birder, I find shorebirds hard to identify, since many of them look very much alike. I sent a photo of this bird to Brainard Palmer-Ball (the birding expert in Kentucky) for some help. His expert eye noticed the following: the main characters for this guy are the size (not tiny, but not large, sort of medium-smallish); the very noticeable eye-ring; and the olive colored legs. The back being mostly plain dark gray with a few smidges of white are also helpful (rather than being mottled and marbled with more browns, rufous, and beige). The bobbing you noticed is also a characteristic behavior (but it's more of a jerk of the body up in front rather than bobbing of the tail). Brainard finally took pity on me and identified this as a Solitary Sandpiper. Watch the short video below to see the bobbing motion made by this bird.

 

 It's exciting to find one of these little birds in Kentucky. They breed in the taiga, nesting in trees in deserted songbird nests of northern Canada, and migrate to South America for the winter, so you can only find them here during the migration season. This Sandpiper was searching for insects along the muddy banks of the upper pond in Meadowlark Meadow. It looks like we are having more success in attracting different species of birds to the Nature Preserve! Come for a hike yourself and see what migrants you can find!

Naturally yours,

~denapple

Horned Devil Found at Nature Preserve

Are we being invaded by space aliens? Is this some mutant monster from an industrial accident?

Should we all run off yelling and screaming?

Looks pretty scary, doesn't it? Not to fear though, this is a hickory horned devil caterpillar, which will turn into a royal walnut moth eventually. One of our observant visitors found this beauty and brought him to the office to identify and share.

With their spiky horns and impressive length (up to 6 inches), mature hickory horned devils can be rather intimidating creatures, especially while rearing up their spiky heads when disturbed. These caterpillars are harmless, however, and they spend all summer feeding on leaves of such trees as hickory, walnut, pecan, persimmon, sumac or sweet gum. They molt as they grow, changing from the original black to brown, then tan and finally to green. In the fall, hickory horned devils stop eating and descend from the trees. At this time they are in danger of being eaten by copperheads waiting below.

If the plump caterpillars don’t become snake snack food, they burrow down into the ground and change into shiny brown pupae. The pupae remain underground for one or two winters. In the spring, the adult royal walnut moth (or regal moth) emerges. This beautiful, orange-striped moth with yellow markings has a wingspan of up to 5½ inches. (That's really HUGE for a moth!)

Keep your eyes open when you walk around our trails at the Nature Preserve. You may find something incredible too!

Naturally yours,

~denapple