Fledgling Downy Woodpecker

I looked out of my bedroom window this morning and caught this fledgling downy woodpecker holding on to a branch of the two-story-plus crape myrtle tree that dominates my backyard view. He sat there blinking and looking a little dazed ... and held that position long enough for me to run downstairs to get my camera. I got back to find him still getting his bearings on the world. I snapped a few pictures until he was finally unnerved by the noise behind the window and took off for the wide world.

I've seen quite a few fledgling downies at the Bark Butter feeder that is suction-cupped to my living room window. However this is the smallest and perhaps the youngest one I've seen. I estimate that he was about three inches long and about the size of my thumb.

Tomato Hornworm

About a week ago I noticed it: a tiny nubbin of a tomato. My first. I was so happy, as most of my gardening friends as well as my parents were already harvesting their tomato crop. Each day as I've picked lettuce or snow peas for dinner, I've checked in on my nubbin ... and one day there were two! Out of the corner of my consciousness I thought I saw something. I thought a branch of the tomato plant was missing. Naw!

But then, sure enough, on the next day, about two-feet-worth of leaves were gone. Bare green branches were all that remained. And there he was, eating as fast as he could! The dreaded Tomato Hornworm, devouring my plant with gusto. And, the first tomato! He'd eaten exactly one half of my first tomato.

I broke off the branch and stuck it in the fence under the House Wren's house. I included a pencil in the photo I took of it there so that readers could see what a monster the caterpillar was. The worm was almost as big as the Wren, so I didn't know if the bird would take the bait. But the next day he was gone. Perhaps I have saved my second tomato, now about the size of my thumb.

Here's what I found about these fellas from Virginia Cooperative Extension:


Tomato Hornworms

The most familiar hornworms, those associated with tomatoes and related plants, are a complex of two species, the tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata), and the tobacco hornworm (Manduca sexta). Both species are pests in vegetable gardens. The caterpillars chew leaves, and plants can be rapidly defoliated. Fruits may also be chewed. Tomatoes are particularly susceptible to injury; but other related plants, such as peppers and potatoes, are occasionally infested.

The tomato hornworm has a dark green "horn" with black sides, while that of the tobacco hornworm is red. The caterpillars also are differentiated by the white striping along their sides. These form a series of V's with tomato hornworms, while there are diagonal dashes on the tobacco hornworm. Occasional dark forms of the tomato hornworm larvae occur. The caterpillars of these are much darker than the normal green, although the adult moths differ little in appearance.

Many of the tomato and tobacco hornworms overwinter as pupae in the soil in the vicinity of previously infested gardens, typically emerging in late May and June. However, the adult moths are strong fliers that may travel long distances. Female moths lay large pearl-colored eggs on the upper surface of leaves. The young caterpillars hatch and feed on the plant for a month or more. They have tremendous appetites and consume large amounts of leaves as they grow older and larger. After feeding, they wander away from the plant and pupate in the soil.

Adult moths are identified by examining the hind wing which has two separate wavy bands next to the border on the tomato hornworm that are fused with the tobacco hornworm. The white marks on the abdomen of the tomato hornworm are also more angularly marked.

Control in Gardens

Tomato hornworms are easily controlled by garden insecticides (e.g., carbaryl, permethrin, spinosad). Depending on the size of your crop, examination of the foliage with patience (for they are difficult to see) and tossing them aside when you find them can be effective. Larvae tend to feed on the exterior parts of plants during shadier periods, near dusk and dawn, when they may also be more readily observed and destroyed. A biological control organism that is also highly effective and sold commonly is Bacillus thuringiensis (e.g., Dipel, Thuricide). Best of all there is a natural enemy of the hornworms; a braconid wasp (Cotesia congregata) lays dozens of eggs inside the larvae. The immature wasps eat their way out of the hornworms and pupate by spinning a cocoon on outside of the caterpillar body. If you find hornworms covered with these tiny cocoons you should leave them be so the wasps can complete their life cycle and live to sting another hornworm.

I have six tomato plants, lots of pretty yellow flowers, and the one thumb-sized tomato remains. I'll use the "observe and destroy" method to rid the plants of any more pests. I hate to use the word pests because, after all, they are quite beautiful. What a striking shade of new leaf green!

Bluebirds and Extreme Heat

The Williamsburg area weather forecast calls for a high temperature of 106 degrees today with a "feels like" temperature of 111 degrees Fahrenheit. At New Quarter Park, the Historic River Chapter, Virginia Master Naturalists who have adopted Bluebird Boxes on the 13-box trail are concerned about a number of nests that have or will be hatching out this week. I have read that ideal development requires that bluebird eggs be maintained between 96 and 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Females can sense when eggs are outside this range.

According to the Bluebird Monitor's Guide to Bluebirds and Other Cavity Nesters, the incubating female tries to keep the eggs at around 92-95 °F. Sometimes when it's really hot, the females don't sit on the eggs as much, or they fan the eggs with their wings, or the eggs hatch faster. On the other hand, they may sit on eggs or nestlings more often to draw heat away. If at all possible, the authors recommend, the inside of the nestbox should not exceed 100 °F. Some research indicates that if temperatures outside are 100-104 degrees Fahrenheit, the percentage of eggs that hatch drops, and nestlings under nine days old can die. Wooden boxes apparently get hotter than PVC boxes, and all of the boxes at New Quarter are wooden. Ventilation holes are key. In hot climates, roofs should overhang the sides by at least 2" and 4" in the front. I read that some people tie small umbrellas on the top of the box for shade. Perhaps we should give this a try!

I took this photo of a group of nestlings on Tuesday, June 22. Apparently, one egg in that clutch did not hatch. These birds were about one week old at the time the photo was taken. When they are born, as I've shown in previous posts, the nestlings are naked of feathers, blind, and helpless. Until they are about a week old and can control their own body temperatures, mothers will spend time brooding them and keeping them either warm or shaded. Then, at just over a week old, the nestlings are able to thermoregulate their body temperatures, thereby decreasing the risk of mortality due to excessive heat. These nestlings are entering their second week of life, and will demand constant feeding as they are in their period of greatest weight gain. We'll see the parents going in and out of this box often.

I'll post updates on the fate of our heat wave babies in the days ahead.

Bee Balm

Two years ago, I bought some Scarlet Bee Balm (Monarda didyma) at the Virginia Native Plant Society's annual sale in Williamsburg. This year there are clumps of it blooming in sunny to dappled shade patches all around my yard. Don't you just love the way native wildflowers do that?

From the U.S. Forest Service "Celebrating Wildflowers" website:

Scarlet beebalm is aromatic herb a member of the mint family. It is also known by the common names bergamot, Oswego tea, and crimson beebalm. The common name beebalm refers to the use of a resin derived from the plant that may be used for healing and soothing in particularly of bee stings. The common name Oswego tea refers to the Oswego native Americans living near the present day city of Oswego in upstate New York who taught early white settlers how to make a herbal tea from the plants leaves. The common name bergamont is derived from its fragrance that is similar to the fragrance of the bergamont orange. The genus name Monarda is in recognition of Nicolas Monardes, a Spanish physician, who authored an early herbal that introduced Europe to many of the plants from North America. The species name didyma translates from the Latin meaning "in pairs" or "twins" referring to the stamens occurring in pairs.

Scarlet beebalm is a perennial herb that grows from shallow, slender, creeping rhizomes that grows 2 to 3½ feet tall. Leaves are opposite, 3 to 6 inches in length, coarsely toothed, glabrous to sparsely pubescent on the upper leaf surface and with spreading hairs on the lower leaf surface. The stems are 4-sided or square as are most members of the mint family. The scarlet flowers are grouped in dense heads at the tips of the stems, sometimes with flowering heads developing from the stem axils below. Reddish broad bracts surround the flower clusters. The flowers are long (up to 1½ inches) and narrow and markedly two-lipped; the upper lip continues the corolla tube while the lower lip turns downward and is broader than the upper lip.

The spectacularly scarlet showy flower cluster of scarlet beebalm is a wonderful delight to hikers who commonly encounter this native wildflower in shady woods generally along stream banks and thickets. Flowering starts in late June to early July to late August. Scarlet beebalm’s large, red, scentless, nectar-rich flowers are pollinated primarily by ruby-throated hummingbirds and butterflies especially fritillaries. The dense flowering heads turn from green to brown when ripe. Crushing the ripened flower heads allows for easier seed extraction and then pass the crushed heads into a 1/25 screen to separate out the seeds. Germination is greatly enhanced by a cool, moist stratification for 2 to 3 weeks.

Beebalms are coarse herbs and many gardeners have a love-hate relationship with because of their ability to spread by seed throughout a flowerbed and their susceptibility to succumb to powdery mildew in humid climates. The chance of becoming infected with powdery mildew can be lessened by growing in full sunlight and pruning within the clump to increase airflow. Scarlet beebalm grows best in full sunlight, but also does well in dappled shade although the flowering will be sparser. Scarlet beebalm grows best in moist, fertile soil, where they will spread, and easily forming sizeable colonies. If you want to eliminate self-sowing, remove the flower heads as soon as they are done blooming. Propagation is easiest by division in autumn or spring. They are a premiere nectar plant and should be included in anyone's butterfly garden.

Kayaking at New Quarter Park

It was a beautiful morning for kayaking on Queen's Creek. There were eleven of us at BYOK (Bring Your Own Kayak), the third Saturday trip that I lead from New Quarter Park. We took it slow and enjoyed watching the marsh for activity, since it was low, low tide while we were out. Lots of fiddler crabs and I heard more than one Virginia Rail. We saw the usual assortment of Osprey, Eagles, Egrets, Great Blue Herons, swifts, and vultures. This Yellow-crowned Night Heron strutted around while I took a few photos. (I carry my old camera in the boat, so the picture isn't so great.)

Join me on a future BYOK. They're held every third Saturday from April to October at New Quarter Park (three miles from Williamsburg -- 1000 Lakeshead Drive, Williamsburg, VA). We meet at 9 a.m., put in by 9:30, and paddle until noon.