Cape May Warbler (Setophaga tigrina)

The Cape May Warbler (Setophaga tigrina) appeared at my feeder this week.  Attracted to the grape jelly I provide for orioles, a pair visited regularly last year for a week. After resting in my yard for a week they headed to northern Maine and Canada where these warblers are known to breed.  Named after the locale where they were first found, they only occur in New Jersey in transit from their winter home on the Caribbean Islands.  They nest high in spruce trees in the northern boreal forests and can rapidly increase their population in response to spruce budworm outbreaks. 

The warblers diversity and colors delight me every year.  They mostly winter in the Neotropics and then briefly appear in the northern hemisphere at the height of the insect population.  Twelve species nest in my yard regularly:  Yellow, Yellowthroat, Black-Throated Green, Black-Throated Blue, Northern and Louisiana Waterthrush, Redstart, Chestnut-sided, Black-and-white, Canada, Pine and Ovenbird. Another twelve species only travel through including the Cape May, Blackpoll, Blackburnian, Nashville, Canada, Wilson's, Bay-breasted, Magnolia, Orange-crowned, Palm, Prairie and Tennessee.

Shad (Amelanchier)

The flowers of this tree appear before the leaves fully appear in spring.  The flowering coincides with the migration of shad ((Alosa sapidissima) and alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) upstream from the ocean.  This tree is planted next to Taylor Pond where in the summer thousands of juvenile alewife pass by in sinuous schools along the shoreline.  Often called Juneberries, the genus Amelanchier all have small fruits in June that reportedly taste great raw or cooked in pies and jams.  The five white petals and the miniature apple-like fruit all provide the clue that this genus belongs to the Rose family.  People have observed over 40 species of birds and many mammals that seek out the fruit.  All summer birds will perch in my tree and consume the fruits long before I can enjoy them.  Often a flock of Cedar Waxwings will take up residence until the nearby mulberry starts to produce fruit.  Seeing the shad flower reminds me to head down to the coast to watch the alewife migrate in huge schools up coastal rivers.  Unfortunately, because of dams on the Androscoggin and Little Androscoggin Rivers, to reach Taylor Pond the alewifes have to be shipped up in trucks.

Red Maple (Acer rubrum)

Red Maple (Acer rubrum) leaves just emerging from their winter slumber.  When emerging, and often in fall, they exhibit this bold red coloring.  This twig, emerging from the mossy trunk, nearly glows in the early morning sunlight.  Known for its tolerance of a wide variety of soils, this particular tree grows on a wet hillside.  Often found in wetlands they also tolerate dry soils and can be found as far south and west as Texas to all the way north to Newfoundland.  Although not as productive as Sugar Maple, their sap produces excellent maple syrup.  Occasionally in early spring I will spot an icicle forming at the tip of a broken branch from sap leaking out.  The icicle makes a sweet treat on a cool spring day.

Red Flat Bark Beetle (Cucujus clavipes)

That pretty much describes it, metallic red, flat and preferring to live under the bark of trees.  I photographed this fellow crawling on my stone entrance walkway.  They like to suck the phloem (the vascular tissue that conducts sugar produced in the leaves down to other parts) of trees and eat smaller insects.  They emerge in April and May as adults having overwintered in below freezing temperatures.  They tolerate freezing by first dehydrating to prevent the formation of lethal ice crystals.  In addition they produce antifreeze molecules to prevent the remaining water from killing them.

Trout-Lily (Erythronium americanum)

Trout-lily, also called Adder's-tongue has the scientific name Erythronium americanum.  Another name, Dogtooth Violet, refers to the tooth-appearing corm which is edible and reportedly tastes like cucumber.  Too much consumption of the corm reportedly causes vomiting besides which I could not bear to destroy this beauty by eating it.  The reference to trout allegedly comes from the mottled leaves resembling brook trout which are commonly found in streams along which they flower.  A denizen of wet and shady woodlands this early spring flower appears just as the spring warblers start snapping up black flies above.  I found this on the bank of an unnamed brook on the Katherine Breton Preserve in Lisbon, Maine.  They often reproduce by budding off from the corm and large colonies can form in one location.  These colonies have been aged up to 300 years.