For the birds

Dogwood berries for wildlife — ***Pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) fruit which is favored by catbirds and vireos among others.***

The birds are preparing for their annual fall migration. With the long journey ahead of them they will need plenty of food resources high in calories and protein. Bird feeding stations with plenty of sunflower seeds are one source of high energy/high protein foods but there are other sources and they literally grow on trees.

By late August where I live most of the soft and juicy fruits like raspberry (Rubus strigosus), blackberry (R. allegheniensis), and blueberry (Vaccinium myrtilloides and V. angustifolium) are done although there are still some dewberries (R. pubescens) and creeping blackberries (R. setosus) in the woods. At this time arrow-woods (Viburnum dentatum and V. rafinesquianum), Canada elderberry (Sambucus canadensis), bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), and pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) are coming into fruit.

Many fruits are sweet with sugars but some are rich in fats or lipids. Avocados and olives are familiar examples. Studies on dark fruited viburnums have found that they are rich in lipids. By dry weight southern arrow-wood (Viburnum dentatum) is 41.3% fats (that’s a lot of energy) and 2.6% protein. These numbers are similar in some but not all dark-fruited viburnums. Lipid content is correlated with seed shape and pigmentation. Blue fruits with round seeds have higher lipid content. Black fruits with flat seeds have lower lipid contents. Red fruits with flat seeds are low in lipids while red fruits with round seeds have a bit more. The lipids produce the blue iridescence in the fruit which is attractive to birds and are a nice benefit for hungry birds.

Southern arrow-wood does well in moderately fertile soils that do not dry out too rapidly. Mine receive full sun for about eight hours a day.

***Southern arrow-wood (Viburnum dentatum)*** **laden with fruit.**

Does the dark-colored fruit of pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia, shown at the top of the page) have a high lipid content? So far I have not found any information on the fruits themselves although some species of dogwood have lipid-rich seeds. I’ve observed evening grosbeaks eating the seeds. Pagoda dogwood is a small tree-like species common in the understory of hardwood forests with rich soil and small enough for a garden.

Canadian elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) bushes growing near my house are beginning to mature fruit. I’ve never been able to eat more than a few elderberries in all the years it has been here as the birds eat the fruit as soon as it ripens. Its red-fruited relative called red elderberry (S. pubens) blooms earlier in April and matures thick clusters of soft red berries that are eaten by robins and catbirds. Both elderberry species thrive in rich most soil near the edges of forested areas.

Elderberries for wildlife — **Canadian elderberry (Sambucus canadensis)**

The arrow-wood, pagoda dogwood, and elderberry fruits will soon be gone usually by September 10th. But some other fruiting trees and shrubs will be ripe around that time. These include gray dogwood (Cornus racemosa), nannyberry (Viburnum lentago), hawthorns (Crataegus spp.), and mountain ash (Sorbus spp,). These shrubs will do well in any rich moist soil in full sun to partial shade.

To help out birds that remain in the winter I have planted small-fruited crabapple trees in different places. Robins, ruffed grouse, and sometimes pileated woodpeckers will eat the smaller fruited crab apples like Malus sargentii while blue jays and other birds go after the larger fruited varieties like Dolgo Crab or any feral apple for that matter. The fruits become softer after a few freezes and in years of heavy fruit set some apples will remain on the trees as late as March.

Other fruit-bearing shrubs with winter persistent fruit are highbush cranberry (Viburnum opulus var. americanum) and winterberry (Ilex verticillata). When first ripe the fruits on these bushes are not eaten by birds but after freezing and thawing some birds will eat them. Highbush cranberry and winterberry prefer rich moist soils and can be found naturally in wetlands. They will do well, though, in any good garden soil in full sun to part shade.

Wild sunflowers and weeds like pigweed are also food sources for migrating birds and I’ll be covering these in a future post.

SOURCES

Fruit Quality and Consumption by Songbirds During Autumnal Migration (Susan B. Smith, Kathleen H. McPherson, Jeffrey M. Backer, Barbara J. Pierce, David W. Podlesak, and Scott R. McWilliams). The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 119(3):419–428, 2007.

Viburnum tinus Fruits Use Lipids to Produce Metallic Blue Structural Color (Rox Middleton, Miranda Sinnott-Armstrong, Yu Ogawa,Gianni Jacucci, Edwige Moyroud, Paula J.Rudall, Chrissie Prychid, Maria Conejero, Beverley J.Glover, Michael J.Donoghue, Silvia Vignolini). Current Biology. Volume 30, Issue 19, 5 October 2020, Pages 3804-3810.e2

Fruit Coloration: Attractive, Fatty Blue Colours? (Bodo D. Wilt). Current Biology. Volume 30, Issue 19, PR1078-R1080, October 05, 2020.

Fatty Acid Composition of Cornelian Cherry (Cornus mas L.) (Agata Antoniewska, Jan Brindza, Svitlana Klymenko, Olga Shelepova). 5th International Scientific Conference Agrobiodiversity for Improving the Nutrition, Health, Quality of Life and Spiritual Human Development, Nitra, Slovakia. November 2021.

Last Moths of the Year?

Possibly. Temperatures at night have gone below freezing four times since mid-September which has put an end to the songs of crickets and grasshoppers. Bees and butterflies are gone, either killed by the cold weather or hibernating. But in the last six days, I’ve seen a moth, Operophtera bruceata (Bruce Spanworm), flying in the woods. Operophtera bruceata is a brownish moth with faint markings and is in the Geometridae. On Thursday and Friday, I turned on my porch light and attracted about 25 moths each night. That’s the largest number of Operophtera bruceata I’ve ever seen at one time so this must be a boom year for them. Saturday and Sunday nights saw fewer moths and on Monday there were none.

Operophtera bruceata spends only a few weeks of its life as a moth. From late fall to May it is an egg hidden in cracks and crevices in tree bark waiting out the winter. In May and June, the larvae hatch and begin feeding. The larvae feed on a variety of common tree species but prefer aspen, sugar maple, beech, and willow. Pupation lasts until October.

Operophtera bruceata exhibits sexual dimorphism with winged males and wingless females. Apparently, this strategy works well as the moth is widespread in North America.

***Operophtera bruceata*** **showing variation in wing patterns.**

Other moths are also appearing at the lights. One is Lithophane grotei (Grote’s Pinion) which has only recently eclosed. It will not mate until next spring. Instead, Lithophane grotei will find shelter under bark or woody debris to hibernate and wait out the winter. A different life strategy from that of Operophtera bruceata. Its larvae feed on maple, birch, cherry, and apple leaves. Lithophane grotei is widespread in the northeastern US and Ontario and Quebec in Canada.

A third species at the lights was Sunira bicolorago (Bicolored Sallow). This species is common over most of the US and southern Canada east of the Mississippi River in moist forests. The larvae of Sunira bicolorago are generalist feeders of many herbaceous and woody plants and not just willows as its common name might suggest.

The fourth, and perhaps the final moth of the year, I saw was Xanthia tatago (Pink-barred Sallow). Like Sunira bicolorago, it occurs in moist forests where willows and cottonwoods grow as it is a food specialist and feeds exclusively on plants in the willow family (Salicaceae). Early larval stages feed on the catkins of willow (I can’t find any information about feeding on cottonwood catkins) and later on the leaves.

Weather forecasts over the next two weeks show decreasing day and night temperatures with highs rarely reaching the 50s and lows down in the 20s. Not unexpected weather for this time of the year. On sunny days some tiny moths or caterpillars might be out but evening mothing is probably over until March next year at the earliest. But that’s not set in stone as on December 15 last year there was this sighting of an Acleris sp. (possibly Acleris busckana). In the meantime, until temperatures are consistently at or below freezing, there will be other insects, spiders, and other small arthropods out and about waiting, I hope, to be photographed.

**Acleris sp spotted on December 15, 2021.**

SOURCES CITED

Bug Guide:

Operophtera bruceata

Lithophane grotei

Sunira bicolorago

Xanthia tatago

Pacific Northwest Moths:

Sunira bicolorago

Xanthia tatago

Moth Photographers Group:

Operophtera bruceata

Lithophane grotei

Sunira bicolorago

Xanthia tatago

Autumn is coming

September 22, 2022, is officially the first day of autumn in the northern hemisphere but today it doesn’t feel like autumn is anywhere in the future. Right now the temperature is 52 degrees F and the high is predicted to be 78. Flowers are still blooming in the gardens. There hasn’t even been a frost which is very unusual for here.

When I look at the trees only a few are showing color changes. The rest are green or just looking a bit faded. But the woods has that autumn smell to it in the early evening so something is happening. And many plants in the understory are changing color. Autumn starts on the forest floor so at least that much is following schedule.

I did hear geese the other night heading south for the winter which will most certainly arrive. In the meantime, I am going to enjoy these lingering sunny days, do some cleanup around the yard, and check the snowblower to make sure it starts and runs well before the first big storm.

I’ll be away from my desk…

Metanema inatomaria a species seen last summer on warm humid nights.

…during much of July and so will be posting a little less frequently. But summer has arrived and brings with it a new group of moths that love the hot and humid weather. Here are five of the seventeen new moths plus one returning visitor that showed up at my porch light over the weekend. I’ll be writing about these species later in August. There are already a few in the works on the moths Habrosyne scripta (almost done!), Oreta rosea, Phlogophora iris, Campaea perlata, and Monopis spilotella seen this year and last year.