Nature Note: Backyard Raptor

My friend Marie took this photo of a broad-winged hawk on her back porch in Vermont the other day – not the first time she’d seen it recently. Her observation intrigued me. She said: “I wondered why I was suddenly seeing a raptor so close to the house. I watched it and realized it was watching the compost heap. Do hawks eat kitchen scraps? No! But who does eat kitchen scraps? Rodents!

“The compost was attracting mice and the hawk had found a good perch for hunting the mice.”

I was impressed that marie not only noticed the hawk, but

got a photo, and then went further, asking why the bird was there and working out the answer. We don’t have to stray far from our homes to learn about the natural world!

Nature Note Today!

I’ve been staying in the north woods in Franconia New Hampshire and encountered some pretty little hairy caterpillars that seem to irritate my skin a little. They turn out to be caterpillars of the hickory tussock (tiger) moth, Lophocampa caryae. They eat hickory and oak leaves.

They are among several species of “stinging hair” caterpillar. Skin reaction varies with people, mine was mild – just a question of : “Oh what’s that prickling on my neck?” and I swept up my hand to dislodge one of these little caterpillars, not an inch long.



Hickory tussock moth caterpillar
photo credit: http://www.edupic.net



If caterpillar stings are an issure for you, treat the affected area with ice and a paste of baking soda.  In general (and I know that all generalizations are exaggerations) insects stings are acidic so the alkalinity (OK – basic-ness) of baking soda counteracts them.

As children, bitten by gnats (I lived in Britain, we didn’t have mosquitoes) we decorated ourselves with dabs of baking soda paste and became polka-doted children. Oh and btw, we called it “Bicarb” for "bicarbonate of soda", which is the chemical name, rather than “baking soda”.

Here’s a link to some info about the hickory tussock moth: http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Lophocampa-carya

Happy camping!



Most Ranger programs?

If I ran a competition for the NPS unit with the most ranger programs it might very well be won by Gettysburg National Military Park, where about 16 different programs are offered every day during the summer.

If you were really into the battle, you'd get an almost blow-by-blow account of it by attending conecutive programs. Roll over, CNN war correspondents!