Lots to see at Broadmoor this month. Summer campers are enjoying the view and breezes from the field outlook, a great place to read a story or make some drawings. Native plants frame the view and provide fruit and seeds for birds.
Some birds prefer insects. This molting black and white warbler was found in our mistnet yesterday morning. Summer campers exploring forest homes got to see this bird that nests on the ground in forests. This warbler is often seen on the trunks and branches of trees picking insects out of the bark like a brown creeper. Mass Audubon’s Breeding Bird Atlas showed a decline of these birds in the state, so it was especially nice to find this one at Broadmoor during breeding season.
The mistnet also captured this beautiful large fly. It buzzed angrily while being removed from the net. Can anyone identify it?
An insect to watch for is the gypsy moth. This month there have been large flights of moths, males looking for flightless females. This female is laying eggs on the trunk of a tree. They are covered with beige hairs and each mass can have 500-1000 eggs. Scraping the eggs off in the fall will reduce the number of hungry caterpillars eating your tree leaves next spring.
This tree in Milford has nearly 30,000 eggs on its trunk. If all of them hatch next spring the forest will be seriously stressed.
