Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

October is a strange month. Everything about it reeks of Hallowe'en or pumpkin flavoring or the last dregs of summer slowly fading into the bright fall colors and fresh breezes that we all wait for in the waning month of August. But there is something else just as noticeable as fall arrives and settles in and those are the abundant insects and other invertebrates that seem more visible than ever. While they are not a group that many are willing to actively look out for, they certainly are common enough to warrant a second look. This is the time of year when the crickets are in full song and the fuzziest caterpillars are migrating over the lawns and fields looking for a safe place to hole up for the winter months. It is also the time for the last butterflies flitting through the sunshine and for spiders to build their webs in wide open spaces to capture their abundant and unsuspecting prey. It has been over the past few weeks that several new and familiar invertebrates have caug...

As the summer begins to wind down, the trees buzz and trill with the songs of night-singing insects. As I walked around the backyard recording their sounds with my camera, I thought back to seeing some of the small red-headed tree crickets on the deck earlier in the week. It's too far north for Handsome Trigs ( Phyllopalpus puchellus ) surely, but they did look very similar to them indeed. The rather obvious "ch-ch-ch" or "katy-did" sounds are made by a large leaf-mimicking grasshopper called the Common True Katydid ( Pterophylla camellifolia ). I only started hearing them last week, but already I find it wonderful to fall asleep at night to the sounds of their stuttering courtship song. It's certainly cool enough to leave the windows open now and doing so certainly cools the body, soul, and mood. So here's to a winding down of summer with cooler days, warmer colors, and the ever present smell of cinnamon to come. Until then, lets enjoy the trills a...