Loon Update and Pollinator Support Plants

The Loon family is busy searching the lake for food for two rapidly growing chicks. Below are Phyllis (right) and Phineas (left) on August 8th.

Two weeks later, on August 22nd, they (Phyllis on the right) have fully molted into their juvenile plumage.

Phineas is still a bit smaller, and Phyllis remains dominant and gets food first, but Phineas has not been left out. 

Despite the perch that was just swallowed, Phineas is quickly asking for more!

Fortunately, we can still tell them apart by their bills. Phineas' upper bill is still shorter than the lower one.

Phyllis's upper bill overlaps the lower one. They cannot easily be told apart by looking, even with binoculars, but once we have a photo to enlarge, the difference is visible.

The chicks are diving with their parents and staying down for quite a while. They may even be catching and eating things on their own. However, they are still not up to the fishing expertise of their parents. Below is Dad showing off the brown bullhead he just caught for himself.

Insect populations and species are declining worldwide. Ecologically, this is worrying because: 1) they are essential food for many other animal species above them in the food chain, 2) they are essential pollinators for both wild and agricultural plants, and 3) many are the best biological control agents we have. A basic tenant in ecology is that big things need to consume lots of smaller things to survive, grow, and reproduce. For example, it takes several tons of zooplankton per day to grow and maintain a whale. It takes 10 tons of phytoplankton to grow a ton of zooplankton. As insect species and numbers continue to decline, so will the animals that depend on them for food.

Much of the insect decline is due to loss of habitat and food sources. One way to slow this process is to add and maintain plants to our yards that support a wide variety of pollinators. Jen has added several very special ones to our meadow and gardens. These are attractive plants to look at, and they attract a huge variety of pollinators (bees, wasps, bumblebees, beetles, butterflies...). On a recent survey of six of these plants, Jon was able to find more than 20 different species of native pollinators.

Clustered Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum muticum) is a terrific pollinator plant, native to the eastern United States.  It spreads through rhizomes but is not as aggressive as the cultivated mints you probably know.  It grows to 3 – 4 ft tall, is deer-resistant, and attracts loads of pollinating butterflies, wasps, and bees.  

Clustered Mountain Mint’s tiny flowers bloom progressively, so it provides food for pollinators for a long time – ours started in July and it is still blooming and covered with insects.

Below is an American Copper visiting as the flowers are just beginning to emerge from their cluster.  

Clustered Mountain Mint is also the larval host to the Gray Hairstreak butterfly (below).

Below is another frequent visitor, the sand wasp that was also visiting the Culver's Root. You can think of these Mountain Mints and similar plants as fueling stations for a wide variety of insects. 

Another native species is the Slender Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium).  This is a more delicate plant than the Clustered Mountain mint, growing to about 2 ft.  It also blooms from mid to late summer, forms small colonies, and is a fantastic magnet for pollinators.  It too is a host plant for the Gray Hairstreak butterfly.

Here are some other frequent visitors -  First, a little Tricolor Bumblebee gathering pollen and nectar.

Next, a honey bee. They were introduced to the Americas as valuable crop pollinators. Sadly, they have also had a negative impact on many native bees and the plants they pollinate.

About an inch long, the Great Black Digger Wasp (Sphex pensylvanicus) may seem dangerous, but at flowers it is not aggressive. Like other sand wasps, it feeds on nectar but feeds its larvae other insects like crickets and grasshoppers.

Thread-waisted wasps, like the one below, are great hunters of caterpillars to feed their offspring. Like many wasps, they provide important services, both pollinating flowers and removing caterpillars and other insects that eat plants.

These wonderful perennials and many other native ones provide essential support for native insects, which in turn provide services for us. We hope you can find places in your yard and gardens for them. Even a few here and there can help offset the habitat loss that is contributing to insect decline.