If you’ve heard a gentle tapping at your windows lately, it is most likely the sound of june beetles bumping against the glass as they fly towards your house lights. These large, nocturnal beetles are mating at this time of year, with females attracting males with their scent. After mating, females tunnel into the soil to lay their eggs. Soon, fat white grubs will emerge from the eggs and hungrily munch on the roots of grasses and other plants. These grubs, or larvae, will spend about three years in the soil before pupating and emerging as adults in the spring. These adults eat plant leaves as they search for a mate and start the whole cycle over again.

Did you know? Birds, moles, shrews, skunks, and many other creatures love to munch on these tasty morsels.

Learn more: AgriLife Extension

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This common forest dweller is more often heard than it is seen. Its song is similar to a shortened version of the robin’s, and some people say it sounds like: “where are you…here I am.” This song is repeated over and over again from dawn to dusk. In fact, the red-eyed vireo is one of the few birds you might hear even in the middle of a hot day. This bird loves to snack on insects, especially caterpillars, and fruit.

Did you know? You may catch a glimpse of red-eyed vireo nest in a forked branch. The nest is made of twigs, bark, grasses, pines needles, and lichen, and held together with spider silk.

Learn more: Cornell Lab of Ornithology

White-tailed deer does are having their fawns during this season. Though they may appear small and helpless, fawns actually have some amazing adaptations to help them grow into adulthood. The spots on a fawn’s back help to camouflage it from predators. The spots look just like the sunspots that dapple the forest floor and help the youngster blend in. A young fawn also has almost no odor, which helps protect it from the sharp noses of predators.

Because of these adaptations, a doe can leave her fawn on its own in a protected hiding spot while she looks for food. The fawn then stretches its body out and stays very still while waiting for its mother to return. If you come across a hiding fawn, the best thing to do is to leave it where it is and walk away. Its mother has not abandoned it and will most likely return to nurse it in a few hours.

Did you know? A doe usually gives birth to one or two fawns. These fawns may stay with their mother for a full year.

Learn more: Animal Diversity Web

Chances are that you have noticed the many oval leaves of Canada mayflower dotting the forest floor here at CWES. These plants are beginning to send up a short stalk full of tiny white flowers. This member of the lily family will bloom for several more weeks and then eventually produce tiny red berries that will be eaten by chipmunks and grouse.

Another beautiful plant that is now blooming in the woods of CWES is starflower. Starflower is one of those wonderful plants that looks exactly like its name says it should. The plant is now showing off its 7 white petals that form a perfect star. The amazing thing about this plant is that even when its flowers have fallen off, the leaves of the plant still form a star-shape, which will help you identify it all summer long!

Learn more: E-nature: Canada Mayflower

Freckmann Herbarium: Starflower

Summer wouldn’t be summer in Wisconsin without a few, or a lot, of mosquitoes. The next time you hear the whine of this insect, think about this… Only adult female mosquitoes feed on blood, because they need it to lay their eggs. The males sip plant juices and nectar. After a female mosquito has had a good blood meal, she can lay her several hundred eggs on a water surface. Most of these eggs will hatch within 48 hours. The emerging mosquito larvae then live in the water and feed on microscopic plants and animals with their brush-like mouths. They then turn into a pupa and finally transform into a terrestrial (land-living) adult. It takes about 7-10 ten days for a mosquito to go from egg to adult.

As you swat at these small insects, remember that even though they are a nuisance, they are also providing essential food to many of the beautiful dragonflies, birds, and frogs that we love to watch as well.

Did you know?

The mosquito larvae in the picture to the left are hanging upside down near the water’s surface. This is a common position for them, because the larvae’s breathing tubes are located near their rear ends.

This bright bird calls CWES home during the summertime, and you may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of it this year. Even with its bright colors, this bird can be difficult to see through thick summer leaves. Males are bright crimson with black wings and tails, while females are more subdued with greenish yellow bodies and dark grey wings and tails. You may also hear this medium-sized bird as it gives a “chik-bur” call. Scarlet tanagers grab insects in flight and sometimes hover in order to snag their prey.

Did you know?

Scarlet Tanagers have been seen eating over 2,000 gypsy moth caterpillars in an hour. That’s a lot of food, and a great service to Wisconsin habitats.

Learn more: Cornell Lab of Ornithology

This shin-high plant begins to come up at about the same time as poison ivy, and is often confused with it. When wild sarsaparilla’s leaves unfurl they are a suspicious reddish green, but eventually they mature into a bright, vibrant green. You probably don’t want to get close enough to check, but one trick to tell this plant from posion ivy is that poision ivy has a woody stem and wild sarsaparilla does not.

Wild sarsaparilla has divided leaves with 3-5 leaflets each. The plant is now sending up a separate flower stalk that will produce three balls, or umbels, of tiny white flowers. When they bloom, these flowers look like mini fireworks exploding.

Did you know?

The root of this plant was once used to make rootbeer!

Learn more: Freckmann Herbarium

Male bluegills are making their nests at this time of year. In shallow water, they scoop circular depressions in the sand and gravel. A male then stays by the nest and grunts to attract nearby females. After a female mates, she deposits her eggs into several nests. The males then take over care of the eggs by fanning them and chasing away predators. It takes several days for the eggs to hatch. Once they do, they will eat aquatic insects, worms, snails, and zooplankton. These bluegills will swim in schools of 10 to 20 fish as they seek out their food.

Did you know?

A female bluegill can produce as many as 50,000 eggs! Once they reach adulthood, bluegills usually live 4 to 6 years.

Learn more: Animal Diversity Web

You may see these medium sized songbirds near the tall grasses at Minister Lake. A great way to identify them is to look for the bright white band at the end of their tail. A member of the flycatcher family, the Eastern kingbird loves to eat insects and is often seen hovering in the air hunting them.

The kingbird’s 2-5 eggs have hatched by now, and the chicks will be cared for by its parents for about 7 weeks. Because kingbird parents spend so much time on their young, they usually only raise one clutch of eggs each year. Kingbirds are excellent parents who aggressively defend their nest against predators such as hawks and crows.

Did you know?

The kingbird has a small, red patch hidden in its crest. When it is alarmed, the red feathers pop out and serve as a warning.

Learn more: Cornell Lab of Ornithology

On warm summer nights, you are sure to notice the winking lights of fireflies or lightening bugs as they search for mates. Not all species of fireflies use light to attract a mate, but the ones that do have a specific flashing pattern that attracts the opposite sex. In some firefly species, the female cleverly uses this to her advantage by mimicking the flash patterns of another firefly species. When a male from the other species is drawn to her in his search for a mate, the female pounces on him and eats him. Not all fireflies eat other insects, some eat nectar or pollen, and some don’t eat at all.

Chances are good that you have seen an adult firefly, but did you know that firefly larvae glow as well? As far as we know, all species of fireflies have eggs and larvae that glow. The larvae have special organs that produce the light, which warns predators that they taste bad. If disturbed, the larvae begin to glow more brightly. Larvae live in or near the soil and are predators that eat earthworms, snails and slugs. The larvae will even gang up to hunt large prey such as big earthworms.

Did you know?

Fireflies glow because of special chemical reactions that occur in organs in their abdomens.

Learn more: EEK!

This dandelion look-alike grows in sunny areas around CWES. You may find two species of this plant here, an orange hawkweed and yellow hawkweed. This plant was named by a Roman naturalist who believed that hawks got their fantastic eyesight from eating it. Hawkweed will be blooming well into late summer. If you feel the stem and leaves of this plant, you will find that they are covered in small hairs.

Did you know? This plant is not native to the United States.

Learn more: Robert Freckmann Herbarium

Silverweed is a plant that you will find creeping along the edges of Sunset Lake. It likes sandy, sunny areas, and is found in greater numbers near Lake Michigan. This member of the rose family gets its name not from its yellow flowers, but from the silvery underside of its leaves. Flip them over and see for yourself!

Learn more from: Robert Freckmann Herbarium

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As you have walked among the tall grasses at CWES, you’ve most likely noticed what looks like spit clinging to the plant leaves there. These bubbly blobs are nests that protect the larvae of an insect called a froghopper from predators and the hot, hot sun.

If you carefully examine one of these spittle nests, you’ll find one or two tiny green larvae which people commonly call spittlebugs. The larvae feed on plant juices, but do not usually sip enough to damage the plants. They then blow bubbles out their rear end to create their nests. Eventually, the larvae will turn into adult froghoppers with wings and the ability to leap incredible distances.

Learn more from: UMN Entomology

The Northern rough-winged swallow is another insect eating bird you are likely to glimpse at CWES. This bird spends most of its time gulping up flies and other winged insects over Sunset Lake, and often swoops quite close to the water while hunting. You may even glimpse this bird perched on the docks near the waterfront. Swallows are small birds with short, stubby tails and wide wings. The rough-winged swallow has a dark brown back and head, and a flashy white belly.

Did you know?

The rough-winged swallow gets its name from the edge of its wing feathers which have small, rough hooks on them. No one is quite sure why the feathers are like this.  

Learn more from: Cornell Lab of Ornithology

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