One Hour In Canatara!

It didn't take long to rack up a long list of critters, even on a cool fall day! Here are just a few:

A very common bird locally at this time of year is the White-throated Sparrow.

A few weeks ago, I found an Asteroid Moth caterpillar on Goldenrod. Today I found one chewing on white aster. Being later in the season, it was a much larger individual. It will overwinter at the pupal stage in an underground cocoon.

According to folklore, the amount of black on the woolly bear caterpillar in autumn varies proportionately with the severity of the coming winter. The longer the woolly bear's black bands, the longer, colder, snowier and more severe the winter will be. The position of the longest dark bands supposedly indicates which part of winter will be coldest. If the head end is dark, the beginning of winter will be severe. If the tail end is dark, the end of winter will be cold. https://www.weather.gov/arx/woollybear

The caterpillar's head is on the right. Based upon the above folklore, this winter will start out cold and be less severe towards the end of the season.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are in abundance as they pass through during fall migration. This one landed on a tree almost right beside my head!