Beginning at 7:00am, I spent about four hours exploring the Ingham Conservation District (ICD) property. The weather was remarkable and the wildlife was incredible. I counted 45 species of birds and enjoyed the wide variety of plant and animal life as summer approaches.
Eastern Bluebirds
Two of the four eggs in a bluebird nest boxes had hatched. A third hatchling was working its way out of the egg and the final egg had not yet hatched.
Wood Ducks
I unexpectedly found a wood duck hen sitting on ten eggs in one of the new wood duck nest boxes that I built and installed earlier in the season.
Amphibians and Reptiles
Active amphibian and reptile life included American Bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus), Pickerel Frogs (Lithobates palustris), and Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta).
Fungi
Along one trail I spotted a good example of a fungi called Dryad's Saddle or Pheasants Back (Polyporus squamosus).
Oak Apples
I found an "oak apple" on a small oak tree. This growth is a type of gall rather than a fruit. It is the result of the tree's tissue reacting to an oak apple gall wasp (Amphibolips confluent). The gall forms when the wingless adult female lays eggs into a newly-forming oak leaf. As the egg hatches and larvae grows, a chemical reaction causes the leaf gall to grow with it.
Adult wasps hatch from the galls in June or July. After mating, female wasp drop to the ground and burrow into the soil. Then they inject the oak’s roots with eggs. Once the eggs hatch, the larvae eat the roots for over a year. After resting in the pupa stage, the wingless adult females crawl out of the soil and up the trunk until they find a newly forming leaf. Next, the wasp injects an egg into the leaf. Each apple gall has only one larvae inside. When larvae is full grown, it pupates into an adult. The adult will bore its way out of the gall, find a mate, and start the whole cycle over again.
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