Nighttime Insects

Friday, August 15, 8:00-9:30pm.

Recommended for age 10 and older

We certainly hear the summer waves of insects, but rarely see them making music. Shining bright lights on bed sheets and slathering "moth broth" on trees, we will attempt to attract nighttime insects out into the open. Bring along your flashlights to put the spotlight on these interesting, seldom seen performers. Please register for this program.

(Grapevine Epimenis Moth photo by Dale Browne)

Confusing Fall Warblers, Anyone?

9:00a.m.-11:00 a.m.

Aug. 30, Sept. 13, 20, 27, & Oct 4

Bring binoculars. Ages 12 and older.  

Monthly Young Nature Explorers Program!

This monthly program offers four seasons of exciting outdoor science and nature investigations for children 9 to 12 years old. Monthly sessions take place on Saturdays from 9:30 am to noon, starting in September and continuing through May.

The story starts, like most insect stories, with an egg. Adult female cicadas lay their eggs inside of twigs. The female has a special saw-shaped body part at the end of her abdomen, called an ovipositor, which she uses to cut a safe place to lay her eggs. (Photo by J. Obermeyer, Purdue University)

After somewhere between 2 and 5 years, the now larger nymphs dig up out of the soil, climb a nearby object, and shed their exoskeleton, spread and dry their wings, and fly to a safe place while their new skin hardens. These final sheddings are called exuviae, and are pretty fun to look for in your neighborhood around this time of year! At this time, for our cicada in its shiny new exoskeleton, it’s time to find a mate. (Photo by the author)

Adult male cicadas find a spot in a tree to sit and perform their serenade, waiting for “the ladies” to find them. It’s a bit like a middle school dance. They make their buzzing song using a special organ called a tymbal, which they vibrate by forcing air through their abdomen! When the female hears a song she fancies, she moves toward the source. Eventually, male and female find each other, mating takes place, and the female cicada

leaves to lay her eggs in another tree. In just a short 2-5 years, her nymphs will emerge from the ground and belt out their own buzz!

(Photos by the author)

You may have heard of “broods” of periodical cicadas (Magicicada sp.), massive emergences of millions of individuals appearing in late spring. There are periodical cicadas in Michigan (Brood X represent!), but only in a few counties. The next periodical cicada emergence in Michigan isn’t expected until 2039! You can learn where these spectacles are expected on this map from the U.S. Forest Service. For more information about cicadas, the Xerces Society provides, "Loud Bug Summer: All Your Cicada Questions, Answered."

-Mike Solomon, EIC Naturalist

Editor's note: Two of our EIC student naturalists, Christina Fijal and Isabel Stepaniak, are coordinating the Children’s Gardening Program this summer. They offer their reflections on this learning opportunity.

Earlier this year, we were asked to co-lead the Children’s Gardening Program. This was a new experience, so the garden wasn’t the only thing experiencing growth.

We also gave them the option to bring their own seeds that we may not have had or suggested growing. Once they chose their seeds and plots, most of the children wanted to decorate their areas. This allowed them to add their own personal touch to the plots. Two siblings made their own homemade scarecrow, another brought watermelon seeds to experiment with, and a third spearheaded a plan to create makeshift fences around the community garden space.

The setup consists of nine vertical posts set into the ground along the interpretive trails within the ESA. Atop each post rests a special housing, that Teddy designed and developed using a 3D printer, to position a cell phone to take the photos. The different post locations are well suited to capturing wonderful images of different habitats and seasonal changes. 

ESA visitors will also be encouraged to share these photos through the Environmental Interpretive Center. We plan to organize and present the photos on our website in a way that illustrates nature’s changes over time, taken within a favorite place!

Project PAT Continues

In spring, Valerie Osowski introduced the EIC’s new Project Protecting Avian Travel, which will rely on help from volunteers to monitor how birds are affected by window collisions throughout the migration season at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. As fall migration gets underway, volunteers are needed to help study the occurrence of bird/window collisions on our campus.

Throughout the migration season, both in the spring and fall, birds often collide with windows. During the daytime, migrating birds can confuse the reflection of trees and plants in windows for actual vegetation they can pass through. Meanwhile, at night, any lights that visible through windows tend to attract migrating birds, which use lights to help navigate in the dark. In both situations, birds will fly into the window, leading to severe injury or death.

Here are some ways to help reduce this threat to migrating birds around your own home, too. This fall, an Eagle Scout candidate will be adding to our vertical paracord to reduce bird/window collisions at the EIC. If you are interested in volunteering for Project PAT, please let us know through this volunteer interest form.

-Dorothy McLeer, Editor