Critter report

I was out of town last weekend sampling the wildlife of the northern half of Wisconsin, dominated at this time of year by the wood tick. Happily, arachnids weren't the only animals crawling or hopping. Of mammals we didn't see a whole lot: deer, a badger, and chipmunks. Black bear have been scarce of late owing to an upswing in homo sapiens sightings adding bustle to the neighborhood. Of birds there were crows as usual, but also ravens, turkeys, vultures, red-winged blackbirds, blue jays, black-capped chickadees, goldfinches, hummingbirds, two kinds of nuthatch, a loon and an oriole. Orioles are notorious latecomers in the spring, such that once you see one you can be assured that the bird migrations into Wisconsin are complete. And though we never actually saw the whip-poor-will, we could set our watches by its nightly 9 pm chirpfest. Sources allege that the bird is only the size of a robin, which I find amazing considering how very loud they are.

I think the most interesting animal of the weekend though was a large moth, probably of the family Saturniidae, that was attracted to the screen door by the inside lights. Its total wingspan was about five inches, but also remarkable was the fact that its eyes reflected back a very noticable orange light. While this is rather common thing with mammals, I never thought to expect eye-glow among bugs.