Category: Fauna

Some Spiders in West Valley

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

Click on photos to enlarge them.

Banded garden Spider ventral side 8.21

Spiders can be called creatures of one summer that hatch or emerge from diapause as the weather warms and reach maturity in late summer. These predatory insects employ various means to capture their prey.

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Banded garden Spider dorsal view 8.31

The large Banded garden Spider lays in wait at the edge of the web; when it senses an insect in their web, it attacks with a bite that stuns the prey and liquifies their inner parts. It encases the stunned insect cocoon-like before devouring the liquid nutrients.

Bordered Orb weaver Spider with dragonfly
Orb Weaver in grass

All of the above Orb weavers catch their prey in a trap they spin.

Funnel-web Spider Clear-wing Grasshopper in funnel web

The Funnel-web spider spins a sheet-like web shaped like a funnel on the ground. The spider usually lies in wait at the end of the tube; when an insect becomes entangled, it pulls the prey down into the ground where it devours it.

White-banded Crab Spider

Crab spiders, sometimes called ambush bugs, lie on a flower in wait for an insect to visit the plant. When the visitor becomes engrossed in its work, the Crab spider dashes in and paralyzes the insect with venom in its bite.

Goldenrod Crab Spider with moth
Goldenrod Crab Spider with Bordered plant bug
Mountain Lady’s Slipper with Goldenrod Crab Spider

Goldenrod Crab spiders are able to change color to match the flower it chooses. It takes a few hours after it arrives at the flower where it will spend time in wait. Most of the Goldenrod Crab spiders I have seen were colored like the one on the Spotted Knapweed, regardless the color of the flower.

Cat-faced Spider
Cat-faced Spider in web

The Cat-faced spider at right was gone the next time we checked this web site under a window sill. In its place was an egg sac. These spiders die after laying their eggs, just before a hard frost. The eggs will hatch in spring and live to predate on other insects around the house.

Fierce Orbweaver 9.2025
Fierce orbweaver
Fierce Orbweaver dorsal side

This Fierce Orbweaver (identified with help of iNaturalist), was climbing up the door to my house. Not recognizing it, nor wanting to invite it inside, I very cautiously lured it away with a stiff plant stem. If I got too close, it reared back and waved its front legs as if boxing. While it moved across the driveway, it left a string of silk from the hole visible in the right photo; it seemed to use it as an anchor to help flip onto its back. The Fierce Orbweaver is listed as a native species in Montana.

Wolf Spider with spiderlings on her back

Female Wolf Spiders carry their egg sac on their back; when they hatch, the babies ride there. They will fall off in leaf litter where they go into diapause until spring. This spider was crossing a sun-warmed driveway in early evening in September.

Nest of spiderlings on May 23. While I watched, the babies would crawl up a blade of grass and float off on a spinneret in the wind. I did not wait long; only a few had dispersed over the nearby wetland.

Urbane Digger Bees

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by Skip Via
skip@westvalleynaturalists.org

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We have several beds of bee balm (bergamot), both native varieties and cultivars, planted around our property to attract bees and hummingbirds, which it does in huge numbers. It’s not uncommon find more than a dozen species of bees foraging for nectar on a single bed.

Lately, I’ve noticed a virtual invasion of a bee species that is new to me–a small, gray striped bee that looks like a cross between a honey bee and a bumblebee. True to form, it’s neither. It turns out that this is an urbane digger bee (Anthrophora urbana).

Urbane Digger Bee (Anthrophora urbana)
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Western Sheep Moth

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by Skip Via
skip@westvalleynaturalists.org

Note: Click to enlarge photos.

It’s always fun to run across a species that you have never encountered before, and that was the case for me today when I observed this Western Sheep Moth while I walking the trails in Happy Valley.

Western Sheep Moths are native to the western US. Their main range is southern California and the Sierra Nevada mountains, and while they are not common here in the valley, there are several reports on iNaturalist of encounters with them in our area.

Unlike many moth species, Western Sheep Moths are daytime flyers, and rather large as local moths go–a bit smaller than a Luna Moth with an average wingspan of roughly three inches. Their identifying characteristics include pink, orange and yellow wing spots, black and yellow striped abdomen, prominent feathery antennae, and a tuft of bright yellow fur across the top of the thorax.

Antennae and thorax detail.

Western Sheep Moths lay their eggs in the summer months on roses (Rosaceae), both wild and cultivated. Their caterpillars (larvae) feed on them. They are also known to feed on buckthorns, an invasive species here in Montana. While they are not important pollinators, they are known to inadvertantly serve this function.

Wester Sheep Moth underwing.

Why are they called Sheep Moths? It turns out that they can be pests for sheep farmers, as adults will feed on the wool of domesticated sheep, degrading the quality and quantity of the wool. Sheep moths can cause a 15% drop in the quantity of wool produced by a flock.They are also known to invade homes and feast on wool and other clothing. They are prey for many birds species, and they are known to eat some insects.

Have you encountered a sheep moth in your wanderings? Do you see them as pests? Part of the ecosystem? Let me know in the comments.

Nesting in the West Valley Part Two

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

Editor’s Note: The smaller images on this page my be enlarged by clicking on them.

Part I focuses on some of the local birds that raise their offspring in cavities, that is, holes in trees, man-made house-like structures, and holes in earthen areas. Part II will cover some of the birds I have discovered raising their young in more exposed locations. I marvel at their ability to overcome the challenges that weather, predators, and life with dependents without physical barriers must present.

A Western Wood-Pewee fashioned a nest of grass, rootlets and bits of other natural material on a lichen-covered limb of a Douglas fir tree. There are many needle-laden branches overhead that provide shade and divert rain drops. When she returns to the nest, she always lands on a different branch and little by little approaches the nest site as if she doesn’t want to reveal the location to others. I had the unique opportunity to observe all of this in reverse. I was in the area to visit a plant I was studying. As I cast my gaze around the location so I could note landmarks to help me return, I noted “something looks different about this branch.” Indeed, the lump overhead looked like a little nest! At first, I wondered if the nest had overwintered. It was a few feet higher than I could reach, so I only could observe, not touch. As I continued to look up, movement caught my attention: it was the owner of the nest, intent on getting to the empty nest. I froze in place and before I could blink, the bird arrived. I paused just close enough to get a couple of pictures before abandoning the area. I returned several times that summer to monitor the plant;
I’d look to see if the bird was on the nest before getting close, but finding the well-camouflaged nest was never easy.

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Nesting in The West Valley Part One

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

Editor’s Note: The smaller images on this page may be enlarged by clicking on them.

Beautiful West Valley is the chosen home of many species of birds thanks to the varied agricultural uses, ponds and wetlands, and forested areas. Locating an appropriate homesite and constructing a new nest every year must be a daunting task for animals with a beak and two wings as principal tools! Observing birds making nests and raising their families every spring is a delightful time of discovery for me. In the following pages, I will share some of the avian nesting activities I have been fortunate to observe in our area.

CAVITY NESTERS

Mountain Chickadee nest work in Birch tree Old Tally Lake Rd 4.10.24
5.10.19

4.24.24

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Tour the West Valley in March

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

There’s a bite of cold in that wind and snow on the mountains. Back roads slip from ice to mud in a single step. Winter visitors wing over snow-bent grasses as if to say “Farewell!” and Pintails fill the open water still enclosed by ice. FOY (First-of-the-Year) birds, flowers, songs meet with excitement. In sheltered places, the sun warms the ground and our faces. Let’s check it out!

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Smallest Owl in Montana

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

The Northern Pygmy-owl takes the prize for being the smallest owl in Montana. Tiny, but fierce, this little bird that stands 6-7 inches in height and weighs 2 to 3 ounces predates small to medium-sized birds (chickadee to blue jay sizes), small rodents and squirrels, insects, and has been known to successfully kill a domestic chicken with its sharp talons, strong down-curved beak, and amazing determination.

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Finch Concerns

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by Pat Jaquith
pat@westvalleynaturalists.org

How does one describe House Finches? Striped bodies, head and chest of various shades varying from yellow to orange to pink to red. Flocking, chattering, perching at the top of of trees, stout-billed seed-eaters. Perched among the cones of a Blue Spruce in bright sun one morning, this perky House Finch looked like a Christmas decoration! Members of the Fringillidae family, there are 17 species, including many of our familiar visitors: crossbills, Evening and Pine Grosbeaks, redpolls, goldfinches, house finches, Cassin’s finches, and siskins. Many of these species are reported in decline and we can’t take them for granted.

House Finch at the feeder with normal-appearing right eye

Same bird as above with head rotated to reveal abnormal left eye

Although I can’t diagnose the cause of the unusual-appearing eye, knowing that there are diseases among Finches that can be transmissible and deadly, this was message enough to send me out to take down the feeders, clean them and the area and not hang them out for a week.

https://feederwatch.org/blog/eye-disease-american-goldfinches/ A link sponsored by TheCornellLab, this is one of many sources of information about possible causes and steps we can take to help protect the birds we care about.

The following are images of birds that I have observed with eye problems. These appeared at my feeder in four different years and were the only ones observed in those years.

Evening Grosbeak with unusual-looking eye
American Goldfinch with swollen eye with discharge
Female House Finch with eye problem

Bird Flu in West Valley

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by Dick Walker
dickwalker2009@hotmail.com
walker photography.smugmug.com

I count cranes, specifically on six sections of grain and hay fields and ponds in the west valley.  I go every day, late morning, 365 days a year unless I’m gone. Some people go to the gym, some for coffee with friends, some go to work. (More images of Dick’s photography are viewable on this companion article on our web site.)

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White Shouldered Bumblebee

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by Skip Via
skip@westvalleynaturalists.org

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As an aspiring bee person, I try to keep close tabs on the different species of bees that I come across in the valley and environs. When a new-to-me species comes along, I try to find out as much about it as I can. In that regard, for the past week or so I’ve observed a large, distinctively marked species hanging around various flowers in my yard in fairly strong numbers–several can usually be found feeding on the bee balm near our deck, as seen in these photos.

White shouldered bumblebee, Bombus appositus.
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