280 days of Urbpandemonium #134

This little one, if it is fortunate, will someday be 6 inches long or so. Spotted salamanders Ambystoma maculatum* are among the biggest salamanders in New England, perhaps because they are able to take shelter from our harsh winters. In the worst weather they refuge in the burrows of other animals, especially (apparently) those of short-tailed shrews. At other times they remain in the leaf litter and debris of the forest, hunting for soft-bodied prey. Very briefly they convene in ponds, preferably those without fish, to reproduce. Friends of mine predict the day of this event with regular success, heading out on a rainy spring night to photograph hundreds of salamanders on their way to the ponds.


* Ambystoma - amblys (Greek) for blunt; -stoma (Greek) meaning mouth; or anabystoma (New Latin) meaning ‘to cram into the mouth’
Maculatum means spotted.

Didn't I just see you at work?

I'll file this under that thing that happens where once you make yourself aware of something, it pops up all the time. Here's my second banded net-winged beetle in a week.

280 days of Urbpandemonium #135

It's become a naturalist's cliche to say that there's no such thing as a seagull. We just say "gull," or if we know the species, as in this case, we say "ring-billed gull" Larus delawarensis.* The ring-bill is one of the most common urban gull, and the smallest in our area. About the size of a small crow, these gulls happily feed in parking lots and other places where humans leave edible trash. Among gulls in New England, they're the worst ones to call "seagulls." They prefer to nest near fresh bodies of water.

* Delaware gull. (tough one)

280 days of Urbpandemonium #136

Much larger than ring-billed gulls, herring gulls Larus argentatus* are about the size of red-tailed hawks. They are the most frequently encountered gull in North America, found from the Aleutians to the Caribbean. They are scavengers very well adapted to life near human activity. I've seen a wild population surviving on pizza crusts on Revere Beach, and I've seen one kill and consume a pigeon on Mass Ave in Cambridge. If their populations get too large, the populations of terns and other more sensitive species suffer, because herring gulls are ravenous predators of other birds' nestlings.


It takes herring gulls four years to develop adult plumage. This banded youngster was probably hatched last year. Its neighbor in the lower left corner is a year or two older.

* Silver gull

280 days of Urbpandemonium #137

The great black-backed gull Larus marinus* is larger still, in fact it is the largest gull in the world, with a wingspan approaching or exceeding 5 feet. They often flock with herring gulls, and are similarly predatory on other birds' chicks. They will quite readily, as the picture above attests, take advantage of human sources of food as well. The great black-backed gull is only found in the Northeast, migrating from the Canadian maritimes to as far south as the Carolinas. They winter as far west as the Great Lakes. They can be found in and around Boston year round.


A checkered youngster takes flight with a couple adult blackbacks and a herring gull.

* this is rather embarrassing. It translates to "sea gull."

280 days of Urbpandemonium #138

This set of pictures was taken at Crane Beach in Ipswich Massachusetts, a mixed conservation and recreation area. Much of the area between the beach and the dunes is roped off, to help protect the nesting habitat of the state and federally threatened piping plover. We didn't see any of the estimated 40 adult piping plovers (as of 2006) that are thought to nest there.


Instead we saw hundreds of semipalmated plovers Charadrius semipalmatus*, the most commonly seen plover during the east coast migration. They pass along the coast, stopping in protected spots to pick insects, crustaceans, and worms from the sand and mud. A patient birder might pick out some other species in this crowd--I saw terns for sure, and possibly some small sandpipers.


As the tide came in, the space between the humans and the birds narrowed. I was thankful for the roped off area, giving the plovers their own territory. Many plovers nest on open sand, relying on camouflage to protect their chicks. Vehicles, dogs, and gulls kill many in areas that have too much human traffic. If there were no laws protecting these birds, I'm sure they'd be extinct already.

* Charadrius referred to an old world bird originally, but now is taken to be the generic name for plovers. Semipalmated means that their feed are partially webbed.