Birds and Bugs

I was off from work this Monday and so I visited the park early at around 7:30am. One of the first things I noticed was a bright red male Cardinal feeding what appeared to be a young one. But upon closer look I realized quickly that the young one was NOT another Cardinal. It was in fact a young Brown-headed Cowbird, a bird that is known for laying it's eggs within the nest of other "host" birds. I've read some about this odd behavior called "Brood Parasitism." Not only is it practiced by a few different species of birds, but also by fish and insects. The idea behind it is to let the unsuspecting host parents do the hard work of incubating, hatching and raising the young of another species. With Cowbirds especially, the infant cowbirds can be twice the size of the other birds, and will thus out-compete the others for food. They will likely survive while the bird's true offspring may not. Another strange wonder of nature. I had lots of good opportunities at American Redstarts today but they are a tough bird to photograph for sure. You need to take LOTS of photos in hopes of getting just one when the bird might have sat still for more than a nanosecond. This one turned out the best and then I cropped it vertically. I've recently discovered that I can sometimes get decent shots of bugs if I get far enough away and then crop the photos down later. So when I noticed this spider I gave it a shot. I actually hate spiders and have an irrational fear of them like many people. And this one was big too. No idea what kind it is and I really don't care to find out! About this time of year is when there are lots of different mushrooms and fungi growing in the park. Palmer Lake is especially good for mushrooms because of the wet habitat and especially because of the wood chip trails. There is one that I notice each year about this time and I always think it looks like and underwater coral of some kind. Reading about it now online it apparently IS referred to as "Coral Fungi" with a scientific name of "Clavarioid fungi." It appears whitish in color here but I've also seen it a deep yellowy-orange color and so I wonder if it may change color over time. Near the end of my walk I noticed one more very interesting insect. I've seen this one before and knew by the length of it's tail that it is the Giant Ichneumon Wasp. This "tail" which can be 4 inches or longer is actually an ovipositor used for laying eggs deep within tunnels bored by another species of wasp called the Pigeon Horntail. For this reason the Giant Ichneumon Wasp it considered to be "parasitic." My photo here doesn't even show the full length of it's ovipositor. As a kid I have a vague recollection of my Grandfather holding one of these wasps in his hand and it drilled it's ovipositor right into his hand! I don't quite now if that was completely true or just what I remembered. Regardless, I would not even think about trying to pick one of these up in my hand!