📜 EwA Week Highlights: Thinking Cool Thoughts Edition—Obelisk Posture, Subterranean Lifestyle and more
Mike McGlathery
Hello everyone!
Mike here with the August 6th edition of EwA’s weekly highlights.
📸 First, we have a lovely pair of pileated woodpeckers (Dryocopus pileatus) photographed by Bill! Signs of these majestic birds can be spotted in your local forests—look for the large, rectangular holes these birds make in trees while foraging for insects.
EwA iNaturalist Record (© Bill Macindewar · Stoneham, MA · Aug. 4, 2022)
The hot extremes of summer we’re experiencing make regulating body temperature an urgent issue for pretty much all of our local animals, including cold-blooded ones such as this eastern amberwing (Perithemis tenera) that Claire saw on Friday. What you’re seeing in this photo is a heat regulating strategy called “obelisk posture”, in which a dragonfly holds its abdomen almost vertical, in order to minimize the surface area of it being warmed by the sun.
EwA iNaturalist Record (© Claire O’Neill · Woburn, MA · Aug. 5, 2022)
Next, we’ve got this observation of a spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) from Thom. While they’re famous for their spring mating behavior, these amphibians spend most of the year hunting subterranean prey underground and under the leaf litter.
EwA iNaturalist Record (© Thomas Eid · Nottingham, NH · Aug. 2, 2022)
I’ll leave you with this picture of a napping brown bear from Jen. I can’t help but be a little jealous of this bear today, which gets to spend its day dozing and eating clams on a beach in Alaska where the predicted high is 14ºC (58ºF)!
EwA iNaturalist Record (© Jennifer Clifford · Alaska, US · July 2022)
📊 Thanks to everyone for your great biodiversity records this past week, totaling 846 observations of 431 distinct species. If you’re curious about the records from this week that have been validated by the iNat community so far, you can find them » here.
🏆 Running tally: To date, we have recorded 118,534 observations of 8,431 distinct species! Check out our EwA umbrella project, see the details per site/observer, and more » here.
📅 EwA Upcoming Public Events
Ewa Field Events » Check the EwA Summer Program [ Event details and registration » ] Don’t miss some great opportunities to follow the rhythm of the season in our local habitats and in the local wildlife! Space is limited for all our field events. Wildlife ethics is important to us and we seek to avoid putting the pressure on natural habitats which large gatherings unavoidably do. We are asking our audience to register-and-commit (or cancel when you know you can’t come) to avoid no-shows.
EwA Fieldwork (and Resources)
Peak schedule: Our monitoring programs are in full swing, and are occurring every week this time of year. Check EwA’s Volunteer Program Calendar 📅 to know when things happen. And if a session is of interest to you, don’t hesitate to reach out to get the rendezvous location.
📅 EwA Sites Map | 🌱 Site Protocols and Guides · Field Rosters · Field Notes » All here! | ℹ️ More about EwA’s Citizen Science Program » Here
❓ Do you have any questions? Don’t be shy. Just email me or reply to this thread.
That’s all for this week—stay comfortable out there!
-Mike