📜 EwA Week Highlights: Plovers, Locust Borers & More

[Mike McGlathery]

EwA Highlights September 15, 2025 Hello everyone,  Thanks for reading the September 15th EwA Highlights. 📸 Many bird migrations are in full swing by this point in the year, including that of the piping plover (Charadrius melodus). Some of these birds stay in Massachusetts into the second half of October, but the large majority are migrating south around this time. The piping plover is one of Massachusetts’s biggest conservation success stories; after hitting a dramatic population low, their nesting population in our state has increased by a factor of 10 in the past forty years. Massachusetts hosts the largest nesting population of piping plovers on the eastern seaboard.  EwA iNaturalist Record (© Jennifer Clifford · Massachusetts, US · September 2025)  It recently hit me that in a couple months I won’t be able to share any more examples of bee mimicry (one of my favorite things to share in the Highlights) until spring comes back around, so here’s another bee mimic for you: the eastern hornet fly (Spilomyia longicornis). The yellow-and-black pattern on the eyes of these bees is stunning, and kind of funny because I don’t know of too many stinging bees with such a pattern on their eyes! Flies do have eyes with a distinctly different shape than those of a wasp or a bee, though, so that might be why they’ve evolved to sport this pattern. EwA iNaturalist Record (© joanneteresa · Cambridge, MA · Sep. 8, 2025)  And—what do you know? Another bee mimic, the locust borer (Megacyllene robiniae) was one of our most observed species this week. Even though the larvae of this beetle are a serious pest of the black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), I think many of our naturalists might associate them more closely with goldenrods, since the adults feed on goldenrod pollen.  EwA iNaturalist Record (© kdemary · Arlington, MA · Sep. 8, 2025)  📊 Thanks to everyone for your great biodiversity records this week, totaling 979 observations of 475 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 261,740 observations of 13,121 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 Fall [ 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) It’s a great time to join our monitoring programs. 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—hope you have a good one! -Mike