SWIFTS, SWALLOWS AND LANTERNFLIES

      From 5 to 6:30 pm on August 8 of this year, I sat on our deck in New Holland, Pennsylvania to enjoy the beautiful, green scenery of numerous trees and shrubs, and watch for interesting wildlife I regularly see on our back lawn in summer.  I saw the usual couple each of gray squirrels and cottontail rabbits on the ground under a neighbor's bird feeders, a pair of northern cardinals, a catbird, a family of blue jays, a few mourning doves, and several each of house finches and house sparrows, all of which I like to see.  

     But I was also happy to see several each of chimney swifts and barn swallows streaking, sweeping and zig-zagging across the sky after flying insects they caught on the wing and ingested.  And I was thrilled to see a couple of monarch butterflies on our butterfly bushes and about a half dozen adult spotted lanternflies on our deck and around our back yard.       

     The swifts and swallows were post-breeding migrants, drifting south to avoid the northern winter and feeding on flying insects along the way.  The swifts nested down the inside of chimneys while the swallows raised young in barns and under bridges, all human-made structures that protected young birds from weather and predators.  But now the swifts and swallows are migrating to northern South America where they will find flying insects to consume.  Their moving south is one of the first indications of the approaching autumn and winter.

     The handsome monarchs were a pleasure to see because, currently, their numbers are down and I don't see as many as I used to.  Their caterpillars feed exclusively on milkweed leaves.  And the fourth generation in a summer are the ones that migrate to Mexico to spend the winter: A place they had never been to before.

     But the biggest thrill of the day was seeing the adult spotted lanternflies, right at home.  I've seen a few tiny, black and white-spotted, young instars and a few strikingly black, red and white-spotted, older, larger instars around our lawn and deck.  But these one-inch-long, striking adult spotted lanternflies were intriguing to see.  Their colors and color patterns alone are eye-catching.  And the size and shape of these insects from Asia, and the way they leap swiftly before they fly is also favorably impressive.

     The closed forewings of spotted lanternflies are light-beige with many black dots, which camouflages those insects when they are at rest.  And the red, black and white hind wings are striking when these insects are flying.  The red, especially, stands out, allowing us to identify lanternflies even from a bit of a distance.  

     In autumn, each female lanternfly plasters 60 to 100 eggs to tree bark.  The young hatch in May, suck sap from a variety of plants and mature by August.  

     I enjoyed seeing God's creations off our back deck that evening in August.  And I was happy to feel immersed in those beautiful wonders.  

         

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