Mr. Neil's Showy Mountain Ash & Fuzzy Leaves
Hey, any readers have any idea what this fuzzy stuff is on a leaf. I found it on several leaves of the same plant. It was on the underside of the leaf and the fuzz balls appeared fixed to the spot. Is this some type of gaul? Insect egg sac? Fungus? Alien life for that will take over my body and cause me to point and scream a la Donald Sutherland in the 70's version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Inquiring Birdchicks want to know.
Mr. Neil has a show mountain ash or rowan tree as he likes to call it. The berries are ripe and the birds are ready to pluck. This young robin spent a good chunk of Sunday in the tree. Amber was with me and she pointed out that every time the young robin was around, a young rose-breasted grosbeak was nearby. If the robin flew away, the grosbeak soon followed. We wondered if the robin and grosbeak were forming their own mixed flock and figuring out this whole survival thing together.
Waxwings, like this young cedar waxwing were getting in the berry action as well. I wish I had more time to digiscope them. While watching their antics in the tree, a ruby-throated hummingbird flew in and systematically tested all the berry clusters for nectar potential. It flew away disappointed but would periodically return--how could something that bright not have any nectar? Must be hard for that tiny brain to process.Labels: digiscoping
posted by birdchick at 5:44 AM
5 Comments:
It does look like a fungus, but I'm not sure what that might be. Odd-sounding question: does it move? My first thought was wooly aphids. You know you've got those if the white fuzzies squirm (eww)-- you really have to watch them closely to see. (You also might see wads of cottony stuff floating around the yard, or you may find them on the ground.) You might want to look to see if any of the tree's leaves are curling up-- the aphids sort of suck the leaves dry.
I'm not sure what you do about them, unfortunately. I know they can turn up in humid weather, or if ladybug populations (or those of other bug-predators) are down. My parents' yard had an infestation of the things one year; I seem to recall they ended up having to spray as and where they could, then hope the rest died off.
That really looks like insect eggs to me. What kind of plant is it? Kind of hard to tell from the photos...
Now I'm curious too.
PS-- I checked http://whatsthatbug.com
and didn't spot anything that looked quite right. You could send them the photo and see what they think, though.
If I had to guess, I'd say it was spider eggs.
Hey, Birdchick. Just linked to your chicken of the woods post here:
http://teaandfood.blogspot.com/2008/09/tastes-like-chicken-of-woods.html
Re: the fuzzy leaves-- found it, I think:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/146164/bgimage
Looks like something produced by a wasp in this family.
(yeah, I'm a geek, I know.)
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