Subject: nymph explosion
Date: Apr 28 16:11:43 2001
From: Mike Patterson - celata at pacifier.com


As many of you know, I have been looking into the relationship
between willow and insects as part of the effort to understand
the attraction that hummingbirds have to willow breaks along the
coast. This week's counts produced a order of magnitude increase
in insect densities mostly on the newly emerging leaves. The
majority were a small green nymph-stage bug (either a psyllid or
and aphid). This may not be a particularly convenient source
of protein for hummingbirds, but I'm sure other gleaners like
migrant warblers, chickadees, kinglets, etc. will be taking
good advantage of the bounty.

If you'd like to take a stab at identifying these guys, there
are some low quality images available at:
http://home.pacifier.com/~neawanna/observatory/bug02.html

As soon as I solve my lighting problem, there will be better
images available.

--
Mike Patterson Alas, to wear the mantle of Galileo,
Astoria, OR it is not enough to be persecuted
celata at pacifier.com by an unkind establishment,
you must also be right.
---Robert Park
http://www.pacifier.com/~mpatters/bird/bird.html