Fly By Night - Don’T

Butterflies may fly in daylight because bats fly at night.

That notion has piqued the interest of scientists, who have been studying why butterflies, unlike most insects, aren’t active at night.

To avoid becoming a bat snack, butterflies would need ears to hear the bats’ ultrasonic calls, signaling an oncoming bat. Generally they don’t have ears.

But in the latest issue of the journal Nature, scientists from Canada report that a primitive type of night butterfly does have ears.

They speculate early forms of butterflies might have flown at night, but rather than develop ears, most evolved into butterflies that used daylight to avoid bats.

* Don’t jump to conclusions: Those with chickadees flitting about their feeders shouldn’t assume they are black-capped, or even mountain chickadees. We’re lucky enough to have four types of chickadees in our area, although the black-capped and mountain certainly are the most common. Occasionally, though, we see chestnut-backed and boreal chickadees in our range. Check your bird guides for identifying characteristics.

* Correct that bookmark: The Web address of the online birdwatching magazine mentioned in the last Critter Watch is www.westernbirder.com. A number of upcoming events of interest to birders willing to travel are posted on this site.

* Backyard journal: When the temps hover near freezing, black oil sunflower seeds aren’t enough for the quail. They scurry around under the birdfeeders looking for spilled seeds and then look for water, scratching through the snow on top of the dog’s water dish to see if it’s been refilled.