Barred Owl (Strix varia)

Let's take a moment to celebrate the continued success of the Arboretum as a functional local ecology; we've got another photo of a barred owl (Strix varia)! Is it the same owl that was recently photographed by Professor Amy Hammond? If it's not, we've got at least two resident strigids. If it is, we've got one that is rather comfortable with us. We're winning either way.

The photos below were submitted by Centenary student Hilary Pillaro. 

The owl is pictured in the center of the frame, fairly close to the ground. It is perched above a sprinkler that was operating the previous night. The arboretum's inhabitants (robins, rodents, bugs, squirrels, toads, etc...) have begun congregating around the sprinklers due to a month of hot & dry weather.

Barred Owl (Strix varia) photographed by Hilary Pillaro

August 24, 2026

Keeping looking up! 

Feral Honey Bees (Apis mellifera)

The Eurasian Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) has been present in North America for around four centuries. This interesting bug has been living alongside human settlements for thousands of years, semi-domesticated and feral. Our blog post concerns the latter variety, although where they came from and exactly what they are will remain a mystery. Apis mellifera has between two to three dozen subspecies, some of which have been repeatedly introduced to our area. Once they've gone feral and potentially hybridized with other honey bees, only a genetic test would be able to settle exactly what they are.

 

They've made their home in the middle of the arboretum, in a damaged trunk of a loblolly pine (Pinus taeda). If anyone happens to be looking up, they will only notice a dark spot along the trunk. This honey bee home is nondescript, totally flying under the radar.

A closer inspection, with good lighting, will reveal the frenzy of eusocial activity.

These bees aren't bothering anyone, and their hive is protected by being fifteen or twenty feet above ground. It's unlikely that they'll cause a problem and they will definitely be aiding local pollination. 

Look Up!

How many folks walk around with an upward gaze? Straight ahead with a slight downward tilt seems like the best way to avoid tripping and stay safe. Walking paths are expected to be free of twigs and branches, so much of the time we can get away with looking downward (at our phones) while walking. But this week in the arboretum, we received a nice reminder to look up. 

This barred owl (Strix varia) was spotted in the middle of the arboretum. First seen perched on the railing of the long white wooden bridge that runs between the Student Union Building and Mickle Hall. Presumably it was hunting a critter scurrying around in the drainage channel. Upon being approached, the barred owl flew upward into this nearby pecan tree. Professor Amy Hammond snapped this photo.

 

Keeping our eyes to the ground (or to the phone) results in us failing to appreciate the intrigues occuring directly above us. How many birds of prey did you pass under today? Barred owls aren't seen every day in the arboretum, but neither are they uncommon. Who-who knows how common they are? Let's look up more often and try to get another owl photo.

French Mulberry (Callicarpa americana)

 

Toward the end of spring, we noted that the French mulberry flowers are without pizzazz (read here). The flowers are small and hidden and they simply do not dazzle.

The fruits, however, are wonderfully bright. Their sharp coloration is much appreciated in the August landscape. Some fruits are ripening now, while other shrubs are on a different timer, ripening through the month of August and into September. 

 

This shrub near the southwest corner of Mickle is covered in ripe fruits, but other shrubs in the arboretum have yet to begin the process.

Fruits are edible straight from the shrub, but they do taste better when used to make jelly. Yum!

Cypress Rust or Cypress Galls?

As students are currently flooding back onto campus and things are once again shifting into active term, your arboretum curator has taken the opportunity to remove branches and limbs from walking spaces. Living limbs, dead ones, branches covered in leaves, bare ones, and even the soft needles of cypress trees are being pruned away from the "head spaces" across the arboretum. While performing this seasonal maintenance near the Student Union Building, we noticed some rust-like growths in the pruned branches. Having struggled against cedar-apple rust (Gymnosporangium juniperii) for more than a decade, we are well-accustomed to unsightly rusts. But the simultaneous presence of white and purple growths on nearby branchlets made us do a double-take. 

 

What is going on with these cypress leaves? The unexpected amount of color variation gave us pause and attracted our attention.

 

These aren't rust at all! They're galls! Galls are growths created by tiny flies called cypress gall midges (Taxodiomyia sp.). These little critters are obligate parasites of the cypress, and the adult flies are terribly small. If you carefully dissected the large green-yellow gall on the right of the above photo, you could find tiny larvae crawling around in there, exerting chemical/enzymatic control over the tree. How odd!

Here we can see the life-cycle progress of gall-formation. They begin as white, budding, geometric-like structures seen on the left, which ripen into a frosty purple, pictured center. The galls then continue to mutate into more bulbous rusty lumps, like the one pictured on the right. These eventually fall from the tree and overwinter on the ground, finally releasing new midges during the following summer.

Beginning stage of gall development

Further development

Toward the end of gall development

 

See our previous post on this baldcypress from September 2019, which ends with a mention of this issue! Much water has passed under the bridge of life since then, but some things, including the Cecidomyiidae family of gall midges, never change.

 

 

External Link

NC State Extension Fact Sheet on Cypress Gall Midge 

Tadpoles (Anaxyrus sp.)

The campus is rather quiet over the summer, and the Frost Garden's fountain is also taking a break. During this hiatus, our recent high volume of rain has created an interesting artificial circumstance.

 

The fountain and its surroundings in the garden are clean and tidy.

Upon closer inspection, we can see an unexpected hidden pool. The rainwater is tinted slightly yellow due to leaves and algae, which appear green due to the fountain's interior blue paint. Wait a minute, what's that?

Something's swimming in there. A lot of somethings!

There are literally hundreds of Anaxyrus tadpoles here. A few were observed (not shown in this photo) that already had spindly legs developed. The arboretum curator also rescued several adult toads responsible for this invasion. They could hop in to spawn, but got stuck and couldn't get out.

Here we have a few of the larger specimens. Removing any tadpoles from the fountain is a mercy, because while it provides an excellent nursery, they will have to leave to survive. There's no way for the baby toads to get out!

 

The arboretum features a few locations where water tends to pool even when conditions are dry. The headwaters of the upper pond's stream are one such place, as a few gallons of shaded water are often present.

This location is directly below Randle's, by the cypress trees, and it offers a reasonable spot for a few buckets of tadpoles.

The water is cloudy after being disturbed by our bucket of amphibians. Thankfully the animals weren't shocked by the change in water quality. They were still alive an hour later, and even on the following day! We can't be sure if these are American Toad, Southern Toad, or Fowler's Toad, as all three are native to Louisiana. Given the reported ranges, it's most likely Fowler's Toad (Anaxyrus fowleri).

External links

Brad Glorioso's page on the American Toad 

Brad Glorioso's page on Fowler's Toad

2018 US Department of Defense Fact Sheet on Fowler's Toad 

Brad Glorioso's page on the Southern Toad 

Vine Removal

The appearance of Asian jasmine climbing red bricks is pleasant and romantic.

On the other hand, it's invasive, non-native, and unduly exerting its influence over the arboretum. Begone!

 

Here the heavy, awkward sheets of jasmine have been pulled off the wall and piled up at the base. They (five-to-ten interwoven vines per foot of wall!) still have to be sliced & diced to separate them from the root networks.

Now the architectural appeal of the brick retaining wall is able to be appreciated more effectively. The vines were nice, but this is also good. And don't worry; the jasmine will be back to making its vertical advance after a year or two of regrouping.