Archive for the ‘insects’ Category
Double, Double, Buckeye, Buckeye
Posted in autumn, Elsinore, Gardening, insects, Nature on 4 October, 2016| 2 Comments »
Special guest moth
Posted in Elsinore, Gardening, insects, Introductions, Nature, Uncategorized, tagged A tree grows in Brooklyn, Ailanthus, black-eyed susans, flowers, Gardening, moths, non-native, yellow on 11 July, 2016| Leave a Comment »
The Ailanthus moth feeds on nectar, but the young feed on Ailanthus leaves. As we are NOT fond of ‘Stink Trees’, we find this visitor downright patriotic.
Ascribing consciousness to insects
Posted in insects, Nature, tagged bees, chaos, Gardening on 20 April, 2016| 1 Comment »
The NY Times just had an article speculating about whether, given the existence of specific brain anatomy, bees might have some form of awareness. They rule out “why” questions, like “why am I not queen?”, but I can easily imagine that awareness might include some form of “Whew!”….as in…
“Unit has successfully avoided being eaten”
or
“Unit is wet. Unit does not have stable footing. Unit is out of correct operating temperature range…. NEW DATA: stable footing. NEW DATA: sunlight and warmth. NEW DATA: food available…. PROCESSING….”
…which really means that I’ve fished another three bees out of a bucket of rainwater and set them out to dry on dandelion flowers…
Spring Things
Posted in birds, Elsinore, Gardening, insects, scenery, Uncategorized, tagged bees, change, green, spring, Xylocopus on 23 March, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Spring Singer alerted me to the emergence of this year’s first crop of jousting carpenter bees [Xylocopus] in regional gardens. This afternoon they are bumbling in and around the magnolia blossoms and riding the willow catkins, which bow under their weight in the March breezes.
At least, around here, at the moment, those are ‘breezes’. I understand Colorado got a blizzard, and sections of the Northeast got a recent blast of snow.
Big bees, little bees; it’s been a good day for watching wildlife in the warming weather. A wood thrush poked around in the leaf litter by the back fence. White throated sparrows haven’t disappeared yet, and the downy woodpeckers are tap tap tapping to see what might be waking up under loose bark. Cardinals, blue jays, song sparrows…. Squirrels, rabbits, and oh, I hope that was something other than a rat — aren’t those supposed to be nocturnal? Couldn’t it be a stoat, or something more pleasant, with a brown agouti coat and bright black eyes?
We’ll see.
It’s not entirely looking a lot like Solstice…
Posted in autumn, Food, Gardening, insects, scenery, tactless observations, tagged asters, bees, chaos, Gardening, green, orange, sunset, winter on 5 December, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Seriously. People grumble about weather in the 40s and this is happening down the block:
I should be grateful at least evening looks about right:
There were bees out today. I’m happy for them being able to get a last snack or two, but really. BEES?
Fine. Click through to some hysterical Torch Songs in which the word ‘Me’ has been replaced by “Bees”.
On the water
Posted in birds, insects, into the woods, travel, tagged breathe, dragonfly, egrets, habitat restoration, hiking, marsh, outdoors Delaware, travel, wildlife refuge on 25 August, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Cool breezes off the water, egrets foraging and roosting, and most of the humans are still crowding the other sections of the sandbar. A short hike at the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge was just what we needed yesterday! [Well, that and getting fresh peaches, and looking at Victorian architecture, and that salsa-free guacamole at Agave Tequila Bar and Restaurant, and…]
At the end of the Dike Trail, a few people seemed to be fishing, or at least scooping things out with nets, and nearby one of the boats shifting sand for the Marsh Restoration project was operating.
Anyone want to confirm the bird here as either a Least Bittern or a Kingfisher? The former is predictable for the area, but the latter is what it looked like to us.
Egrets, we had a few….
There were at least four species of butterflies [monarch, pipevine and black swallowtails, buckeyes], and plenty of dragonflies [including a lovely big bronze one with saddlebags], but I only got this shot of a big green dragonfly for my efforts…
Snacktime
Posted in Elsinore, Gardening, insects, Nature, tagged butterfly, butterfly bush, insects, now you see it, swallowtail, tiger tiger on 10 August, 2015| 1 Comment »
Sticks and stakes
Posted in Backstory, Food, Gardening, insects, tagged family, Gardening, raising stakes, time passes, what some people will do for a tomato on 1 August, 2015| Leave a Comment »
Some kids just like sticks. Sticks to carry around, sticks to walk with, imaginary javelins, machetes, any number of THINGS that a child might need to be able to wield…
My walk to school was along paved streets and through reasonably-well-manicured patches of gardens, but still, I could find a stick when I wanted one to carry as I walked to school. Sometimes I’d store favorite walking sticks in the scraggly boxwood shrub just at the edge of the local dentist’s office property. That as as close as you could get to school property; the bush grew right against the concrete berm which held the posts of the school’s chain-link fence.
At home, sticks were even more functional — my father used his real machete to trim branches from trees down into stakes for tomato plants, zucchini, eggplants, loofa squash [that never set fruit, but it was fun to keep trying]…. sugar snap peas, morning glories…. These sticks were much taller, and had sharpened points to enable them to be set deeply enough to hold the vines and trellises. Local spiders were fond of these structures as well, and the neighbors knew that flashlights shining in our yard on a summer’s evening meant not that there were burglars, but that we were out watching webs being built and moths being caught.
Now the tables turn a bit — I have crabapple, oak, chokecherry, river birch, and maple trees that need pruning, and my parents didn’t take the stakes with them when they moved — so what you see above is a sampling of the stakes I brought them. Granted, I may also need to bring them some decent dirt, too, but the gardening continues…
On being recognizable…
Posted in Backstory, birds, Elsinore, Gardening, insects, My brain, scenery, tagged asters, blossoms, bricks, cloudberries, family, Gardening, memory, nordland, norsk, norway, say no to mow on 7 July, 2015| 1 Comment »
I just harvested my first golden raspberries this weekend [they did not last long enough for pictures; Word and I devoured them right promptly], and there’s been some speculation about whether or not these are anything like the cloudberries my grandmother talked about gathering as a child in Norway. That’s not a question I can ask her anytime soon, and I have no absolute convictions about whether the departed can look across the veil to see what we’re up to here. 
But if they could, I would hope that the Meadow looked welcoming; that they’d look past the overgrown hedges and be understanding about the incredible amount of rain that’s been making mowing impossible. 
Look over this way: I’ve edged most of the perennial beds with bricks. Look over there: the daylilies have started and the monarda is looking fine. We’d like a patio over here, with space for a grill or firepit. Maybe put a little pond over in this section, with a motorized spring to keep the bugs under control, and ceramic koi on clever little sticks… 
Dragonflies dart here. Hummingbirds and hawkmoths know to stop by. In the winter, the hop-pop birdies scratch around for all the aster seeds. This year’s asters haven’t started yet, but I can see the buds starting to set…. These are the signals I send, to say ‘One of our kind lives here.’ ‘Times have changed, but not so much.” “Hello! I remember!” This is how I leave the light on, just in case….
Special guest bee
Posted in insects, Uncategorized, tagged big bumbles, mountain mint, not quite airworthy, rescues, while walking, Xylocopus on 2 July, 2015| 1 Comment »
Our friend here seemed to have some wing damage, and was trying unsuccessfully to balance and feed from some Mountain Mint near my office. I offered a hand, and then brought it over to this much sturdier plant, and it promptly started eating nectar.
Rethorykal Questions 