What's the Buzz?

I just thought it was time for a new picture.Way past time, actually. So here's a yellowjacket on a goldenrod in front of my house. I don't know what species it is, and I probably won't be able to figure it out from this view. Bugs can be so difficult to photograph because they always seem to move just before you press the shutter. Perhaps my next post will do better--I sprayed a yellowjacket nest at my neighbor's house (it was by his deck stairs and people were getting stung). I took a couple of the bodies home to identify, and will get some pictures of them motionlessly posing (with a pin through the thorax). 

 

I wanted a photo of a butterfly on my computer

No, no! What I meant was I want a file containing a digital photograph loaded onto my computer. But I got this--a Great spangled fritillary (Speyeria cybele) resting on a computer that was in front of my house. The photo was taken in June 2015.

Besides the computer, this butterfly also visits the nearby milkweeds. I've been hoping to see monarchs on the milkweeds, but I haven't. Not even caterpillers or chrysalides, nor eggs. I haven't even seen a monarch in the neighborhood in quite a while. But the great spangled fritillary has become quite common here.

How Long Can This Bird Live?

Something must have bitten off this bird's head, leaving a bloody stump. Yet the poor creature managed to fly to this branch and perch for a while. How long can it last in this condition? It's Melanerpes carolinus, a common bird in this area.

Let the Bugs Do the Housework

Mildew has been growing on a vinyl weatherstrip at my garage door, and I could not scrub it off with the usual cleaners. Looks like some bug has effectively grazed the mildew; now, if I could only raise a herd of these critters and put them to work where needed!

I did not watch the bugs at work, and only noticed their handiwork after they were gone. I don't know who they were (they did not leave a bill).

Hornworm Hosts its Destruction

While admiring some ground cherries outside my front door, I noticed a number of leaves had been stripped off. Not grazed on by the deer that frequent the area, more like eaten by caterpillars. After a brief search I spotted a hornworm munching away. I didn't bother killing the hornworm because, after all, the ground cherries are weeds growing amongst the black-eyed susans, and it's less work for me if they take care of the weeds.

I looked again a few days later, and saw that the hornworm had sprouted numerous white appendages. These are the cocoons of pupating braconid wasps. Braconid wasps are parasitoids that inject their eggs beneath the skin of the host (hornworms are favored by the braconid wasp Contesia congregatus). After feeding on the convenient meal surrounding them, the wasp larvae emerge and spin their coccons, attached to the body of the unfortunate hornworm. In a few days, adult wasps emerge from their cocoons, leaving a dead caterpillar.

I later spotted a second hornworm, which suffered the same fate as the first.

Whee!

Seems like we had been having quite a bit of rain, about a week before hurricane Irene. Finally, the sun came out and so did a few box turtles, to celebrate the fair weather. I don't know if the second male had already celebrated or was waiting his turn.

Spring is bustin' out

Well, something is bustin' out--a bit of fungus. It was a nice day in mid-March, although there was just a bit of icy snow on the ground, when I spotted this branch of a dogwood tree. The emerging fungus fruiting body reminds me of those horror movies where some kind of unearthly parasite grows very large in a persons body and suddenly bursts out. Only a little bit shows itself, but much more remains hidden under the bark.

A handful of raisons

I think the last time the North Slope of my yard was mowed was when the builder was trying to sell the house back in 1982. Eventually, I even gave up trying to mow a path along the property line because saplings and groundhog holes made it too difficult. So now this small part of my property is experiencing secondary (or more likely, tertiary) succession.

There's a lot of poison ivy growing all over the property, so I rarely step into this area in the summer. It's much safer to enter in winter when there's snow on the ground (and, of course, the leaves have dropped). The other week, after the storm (which gave us more snow while points south got more ice), I walked back here and was somewhat amazed (yet not entirely surprised) at all of the piles of deer scat lying on the snow. Of course, the rest of the year the piles are hidden in the leaves and growth. Several (about three to six) deer are making themselves at home here, ranging across the road and up the hill to down back across the stream.

The snow also reveals more clearly the wanderings of the deer (as well as various other critters). I can see where they've been lying down, and I can see that they sometimes walk through areas that I would prefer to walk around. I see that they come right up to the house, but they usually don't get close if I'm around with my camera handy.

To return to the title of this post, I don't mow all of my property because I'm bone-idle, and because I have better things to do with my time. I don't want to burn fuel needlessly, nor pollute the air any more than necessary. And because by not mowing, I leave cover and food for the birds, critters, and deer. And I have a more interesting area to walk around in.