Discovering the world around me.
Often a well-chosen turn of phrase, or a name, can immediately conjure an image. These are the jewels that writers look for. And they’re the names that last through the centuries because of their aptness. And yet, as language changes, the name may be retained without the surrounding context to provide that image. Knowing where […]
Continue reading What’s in a Name?: Bouncing Bet AKA Soapwort
In the news here at the beginning of October, we’ve been hearing about the tiny flying, biting insects we call no-see-ums. Minute pirate bugs and biting midges have been flushed from the fields by the harvesters and are looking for a warm place to winter. They’re so small (1 to 3 millimeters long) that you […]
Continue reading Guess who: AI Identifying Insects
One day in late September, I heard a bird that was new to my soundscape. Its song reminded me of a scolding chatter followed by an upward-trending whistle. It’s not mating season, so this call undoubtedly meant something else. It was an Eastern bluebird on migration to somewhere warmer. It stayed for a day or […]
Continue reading Eastern Bluebird
When I was a little girl, I could still see some, and I absolutely loved the fireworks. We would go as a family to a park in my home town, sit in the grass, and watch that beautiful display of color. I’d go home happy, and in the next couple of days, I’d start itching—the […]
Continue reading Phantom or Real: Chiggers
On a sunny fall day, our prairie garden is calling all bees, flies, butterflies, wasps, beetles, and anybody else who wants some nectar and pollen for dinner. A bunch of brown-eyed susans (Rudbeckia triloba) vie for their share of pollinators by waving their flowers above the fray. They have come into their own now that […]
Continue reading Yellow is for Fall: Brown-Eyed Susan
The other day Bryan was out in the shop patrolling for mice. He discovered that one of the traps he had set contained a white-footed mouse. As he watched, a deep red creature wriggled its way out of the mouse. The mouse’s abdominal wall was also pulsating as something tried to escape. It was the […]
Continue reading A Little Horror Show: Mouse Bot Fly
We have a number of fox squirrels (Sciurus niger) on Owl Acres. Clancy loves to bark at them, and I suspect they like to tease him as they run across the yard and shoot up the trees where they sit and chatter incessantly. Our fox squirrels are reddish-brown in color. Except, what’s this? A black […]
Continue reading Squirrels, Labs, Genetics
As summer slides into fall, the array of flowers in our prairie garden and along the ditch shifts to yellows. One notable species is the stiff goldenrod (Oligoneuron rigidum). This late bloomer is native to North America and holds a versatile and important place in our landscape. First of all, because it blooms in late […]
Continue reading Late Summer Extravagance: Goldenrod
An itsy bitsy spider climbed onto the hose faucet handle just under my study window. A small brown and gray creature, he had most likely spent his life savings on one fling with a nearby lady, and now had little or no energy left. He fell to the ground when Bryan touched the faucet handle. […]
Continue reading Master Weaver: Yellow Garden Spider
We’ve had a very wet summer. More rain than we’ve seen in years has fallen periodically an inch or two at a time–including those weeks when we’ve been away on vacation. The result is that the yard has remained green and lush all summer, and places normally dry are a bit soggy. The peppers have […]
Continue reading Sedges Have Edges: Strawcolored Flatsedge