Karen Keninger, Author at Heartland Safari

A few dozens of Bryan’s hundreds of chigger bites decorate his calf, ankle and foot. Even though the chiggers came from Virginia, Bryan is one of the creatures who lives on Owl Acres, so this counts.

Phantom or Real: Chiggers

Updated March 16, 2026

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 […]

Insects and Spiders

Brown Eyed Susans are in profusion in the prairie garden. Karen is surrounded by the riotous horde of yellow inflorescences with dark brown centers. Each flower-unit is actually a mass of dozens of separate flowers. Ringing the edge are ray flowers, each bearing exactly one of the long yellow petals. At a distance, it resembles a single, daisy-like flower about an inch and a half across.

Yellow is for Fall: Brown-Eyed Susan

Updated October 5, 2025

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 […]

Plants

A deep red, fat larva (Mouse Bot Fly) wriggles free from near the anus of a dead mouse, which has been the bot’s host until today. The larva is not ready to pupate and will die also. This bot is one of at least three that were inside the mouse’s body. A second bot can be seen exiting beneath the mouse’s hind foot.

A Little Horror Show: Mouse Bot Fly

Updated September 11, 2025

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 […]

A black morph Fox Squirrel sits up in the yard, clutching a nut.

Squirrels, Labs, Genetics

Updated September 25, 2025

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 […]

Mammals

Late summer extravagance in the prairie garden. Stiff goldenrod stands tall, its dense cluster of tiny yellow flowers promises (and delivers) feast for all.

Late Summer Extravagance: Goldenrod

Updated September 11, 2025

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 […]

A large black and yellow spider stands menacingly on the strands of her web attached to the red siding of the house. Yellow Garden Spider has been here for weeks, gathering resources to produce the next generation.

Master Weaver: Yellow Garden Spider

Updated August 31, 2025

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. […]

Insects and Spiders

Not strawcolor, but green. Not flat, but triangular. Not grass, but Sedge. Strawcolor Flatsedge displays a tangle of long slender leaves and bristly flower/seed stalks in the margin of the yard next to the sidewalk.

Sedges Have Edges: Strawcolored Flatsedge

Updated August 31, 2025

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 […]

Plants

This is the creepiest image we could find. A close-up of the face of American Wood Cockroach. Brown and shiny, its antennae sprout from the triangular head and go out of the frame. The compound eyes occupy two corners of the triangle above the antennae attachment points. The mouth forms the bottom point.

Creepy Cleaners: American Wood Cockroach

Updated July 27, 2025

The thought of cockroaches gives me the willies. They were a fact of life in our apartment in Maryland, and I worked very hard not to bring them home with me. And we didn’t. But those little German horrors are only one species of cockroach, and some of them, it turns out, aren’t bad at […]

Insects and Spiders

Little grey-brown bird peeks out from a nest box. Northern House Wren displays a sharp beak and bright, clear eye.

Fierce Defender: Northern House Wren

Updated July 27, 2025

One of the best things about spring and summer is waking up to the morning chorus. Since I’ve been paying close attention, I’m even getting better at identifying its members. I still have a long way to go, but one loud and persistent singer has my attention this summer. It’s the northern house wren, (Troglodytes […]

Birds

Chrysalis of Cabbage White Butterfly. Green and knobby with black dots, the pupa tapers to a point at each end. It emerges the last time the caterpillar splits its skin.

Magic or Just Biology: Metamorphosis

Updated July 27, 2025

As I am discovering more about the insects on Owl Acres, I’ve learned that insects follow one of two basic lifecycles—either incomplete metamorphosis or complete metamorphosis. The approach that’s easiest to understand is incomplete metamorphosis. This scheme has the egg hatching into a nymph—a miniature version of a cicada or grasshopper. The nymphs grow and […]

Insects and Spiders