Heartland Safari

A grey, mouse-size critter with pointy snout, brush-like whiskers and a short tail, rests in Karen's hands. It's dead, possibly mauled or road killed. It's tiny eyes are not visible, buried in the soft fur covering its head. Northern short-tailed shrew.

Untamable: Northern Short-Tailed Shrew

Updated November 16, 2023

There’s nothing better than a personal, physical experience to help me see something new. That’s why, on our walk the other day with both Dave and Clancy, Bryan put a dead, but intact, northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) into the palm of my hand. The soft furry body of the tiny mammal just covered my […]

Mammals

Dense cluster of black berries and long, shiny green leaves of Common Buckthorn thrive at the edge of the soybean field. The overwintering birds will eat, and the aphids will live to challenge next season’s beans.

Invasive Bully: Buckthorn

Updated November 13, 2023

Winter food is abundant this fall, with the seeds from foxtails, ragweed, ditchweed, and all the other seeding plants. Berries are ripe, too. Juniper berries, elderberries, pokeberries and more hang in invitation to the birds. And in one spot by the railroad tracks, we found lots of red, white and black berries. The red ones […]

Trees

Boxelder bug reaches the end of the line, courtesy of a giant, hairy, black-eyed beast. The robber fly scores a tasty, fragrant dinner.

No Harm Done: Boxelder Bugs

Updated November 9, 2023

It’s time for fall colors. The trees are turning red, orange and yellow. And the bugs from the same color palate are looking for a warm place to spend the winter. There’s a gathering of them on the south-facing garage door just now. They’re basking in the sunshine. When it gets cold, though, they’ll head […]

Insects and Spiders

Dark purple berries of pokeweed hang in an inviting drupe from a plant in the ditch next to Owl Acres.

Red is for Poison: Pokeweed

Updated November 6, 2023

It was a beautiful autumn day. The walnuts had turned yellow, and the maples sported orange and red. The elms were still green, and several plants with berries were inviting the birds to feast in the ditch. It was a perfect morning for a walk with the dogs, so we headed out with Dave, my […]

Plants

Standing upright against the blue sky of late summer, the (in)famous Ditchweed, aka Iowana, aka Hemp. Hand-shape leaves made of 5 to 7 long, saw-tooth leaflets. Seed clusters run along rambling branches that stand out from a beefy stem.

Up in Smoke: Hemp

Updated November 2, 2023

It’s standing in the ditch with its scrawny arms outstretched. At its center, the pole-like stem is about an inch thick and slightly faceted. It rises above my head. Its leaves have gone from robust hand-shaped to curled and dried fragments entangled with clusters of little seeds at the ends of each branch. The seeds […]

Plants

Tiny spider with long orange legs, indicating male. The rock-strewn desert surrounding him is the texturing of an interior house wall, which shows the size of this little guy. American house spider.

Cobwebs at the Door: American House Spider

Updated October 30, 2023

There is a recurring cobweb just outside the front door. I knock it down, and it comes right back. We find them just below the ceiling on the deck, and even under the cupboards in the kitchen. The culprit is most likely an American (or common) house spider (Parasteatoda tepidariorum) or perhaps a pair of […]

Insects and Spiders

Comma butterfly sits on a bunch of summer berries. Orange wings with black marks and the angular/scalloped rear edges of both pairs of wings that give these animals the name “anglewings.”

Hop Merchants: Comma Butterflies

Updated October 26, 2023

Over 40 species of butterflies visit Owl Acres at various times throughout the year. Their flashes of color and elegant shapes brighten the landscape throughout the spring, summer and fall. Many are nectar-eaters, drawn to flowers throughout the warmer months. And some, like the comma butterfly (Polygonia c-album), fill a different type of niche in […]

Insects and Spiders

Stinging nettle color plate from a book published in Germany in 1885. Shows the plant and details of leaves, stem, seeds and stinging hairs. Upcoming post: a critter that eats this stuff.

Ouch: Stinging Nettle

Updated October 23, 2023

When I bought Owl Acres 20-some years ago, the place had been significantly overgrown. Although it had been regularly mowed, around the buildings where the tractor couldn’t get to, the weeds grew thick and happy. My initial efforts at learning about those weeds ended abruptly when I grabbed a stalk of stinging nettle. That stuff […]

Plants

A fist-sized bunch of the papery cones of Common Hops ripens in the road ditch in front of Owl Acres

IPA Anyone? Common Hops

Updated October 19, 2023

Clancy, our nine-month-old golden retriever, loves to pick things up and bring them to me, or pick them up and eat them, depending on what he has. So the other day when he came bearing a rattly branch of something-or-other, I took it away, identified it as the hops branch we’d brought home from a […]

Plants

Velvetleaf in the summer sun. Heart-shaped leaves and branching stems, terminating in the button-shaped seed capsules that give the plant its common name, buttonweed.

From Friend to Foe: Velvetleaf

Updated October 16, 2023

When I was growing up on an Iowa farm, I thought velvetleaf was a most lovely plant. Its leaves were so velvety soft to the touch. It was so soft I’d want to rub it on my cheek. Even the stems were velvety. And the coolest part was the buttons that formed in the fall. […]

Plants