Heartland Safari

The mud and grass nest of a barn swallow sticks to the side of a joist in the shed

Grace and Beauty: Barn Swallow

Updated December 16, 2024

We have an old shed on Owl Acres where we keep firewood and the Farmall “A” tractor that Bryan uses for mowing. Inside the shed, up against one of the beams, is a carefully constructed nest. It’s made of mud and straw and has one side plastered against the beam. The nest was built in […]

Birds

Karen inspects a large, 18-inch-wide mass of mushroom fruiting bodies at the base of a silver maple tree on Owl Acres. Hen of the Woods is past its vegetative stage for the season (meaning, no mushrooms for us this year).

Dancing Mushrooms: Maitake or Hen-of-the-Woods

Updated December 9, 2024

There’s a venerable old silver maple standing proud and strong in the woods on Owl Acres. It’s probably the largest and oldest tree on the place. At its feet colonies of mushrooms spring up every fall. The colonies vary in size but average around a foot in diameter. One common name for this mushroom is […]

Fungus

A robin has built its nest braced between the downspout and red siding on the house next to the bedroom window

Many Strategies; Same Goals: Bird Nests

Updated December 2, 2024

Now that the leaves have fallen from the trees, it’s easier to see all the bird nests that served as home for a variety of birds last summer. They didn’t all build their nests in trees, though. A robin built one up in the corner of the house just outside the bedroom window. A Baltimore […]

Birds

An insect with angular body, tiny head and two antennae sits head-down on a window screen in the autumn sunshine. Leaf footed bug has flattened, leaf-shaped expansions on its hind legs, which give the animal its name.

No Beauty Queen: Leaf-Footed Bug

Updated November 25, 2024

In the late fall, all manner of insects are planning to spend the winter on Owl Acres. They are congregating and searching for sheltered places to survive the snow and wind and the drop in temperatures. Asian lady beetles swarm out of the fields where they had been eating aphids. They line themselves up on […]

Insects and Spiders

Karen is in the woods behind the house on a bright fall day. The trees have dropped most of their leaves. A large woody vine rises from bottom to top clear through the frame. It's the main stem of a river grape, its branches and foliage tangled high overhead in the nearby tree.

River Grape

Updated November 18, 2024

On a lovely Indian summer day in late October, we took a walk through the woods on Owl Acres. Most of the leaves had fallen from the trees, and the undergrowth was dry and crackly. Along with the boxelder trees, hackberries, wild cherry and walnut trees in the woods, some inch-thick woody vines climbed from […]

Plants

A stand of Jerusalem Artichokes blooms in August. 4- to 6-ft-tall stalks, bristling with rough hairs and alternating leaves. A 3-inch blossom with yellow radiating petals tops each stalk. Plants were seeded two years ago when we established our little prairie garden.

Pillar of the Community: Jerusalem Artichoke

Updated November 11, 2024

Several Jerusalem artichokes have taken root in our little prairie garden. They’re sharing the space with false sunflowers and other prairie plants. Blooming in August and September, their yellow flowers with yellow centers are buzzing with a whole constellation of critters. The story of the Jerusalem artichoke is that of an invasive that moved across […]

Plants

View looking toward the east fencerow in late October. The red maple in the foreground has dropped its leaves, forming a litter for the cleanup crew to start their work.

Falling Leaves

Updated November 4, 2024

On a late October day, the wind has blown most of the leaves off the trees. They crunch underfoot, reminding me of childhood. The ancient elms near our school dormitory used to provide vast quantities of leaves to play in. We would jump and roll in them, relishing that autumn crunch. I’m sure the grounds […]

Trees

Alt text: Horror on the porch. A bright green caterpillar hangs from the defoliated stem of a tomato plant, which the animal has been feeding on. Its back bristles with more than 70, tiny white cocoons, each housing a wasp pupa. The tomato hornworm is still alive, but is doomed. It has been successfully hijacked as host for the little parasitic wasps and will not complete its own life cycle, to become a five-spotted hawk moth.

Hollowed Out for Halloween

Updated October 28, 2024

We’ve heard a lot about viruses these past few years, with the corona virus front and center. We’ve all been scared at some level about getting COVID. We worried about how sick it would make us and whether we might spread it to someone else. So when I think of a virus, I think of […]

Insects and Spiders

The Aurora Borealis over Iowa in May. The sky is all green and purple light, shot through with vertical shafts, the whole hanging over black silhouettes of trees, yard lights and the horizon of Owl Acres at night.

Merry Dancers: Aurora Borealis

Updated October 21, 2024

Owl Acres occupies about eight acres of Iowa land, and most of our exploration has been on that land, that dirt that we walk on. We’ve taken a few excursions into the vertical, wondering what’s going on beneath our feet, hidden in the vertical depths of the place. And now, let’s look up. The universe […]

Weather

Minute pirate bug feeding on baby flies on a green leaf, according to the Wikimedia caption. Small, oval-shape insect with a bold crossing pattern on its folded wings. Its stylet (straw-shape mouth structure) is extended and working on dinner.

No-See-Ums: Minute Pirate Bug and Biting Midge

Updated October 14, 2024

On one of those glorious fall days recently, I took Dave and Clancy for a walk. As we strolled along the road, the breeze from the south ruffled my hair and extinguished the sound of the interstate a mile to the north. It carried the scent of ripening corn. Close by the crickets and katydids […]

Insects and Spiders