Nature walk: Joe Pye’s butterfly bar
Our little front pond has finally, if only partially, filled with water after this summer’s drought. The hot, dry weather also took its toll on plants in our yard. Ostrich ferns turned black and crispy-fried. Bee balm leaves and flowers wilted until I watered them overnight. After a few days, a few new flowers appeared,...
Of squirrels and crows
Just before winter our friend Vince replaced our decrepit dining room storm windows with a lovely bay window from another job. The people didn’t want it, so their toss was our gain. That window has opened a more panoramic vista on our side yard. In recent weeks the critters most prominent in the view have...
Nature Walk: The year without a winter
Lately I have taken to saying that we are living in a hoax. Conservatives rightly point out that climate change is nothing new, but then, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, they wrongly argue that present climate trends cannot be attributed to human causes. As usual, politics trumps reality. Clearly the trend today is toward...
Nature Walk: Grasshoppers
Nature watchers often ask “What’s happened to such and such? I don’t see them anymore.” Usually the “such and such” is something charismatic — birds or butterflies or wildflowers, for example. Those are groups of organisms most people notice. More dedicated followers of nature’s trends may mention more esoteric creatures such as wooly bear caterpillars,...