Winter Birds Arriving

I've noticed that a couple of the birds that we typically don't see until winter are already starting to show themselves; a pair of dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis) have been foraging under the nyjer feeder and today I saw our first white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) of the season as well.

The Farmer's Almanac has us getting a very cold, very snowy winter this year . . .

"Can't You See I'm Trying to Eat?!?"

While the female is trying to eat, this male Pennsylvania leather-wing (Chauliognathus pennsylvanicus) is obviously trying to accomplish something else.  They are photographed on a flower of the stunning and prolific 'Lemon Queen' sunflower (Helianthus annuus 'Lemon Queen') .

Peck's skipper

I believe this to be Peck's skipper (Polites peckius).  Identifying these diminutive little butterflies can be quite the task as most of them are very small and drab brown.  They also do not like to sit still.  Skippers make up more than one third of all butterfly species in Ohio.

Without managing a photo (yes, I thank my wife daily), it is likely that you could see one of these little guys flitting about your garden and think you're looking at the same insect over and over . . . when the reality is that you could be seeing something new!

Monarchs!

After taking note of them flitting about the Habitat for some time now, my wife finally captured one of these magnificent travelers as it visited our seed-grown marsh milkweed (Asclepias incarnata).  After looking at many images of her, it was all too obvious that this one had seen her share of the world.  She had very worn wings that were drab and torn in places.

Nonetheless, we enjoyed watching her glide around our yard for several hours, always coming back to the milkweed.  I mentioned to my wife that we would have to ask our son to be on the lookout for eggs and/or caterpillars.

Later that evening, I noticed that a few of the younger plants displayed signs of predation on the leaves - and sure enough:

that is a monarch caterpillar, looking to be in it's second of five instars (an instar measures the growth rate of the caterpillar).

If you enjoy these magnificent insects then you should not only provide suitable nectar resources for the adults, but Asclepias plants for the young.  You may find that the adult will feed on your Buddleia, but you won't find her laying her eggs on it.

Monarchs (Danaus plexippus) lay their eggs exclusively on Asclepias plants and none other.  The young eat the plant (but not thoroughly enough to kill it) and ingest the poisons found in the plant tissues.  These are then transferred to the adult, making it completely inedible.

In all, we noticed three of the little buggers, and look forward to watching them grow and hopefully develop into adults in the coming weeks.

New Header

The new header image showcases a truly incredible beetle; the reddish-brown stag beetle (Lucanus capreolus).  My wife found this one while messing with the pool cover - and she is so cool that she ran into the house, grabbed a jar and caught him so that we could photograph him!  This is a very large beetle with a very serious attitude.  I was trying to keep him on our dock so my wife could get several pictures and as I tried to corral him with a jar he would grab a hold of the lip of the jar with his mandibles!

The image above shows his wing covers raised and his wings unfurling just moments before he went airborne and into our hawthorn trees at the back of our property.  A truly spectacular insect!

Another Butterfly

Also feeding on the nectar of the mint blooms, this is a cabbage white (Pieris rapae), which may also be the culprit behind the caterpillars munching on my son's school project cabbage plant . . .

Butterflies

Any wildlife habitat *has to* cater to butterflies; it's something of an unwritten rule.  We have a small area in development (mostly first year plants).  It consists of butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), narrow-leaf mountain mint (Pycnanthemum tenuifolium), dense blazingstar (Liatris spicata), and sweet-scented joepye weed (Eupatorium purpureum maculatum 'Gateway').

Ohio has something in the neighborhood of 144 species of butterfly that can be found in the state.  We've taken note of a half-dozen species so far, like the gray hairstreak (Strymon melinus) pictured above feeding on the mint.

We Have a Frog.

A very exciting moment as my wife startled a frog into the water from the edge of the pond this evening.  I had thought to have seen a head sticking up from the hornwort a few days ago, and tonight my wife noticed him several times.  We were able to see him hiding just below the surface of the water and after a few more images were taken I think it's a male northern green frog (Rana clamitans melanota).  That's his head sticking up out of the water between the two rocks just above the dried piece of iris.

This is tremendously exciting for the Habitat.  As you may know, amphibians are generally in decline around the world and are thought of as an indicator species for the health of an environment.

Very, very cool indeed.

Hamilton County Parks Native Tree Sale

If you click here, you'll visit the order page for a very cool native tree sale.  They are all young trees (and a few shrubs), and they are all $25.  With nearly two dozen species available, there is sure to be something there you need . . . like I need a spicebush!

Frequent Visitor

It's very hard to mistake the call of the Carolina chickadee (Poecile carolinensis), a small bird that will quickly dart in and out from feeders and never displays much fear of people.  In fact, this little bird will readily take seed from your hand if you work with him for several weeks, holding still with your hand outstretched.

Favorite food?  Pretty much anything you could offer, although his favorite is what is seen in the image - black oil sunflower.  They also readily take suet, nyjer and peanuts too.

A Very Large Fly

My wife and I were checking on the Habitat this evening when this monster landed on the dock - a tiger bee fly (Xenox tigrinus).  It is actually a common, beneficial insect; it parasitizes carpenter bees.  Carpenter bees are those large bees that are constantly drilling into wood surfaces of your home when you would rather that they don't.  This fly lays its' eggs in the bee, and when they hatch they eat the bee alive.  Kinda' gross I guess, but that's nature for ya' - it isn't always pretty . . .

If You Grow It, They Will Come

Amazing, that although I do not know of many of these particular plants being found around here, this beetle was found crawling around the other day.  The plant is swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) and the beetle is the swamp milkweed leaf beetle (Labidomera clivicollis).

I grew these plants from seed obtained from a single plant that was growing in a culvert at the end of our street.  This particular one has recently matured, and sure enough - just as it does a beetle that eats just about the whole plant shows up!  My son spotted it quickly (as is typical with him) as it rambled around.

By the next day, there were two of them and they were mating - so we'll keep an eye out for eggs.  I'm hoping that they just casually munch a bit and don't run rampant . . .

Here she comes . . .

When I first started conceptualizing the Habitat, I had a small list of 'must have plants'; elderberry and spicebush, a redbud tree, coneflower and this gem - cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis).

The appeal is instant when it is in bloom - only scarlet beebalm can challenge it for the intensity of red in a native plant.  The trick to raising it appropriately is to keep it constantly wet; you can set it in a pond, or put it in a rain garden or wetland.

I have three in our small wetland, all purchased from the phenomenal Native Plant Sale held annually at the Aullwood Audubon Center.  If you are just getting into native plants, it would be foolish to miss this sale.  Where else can you find straight native species for $3.50 each (no, that's not a typo) that are of better stock than *anything* you will find at a nursery!

This plant is ranked as one of the top five attractors of our only native hummer, the ruby-throat.  In fact, I have read where this plant is said to 'pull hummingbirds out of the sky' and if you have the chance to see one of these native beauties up close you will understand why.

Hummer

This is an image of one of the female ruby-throated hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris) that are feeding regularly on this particular cultivar of beebalm (Monarda didyma 'Jacob Cline').  Curiously, I have yet to see any bees on the plant, but the hummers seem to be readily drawn to it.  The stunning blooms are one of the highlights of the Habitat.

I say 'one of' because it occurred to me tonight that the hummer I was watching was coming and going from a new direction - across the yard to the north, rather than into the trees to the south.  Sure enough, when the new female made one of her exits, another hummer gave chase out of the trees as she left the yard.

So I think we have two females; no males sighted yet.

A Good Week

This has been an exciting week in the backyard - new butterflies and bees were discovered.  The cardinal flower (Lobelia cardinalis) is going to bloom soon, and I found buds on the marsh milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) that I have raised from seed.

Newly planted were a new cultivar of highland blueberry (Vaccinum corymbosum 'Blucrop') and two joepye weeds (Eupatorium purpureum maculatum 'Gateway') that I look forward to blooming in the fall.

And to top it off, the blunt-nosed minnows (Pimephalus notatus) that we put in the pond to keep mosquito larvae in check have bred - we now have fish frye swimming in the pond!

The new header image is of an at-the-moment unidentified hoverfly (it may be Toxomerus geminatus) sitting on a purple coneflower petal - as is the case with all images, courtesy of my wife, Nicole.

Developing a Habitat: Places for Young

One of the most important aspects of any habitat is having places to raise young.  You may be thinking 'well, birds nest in my trees all the time, so I've got that one covered' - but remember that we're talking about a wildlife habitat, not just a bird habitat.

The National Wildlife Fed. requires that you have at least two places to raise young from a list of ten.  Mature trees are one of them; not only for birds but for arboreal animals like squirrels and opossums as well.  If you don't have mature trees on your property you could very easily provide a nest box - and again, we're not talking just about birds, but for nest boxes, you could include bats as well.

Dead trees are important habitat for many species of birds and are favored by raccoon and other mammals; and if you have a pond, then you are providing area for amphibians and insects to raise their young.

If you find a burrow, leave it alone if possible.  Something is using it for shelter or to raise a family.  The same goes for wetlands and wet areas on your property.

And last, if you love butterflies you should do more than just plant nectar rich plants.  Consider growing perennials, shrubs and trees that are host plants for butterfly caterpillars.  Plants such as spicebush (Lindera benzoin), buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) and milkweeds (Asclepias sp.) are all vital to the life cycle of many of the little winged gems that grace us in the summer.

(The image above is of an immature American robin (Turdus migratorius) - a very common sight in the Habitat during the summer months.)

Developing a Habitat: Food Sources

Over the next several days I would like to talk about what goes in to a successful habitat and what I have personally developed for our own.

The NWF (National Wildlife Fed.) has thirteen different items listed as acceptable options for providing food for wildlife.  Eight are plant foods (seeds, berries, nectar, foliage/twigs, nuts, fruits, sap and pollen) and five are 'supplemental feeders' - seed, squirrel, hummingbird, suet and butterfly.

As you can tell, a goal should be to provide as many natural options as you can.  It is not very difficult if you pay attention to what you are planting.  For example, one of my favorite flowers is purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and this plant alone provides four of the plant foods by itself.  The flowers provide pollen and nectar.  The seeds, once the blooms are spent, are eaten by finches.  Finally, you'll notice that the leaves (foliage) are eaten by some insects to a slight degree.

Beyond this, many native shrubs and trees will not only flower but provide berries and fruit.  This is true of viburnums, dogwoods and elder to name just a few.

With our habitat, we maintain as many as four feeding stations.  They are black oil sunflower, suet, nyjer and peanuts in the shell.  In addition we have many pollen and nectar producing flowers, as well as blueberry (Vaccinum corymbosum), American elder (Sambucus canadensis) and a few other plants to provide natural food sources.

Variety is key.

(The image above is a male American goldfinch (Carduelis tristis) feeding at the nyjer feeder).

Little Beauty

This is one of the little wonders of the habitat - a small, diurnal moth that at first glance could be confused for a hummingbird.  It is adapted to feed just like a hummer with a very long tongue and wings that beat in a blur.

The hummingbird clearwing moth (Hemaris thysbe) shown above was feeding from both the garden phlox (Phlox paniculata 'Barfourteen') as well as beebalm (Monarda didyma 'Grand Parade').

Welcome

I am currently developing a wildlife garden (a habitat, really, as it concerns much more than just gardening), and constantly reading on the subject in whatever manner I can acquire.  I've created this blog in order to log and share my thoughts, as well as to show and write about what happens to stop by.

The header above shows a bird that I refer to as 'my girl'; she is a hairy woodpecker (Picoides villosus).  Both her and her mate will stop in to the suet feeder and will let you get within ten feet or so before leaving.

The hairy is one of more than two dozen bird species that visit, or have visited, our feeding stations.