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.