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Today's Adventures
Jul. 29th, 2026 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithToday we went to the Buck Moon Walk at Whiteside Garden. The event calendar still says Strawberry Moon because things got a bit mixed around, but that was last month and this is the Buck Moon when the male deer are in velvet.
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Photos: Savanna and Prairie Garden
Feb. 16th, 2026 11:31 pmysabetwordsmithThese are the rest of the pictures I took today, from the savanna and prairie garden. (See the House Yard and South Lot.)
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( Walk with me ... )
Photos: House Yard
Dec. 4th, 2025 11:42 pmysabetwordsmithToday I took pictures of icicles and snow, mostly in the house yard, some down the driveway.
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ysabetwordsmithWe visited the Charleston Food Forest on Thursday, October 9. These pictures are from the front and right side. Continue with Part 2: Left Side, the Coles County Community Garden, and Seeds.
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Shark Off Of Halifax
Aug. 6th, 2025 09:39 amdewlineI don't live in Nova Scotia. The nearest big bodies of water to me are rivers, not oceans.
Still feeling awestruck at the sight of this. Apparently, some sharks do curiosity.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/close-encounter-with-great-white-shark-near-halifax-sparks-awe-disbelief-1.7600371
Still feeling awestruck at the sight of this. Apparently, some sharks do curiosity.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/close-encounter-with-great-white-shark-near-halifax-sparks-awe-disbelief-1.7600371
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Photos: Coles County Community Garden
Aug. 3rd, 2025 02:51 amysabetwordsmithThese pictures show the Coles County Community Garden on Saturday, August 2. (Begin with Part 1: Right Side, Part 2: Left Side.)
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full_metal_oxTaken last year, this is pictorial tax for my previous post; this little guy was one of a family headquartered in a vacant lot along one of my habitual shopping routes.
Note the ropes cordoning the space off, as well as the designated perch set up for the owls. In the upper background, across the path, is another staked-off owl nesting site; unusually for birds of prey, Burrowing Owls are social animals who sometimes form communities of multiple families.
(If Iâve slipped into Earnest School Essay Mode, itâs because this is stuff I myself am very much newly learning.)
Note the ropes cordoning the space off, as well as the designated perch set up for the owls. In the upper background, across the path, is another staked-off owl nesting site; unusually for birds of prey, Burrowing Owls are social animals who sometimes form communities of multiple families.
(If Iâve slipped into Earnest School Essay Mode, itâs because this is stuff I myself am very much newly learning.)
New neighbors!
May. 26th, 2025 12:54 pmfull_metal_oxLizards have been somewhat fewer in the apartment complex than last year, and the other night I learned a possible reason: a Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) couple have set up housekeeping on the back lawn next door! (No pictorial tax as yet: their nest, less than five feet from the curb, overlooks a back alley heavily travelled by garbage, service, and delivery vehicles as well as human cyclists and pedestriansâmeaning that theyâre probably experiencing botherance enough without amateur paparazzi. (1)
Burrowing Owls are regarded as local mascots and rigorously protected here; standard procedure upon discovering an inhabited burrow is to erect a little designated perch for the owls and cordon it off, crime-scene style, halting any human construction until the young have left the nest.
(1) Rule of thumb is that if the owls are reacting to your presence, youâre too close; the risk of attracting gawkers is one reason that doxxing Burrowing Owls nesting on private property is frowned upon around here. Schools, museums, and other such facilities, however, will encourage on-site nesting, observable by remote cam.
Iâm finding varying accounts of how capable they are of digging their own burrows, but certainly the owls prefer the convenience of found housing when they can get it, not only taking over burrows constructed by other animals but occupying such human artifacts as PVC pipes; itâs quite possible to build artificial burrows to attract them.
Burrowing Owls are regarded as local mascots and rigorously protected here; standard procedure upon discovering an inhabited burrow is to erect a little designated perch for the owls and cordon it off, crime-scene style, halting any human construction until the young have left the nest.
(1) Rule of thumb is that if the owls are reacting to your presence, youâre too close; the risk of attracting gawkers is one reason that doxxing Burrowing Owls nesting on private property is frowned upon around here. Schools, museums, and other such facilities, however, will encourage on-site nesting, observable by remote cam.
Iâm finding varying accounts of how capable they are of digging their own burrows, but certainly the owls prefer the convenience of found housing when they can get it, not only taking over burrows constructed by other animals but occupying such human artifacts as PVC pipes; itâs quite possible to build artificial burrows to attract them.
Bunny caught in passing on the lawn.
Apr. 20th, 2025 03:31 pmfull_metal_oxTaken on 16 July 2023 at 19:27 US Eastern Daylight Savings Time.
Bunnies are of course going to favor weedy green lawns over elegant stone yards punctuated with waxy sculptural ornamentals. This one looks like an Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus); Marsh Rabbits (S. palustris) (1), tend to have shorter ears, and my neighborhood strikes me as a bit too far from the water to attract them during the dry season.
Itâs on alert, reacting sensibly to the arrival of a member of the deadliest of the Thousand, and so this was the only shot I was able to get before it went PATWINNNG! under the seagrape bed (the round-leaved shrub at center right, bordered by white river rocks.)
(1) Today I Learned the scientific name of the Lower Keys Marsh Rabbit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvilagus_palustris_hefneri
Yes; that Hugh Hefner funded endangered rabbit research, and was commemorated accordingly.
Bunnies are of course going to favor weedy green lawns over elegant stone yards punctuated with waxy sculptural ornamentals. This one looks like an Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus); Marsh Rabbits (S. palustris) (1), tend to have shorter ears, and my neighborhood strikes me as a bit too far from the water to attract them during the dry season.
Itâs on alert, reacting sensibly to the arrival of a member of the deadliest of the Thousand, and so this was the only shot I was able to get before it went PATWINNNG! under the seagrape bed (the round-leaved shrub at center right, bordered by white river rocks.)
(1) Today I Learned the scientific name of the Lower Keys Marsh Rabbit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvilagus_palustris_hefneri
Yes; that Hugh Hefner funded endangered rabbit research, and was commemorated accordingly.
(Palm?) stump with black shelf fungi.
Mar. 5th, 2025 01:20 pmfull_metal_oxTaken 4 March 2025 at 16:42 Eastern Standard Time, in the alley behind my apartment complex in full daylight. The adjacent utility pole (a sliver of the line is visible in the upper left corner) is probably the reason the tree was felled.
This one is a study in complex crunchy textures and value and hue variations of grey and gray. (Though extremely muted, itâs not achromatic, being mottled with the faintest tinges of yellow, brown, and green:
This one is a study in complex crunchy textures and value and hue variations of grey and gray. (Though extremely muted, itâs not achromatic, being mottled with the faintest tinges of yellow, brown, and green:
Photos: Midwinter Grove
Jan. 8th, 2025 11:29 pmysabetwordsmithThe sun came out, so now the snow sparkles and much wildlife sign is visible. This set of pictures shows the north end of the house yard, driveway, and Midwinter Grove. Cottontail rabbits like this area, as shown by their tracks. (See also House Yard, Savanna, and Back Toward the House.)
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Photos: Hollies Planted
Dec. 21st, 2024 09:51 pmysabetwordsmithFor our Yule ritual this year, we planted our new hollies in the Midwinter Grove.
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Poem: "The Flying Jewels of Spring"
May. 14th, 2024 11:51 pmysabetwordsmithI wrote this about today's cicada hatch. It fills the "chase" square in my 5-1-24 card for the Superhero Bingo Fest. It has been sponsored by Anthony Barrette.
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Photos: Cicadas
May. 14th, 2024 11:36 pmysabetwordsmithCicadas are hatching! I've seen a few hatch earlier, but this morning after the rain there are lots of them. The biggest concentration is around the forest garden and edges of the patio. :D These are red-eyed cicadas, technically periodical cicadas. Their carapaces are almost hard, their wings fully extended but still too soft to fly. It's a feast for everything that eats insects. Humans can eat them too. (I'm not planning to try that.) Usually what we get here are various types of the larger green cicadas, like the dog-day cicadas.
For maximum birdwatching benefits, keep an eye out on mornings after a rain. Once the nymphs shed their shells, they are soft and vulnerable. Many birds eagerly feast on them.
See also the poem "The Flying Jewels of Spring."
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For maximum birdwatching benefits, keep an eye out on mornings after a rain. Once the nymphs shed their shells, they are soft and vulnerable. Many birds eagerly feast on them.
See also the poem "The Flying Jewels of Spring."
( Read more... )
An American lady
May. 12th, 2024 11:37 amblackcatofmiseryI love spring, because garden centers open, and that means pollinators. I saw a butterfly going about in a greenhouse and finally tracked it downâtaking a picture every couple of seconds, so I looked like a creep, I'm sureâon a hanging planter. I believe it's an American lady (Vanessa virginiensis), judging by the two eyespots and bit of pink.
( Photos beneath the cut. )
( Photos beneath the cut. )
