Posted in Conservation, Creatures, Plants

Late Winter Wildlife Feeding

It may be ingrained in folks to tidy up the garden when things start to die back in the fall, but many bits if not all of those plants are useful to a broad variety of wildlife as shelter and/or food in the colder weather to come.  They may spend their winter in a curled up leaf; use browned milkweed stalks as a resting or observation perch on your lawn away from the cold snowy ground; feed from seeds of goldenrod; or many other possibles, depending on the visitors in your garden. Continue reading “Late Winter Wildlife Feeding”

Posted in Behind the Scenes, Creatures

First deer track sighting in the back yard.

After I finished shoveling out a path in front of the house for our postal carrier, I gathered my implements and headed back to the side door only to realize I’d forgotten to bring our compost bowl outside.  I headed towards the bin anyway, thinking to forge a trail through the drifts from the comfort of my snowsuit and to see what visitors we might have had.  Then I spotted something I hadn’t seen in the near four years we’ve been here.  Continue reading “First deer track sighting in the back yard.”

Improving my Monarch data collection.

Compared to last year, it feels like the flood gates have opened as far as egg and cat finding and that’s brought about some challenges for me related to keeping track of them.  I am aware that there are folks that are raising significantly more than me, and I am amazed at them.  Before I get into organization, here’s a peek at the current older instars in their keeper.

Behold the awesome eating power of late instar caterpillars!
These four are now between their second and third milkweed top sets of leaves just for today’s eating.  The one to the right you see with most of them on it was pretty much gone when I brought in the third early evening.

Continue reading “Improving my Monarch data collection.”