naturalist

Wild & Wonderful Weeds: Tickseed

Wild & Wonderful Weeds: Tickseed

Fall in the Piedmont of NC is a rollercoaster of heat waves and stunning fall weather. It’s the slow transition from green to auburn, crimson and gold. It’s the last bloom for flowers before winter settles in on us. It’s hard to drive around town and not admire the resilient tickseed wildflowers in full fall bloom this October.

A Great Migration

A Great Migration

It’s a wonder to see how pleasantly symbiotic the whole relationship is. The milkweed relinquishes its leaves while maintaining life sustaining energy in its deep taproot and regrows. The caterpillar receives its nourishment, including the bitter toxin from the plant that provides a layer of protection from predators, even as an adult. Pollinators will be by eventually to pollinate the flowers which will create pods of wind-dispersed seeds. Human interactions don’t ever seem this smoothly cooperative.

Did I Smell A Bear?

Did I Smell A Bear?

Have you ever swam through a warm column of water in an otherwise cool pool or pond? This is the best metaphor for my experience, except, instead of warm water, I walked right into a cloud of husky aromatics. Was it wet or sweaty? If this makes any sense, my memory of this exact moment, is warm.

Leaves of Three

Leaves of Three

And that’s where my summer started this year. Identifying the multiple 20+ foot vines growing in the hedge row that my neighbors own. After a year of neglect of the living fence between our yards, something had to be done. I am the neighbor with children and pets that play outside, so I took it upon myself to remove the poison ivy.

A Night in the Life

A Night in the Life

At the end of one of the videos, we see him glide toward a large tree, drifting down at first then kind of curving up to grasp the bark, holding tight, not on the perch of a horizontal branch but on the vertical plane of the trunk. We could see his eyes illuminated by the camera. And then we saw the second set of eyes. The squirrel was not alone!

That is Not a Flying Squirrel

That is Not a Flying Squirrel

I used my cell phone to text my son who was upstairs playing video games. “Come quick. It’s staring at me!” That’s enough to get a 13-year-old to drop his game controller. “And bring my binoculars.”

My binoculars found their mark and then the truth was clear, “That’s not a flying squirrel!”